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Regarding that lady. I am from India and I see 100s of people everyday struggling with this exact problem, unable to read what's written. BUT as awesome the technology is it doesn't solve the advertised problem. The very same people, almost everyone I know/see are above the age of 20 and don't even bother to learn the language when they easily can from the $.01 books available almost everywhere. You can give them a tool but how will you give them the motivation?

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I found that lady fascinating. I wonder if she has a learning disability. In any case, Google's solution is amazing: by highlighting the word while reading it to her, she is likely to learn to recognize words, leading her to improved literacy. If this solution works as well as Google hopes, Google may end up raising literacy throughout the world. Even if that means Google gets more data about everyone, I think the effects on the world would be a net positive.

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