Seibu Railway will conduct a demonstration experiment of introducing “VoiceBiz UCDisplay,” a translation-capable transparent display, at Seibu Shinjuku Station in order to strengthen the system for accepting foreign tourists visiting Japan. The period is from July 10 to the end of September (7:00 to 20:00).
VoiceBiz UCDisplay is a system provided by Toppan Printing that displays the translation results of each spoken word on a transparent display, using a domestic translation engine developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). It is stronger and more accurate in translating from Japanese to other languages than general systems that translate from English to other languages.
The greatest feature of this system is that, unlike a conversation conducted while using a translation application on a smartphone or other device, the user can look up and see the other person’s face through the transparent display.
The display shows what was said in the form of a speech bubble, allowing the user to confirm that what was said was correctly recognized. Another advantage is that you can take pictures of complex content instead of taking notes, so you can look back at them over and over again later.
It supports 12 languages (English, Korean, Chinese [simplified], Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Myanmar, Spanish, French, Filipino, and Japanese). The display enclosure is 69 x 75 x 3 cm (H x W x W) and the monitor is 31.5 inches.
Since the relaxation of waterfront measures last October, in-band demand has rapidly increased, with Seibu Railway recovering to about 70% of its 2019 level in May. Seibu Shinjuku Station in particular attracts a large number of users, and the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower opened near the station in April, attracting attention from Japan and abroad.
The opening of the Studio Tour Tokyo Making of Harry Potter (Toshimaen Station) in June is expected to bring further prosperity to the area.
The company intends to use this system to achieve smooth face-to-face multilingual communication and to promote smart station management without the need to assign foreign-speaking staff amid a shrinking workforce.
After verifying the effectiveness of the system and the accuracy of translation of unique words through this verification experiment, the company aims to introduce the system on a full-scale basis in the fall of 2023.
© Source travel watch