Readify is a mobile-app prototype designed to turn a user’s phone into a seamless Japanese language-learning environment. The app overlays instant dictionary pop-ups for Japanese text across apps like YouTube, Twitter, and YouTube Music, enabling rapid word lookup without interrupting the flow of reading or listening.
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Tap-to-Translate Overlay Tap any Japanese word on screen to instantly view its dictionary definition.
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App-Wide Support Works across:
- YouTube subtitles
- Twitter posts
- YouTube Music lyrics
- Browser...
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Minimal Disruption Enables users to stay inside the app they are already using instead of switching to a dictionary app.
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Beginner-Friendly Designed to remove friction from vocabulary learning and help learners stay immersed.
as a Japanese learners I often had to interrupt my reading or listening when I came across an uknown word by:
- copying text
- switching apps
- pasting into a dictionary
- switching back
Readify seeks eliminates this friction. The goal is simple: Make vocabulary learning “in the wild” as smooth and natural as possible.
- Kotlin (Android)
- Camera + OCR support
- Custom UI overlays
- Dictionary API / local dictionary integration
- Jetpack Compose
- User opens any supported app (e.g., YouTube).
- Readify listens for text rendered on-screen (subtitles, tweets, lyrics).
- User taps a word → the app identifies Japanese tokens.
- Readify fetches dictionary definitions and displays a non-intrusive pop-up.
- User closes the pop-up and continues reading/listening.
This is a functioning prototype Future possible improvements include:
- More robust OCR for images or non-standard fonts
- Word-frequency lists and personalized review tools
- Pitch accent display
- Example sentences from corpora
- Offline dictionary support
- Integration with the Choruser prosody tool (future idea)