Tourists are fueling a boom in personal translation devices

A Takeya Co employee (right) assisting a customer with a Pocketalk portable translation device at a store in Tokyo, Japan. While smartphone apps remain a popular – and common – translation tool, Pocketalk has carved out its own niche. — Bloomberg

Takehiko Fujita wouldn’t be able to do his job selling eye drops and pain relievers without his pocket translator.

Instead of an app, language dictionary, or call-in translation service, the clerk in a Japanese drugstore uses Pocketalk, a 25,000 yen (RM988) device made by Sourcenext Corp that looks like an oval puck. The gadget translates phrases to and from 74 languages, helping Fujita communicate with customers from Sweden, Vietnam and other countries.