Re:Introducing Word Lens
by anigbrowl on Thursday December 16, 2010 @11:28PM
(#2015171)
Yes. No Android yet but this seems worth $10 to me. I'd do Chinese first. There's a big market for that in California; many Asian families have a language gap between grandparents or parents born abroad and a younger generation born here. Basic communication is easy but things slow down fast if conversation turns to anything complex. Being able to print some words neatly by hand in English and instantly get Cantonese would sell like crazy - I have 5 in-laws for whom it would be a no-brainer.
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Actually, Vietnamese would work better.
We have a lot more Vietnam refugees here than we do Chinese folks. If you'll notice, the three main languages you can get government papers in (at least over in San Jose, no experience elsewhere) is English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Re:Introducing Word Lens
by shashashasha on Friday December 17, 2010 @09:52AM
(#2016345)
San Jose is a pretty skewed example as it has a very high Vietnamese population, where over California there is probably an order of magnitude more Chinese immigrants.
Vietnamese would be easier to recognize/do a translation pack for too, now you mention it - basically the Latin alphabet with extra marks to make 30 letters. Apparently there are more north Vietnamese around here and Oakland, more South Vietnamese in SJ and down south, maybe 450k in all of CA. Chinese-American maybe 5-600k? More than 150k in SF.
Incidentally, there's other and easier untapped startup opportunities for the Asian language demographic, if anyone wants to send me a note via gmail
My in-laws are a mix so either language is good, both is better. I can promise 3 Android and 1 iPhone sale just in my home :)