Vocabulary is very important in learning English, but also one of the biggest obstacles to overcome, especially for beginners.

British council realized, through observations made during its classes, that in-class teaching could only do so much to help a student’s vocabulary skills. A lot of out-class learning is needed to further develop their vocabulary and interest in words.

Having a teacher conduct out-class learning sounds like a good idea theoretically, but it wasn’t practical. The British Council needed ‘teachers’ to be around when students needed them.

Automatic object recognition in images is often tricky.

Even if a computer has the help of smart algorithms and human assistants, it may not catch everything in a given scene, much less do it in a considerably quick and efficient manner.

By re-purposing a piece of technology built primarily for mobile-commerce, the British Council created the Visual Dictionary app to aid students and potential students improve their vocabulary.

Simply by taking a picture of any object, the app uses visual search technology to tell you what it is. Recognizing nearly 40 million images, the app instantaneously syncs with the Cambridge dictionary to provide the user with the respective meaning and pronunciation.

Snap a picture and improve your vocabulary in real-time. It was that easy and direct.

During the initial test phase with the current batch of students at the British Council, the results were highly encouraging.

In just two weeks, a total of 303,753 words were searched on the Visual Dictionary app. This averages out to about 250 new English words taught to a student - a tall order to achieve with just in-class learning.

With every student now armed with this innovative, real-time mobile tool, the Visual Dictionary helped overcome one of the language’s biggest hurdle, thanks in large part to identify an existing student behaviour, utilizing data, and the mobility of a real-time experience.