2008 PW-AC880/AC830 “Brain” Color Electronic Dictionary

These electronic dictionaries feature a newly developed, high-resolution, 5-inch HVGA color LCD^*1. In addition to a bright, vivid display, they offer 80 hours of continuous display time, about three times that of previous models^*2, thanks to a proprietary power-saving design and the adoption of a high-capacity battery. The Brain Library, a content^*3 download website set up at the same time as the product release, offers a variety of application software including a drill system to enable fun interactive learning, as well as "how-to" books and specialty dictionaries for language study. Users can download content to their PC and transfer the content to the Brain e-dictionary via cable connection, and freely add desired content to expand the ways the electronic dictionary can be used.
The Brain e-dictionary also features a Conversation Assistance text-to-speech function that enables users to search for frequently used conversational phrases based on keywords input in Japanese and then hear them pronounced (in English or Chinese). This feature makes practical use of Sharp's proprietary machine translation technology and turns this electronic dictionary into a product that can be used as a convenient communication assistance tool in a wide variety of situations such as when traveling abroad.
With this series, Sharp adopted the word "Brain" as a new product brand name for electronic dictionaries. The series was launched as a new color display electronic dictionary "to enjoy, learn, and discover in color."

• *1:HVGA = Half-size Video Graphics Array; resolution: 480 x 320 dots.
• *2:Sharp's PW-TC930 electronic dictionary
• *3:The word "content" here refers to "information content." Sharp uses this word as a generic term to describe documents and data in electronic form such as dictionaries and reference works other than dictionaries contained in its electronic dictionaries. However, five types of "Field-Specific Mini-Dictionaries" (personal names, place names, literary/artwork titles, phrases reflecting the seasons, and idioms) and the Reverse-Lookup Super Daijirin 3.0 dictionary are not included in "content."