PhotoMath: Every math student's dream come true
The latest from the "Why didn't they have this when I was in school?" news is a very cool app that scans printed mathematical expressions and then solves them. PhotoMath (free) is every school kid's dream.
The app was pointed out by Mike Rose, who saw Amit Chowdry's writeup in Forbes. Apparently the app has a few quirks - Chowdry noted that it sometimes misreads the "X" in an equation as a multiplication symbol - but that still doesn't keep it from doing a great job of solving those equations. The educational benefit? It shows step by step how those equations are being solved so that students can learn the process to go through.
When you point the iPhone's camera at a math or science textbook, a red frame appears that you place around the equation. The app uses OCR to grab the equation, then recognizes the type of calculation that is being made. Step by step, it shows how the problem is solved.
The PhotoMath OCR capability is designed by London-based Microblink, which plans to use that function for future online banking apps. PhotoMath's description in the App Store notes that additional functionality will be added in future updates.
