@AYi_AInotes: Telling the AI product story that moved me the most recently: a Chinese dad made a word app for his daughter. In the summer of 2022, Ace Lee picked up his daughter from school every day, and she always pointed at things by the roadside and asked for their English names. Once she pointed at a street sign and asked. He couldn't answer. He opened a translation app, and a cold robotic voice came out. The girl...
Summary
A Chinese father created an AI word app CapWords for his daughter, which uses the camera to recognize objects and generate interactive stickers, supports 9 languages and real human pronunciation, and won the Apple Design Award in 2025.
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Let me share a story about an AI product that deeply moved me recently —
a Chinese dad who built a word-learning app for his daughter.
In the summer of 2022, Ace Lee would pick up his daughter from school every day. On the way home, she would point at things on the street and ask for their English names.
One day she pointed at a street sign. He couldn’t answer. He opened a translation app, and a cold robotic voice blurted out the word.
His daughter just said, “Oh.”
In that moment, he realized that traditional translation apps were missing the most important thing — warmth.
So he built CapWords.
Point the camera at anything, and AI automatically identifies the object, removes the background, and generates a cute interactive word sticker.
It supports 9 languages including Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean, with real human pronunciation and a smart review system.
This tiny 3-person team from Beijing ended up winning the 2025 Apple Design Award —
the only winner in the “Delight & Fun” category that year.
Three things that make it stand out:
- Extremely high recognition accuracy — almost all everyday objects can be identified
- Every sticker comes with smooth animation and real corresponding sound effects
- Completely ad-free, with no in-app purchases or subscriptions
To me, this shows that a great AI product isn’t built for funding rounds —
it’s built to solve a problem you truly care about.
#AI #LanguageLearning #AppleDesignAward
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