A handheld device that enables a user to chat in another language — without having to learn any words or phrases — has been developed by NEC.

It consists of a speech recognition engine, translation software and a voice generator. Spoken English or Japanese is recognized and converted into text by the speech-recognition engine. The text is then converted from Japanese to English (or the other way) by translation software and the resulting text is vocalized by a voice synthesizer. The entire process takes about one second.