Dear Polyglots,
We are independent software developers who have created an iPhone app that lets polyglots help others with language translation and interpretation. We hope you'll find this idea interesting enough to forward to your colleagues and students so they can sign up as interpreters.
Our app provides visual interpretation and translation of natural languages by routing translation requests to real people with the right skills:
- An iPhone user photographs something he or she doesn't understand (the language is determined by geolocation).
- The people who provide assistance (we're calling them "glossators") are alerted via Twitter, see the photo, and respond with their interpretation using a web app.
- The iPhone user then receives a timely interpretation in their native language.
We know that humans can outperform machines in many domains, and we're hoping to discover if people will find lending each other an instant of brain power interesting and intrinsically rewarding.
We're open to sharing further details of the system and its results once it's running. We see this more as an experiment than a commercial venture (though we think there are ways that the system could make enough money to at least sustain its own operational costs). Our plan is to recruit interpreters first, then release the iPhone app in about a month. Feel free to contact us with questions or ideas.
Sincerely,
Chuck and Dan
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Interpretors wanted for an iPhone app... 
on May 10, 2010 @ 18:52