Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Eight Japanese users tested our age-specific pictogram dictionary application. It
received positive feedback such as “It should come in handy, I'd like to use it.” (AG2
man) and “It will show my children and husband how to use pictograms.” (AG4
woman). One of questions raised was “Isn't it difficult to judge which interpretation
the writer intends from among the many choices available in the search results?”
(AG5 man). In response to this question, the pop-up window that displays the most
common interpretation of a pictogram (see 3.2) is useful. However, we believe the
application should list an excessive number of meanings when needed so that users
can learn from large number of interpretations and usage examples, and enable them
to see age-specific and gender-specific differences of interpretations and relevant
usage examples. Another comment we received was “I'd like the pictogram
dictionary to be accessible from mobile phones too.” (AG5 man).
We received positive feedback from three foreign users who tested the multilingual
translation service. One comment was “I've always used emoticons instead of
pictograms when sending email on mobile phones to Japanese people. From now on I
want to use this service so I can send lots of pictograms too.” (AG2 Korean man).
One of the requests we received was “I'd like the translation service to support my
language.” (AG2 Laotian man). Laotian is not supported by the translation services
provided by Language Grid, so will have to await a new translation service.
The above comments and feedback indicated features and research issues to be
improved and added in the future research. Firstly on the application, two features
could be added to improve our age-specific pictogram dictionary application and
multilingual translation service: (1) a service that lets users view pictogram
interpretations and usage examples from their mobile phone, and (2) a pictogram
interpretation/usage example email response service that returns a text email
containing age-specific interpretations and usage examples for the pictograms it
receives in query emails sent from user mobile phones to the pictogram dictionary
server. To make the search interface offer more practical benefit, it could also be
improved by adding a reverse search function that outputs pictograms in response to
user input of pictogram interpretations. Emoticons could also be added to the
pictogram interpretations and usage examples, by creating a correspondence table
linking Japanese mobile phone pictograms to the emoticons used in Japan and abroad.
This feature would make it easier for Japanese to understand the interpretations of
emoticons used by foreigners, and give foreigners a better understanding of the
interpretations of Japanese mobile phone pictograms.
Secondly, processes for collecting data and detecting age-specific or gender-
specific interpretations need improvements and bring up several research issues. We
used paper questionnaire, analyzed the data by hand, and developed a prototype
application. In future research, web survey is more useful for collecting
interpretations and usage examples for more pictograms from more participants.
Developing algorithms for automatic detection of age-specific or gender-specific
interpretations is also needed by utilizing services on Language Grid, such as
morphological analyzers and parallel translation services.
6 Conclusion
This research developed a prototype of an age-specific pictogram dictionary
application and multilingual translation service to reduce miscommunications caused
