When traveling in a region where the local language is not written using the Roman alphabet, translating written
text (e.g., documents, road signs, or placards) is a particularly difficult problem since the text cannot be easily
entered into a translation device or searched using a dictionary. To address this problem, we are developing
the "Rosetta Phone," a handheld device (e.g., PDA or mobile telephone) capable of acquiring a picture of the
text, identifying the text within the image, and producing both an audible and a visual English interpretation
of the text. We started with English, as a developement language, for which we achieved close to 100% accuracy
in identifying and reading text. We then modified the system to be able to read and translate words written
using the Arabic character set. We currently achieve approximately 95% accuracy in reading words from a small
directory of town names.
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