|
 "I found it a bit tedious, all those additions and multiplications,
so I reckoned, 'We already have intelligent software, why not make
it deal with maths?'" Sabol said.
The result was PhotoMath, a free app that scans and solves
equations, providing a step-by-step explanation. It has been
downloaded more than 11 million times since its introduction in
October, and it was just updated on Thursday to take it to high
school level. An Android version is due in days.
The app is based on the same technology as an earlier app called
PhotoPay that was introduced in 2012 by Sabol's company, which is
also called Photo Pay. That app facilitates mobile banking, by
scanning household bills and paying them instantly.
"Basically, what we do is teach mobile phones to read things from
the real world," Sabol told Reuters in his sparsely decorated office
in Zagreb, where a dozen young software engineers jot down ideas and
algorithms.
He said the PhotoMath averages about 1.5 million users every month
and he had received scores of emails from grateful students, parents
-- and even teachers.
"Will I allow my pupils to use the app? Absolutely," a British maths
teacher wrote on www.amathsteacherwrites.co.uk, after a pupil
proudly presented the app in class.
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"As a means for them to check their work it’s unrivalled ... They
are far more likely to 'listen' to an electronic device, rather than
teacher, telling them that they are right or wrong," the teacher
wrote.
Sabol says he has never regretted making the app available for free.
"Now, of course, we are looking for ways to be commercial," he said.
"Without that, we cannot continue developing the app.
(Reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic; Editing by Michael Roddy and
Larry King)
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