
PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator - nreece
https://photomath.net/
======
untitledwiz
They pitched at TechCrunch Disrupt yesterday. Here's the video
[http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/microblink-launches-
photoma...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/microblink-launches-photomath-to-
solve-math-equations-with-a-phone/)

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Goopplesoft
Great idea, really surprised Wolfram alpha hasn't done some OCR problem
solving. Any ideas what solver is powered by and how good it is (or any other
open source ones out there)? I only know of SymPy.

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Steuard
What is the use case for this? It's hard for me to see anything other than
K-12 math homework (or early college, in some cases). Even graphing
calculators have broader applicability than that, and that's saying something.

I'm _tempted_ to go one step further and say that it's hard to see it as much
more than a "do my homework for me" app, but I know that's too harsh. Some
wise users might turn to it only to check their answers, or to get a hint
about the next step if they're stuck. But as a professor, I've seen just how
easy it can be for even strong students to come to over-rely on "Help, I'm
stuck!" opportunities if they're available, and that _doesn 't_ assist with
learning. (In one memorable case, that opportunity was me in my office, and I
eventually had to limit my supply of helpful hints.)

~~~
pocketheyman
I will admit, as a once ardent anti-math student, I appreciate how frustrating
it is to sit down, stare at a problem for 10 minutes and advance no where
through feeble attempts.

When I began taking Calc 2 (as an adult who's worked and gone back to school),
I found wolfram alpha's integral solver to be INCREDIBLY helpful for working
through practice problems (to your point, I was using it as a check/next step
assistance). I ended up with an A in that class because of Wolfram's ability
to help me work through a problem regardless of the hour, or day.

I think if this (or a similar app) helps students work through problems and
recognize errors they're making, it can absolutely be beneficial. I would
concede with respect to the homework solver aspect, but hope that teachers
could some how incorporate this into their classes, something along the lines
of an account management system that shows the teachers which students are
requesting which equation.

~~~
Ntrails
It seems like a failure of the course/teacher if you are asked to solve a
problem in which you can't identify the requisite steps and make progress?

In my mind the reason for problems is to practice the techniques taught until
you can: a) avoid common pitfalls b) recognise common patterns c) minimise
calculation errors with sense checks

However, when this problem set is marked and impacts your results obviously
the incentives change from learning by doing to getting 100%. Once you have an
app like this for "checking", it takes decent appreciation of the long term
outcomes to avoid using it for "solving" and then going off to play some Frog
Fractions.

~~~
sp332
Some problems have several steps or techniques that need to be applied. It's
not always obvious which way to go at first. Near the end of a course, or in
higher-level courses, there could be hundreds of possible "next steps" that
you've learned. Recognizing common patterns doesn't help in uncommon cases.

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brianbreslin
this was one of the coolest things i've seen recently. Lots of interesting
stuff going on in the OCR space. A buddy of mine has an app that translates
chinese and japanese to english in realtime using the camera.
[http://www.waygoapp.com/](http://www.waygoapp.com/)

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devinmontgomery
I am at once both amazed and saddened. Mastering fraction reduction and later
simple algebra when I was a kid was one of the most empowering experiences of
my life. This is like having an app run a marathon for me - it's easier, but
I'm not changed through the work.

~~~
delluminatus
I mean, isn't it basically a homework aid? While it's definitely cheaty, I can
understand why it would appeal to kids who just want to get their homework
done fast, or people who are stuck on exercises and want a hint.

~~~
vanderZwan
The value of doing homework isn't measured in how fast you finish it:

> This is like having an app run a marathon for me - it's easier, but I'm not
> changed through the work.

~~~
delluminatus
That analogy is misleading, because you don't have to run a marathon to get a
high school diploma.

I'm not advocating that students use this to cheat on their homework. I'm just
pointing out that most people reading an algebra textbook aren't in there for
self-improvement. They just want a good grade.

~~~
devinmontgomery
I think the impressiveness of what these guys made is the best argument for
what a mistake that is. The effective 0% unemployment rate of engineers in SV
shows what you get when you're not willing to be "bad at math." I know you're
not advocating for that attitude, it just drives me nuts.

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chrisBob
Seeing this reminds me how frustrating searching in the app store is. I saw
this story on my computer, and picked up my iPad and went to the app store to
download it. Searching for "photo math" yields a few hundred goofy photo
editing apps [1]. Searching by the correct name "photomath" yields 0 results.
I ended up going to their website to get the link before figuring out that my
default search is for iPad compatible apps only, and that this won't show up
unless I search with iPhone Only selected.

[1] fat face and look like a zombie are the most popular, but I was most
impressed with Abs Booth

edit: the developer should also note that searching by name does not work
unless you add the app name as a keyword. I have submitted bug reports for
both issues (18735078 and 18735109)

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mkoryak
Man, I wish I had this (and cellphones) in high school. Would have made
cheating so much easier!

~~~
LeoPanthera
When I was at school I had one of these:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3)

And got in trouble for writing programs in OPL to solve math problems.

I reckon I deserved extra credit for initiative. The experience of learning to
program has certainly turned out to be ultimately more useful than learning to
do math without a calculator.

(Not that I think that learning to do math without a calculator is useless,
mind you.)

OPL:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Programming_Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Programming_Language)

~~~
zentiggr
Wrote a very simple genetic algorithm engine in OPL... my fitness function was
just to optimize toward a specific 32-bit pattern. But I got familiar with the
technique, along with quite a few other explorations.

Then I dropped it on a steel deck, broke a hinge and the power lines from the
battery case. Never have pulled it apart to rebuild, but it's in my closet
still, 15 years later :)

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therobot24
cool idea, but the reddit thread appears to be populated with complaints that
it's barely functional

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zmitri
I tried it out. Barely functional is pretty accurate unfortunately :(

I was using it on screens though as opposed to paper.

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niutech
Wolfram|Alpha for iOS suports image input from camera[1] and has a
TextRecognize function[2]. Has anybody tested it?

[1] [http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2012/03/14/wolframalpha-app-
for...](http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2012/03/14/wolframalpha-app-for-ios-adds-
image-as-input/)

[2]
[http://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextRecognize.html](http://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/TextRecognize.html)

~~~
IshKebab
`TextRecognize` is clearly not for equations.

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mathteacher1729
A colleague at my office gave it a test drive.

* [http://youtu.be/jDbTKgWoufw](http://youtu.be/jDbTKgWoufw)

Results: As of now, it can only solve some linear equations. It did
successfully solve one quadratic but it couldn't decide if the variable was r
or e (the variable was x). It was largely unable to solve handwritten
problems, even simple arithmetic.

note: This is a copy/paste of a comment I left on reddit /r/math and
/r/windowsphone.

~~~
IshKebab
I don't know why you'd expect it to solve hand-written problems. Handwriting
recognition of text is barely solved, let alone maths.

~~~
mathteacher1729
Truthfully I did not know what to expect with regards to hand written
problems. Out of curiosity, I wrote my very neatest and gave it a try and it
solved one of them.

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decster
There are some startup in China providing similar apps, basically they are
using deep learning to search problem photo in a problem set(middle school,
high school problem sets and exams). Like this one:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wenba.bang...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wenba.bangbang)

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AndrewOMartin
I'd be more interested if it could provide the LaTeX code for the scanned
equation. Then you could write equations by hand and simply scan them in.

I'm halfway through a thesis, so it's too late for me, but others could have a
notorious learning curve eased somewhat.

~~~
tomswartz07
While it's not as full as OCR, there's an app called DeTeXify that will do
almost exactly what you describe.

Android app link here:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=coolcherrytree...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=coolcherrytrees.software.detexify)

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rawnlq
This reminds me of
[http://webdemo.myscript.com/#/demo/equation](http://webdemo.myscript.com/#/demo/equation)
which recognizes handwritten equations. Also has an option to send to wolfram
alpha to solve!

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est
I have yet to see an app support trigonometry. Is recognizing graphs too hard?

~~~
backprojection
That would be a fun project. If you can digitize the graph reliably, you can
then take the discrete Fourier transform of the data, apply some
denoising/thresholding to extract the main components. This would tell you if
you're looking at sin(x), cos(x), cos^2(x), etc. If you have a training set,
you could maybe start picking out more complex functions like abs(x), 1/x,
etc.

~~~
est
I am referring to problems like this

[http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/799790/simplest-
know...](http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/799790/simplest-known-
solution-to-worlds-hardest-easy-geometry-problem)

I don't think it's easy.

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washedup
Doesn't this defeat the purpose of the exercises?

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conistonwater
Yes, it does.

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maaaats
No, it doesn't. It all depends on how you use it. Many people like to verify
that they have done correctly before moving on to the next problem. Often no
solution is given, which makes people unsure and nervous about continuing. And
if you're stuck this can show you the steps and you can learn something.

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justinzollars
This is a GREAT idea.

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kenrick95
Reminded me of "The Lenwoloppali Differential Equation Scanner" from The Big
Bang Theory

[http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lenwoloppali_Differe...](http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lenwoloppali_Differential_Equation_Scanner)

~~~
valevk
I'm more surprised, that nobody did this earlier. The episode was around for a
few years.

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wlievens
I'm pretty sure this app doesn't solve differential equations ...

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mandeepj
Yeah, if people were not already lame enough to try to understand maths in a
right way.

btw, suite of similar apps will follow in chemistry and physics now

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zerr
It is frustrating - why is it free? Please, do not dump the market...

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steveridout
You're fighting a losing battle, getting exposure is valuable for a startup
and free is often a good route to get initial users.

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wilhow
I think this will produce lazier students. This will encourage student to
expect instant answers to math problems rather than encourage them to learn to
seek answers by understanding the questions, equations and formula.

~~~
netcan
This is true of all inventions.

When I was learning math we had to draw out equations in sand, with roman
numerals. Digits make students lazy. Instead of actually visualizing the
numbers geometrically, all they need to do is play around with numbers.

