Mathpix
AI
ocr for math
SHOW HN2018
How HN took it
12 positive, 37 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 11 critical, out of 64 comments about the project. Thread score +0.08.
Execution: 4 for, 6 againstIdea: 5 for, 0 againstPerformance: 0 for, 3 againstDocs: 1 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Impressive accuracy on printed and simple handwritten equations.
From 3 comments
Immediately made me think of a question on the state of handwriting to LaTeX from a few years ago, and all the massive challenges involved:…
brownbat on HNJust tried it out and it worked great. Nice work!
carpe171 on HNThis is insanely impressive. Great work. Wish tools like this existed when I was still in school...almost makes me want to go back and do some more math :)
dcchambers on HN
Useful for writing papers and student notes.
From 2 comments
This is great! it is very useful for writing papers. I tried it with some of my equations! It actually improved it by adding more approrpiate braces than I had.
vinni2 on HNThis changes everything concerning my university life for me. I always was on the verge of doing everything digitally, but it was always cumbersome to type out (La)Tex by hand…
brighthero on HN
Testimonials section is funny.
From 2 comments
I'm sorry if it's off the topic. The testimonials really cracked me up. “ If I had known about Mathpix earlier, perhaps I would have had enough time to work out the Grand Unified…
amrrs on HNThis looks neat. Also, the Testimonials section made me laugh. Well done sir.
myf01d on HN
Objections
Fails on complex handwriting, multiline equations and some symbols.
From 3 comments
I tried this on some of my (fairly neat) handwritten physics notes and it was mostly pretty impressive. Failures: a lot of lowercase deltas became 8s and it had no idea what to…
dfan on HNWe used their API to make a simple screenshot2latex tool (select screen region -> puts latex formula in clipboard). From my experience it still fails on a couple of fairly common…
simonramstedt on HNIt's not reliable at complex handwritten math yet, it does do printed advanced math pretty reliably, as well as simple handwritten math.
nicodjimenez on HN
Output spacing is poor for high quality typesetting.
From 1 comment
So I guess I can expect to see more low quality mathematical typesetting. The technology is great, but I don't see how it will help with high quality typesetting. I can type an…
cup-of-tea on HN
Only available on Mac App Store, which is blocked in some countries.
From 1 comment
Any way you could make this available outside the Mac App store? Apple seems to have decided I did something horrible and unforgivable by moving to a different country after…
lliiffee on HN
Requests
Linux and Windows versions.
From 3 comments
Is there any chance of a Linux client?
_emacsomancer_ on HNCool! Any plans to port to Windows and Linux also?
zhamisen on HNGr8! Would love a way to apply this to PDF and web eqns in Windows.
jesuslop on HN
Accuracy figures on validation data.
From 1 comment
The perfection in those examples makes me suspect that they are cherry-picked or part of the training data. Especially the handwritten text is not always clear and could…
yorwba on HN
Support for PDF pages and multi-equation detection.
From 2 comments
Well I was hoping it could take a while page, rather than require me to cut out the equations.
CJefferson on HNStupid question, how well would this work on a PDF of a latex document? This would be great for blind people, as pdfed latex is extremely non-accessable, and I have to email…
CJefferson on HN
Questions
How does the conversion process work?
From 1 comment
This is awesome work. What's the process of vision -> latex conversion?
lowglow on HN
Does it process images locally or in the cloud?
From 1 comment
Awesome! Is the plan for it to be free forever, or what might the pricing look like? Maybe you would consider open sourcing the model? Also it would be nice of some info on the…
Ninn on HN
Alternatives named
InftyReader
From 1 comment
InftyReader [1] does this. Its results are good but definitely not perfect. Unfortunately it is seriously expensive, at US $400 per computer. [1]…
mkl on HN