The quest to make international business a little easier is being addressed by Fuji Xerox. A translator photo copy machine is on show only in Japan. According, to Nikkei dot net, Digital Tokyo World and Crave, the prototype translator copy machine can scan Japanese text and print it in English, Chinese and Korean without altering the original format of the page.

The prototype translator photo copier does not have a name as of this writing. The exact method utilized by Fuji Xerox to provide the translator capabilities is forthcoming. It is believed by some industry reporters to involve networking the prototype copier to a dedicated translator server and combining this with algorithms that have the capability to distinguish between text, lines and drawings so page format remains in tact.

For those of us that have used Alta Vista Babel Fish or Google Translator page with some pretty serious mangling of phrases and key words. It presently comes down to the eye-ball test of,“that looks funny.” Let us hope the Fuji Xerox selection of a dedicated translator server has worked out the bugs. Digital Tokyo World cites the same difficulty I have faced in using the (MT) machine translating device utilized by current translator software.

The one touch prototype translator copier has a big hurdle to cross in convincing regular users of the accuracy of the translations. There is currently no release date or further detail from the company currently available. It is a newsworthy advancement in bridging the gap between the East and the West. Whether it does what it says it can do will be tested in the market place.