NEC Corp, the Japanese IT giant, is developing a translation system that will enable users of PCs or laptops with Pentium-class processors to dictate text and have it translated in real time from English to Japanese or vice versa. However, before potential users rush out to upgrade their machines to include the 192 MB of RAM that the software requires, NEC says that the new system will not be released until 2001.
The company has been promoting an automatic translation system since 1983 and launched its voice recognition software Smart Voice and its third version of its translation software, Crossroads earlier this year.
The system under development has a 50,000-word vocabulary and has one database with conversational sounds and language and another equipped with grammatical knowledge and the vocabulary. Other languages will follow, says NEC.
