PhotoMath: Solve math with your phone camera

App shows students step-by-step how math problems are solved & allows them to check their work making their mobile phone even more like Swiss Army knife that can do anything.

TECHNOLOGY

PhotoMath: Solve math with your phone camera

Take a photo of your math problem. 

Get an answer without even thinking.

Is this a cheating tool or another life - enhancing technology?

Give it a try at Google Play for Android here & App Store for Apple iOS here. 



CHEATING TOOL?

This is surely one more reason for teachers not to allow students access to mobile phones during tests.

So students better not use PhotoMath to do their homework, if they want to be able to pass tests without their phone. 

CHECK YOUR WORK

"Always check your work" has to be a key rule for completing any task successfully at work or school.

Go over your work again to make sure the answer is correct.

PhotoMath can be very useful to check student work when there is no answer key in the textbook.

TEACHES SIMPLE MATH

The app also shows students step-by-step how math problems are solved.

This can be quite useful when there is no teacher to help, so this app could come in handy.

Mobile phones are slowly becoming even more like a Swiss Army knife that does everything.

WHAT MAKES IT WORK?

This app is pretty impressive but what makes it work? 

The app uses two kinds of artificial intelligence (AI) programs, OCR and equation solving programs. 

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software converts scanned letters and numbers (in a jpeg image, for example) into computer letters and numbers (in a .txt file, for instance) (see here). 
 
The most famous equation solving program is Mathematica which can solve even difficult equations that engineers have to deal with in their day-to-day work (see here).

LIMITATIONS?

The app can only be used for arithmetic, fractions, decimal numbers, linear equations and logarithms.

Only printed text works, so don't try it on handwritten equations.

These app features may change in the future since the app is being continually updated and changed.

MICROBLINK COMPANY

The company that wrote the app is named Microblink.

The company has also produced bar code scanners that includes QR codes and a technology called PhotoPay that "eliminates manual data entry for bill payments with several major European Union banks."

https://photomath.net/en/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microblink.photomath
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photomath/id919087726

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2014/10/22/photomath-is-a-free-app-that-can-solve-equations-through-smartphone-cameras/#507975df6bde
http://www.cnet.com/news/use-your-phones-camera-to-solve-equations-with-photomath/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_calculator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/1003265/photomath-solve-math-with-your-phone-camera