Japanese Kanji Pen Recognition?
Peter
Are there any PDA's (like the Apple Newton) that recognise
hand written kanji, and give appropriate hiragana or english
conversions?
One possibility, although expensive and a bit large, would
be to get a tablet based notebook PC on which you could
write on the screen, and get the Japanese version of MS
Windows with the pen recognition extensions. However,
I'm looking for something a bit more compact.
Does anyone have any info or suggestions about such devices?
Thanks,
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Naoki Yamamoto
p...@scammell.ecos.tne.oz.au (Peter) wrote:
> Are there any PDA's (like the Apple Newton) that recognise
> hand written kanji, and give appropriate hiragana or english
> conversions?
>
> One possibility, although expensive and a bit large, would
> be to get a tablet based notebook PC on which you could
> write on the screen, and get the Japanese version of MS
> Windows with the pen recognition extensions. However,
> I'm looking for something a bit more compact.
>
> Does anyone have any info or suggestions about such devices?
>
Apple and Sharp have publicly showed Japanese capable Newton PDAs
in Japan.Those Japanized Newtons are supposed be out by this fall.
I subscribe a mailing list for the Japanese Newton users, but I have
not heard the release date yet.
There are a few PDA like pen-based devices with kanji recognizer.
Those are available only in Japan.(I live in U.S.A. and cannot get
them unless I buy those in Japan when I visit)
Among them, Sharp's electric organizer called Zaurus(PI-3000) is
the most popular. Sharp has sold more than 200,000 units of Zaurus
in 9 months.In June, the second generation of Zaurus(PI-4000) was
released and is getting good reviews. It has more memory and is given
an external FAX modem option.
Zaurus is pen-based and comes with a limited but pretty good Japanese
recognizer and a set of applications such as address book, datebook and
Japanese and English dictionaries. It has a slot for propriety
expansion cards.
It does hiragana-kanji conversions well. Altough Zaurus does not have
fancy technology like a RISC processor and object-oriented operating
system, it is a solid product and quite useful in real life.
Also, Zaurus is smaller and lighter than Newton. It has a very
thin body. You can comfortably carry it in your pocket of jacket.
I have both Zaurus and Newton(English). I prefer Zaurus's form
factor and a long battery life.
--Naoki
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Steve Kusmer
>Among them, Sharp's electric organizer called Zaurus(PI-3000) is
>the most popular. Sharp has sold more than 200,000 units of Zaurus
>in 9 months.In June, the second generation of Zaurus(PI-4000) was
>released and is getting good reviews. It has more memory and is given
>an external FAX modem option.
Naoki, how much did the Zaurus cost? What do you think made it sell so
many units?
Thanks,
Steve Kusmer
aha! software corporation
kus...@ahasoft.com
Naoki Yamamoto
Kusmer) wrote:
> Naoki, how much did the Zaurus cost? What do you think made it sell so
> many units?
Steve,
The original Zaurus(PI-3000) had a list price of 65,000 yen ($650).
Its street price was less than 45,000 yen in April when I got mine.
The new machine(PI-4000) has been sold around 70,000 yen($700) with
FAX modem.
I think there are several reasons for the success of Zaurus.
1) Zaurus was actually the second pen-based electronic organizer marketed by
Sharp in Japan. The first one (PV-F1) was very expensive (more than 1
00,000 yen) and heavy. It failed. Sharp has learned a lesson from PV-F1.
Zaurus costs a half and weighs only 2/3, but the performance was
greatly improved. 2 AAA batteries last for 70 hours.
2) Japanese consumers do not expect handwriting recognition to be perfect.
Because it is tough to input Japanese with tiny organizer keyboards, they
accept the pen as a practical way to input data into their organizer.
There have been several pen-based devices for the horizontal market
before PV-F1 in Japan such as Sony's palmtop. Japanese users have better
understanding of the current handwriting recognition technology.
3) Sharp promoted Zaurus as "New Portable Information Tool" and did not
emphasize pen input. Many Sharp organizer users replaced their older
devices with Zaurus. A huge market for Zaurus was already there.
Those are my opinion as a technology writer/editor.
As a user, I can give you a very simple reason why Zaurus has succeeded.
I have never needed to reset Zaurus since I got it. I have not experienced
any system errors. On the other hand, I have to reset my Newton at least
once a day.
Sharp developed Zaurus as a mass market consumer electronics product. It
seems that Zaurus lives up to the promise.
Big AL
nao...@netcom.com writes:
> In article <32g1jj$5...@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com>, kus...@ix.netcom.com (Steve
> Kusmer) wrote:
>
> > Naoki, how much did the Zaurus cost? What do you think made it sell so
> > many units?
>>
>> Steve,
>>
>> The original Zaurus(PI-3000) had a list price of 65,000 yen ($650).
>> Its street price was less than 45,000 yen in April when I got mine.
>> The new machine(PI-4000) has been sold around 70,000 yen($700) with
>> FAX modem.
I get my new PI-4000 next week (pause to wipe saliva from chin). I haven't
seen them as cheap as 70,000 yen WITH fax modem (the list price is in the
region of 95,000) but I decided against the PI-4000FX 'cos I don't really need
the rather limited-use (for me) fax. BUT my PI-4000 has the adapter card
which will allow me to upgrade in the future if I so desire (and my bank a/c
allows). Apart from the increase in RAM and the built in fax adapter (you
can put a fax on the PI-3000 but need adapter card) the "wapro" is also
improved. The only reason I've been able to wait this long is that the
weather's great here at the moment and I don't like the idea of using my new
baby on the beach! ;)
If you're interested, drop me a line and I may be able to arrange for you to
get one. They seem to be pretty popular here - several of my friends have
them (and this is in Otaru!).
It is also (apparently) possible to program these using a BASIC card for one
of their calculators - am looking into this 'cos there are a few things I'd
like it to do that it doesn't have built in.
As for the Galileo, apparently release has been delayed 'cos of some technical
probs and it's likely to be pretty pricey. Perhaps a future purchase.....
Hope this has been of some help
- Al.