Casio electronic dictionary / translator talks back, recognizes handwriting

While we English speaking folk may prefer our pocket translators to start in English and convert to some other foreign tongue, Casio's latest rendition helps those fluent in Japanese order tickets to the Space Needle, haggle at the Chevrolet dealership, and of course, pick up the correct ingredients for warm apple pie. Aimed at middle / high school students, the XD-SW4800 lineup of handheld dictionaries reportedly house the denotation and correct pronunciation for over "85,000 languages," which ironically enough, probably translates to "85,000 words" when not read through a broken translator. Nevertheless, these handy gizmos come in a variety of colors, and aside from supporting keyboard input, it can recognize stylus-written characters and toss back definitions while pronouncing the word to you via headphones. If America isn't your final destination, it also comes with five other major languages on CD that can be loaded on the 50MB of internal space or on your SD card if necessary, and while these things won't last forever, the approximate 60 to 130 hours of battery life should be more than enough to get you acclimated. So while you're waiting for your passport to show up, make sure you pick up Casio's latest travel necessity -- if you can manage the admittedly steep ¥47,250 ($394) to ¥52,500 ($437) price points, that is.

[Via Impress]

[Brady @ Jan 13th 2007 6:53PM]

Perfect!

I'm suprised they didn't include this in the "iPhone" (the Apple POS not the Cisco POS)

[Taylor @ Jan 13th 2007 7:19PM]

well, C3PO was fluent in over 6 million languages, so 85,000 is pathetic!
-Taylor

[JaisBane @ Jan 13th 2007 7:19PM]

Funny that you say the device is for chinese speakers, yet the screen in the picture is displaying japanese and the "read" link directs you to a japanese webpage -_-

[Sinbios @ Jan 13th 2007 7:38PM]

Uh, that's clearly Japanese.

[Vince @ Jan 13th 2007 10:09PM]

The dictionary contains the native level pronunciation for 85,000 English words. In this case "go" is used as a counter for words, and not in reference for language per se.

It's nice that you corrected the mistake about it being a Chinese dictionary, but it should have been picked up on initially. I assume what threw you off was the use of "kokugo", which is used to refer to mother tongue. In Japan that would be used to refer specifically to Japanese.

[octium @ Jan 13th 2007 10:28PM]

the kanji after 85000 in the unstranslated article is the kanji used to represent specific languages (uses a language radical with "go". ex. nihonGO=japanese, kankokuGO=korean, eiGO=english, and so on...), so i dont know how far off your machine translation was because it didnt simply mistranslate "words" as far as i can see. then again there may be something else in the rest of the article and my kanji recognition isnt that great. in any case its doubtful it can do 85000 languages, but it does use the correct kanji for the machine translation to come out that way. ive been wanting one of these for a while though...

[puyo @ Jan 14th 2007 12:13AM]

actually used a prototype retail version of this model last week and it is very nice, much better than my Canon Wordtank. the handwriting input feature made entering kanji alot easier. it had alot of features i couldn't really use, but for jpn-eng and eng-jpn it's great

[blip @ Jan 14th 2007 5:22AM]

Ok, how about this: just stop these silly posts on dictionaries if they aren't the latest mega-x supder duper 4000 with kitchen sink and handkerchief dispenser. This is just another cookie cutter jap-english dictionary tailored for up to high school students (japanese ones that is). Stylus input have been there for *years* but have been used almost extensively for jap-chinese dictionaries (considering chinese is *all* "chinese characters" (duh) the need for pen input is greater than japanese which is kind of phonetic (kana, that is) and is more easily input via roman characters)

More over, the dictionaries in this thing is the usual suspects which are "ok" but nothing more. Why even bother posting on this? There are hundreds of similar dictionaries like these out there? Maybe check you local japanese version of Engadget you'll find the crazy stuff - you really should start a korean version of Engadget because *that's* where the crazy dictionaries are to be had!

What's sad is that the flashier they get the worse the dictionaries inside are. Now, I never leave home without my dictionary, it's my secret little friend, and it has *very* nice dictionaries and functionality but the tradeoff is that it isn't very "flashy".

As someone who has had a few of these puppies my tip is: 1. to check with Engadget Japanese and see of there is really anything special or not with the product in question. 2. Go to Korea! You have already had a couple of the more "multi media" centered dictionaries from iRiver.

And with that I'll shut my trap. Sorry for the rant.

[blip @ Jan 14th 2007 5:23AM]

Oh, and prenunciation is common feature today. So nothing new there either. (God, I sound like do nothing but check out dictionaries...)

[Flipper @ Jan 14th 2007 3:52PM]

blip: Perhaps you should check out some dictionaries a few more times, in the "p" section.

[Paul D @ Jan 14th 2007 6:09AM]

Whoever wrote the Enadget blurb didn't read the actual product page very carefully, or translated really poorly. (I don't see why Japanese should be a problem since there's a Japanese edition of Engadget.)

The text clearly says there are 85,000 "英単語" (ei-dango), which means "English words".

@Blip: This sort of product is actually of major interest to the many people studying or flirting with Japanese out there. Aside from Canon's Wordtank V90 and "Kanji sono mama" for the Nintendo DS, this is the *only* dictionary to offer handwriting recognition so you can input unknown kanji. There are not hundreds of dictionaries like this.

You are right though, in that the Koreans seem to make way cooler electronic dictionaries.

[blip @ Jan 14th 2007 4:48PM]

Paul D and Flipper:

I'm sorry. My rant got a bit too far and I stand corrected. What I meant was that feature wise *besides the stylus input* (which I agree is the biggie) this is just one of hundreds similar dictionaries. The Genius dictionary, koujien etc. But again what I kind of missed and I didn't notice until I read the Impress article was the little "pad" for stylus input. Which to those who has just started their japanese studies is quite invaluable.

And I totally agree that these are fantastic little things for those studying japanese (might even be more useful to a non-japanese, such as myself, than to a native sometimes...) As I said I never leave home without my electronic dictionary (SII SR-E10000), and I've had of my share of them. If I didn't have my dear SII dictionary during my student days I'd have to lug 4-5 dictionaries sometimes, for japanese studies alone. (I quite like the DS "Sonomama" for what it is as well. It's quite nice to test yourself with. I'm a dictionary-holic :P)

I guess I've seen these tools being kind of ridiculed so many times here on Engadget that I ranted on before realizing what the actual product could do.

Just a note to those thinking of buying an electronic dictionar (jap-eng): try to look past the "cool" features and check out the actual dictionaries. Find one with Genius etc? Ok I guess but if you can find one (and is prepared to part with the cash) with Kenkyuusha (daijiten) for example then believe me you won't regret that later. The stylus input is a great asset, though, and might be a deal breaker for some. What's might be good with the "usual suspect" setup ones, though, is that they can usually be had for relatively cheap, especially last years models. Finally: monochrome screen might look boring but that's still where the best dictionaries are to be had (not to mention battery life).

What I meant about Korea was just that Japanese dictionaries are usually to the point, whereas the Korean one's are available with the kitchen sink. That was purely out of a freaky gadget point of view.

Anyway, sorry for being long winded and if I came off sounding arrogant. To anyone wanting to study japanese: do it! :)

[Ghettospice @ Jan 16th 2007 9:01PM]

that thing is ugly. it looks like a medical device to check blood for diabetes...or blood pressure