Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
3.2 Functions of Age-Specific Pictogram Dictionary Application
The functions of each screen in the age-specific pictogram dictionary application are
described below. Figure 9 shows the flow of operation screens.
•
Carrier selection screen
Used to select the carrier (au, DoCoMo or Softbank).
•
Pictogram selection screen (top of Figure 9)
Used to select any of 24 pictograms. Positioning the mouse pointer over a
pictogram displays the most common interpretations given to it by each age group
and gender, on the right side of the screen.
•
Search screen (center of Figure 9)
Used to select an age group and/or gender as search conditions, and display the
results matching the entered conditions. Multiple search conditions can be selected.
•
Search results display screen (bottom of Figure 9)
Displays the search results (pictogram interpretations, usage examples, and usage
frequencies).
The system configuration of the age-specific pictogram dictionary application is as
follows (refer to Figure 8): The user starts by accessing a website written by JSP
(JavaServer Pages), to select their mobile phone carrier, the pictogram to query, and
the target age group and gender. The pictogram interpretation table within the system
receives the query, and outputs the result (the interpretations and usage examples for
the pictogram).
4 Development of Multilingual Translation Service for
Age-Specific Pictogram Dictionary
We developed a service that uses Language Grid machine translation services to
provide multilingual translations of the age-specific pictogram dictionary application
described in the previous section.
4.1 Objective
Japan now has nearly two million foreign residents with a fairly high (84%) rate of
mobile phone ownership [6]. Since pictograms have culture-specific differences of
interpretation as described in Section 1, we suspect that foreign residents
communicating with Japanese by means of mobile phone pictograms may have
difficulty understanding the intended interpretations. The multilingual translation
service we developed for the age-specific pictogram dictionary described in the
previous section translates the interpretations and usage examples into several
languages, for presentation to foreign residents. Its aim is to help expedite and
facilitate communication on mobile phones across different languages and cultures.
4.2 System Overview
Using the Japanese mobile phone pictogram interpretations and usage examples as a
language resource, we developed a web service that translates them into several
