In case anyone sees this reply to a post more than 1 1/2 years old, I am interested in any feedback re: the IrisPen Executive Asian, or any similar products. I specifically am looking to scan Japanese, hopefully as close as possible to all types of Japanese; hiragana, katakana, kanji, and so on, to be translated into English. I am considering buying the IrisPen Executive Asian, but am feeling unsure of buying it due to numerous online reviews of users having trouble with it, such as this one:

http://www.macworld.com/2005/05/reviews/irispen/index.php

Also, I am trying to look at similar competing products, but there are few, and from what I can tell so far, many of the few that are out there translate from English -> Japanese, but not from Japanese characters -> English. For example, I believe the Wizcom/Quicktionary translator pen products. Am I wrong ? Does Wizcom Quicktionary make a translator pen that scans and translates from Japanese, into English ? Or any other manufacturers ? If anyone knows of any and would let me know their name and where they are available, I would appreciate it very much !

I might purchase the IrisPen Executive Asian in any case, but if there are any competitor products to consider, I would like to be aware of them.

Thanks for any comments and help !