{"id":2962,"date":"2012-03-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fpisani.wpengine.com\/innovation-the-magic-and-the-method\/"},"modified":"2012-03-22T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T08:00:00","slug":"innovation-the-magic-and-the-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/innovation-the-magic-and-the-method\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation: The magic and the method – Francis Pisani"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"WordLens2<\/p>\n

When Otavio Good sees the word \u201csalida\u201d in a Spanish-speaking country, he thinks of \u201csalad\u201d instead of \u201cexit.\u201d To avoid the embarrassment that can result from mistakes like this, the Mountain View developer created\u00a0WordLens<\/a>, a smartphone app that instantly translates texts, from signposts to menus, with a simple camera view.<\/p>\n

Right now the app can translate English, French and Spanish, with German, Italian and Portuguese coming soon. Chinese and Arabic versions are also in the works. Designed for tourists, the app translates texts without using wi-fi \u2013 roaming would cost a fortune \u2013 and generates translations from a pre-installed dictionary. Built for the iPhone, it will soon be available on Android devices.<\/p>\n

The app is so fast you\u2019d think it was magic. This is exactly how it was described by Daniel Glazman, who introduced it at\u00a0Nexplorateur Forum<\/a>,\u00a0 held March 15th and 16th at the UNESCO Palace in Paris. The app was voted one of the 10 best global apps of the year.<\/p>\n

Irritated by people (journalists heading the list) who ask him when he got the idea for the app, Good spoke instead of the innovation process. \u201cThere isn\u2019t an aha moment,\u201d he said. So there\u2019s no story to tell, unfortunately. In this he agrees with Steven Johnson, whom he tells me he\u2019s never read.<\/p>\n

Good detailed six conditions necessary for creating \u201cinnovative software\u201d:<\/p>\n