A pen that reads chinese?

[mirgcire]

I saw a picture in the local newspaper of a guy holding a cigar like thing over a book, and the caption said something like 'Chinese Ambassador XYZ presents a pen that reads chinese as a gift to someone important". Does anyone know of such a device? It sounds pretty cool. If it had an LED read out with pinyin and english, that would be spectacular.

[gato]

Someone asked about this a while ago:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12698-chinese-scanning-dictionary-pen&highlight=pen

Chinese scanning dictionary pen?

[ZhouNuosi]

Would it still be spectacular if we all lost our jobs because of that pen?

Sinologists should be hoping that pen is rubbish..

We're being replaced by technology!

[chabuduo]

I'm thinking that this kind of device would only stand to save someone a bit of time by providing them with character recognition, pinyin, and maybe a definition or two. But I'd still prefer to double check the characters manually in my 现代汉语词典：2002年增补本.

Whilst on that topic, does anyone know of a dictionary better than the aforementioned, for general purpose use?

As for the translation properties of the pen, I wouldn't be too excited, or worried (depending on your profession) as English/Chinese (vice-versa) translating technologies are still no match for humans.

[imron]

But I'd still prefer to double check the characters manually in my 现代汉语词典：2002年增补本.

Whilst on that topic, does anyone know of a dictionary better than the aforementioned, for general purpose use?

Nope. That dictionary rocks. I have the same 2002 edition albeit it is now literally held together by tape.

[chabuduo]

Same here, but with rubber-bands too.