What you're looking at is a marvel of modern philology. Word-lovers everywhere - and we mean anywhere on the planet - can delight in what designers Shi Jian, Sun Jiahao, and Li Ke are cooking up with their forthcoming Ivy Guide pen app.
Yes, you read right: The visionary team's concept is not a forthcoming app for your smartphone or tablet, but rather your dependable old friend, the pen. Valiantly, Jian, Jiahao, and Ke are harkening back to the age-old days when international businessmen or readers of any ilk still used the archaic tools of pens, paper, and books for their primary means of communication.
This, despite the all-too-overt fact that we're talking here about such futuristic sci-fi tropes as mini-translators, mini-lasers, and mini-rubber-pen tips (though the last, admittedly, may vary on what brand of sci-fi you're reading).
The Ivy Guide itself is, according to Yanko Design, "a unique device that fits over any pen or pencil and scans words for translation." Essentially, Yanko continues, the rubber tip of the Guide allows the user (of any conventional pen, remember) to underline words being read on the page, with the result of - while applying pressure to the Guide's rubber tip - a projection of the word in the language of one's choice.
In the preliminary product sampler shown below, for example, one can see the word "titanium" underlined, with the eerily red projection a few centimeters beyond the Ivy Guided pen reading "Titanium" (in English) followed by the word's translation in Chinese (the Tài character).
Components of the Ivy Guide that make it a "more efficient and concentrative way" to read/translate printed text include: tractability in the Guide fitting on any pen, a "sponge with a good flexibility" that makes for an "easy to use" and ergonomic pen-handling experience, and USB connection for data storage on one's computer/device (which concurrently allows for the Ivy Guide to be re-charged).
Although speculation remains as to when the Ivy Guide translator is set to be released or exactly how many languages the pen will be able to translate, the real question remains: Will there still be any of us out there reading anything beyond a luminescent screen to find out?
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