[Lexicog] RE: [euralex] Jos=?utf-8?Q?=C3=A9_?=Aguirre's metalexicography

Thu Nov 8 22:20:01 UTC 2012

Thanks David -- perhaps we ought to declare interest here: we're (also) in the language technology business (but not for CJK, yet) ... 

So, based on the video at the link below, I'd say the contest has been won by the dictionary of the future already (unless José Aguirre's handwriting is that of a medical doctor: sorry wanted a lighter note ;-). 

Perhaps I should also point out that more than just single Kanji characters are recognized at a time here (which was the initial challenge): the dictionary of the future recognizes full meaningful chunks, to take one from the video闪光 ‘flash’.

That's thus 10 for the electronic dictionary, zero for the paper dictionary.

Let's bring on the next challenge, please!

This is not a joke, this is not about techies having fun, colleagues, what we mean when we say that the "second revolution" in our field has arrived, is exactly examples like this. Leave the paper world behind, and start viewing lexicography in the digital age. Coming up with new solutions to the age-old look-up problems in Chinese and Japanese dictionaries is one of them.

All best,

Gilles-Maurice.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Joffe [mailto:david.joffe at tshwanedje.com] 
Sent: donderdag 8 november 2012 22:39
To: 'José Aguirre'; gillesmaurice.deschryver at UGent.be
Cc: euralex at freelists.org; asialex at freelists.org; afrilex at freelists.org; DSNA at yahoogroups.com; lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com; ishll at lists.le.ac.uk; lexicografie at googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [euralex] José Aguirre's metalexicography

On 8 Nov 2012 at 21:52, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver wrote:

>     > if I jot down a random Chinese character on a piece of paper for both of us to look up, 10 times 

>     out of 10 I will find it in a paper dictionary before you do in your digital dictionary.

>     So here's a nice challenge for the CJK gurus! If Jack Halpern's 

> tools can't already beat you on this, let this be the Deep Blue 

> lexicographic equivalent. Jack!?

If I am not mistaken, digital solutions for this problem have already begun to be implemented, e.g.:

 <http://www.techinasia.com/pleco-dictionary-android/> http://www.techinasia.com/pleco-dictionary-android/

Basically, point your smartphone camera at a character, it runs it through OCR, and performs a dictionary search for you. I'm sure it's not perfect, but it's first-generation technology ... I don't know how this particular implementation would perform in a '10 attempts' 

'paper vs electronic' contest, but I expect these methods would improve a lot in the next 10 years:

".. the Android iteration of Pleco dictionary has today gone gold, and now finds a home in the Android Market. It comes with OCR abilities so that it can scan and ‘read’ Chinese characters using your smartphone’s camera, handwriting support, voice recognition, and numerous dictionary options.

Its range of features means that it can be used by the most casual of tourists who might want to scan a menu whilst visiting China, to the most studious of students of the Chinese language who might need to add specialist dictionaries and make flashcards"

- David

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