Last night I drove over to Ballard for the PicTranslator launch party.  PicTranslator is a new iPhone app that allows you to take photos of signs written in foreign languages and have them translated to English in near-real-time.

For the event, the Fotozio team rented out the Ballard Art Church, which is a converted Assembly of God church in north Ballard.  Paintings and semi-sculptural abstract art line the walls of the large interior.  Fotozio was nice enough to provide free beer and snacks.

The party was really well attended.  I heard they had about 150 RSVPs, and there were probably well over 100 attendees by the time I left around 9 PM.  Here’s a shot of the space and the crowd early in the evening:

One fun touch was that the team had provided a game sheet with partially-translated English words and phrases, and put up “clues” along the walls.  The idea was that you would use your PicTranslator app, or buddy up with someone who had the app, and work out the clues, which all together contributed to a Jumble-type puzzle.

Those who submitted the Jumble were eligible for $1,250 worth of prizes, including a lot of Amazon Web Services credits.

Congratulations to the Fotozio team of Justin, Aaron, and Terry for putting on a fun event.  You can check out PicTranslator and purchase it here.  You may also be interested in the Lifehacker review of PicTranslator, and Bart Claeys has already put up a photo set on Flickr.  You can see my back in one of the pictures.