Spector the Shazam of Typography

Spector Device — Spector Video by Fiona O’Leary

Placing the phone next to a speaker to identify a song has become blase since the arrival of Shazam. Now Fiona O’Leary, a student of the Royal College of Art, has launched the ‘Typographic’ version of this popular app.

Simply place Spector on a typeface you like and see it change to that exact typeface on the screen. Fiona O’ Leary

Specifically, Spector recognizes and identifies typefaces and color codes for transfer to the virtual world so that they can be used on your desktop.

The prototype device is equipped with a small camera that is activated by pressing it against the page you want to ‘digitise’, in real-time. Spector recognizes the font and color. Its algorithms enable identification of the font family as well as the font’s kerning, leading and size. All the additional information that a designer seeks.

In addition, Spector identifies the color tones within the CMYK or RGB classifications. This novel device also allows the sharing of ‘snapshots’ on computer programs such as inDesign.

As the device is a ‘prototype’, it can only identify seven typefaces however the database would be expanded with commercial productions. Even if you do not find yourself near your computer, all parts of a font are sent wirelessly to a cloud database. The same applies to the colors that your have captured.

For now, Spector is just a prototype for now, its creator has no plans to market the device.