Lifestyles of Tomorrow: Scene 8

Scene 8: Now, you can look up a word in a electronic dictionary even without knowing how to input the word.

: An American is in Japan for sightseeing. He doesn't know how to read Japanese at all, but he appears to be enjoying his trip a lot, visiting many different sightseeing spots. How does he get around so well? The secret is his cellular phone. Every time he sees a sign he wants to read, he just takes a picture of the sign with his cellular phone's camera. The cellular phone automatically recognizes the characters and starts the dictionary to translate them into English. With this convenient function, he can go anywhere he desires and enjoy his trip to the fullest, even without knowing a word of Japanese.

: PATTERN Vision
Because OMRON's character recognition unit using Pattern Vision technology can be designed so compactly, it can easily be embedded into a cellular phone. With this technology, the cellular phone can quickly recognize characters in images taken with its built-in camera. OMRON is currently developing Pattern Vision technology that is compatible not only with Japanese and English but also with other languages such as Korean (Hangul) and Chinese.