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- From: weigert@etlhit.etl.go.jp (Thomas Weigert)
- Subject: Re: Sony PTC-300 PalmTop
- In-Reply-To: tmal@cl.cam.ac.uk's message of 3 Sep 92 18: 23:50 GMT
- Message-ID: <WEIGERT.92Sep4115033@etlhit.etl.go.jp>
- Sender: news@etl.go.jp (News System)
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- Reply-To: weigert@mcs.anl.gov
- Organization: Electrotechnical Laboratory, Tsukuba-shi, Japan
- References: <4224@3cpu.rain.com> <1992Sep3.182350.24472@cl.cam.ac.uk>
- Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 02:50:33 GMT
- Lines: 136
-
- The following is a summary of some email discussion I had concerning the
- SONY PTC-300.
-
- I tried the product in a store for quite a while; beyond what is stated
- below, I should point out that:
-
- 1. No English manuals are available.
- 2. One can teach the OCR around 50 characters (so I guess one could train
- it to recognize the Romaji alphabet better than it is currently done).
- 3. OCR is best for Japanese characters, and when inputing Romaji, often
- characters are mistaken for Kanji or Katakana (e.g., I could hardly ever
- enter a "T"; it would always be read as "to" (the Kanji for 10).
- 4. A far superiour, but also twice as expensive, product is the Sharp
- PV-F1.
-
- Cheers, Thomas
-
- ------------------ cut here --------------------
-
- >(1) Character input
- >
- >I need to be able to enter my data reliable, Romaji
- >characters only, at about the speed of slow two-finger
- >typing.
- >* How good is the OCR software for Romaji characters?
- I think it's good. But as far as it is mainly supposed to be used
- to input Japanese characters, sometimes, character is mis-interpreted
- to Japanese characters such as Katakana and Hiragana.
- For example, such as "g" and "8", "Ñ╒" and "7"
-
- >* Do you experience many mistakes (in particular for Romaji)?
- In the first, my handwriting was rather different from that in
- PTC300. For example, I place serif in the bottom of lower character
- of "p", but it was not recognized by the system.
- After that character was registrated, it became fine.
-
- >* From playing in the store it appeared that one can enter a
- > few characters, and then has to hit a button to initiate the
- > recognition process. Is this true (it sounds tedious)?
- I think it is for Kana to Kanji conversion. In general,
- the hand written character recognition begins after certain
- seconds when hand writing is finished.
- This interval period is adjustable. I prefered 1 second.
-
- >* Could you quickly outline how the OCR software is trained;
- > or point me to the page in the manual at which this is
- > discussed?
- It is by using character registration. When new character or
- abbrebiated character (for complicated Kanji character) is
- registrated, the handwriting is also registrated.
- It is written in page 182 of the Reference Manual.
-
- >(2) Organizer
- >
- >For Japanese addresses a different scheme from Western
- >addresses is usually employed. Obviously there is no need
- >for a,b,c,d,e,f,... in indices. But for me that would be
- >better. Can one only store addresses under ka,ki,ku,..., or
- >can one also use a Western style scheme based on the Romaji
- >alphabet?
- It is restricted only for ka, ki, ku, ke, ko.....
-
- >(3) Memory and IC cards
- >
- >It appears that there is a slot on the machine for IC cards.
- >Do you know what kind of cards are available? Can one expand
- >the memory?
- There are two memory cards available. One is PTM-064K for 64K
- and another is PTM-256K for 256K.
-
- >(4) Interface
- >
- >I am using a Mac at home and work, and would prefer if the
- >organizer could exchange data with the mac. I have seen ads
- >for software on the Mac that can download and upload data
- >from the Sony. But from these ads it is never comletely
- >clear whether one needs the base unit which (I think) also
- >has a printer, or whether one can do so just with the Sony
- >alone.
- Sorry, I have no idea about this.
-
- >(5) As far as I can tell the PTC300 and PTC310 are identical
- >in functionality. The only difference appears to be the
- >case. But the price difference is significant. All that
- >money for a soft case only?
- I think "yes" as said yesterday.
-
- >(6) You mention that
- >MS> recognition is very good. But the only one point I hate is it's
- >MS> speed. It's too slow to use every day work in the PTC300.
- >Could you expound on that? What is it that is slow about the
- >unit? What daily work do you have in mind? If one cannot use
- >the palmtop on a daily basis to enter/look up phonenumbers,
- >keep one's schedule, etc., what good would it be? If the
- >unit cannot be used in that manner conveniently, certainly I
- >should not buy it.
- In personal use, it is not so long time, but in meeting or in hurry,
- it's irritate. Approximate time is as follows.
- Power on to 1st card: 4 sec
- Next day schedule: 2 sec
- Addr to schedule: 2 sec
- Open tool box: 3 sec
- I find it is not so slow when I used in my home browsing the address
- and schedule. But if I'm asked for my schedule in the office,
- I'm sure it is irritating to see it from PTC300.
-
- >(7) What do you use the sony for?
- Address book and scheduler for mainly.
- I liked the schedular most. It is easy to see.
-
- >(8) Do you find the screen large enough for accessing
- >information?
- It's enough. Even if the screen is larger, one could not enter
- enough data for that screen size with pen based input.
- It is not back lighted but easy to see.
- According to the manual, the actual size is 256 x 320 dots.
- It is about half the size of Macintosh (plus).
-
- I think the STC300 is not considered to be used with alphabetic only.
- If the exporting model is planned in SONY, that will be more usefull
- for you (but I never heard of the exporting model)
-
- My general evaluation for PTC300 is; It's interesting but not yet useful
- for serious usage. I could not depend on STC300 for my scheduling and
- address book especially in the office and business.
-
- ---------------- cut here -----------------
-
- --
- +--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
- | Thomas Weigert | |
- | Machine Inference Section | |
- | Electrotechnical Laboratory | |
- | Umezono 1-1-4, Tukuba-shi | weigert@{mcs.anl.gov,etl.go.jp} |
- | Ibaraki 305, Japan | +81-298-58-5918 (phone+fax) |
- +--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
-