Development of a Multilingual Translation Service for Interpretations and Usage Examples of Mobile Phone Pictograms

Abstract

To find mobile phone pictograms that have age-specific or gender-specific differences of interpretations, we surveyed 276 Japanese mobile phone users and compiled over 6,600 of their interpretations and usage examples for these pictograms. We used these reported pictogram interpretations and usage examples to develop a prototype of a web-based age-specific pictogram dictionary application that can be searched and viewed by specifying the pictogram, age group, and/or gender as search conditions. By applying Language Grid machine translation services to this application, we developed a web-based service that translates these pictogram interpretations and usage examples into several languages. This multilingual translation service for our age-specific pictogram dictionary enables the pictogram interpretations and usage examples reported by the Japanese survey respondents to be presented to foreign residents of Japan. It should help expedite and facilitate communication on mobile phones across different languages and cultures.