Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII)

In the small case of an electronic dictionary, as many as seven dictionaries, including Kojien (the Comprehensive Dictionary of the Japanese Language), the Readers (the English-Japanese Dictionary for the General Reader) and the Concise Oxford Thesaurus, are contained allowing you to search from a huge total of 1,430 thousand Japanese, Kanji (Chinese characters) or English entries. It has been 15 years since SII introduced its first model (an electronic English-Japanese dictionary) that had a vocabulary of 6,000 words. Then, 10 years ago they developed and announced it as the world's first full-content English-Japanese dictionary. Electronic dictionaries have already become a standard for business and academic people as well as everyday students. In the following article, featuring another aspect of "SII Wearable Technology", we will focus on their electronic dictionaries.

Pursuit of "Compactness and Ease of Use"

If you walk around an electric town such as those located in Akihabara or the Shinjuku Station West Exit area in Tokyo, or Nihonbashi in Osaka, there is one thing that you will notice. "Electronic dictionaries," which used to be displayed modestly in a rather quiet area of the store dedicated to office appliances or electronic gadgets, now occupy the best eye-catching position together with state-of-the-art PCs and digital cameras.

There is no doubt that Seiko Instruments Inc. has constantly led the electronic dictionary market. Their success can be traced back to 1983, when they introduced a computer watch (wrist computer), drawing worldwide attention. It was the world's first wearable computer that had a CPU and a screen built into a wristwatch, and was enabled to interface with a small keyboard through non-contact electromagnetic induction. Its functions have been integrated into a new product (electronic organizer) that serves as a time management tool specialized in managing personal information such as schedules, telephone numbers, and memos. The memory technology used for the time management tool has been sophisticated and incorporated into "electronic dictionaries," combined with many other ideas based on unique concepts (small size, light weight, speedy search, and ease of use).

Following the wrist computer in 1983 and the pocket-sized electronic organizer in 1986, the fist electronic dictionary, the milestone model DF-310, appeared on the market in 1987. The product, an electronic English-Japanese dictionary containing about 6,000 words, received great attention and developed a high reputation as a tool to support English learners in junior/senior high schools as well as business people who need basic English communication skills to handle daily conversation and documents. As is always the case with any high-tech device, however, before long users began to demand something that offers more than a 6,000-word vocabulary and helps them beyond basic English study and daily communication.

Ever since then, the same interactive pattern has been repeated with each release: SII's engineers "double the vocabulary and increase functions for a new product," in response to which users "demand more vocabulary and even more powerful functions." It was in 1992, only six years after the launch of model DF-310, when the world's first full-content electronic dictionary called the TR 700 (carrying the complete contents of Kenkyusha's New College English-Japanese/Japanese-English Dictionaries) was announced. It opened a new era for the electronic dictionary in which electronic dictionaries are offered for a full-range of use, not only for basic leaning and daily life but also for complicated and specialized business and academic purposes.

Now, SII is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the release of their first full-content electronic dictionary. In commemoration, nine new models recently hit the market: SR 9200, SR 9200R, SR 9500, SR 9550, SR 8100, SR 950, SR 850, SR 250, and SR 350. All of them share the same concept: "Compactness and Ease of Use."

We should continue to watch how the electronic dictionary, as a popular high-tech product that has given a concrete form to SII's wearable technology, evolves in the coming years.

Their Firm Grasp of Needs to Ensure Long-lasting Popularity

As mentioned above, it was in 1987 when the electronic dictionary developed and manufactured by SII was introduced into the market. As of 2000, accumulated sales have exceeded 15 million units. Why has such popularity been enjoyed for so long a time in the electronics market, where product life cycles are extremely short? The credit probably goes to clear product concepts and efforts to actively reflect user needs into next generation products.

In addition to the conventional development bases since the first model - small size, light weight, speedy search, and ease of use - SII realized they had to address emerging new needs such as "including the full contents of highly-regarded dictionaries" and "providing functions to effectively support learners in specific fields like English and Japanese." SII's marketing ability to accurately capture such changing needs and their R&D resources to build such needs into the products for timely release were the key to their success. Next, let's look at some of the unique features (picked up from the newly-released product brochure) created through the perfect balance of the manufacturing (R&D) and sales (marketing) processes.

Full keyboard

It allows natural typing as with a PC keyboard. Significantly reduces omissions while typing, thanks to the special key interface supporting fast typing. The cursor key layout is just like that of a PC keyboard, while there are no gaps between keys to maximize the surface area for keystrokes to prevent typographical errors.

Real-time search

As you type in each character, matches are instantly searched for with a list of them displayed. You can quickly find the word you are looking up.

Preview capability

The translation or definition of the highlighted item among the resulting real-time search list is automatically displayed in the preview window. You can jump to the detailed translation or definition instantly. It also helps in identifying the desired word among homonyms at a glance. The preview window makes it easier to select an item, such as an example sentence, idiom or word, from the options.

Thumb-typing enabled body

Considering the younger people who are more used to typing with their thumbs while playing computer games and using mobile phones, the lid can be flipped over and fitted underneath the body. This lets you type with your thumbs alone.

In addition to these new features, conventional features are also offered:

Spell checker: If your entry contains a spelling error, a list of possible correct words to choose from is displayed.

Wildcard search: Lets you list the words that have a certain spelling pattern. Helpful for crossword puzzles, or when you want to view words with the same suffix.

Jump function: If the displayed translation or example includes a word you don't know, you can instantly jump to another dictionary, for example, from Kojien to the Readers, where the definition of the word is shown.

Idiom search: Lets you search Kojien for idiomatic phrases that contain the word you have input.

Font-size change: A font-size key is provided to switch between available font sizes: 16 and 24 points for Kojien, 12 and 16 points for all other dictionaries.

Other than these, a number of features and efforts SII tackled are now adopted by many competitors' products as the de facto standard for electronic dictionaries. SII's electronic dictionaries have evolved with time, listening to our users¡Ç needs. When we trace back the history of their long-lasting popularity, we realize it is a history of SII itself, who has been seeking for easier-to-use electronic dictionaries from the user-oriented point of view ever since it introduced the first model.

Development Concept to Meet Broader Needs

For as long as 15 years since their first appearance, SII's electronic dictionaries have been in stores as hit products. On the other hand, competitors have also been releasing their own products, each with appealing unique features.

The concepts that every type of electronic dictionary from any company have in common are:

- Portability

- Operability for fast search

- Instant view of relevant information such as synonyms, examples and pronunciations.

Among these ideas shared with all other players in the market, each company or product needs to develop its originality in terms of functions to be emphasized and user groups to be targeted.

There is something remarkable about how users evaluate SII's electronic dictionary series, especially after they began to carry the full contents of book versions, aside from initial single-function models: the products are highly regarded not only by basic level users but also by intermediate or more advanced users who are often demanding, subjecting the product to utmost use for highly-professional business or academic purposes. Indeed, each model of SII's lineup intends to provide ease of use for any user level. The company's big success in satisfying a broad range of users apparently overwhelms the competitors.

Grasping Needs and Developing New Features

Two staffers from the development and sales divisions were interviewed to see how SII's electronic dictionaries, especially the new line to be introduced in 2001-2002, have been developed.

A Story of Developing a Device with a Powerful Spell Checker

Hiroshi Tamura, Chief

Design 1st Section

W-Instrument Division, Wearable Business

Storing a massive volume of data worth as many as seven dictionaries in tiny memory; providing a screen as large and clear as possible for easy reading; and, allowing ease of use for basic level users while meeting the professional needs of intermediate and advanced level users. It is generally believed that developing an electronic dictionary, whether it's hardware or software, is eventually a challenge of how to solve contradicting problems. In this sense, I feel confident that I have accomplished a worthwhile job as an SII wearable technology engineer.

Among other things, developing a spell checker was the most time and effort consuming. We compared the Japanese pattern of erroneous spelling with that of native English speakers (e.g., errors stemming from phonetic misperceptions of R and L as well as GH) so that we could pick up every possible local error to add to the spell checker for the Japanese market. In addition, a large number of our staff members spent a long time contributing to the R&D efforts for the new features (some of them are the first in the world), such as a full keyboard, real-time search, preview function, and thumb-typing enabled body design, that are incorporated into our newly released models. I am determined to seek for new possibilities for electronic dictionaries, adding "innovative" ideas into them to further satisfy users.

Vast Possibilities Opened by Electronic Dictionaries

Hidefumi Muto, Manager

Electronic Dictionaries Group

Merchandise Department, Consumer Division

SII Trading Inc.

In my idea, small-size translators, simultaneous translators, and electronic dictionaries will ultimately evolve into wearable devices that facilitate conversation (between different languages), a method for basic communication. This is a part of the expectations for the electronic dictionary we directly heard from a number of potential users during our storefront demonstration for our new line of products. As a member of the division in charge of distribution of electronic dictionaries, picking up these user opinions one by one to feed back to the development division is a major responsibility. For this end, I recognize another crucial responsibility of maintaining close communication with the development and design divisions, so that we can contribute towards producing more user-oriented products. For an electronic dictionary, there are as many kinds of needs as the number of users: their purposes may range from hobby to business, while their ways of use may vary from entry level to intermediate and advanced. I shall keep this in mind when focusing my efforts on the distribution of SII's electronic dictionaries and discovering the needs for them.