Mathpix is an app that looks at an equation through your phone’s camera and solves it
Now everyone can be a math savant (well, sort of anyway, and with the help of your phone). Mathpix relies on image recognition and deep learning technology, and can reportedly solve handwritten equations within seconds. All you have to do is point your phone's camera at the equation.
All you have to do is point your phone at the equation. The app will do the rest.
Some of us love math. Others hate it. Whatever the case, everyone’s probably familiar with the excruciating feeling of being stuck at an intractable problem. However, thanks to the miracle that is image recognition technology, we now have Mathpix, an iOS app that spits out the solutions to problems in mere seconds. All you have to do is point your phone’s camera at the equation.
The interface actually looks like most standard QR code scanners. It features an on-screen reticle that you need to position over the equation, which is all that’s needed for the app to begin solving it. Mathpix can even provide graph answers where applicable (take that, trigonometry!), but the best part is probably its ability to offer step-by-step guides with multiple possible methods to the solution.
One notable aspect is that it can also recognize handwritten equations, which would seem to make it especially valuable in the classroom.
All this is made possible by image recognition and deep learning technology (is anything not these days?), but the mathematical computations take place on online servers, so the app probably requires an internet connection at all times.
Mathpix is the brainchild of Nico Jimenez, a Stanford PhD student, but the app’s other developers are actually a couple of high school students, which would seem to make its claims even more impressive.
The app has thus far received mostly positive reviews on the App Store, although there are reports that it has trouble recognizing equations penned down on something other than plain white paper.
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