Scan translator
Scan translators or translator pens are mobile devices that are equipped with a small scanner and display . With them, foreign language texts can be read in and translated .
technology
All devices available on the German market are slightly larger than a highlighter . For use, the tip of the scan translator is only guided over a machine-readable text , the translation of the individual words then appears immediately on the display. The alternative to scan translators are voice computers with manual word entry.
The advantages of Scantranslator when reading foreign language, printed texts result from the elimination of manual input. However, text recognition is not always error-free. The general techniques of automatic text recognition and the current restrictions on quality are described in the article text recognition .
There are recognition problems especially when the vocabulary that is to be translated is not printed, but is, for example, handwritten, spoken or on large signs or screens. The recognition of languages that are not represented with Latin letters is also problematic.
providers
WizCom Technologies Inc.
WizCom Technologies Inc. offers two scan translators on the German market: the Superpen and the Quicktionary II Expert. The German version of the Superpen comes with a CD with 42 dictionaries that can be loaded, while the Quicktionary II Expert is limited to German, English, French and Spanish. Wizcom has solved the problem of entering words that are not in print with a so-called OptiCard. It is a small board on which the letters of the alphabet are printed next to a small barcode. The user can scan the barcodes and spell the word (e.g. handwritten or spoken). With "Quicktionary 3 Lite", the third generation of Wizcom devices will come onto the market from the end of 2007. This scan translator solves the problem of non-scannable terms with a touchscreen that can be used to spell out texts to be translated.
C-Technologies AB
The Swedish company C-Technologies AB offers the C-Pen series of scan translators on the German market. These devices are mainly designed for the scanning, recognition and storage of texts, and only secondarily for translation. This is also shown by the fact that the required electronic dictionaries are not included in the scope of delivery, but can be downloaded from a homepage. The first dictionary is free of charge, more must be purchased. The selection is much larger than at Wizcom, however, a total of 167 dictionaries in different languages can be downloaded.
C-Technologies AB addresses the problem of manual word entry with a "ballpoint pen function". A word that cannot be scanned is written with the entire scan translator as if it were an ordinary pen. The recognition software of the C-Pen should then recognize the word and translate it.
Smartphones have been able to take over these functions since the 2010s.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gilles Lopez: Google translates photographed text. In: heise.de. August 10, 2012, accessed May 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Helene Laube: Word for word about the universal translator. In: The time. January 14, 2015, accessed May 19, 2019 .