NEC Corporation of Japan has announced the successful development of a real-time pronunciation interpretation software that translates between Japanese and Chinese.
The software library currently includes approximately 50,000 Japanese words and 36,000 Chinese words. These words are among the most commonly used by travelers. Interestingly, the software is also capable of distinguishing differences in accent and voice quality from various regions of China.
According to an email sent to interested parties, this translation program will have two versions: audio and text. However, this program is only compatible with the Windows Mobile CE operating system, and currently, NEC has no plans to develop support for other operating systems.
NEC also introduced a direct translation program for English-Japanese in 2002 for PDAs.
A spokesperson for NEC did not disclose a specific timeline for the commercialization of the software but mentioned that they are continuing to develop and improve the software to enhance accuracy in speech recognition and translation.
