Apple’s iPhone App Store is literally bursting at the seams with travel phrasebooks and language translators, which are a natural for such a pocketable device. But if you’re looking for something that handles the task a little differently, take a look at iLingual.
Available in three languages — French, German and Arabic — each version allows you to snap a picture of your mouth, which iLingual then analyzes and converts into an animated version. Choose a phrase from the library of over 400 included ones, hold your iPhone over your mouth and the app does the rest, as seen in the YouTube video below.
The free apps from developer Emirates weigh it between 70 and 90 MB (with French being the largest), and allow you to add multiple users, choose male and female voices and even alter the pitch of the voices. The apps currently only convert English to one of the three destination languages.
Of course, in practical use you’ll likely get more attention for your method of delivery than for the message you’re trying to convey when using iLingual. But it’s more entertaining than trying to fumble through a phrasebook when speaking to the locals, don’t you think?
Mr. Bookwalter, you are allegedly a professional writer. Please learn the definition of the word literally. The iPhone App Store has no seams, and therefore cannot be "literally bursting at the seams with travel phrasebooks and language translators." It very well may be figuratively bursting at the seams, but that is the exact opposite of literally bursting at the seams.
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