Quest Visual

Quest Visual, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Translation software
Founded	2009 (2009)[1]
Founder	Otavio Good[1]
Headquarters	San Francisco, California , U.S.
Number of locations	1 office
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Otavio Good (Programmer and CEO) John DeWeese Eric Park Bryan Lin Maia Good (Software engineers)
Products	Word Lens
Number of employees	4 (2014)
Website	QuestVisual.com

Quest Visual, Inc. was an American private company that developed Word Lens, an augmented reality translation application.^[1] In May 2014, the company was acquired by Google, Inc.^[2][3][4]

Company

Quest Visual was founded by a former video game developer Otavio Good^[5][6][7] in 2009.^[1] At the time of acquisition, the company had 4 full-time employees (Good, John DeWeese, Bryan Lin, and Eric Park,) and a contractor, Maia Good.^[7] The details of the acquisition have not been released.^[2][3][4][8]

Products

Main article: Word Lens

Quest Visual's first product, Word Lens 1.0, was released on December 16, 2010,^[5] and was available in 2015 as Word Lens 2.2.3 for Apple's iPhone, iPod, and iPad through iTunes,^[9] as well as for a selection of Android smartphones through Google Play.^[10] It was unavailable as of 2021.^[9] At Google's unveiling of its Glass Development Kit in November 2013, the translation capabilities of Word Lens were also demonstrated on Google Glass.^{[11][12][13][14]} According to a January 2014 New York Times article, Word Lens is currently free for Google Glass.^[15] Google also made all Word Lens language packs freely available for a "limited time".^{[3][4][8][16][17]} Word Lens capabilities were incorporated into the Google Translate app and released on January 14, 2015.^{[18][19][20][21]} The company did not have any other products by the time of acquisition.^[22]

See also

• Augmented reality
• Optical character recognition
• Google Translate

References

1. Armstrong, Natalie (April 19, 2011). "Word Lens app developer builds on social media buzz". Reuters. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
2. Etherington, Darrell (May 16, 2014). "Google Has Acquired Quest Visual, The Maker Of Camera-Based Translation App Word Lens". TechCrunch.
3. Rosenblatt, Seth (May 16, 2014). "Google buys Word Lens maker to boost Translate". CNET.
4. Hall, Zac (May 16, 2014). "Google acquires Word Lens app recently featured in Apple's iPhone ad "Powerful"". 9to5Mac.
5. Tsotsis, Alexia (December 16, 2010). "Word Lens Translates Words Inside of Images. Yes Really". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
6. Milian, Mark (December 20, 2010). "New iPhone app translates foreign-language signs". CNN: Tech. Retrieved April 19, 2010.
7. Olson, Parmy (December 22, 2010). "Hot, New 'Word Lens' App Is Founder's First Project In Augmented Reality". Forbes. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
8. Winkler, Rolfe (May 16, 2014). "Google Tries Another Reality With Quest Visual Purchase". The Wall Street Journal.
9. "Word Lens on the iTunes App Store". itunes.apple.com. 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
10. "Word Lens on the Google Play Store". 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
11. Gannes, Liz (November 19, 2013). "Next Google Glass Tricks Include Translating the World From Your Eyes". All Things Digital.
12. Honan, Mat (November 19, 2013). "Google's New Tools Show How Deep Glass Will Embed in Our Lives". Wired: Gadget Lab.
13. Rosenblatt, Seth (November 19, 2013). "Google Glass throws open its doors to developers". CNET.
14. Lardinois, Frederic (November 24, 2013). "Glass Just Got Way More Interesting". TechCrunch.
15. Rosenbloom, Stephanie (January 23, 2014). "Google Tools for Globetrotters". The New York Times: Travel.
16. Tschorn, Adam (May 22, 2014). "Say what? Word Lens translation app is easy and free (for now)". Los Angeles Times.
17. "Quest Visual is joining Google!". questvisual.com. 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
18. Turovsky, Barak (January 14, 2015). "Hallo, hola, olá to the new, more powerful Google Translate app". Google: Official Blog. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
19. Dougherty, Conor (January 14, 2015). "Google Translate App Gets an Upgrade". The New York Times: Bits. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
20. Rosenbloom, Stephanie (January 14, 2015). "Updates for Google Translate (Just Hold Up Your Phone)". The New York Times: In Transit. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
21. Ulanoff, Lance (January 15, 2015). "Hands on with Google Translate: A mix of awesome and OK". Mashable. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
22. "Quest Visual website". QuestVisual.com. 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2011.

External links

• Quest Visual homepage
• Word Lens on iTunes
• Original video demonstration of Word Lens
• Otavio Good explains Word Lens 1.0.1 (interview with Reuters)