From: weigert@etlhit.etl.go.jp (Thomas Weigert)
Subject: Re: Sony PTC-300 PalmTop
Reply-To: weigert@mcs.anl.gov
Organization: Electrotechnical Laboratory, Tsukuba-shi, Japan
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 02:50:33 GMT

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

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>(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", "" 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.

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+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| 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)     |
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