Merry Christmas to me! I’ve got a new iPhone App to add to my slowly incrementing list of secular software to misuse for mystical purposes.
Some of you may remember my post about Dragon Dictation, a speech-to-text iPhone application which I used in order to create algorithmically inspired poetry. (For that one, instead of speaking normal English into the microphone as originally intended, I spoke complete gibbersh – glossolalia if you will – and had the application return the ‘channeled’ message back to me).
Here’s an example of how to use Dragon Dictation in this new way:
“Sound File Of Garrett Making Weird Noises And Annoying His Roommates”
And here is a typical ‘inspired’ response:
“Shannon home today
and I can’t know God
bless us to kick some Zune cool
as you can see mom went to ask him
she moaned hello
Micah’s status on that check
on the class
is yet”
Well, I’ve found a new iPhone app to pair with Dragon Dictation. This one allows you to create surrealist artwork and read hidden signs and symbols hidden in the ordinary world. This app is called Word Lens, and its intended purpose is pretty spectacular in and of itself. Check out the video below for a primer:
So this augmented reality application is supposed to take text from the outside world and ‘translate’ it into a new language using their downloadable dictionaries. Which is badass.
But then a funny thing happened…
When I was riding the Light Rail home from the airport the other day, I noticed that when I had my camera facing my bag it thought it could read words in the lines and textures. I snapped a few pictures and wondered to myself – wow, I wonder if this could be used to divine some hidden meanings?
An Early Prototype
I tried for a really long time to get it recognize words by using the creases in my palm – thinking an unintended palm reader would be too good to be true – but alas, I could not get it to work.
‘Chili’ showing up in an old picture of my sister and me
However, by setting the dictionary from Spanish to English and pointing it at natural surroundings around my house and out and about while Christmas shopping, I was able to capture stills from these fascinating/random software glitches.
‘Gone’ next to a man waiting for the bus
Browse my flickr set here to see more examples of Word Lens in action!
