Gboard Hat Version | Hacker News Reader

Gboard Hat Version

landing.google.co.jp

202 pointsxnx34 comments

The video is full of silly puns using the Japanese words for “head,” “hat,” etc. Such puns can be impossible to translate, but the translator of the YouTube subtitles did an excellent job of matching similar English expressions to them. For example [1]:

ウェアラブルなおかげでキーボードの中でのおしゃれ度は頭一つ抜けてますね。

Wearaburu na okage de kībōdo no naka de no osharedo wa atama hitotsu nuketemasu ne.

Awkward direct translation: Thanks to its wearability, its fashionability among keyboards sticks out by one head [≈ atama hitotsu nuketemasu].

YouTube subtitle: The fact that it’s wearable makes it head and shoulders above the rest.

I assume that the translator of those subtitles was human. But GPT-4 does a respectable job of handling that pun, too [2].

[1] https://youtu.be/6vib77CUxNM?si=sWTiZvSuP5L7LBfT&t=83

[2] https://gally.net//temp/20231006gptpuntranslation/index.html

Google is once again miles ahead of the competition here.

What if you don’t tell it there’s a pun? Would it recognize it on its own?

Good question. I gave GPT-4 the transcript of the video as well as three screenshots and asked it to characterize both the product and the language used. You can see the full exchange here:

https://gally.net//temp/20231006gptpuntranslation/index2.htm...

It does pretty well overall, and it notes the use of “puns and wordplay.” However, its explanations of several of the jokes are wrong. For example, the last one, about the word 帽子 (hat), has nothing to do with the sound of the word まぁ (well). Rather, it is a play on two meanings of the verb kaburu, which appears in the previous line.

In previous tests of GPT-4’s language competence, I have often seen it hallucinate about how words are pronounced. It’s very good explaining the meanings of words, but spelling and pronunciation—probably because of its token-based training—are weaknesses.

I strongly suspect it's human made, as the french subtitles are full of (sometimes very subtle) puns as well.

Kudos to whoever went the extra mile and extended the joke to "smaller" languages.

"...or pick your favourite character as your crest" is amazing work, bravo.

"With this hat, keyboard style isn't just ahead, it's a head". GPT seems to know about jokes that are so awfully bad that they are funny.

Dropped it exactly 6 months after (and before) April Fool's day. Bravo.

Google has made a (intentional) joke again?

Is the old Google returning?

The gboard Japan team has a long beautiful history of these that hasn’t been stamped out by Mountain View :)

i believe this may be possible due to the different culture in japan. if you watch japanese tv you will see a lot of ridiculous (to us) game shows and other very entertaining productions.

and while japan does have a culture of obedience, it only takes the top japanese executives to say that japanese culture is different and so they should be allowed to continue.

stopping those fun projects elsewhere in google is a bit harder to understand but i guess that while the other regions have less of an obedience culture, i think at least the west has more of a "work is not a joke" culture, and so those that don't like these jokes are probably just a majority or even a strong enough minority with support by higher ups at various levels of the hierarchy that pushed out the fun parts with at least some support at any level.

As if one joke is going to undo hundreds of cancelled products, declining quality of search results, dictating web standards by fiat, capricious monetization and account suspension decisions…

Let us dream FFS!

This is just beating a dead horse at this point.

How's this international?

Or do you mean not-from-US?

They wrote “intentional”

The (translated) FAQ is hilarious:

    Today is October 1st, right?
    Yes , today is October 1st!

    What day is it today ?
    When I was considering a suitable day to announce the keyboard , I noticed that a type with 101 keys called a 101 keyboard is commonly used . Therefore, we published it on October 1st in honor of the 101 Keyboard .

So much effort for a joke - you really have to take your hat off to the team.

They have a couple more joke physical JP input methods: https://github.com/google/mozc-devices

Everyone should check out the links to previous years on that page. They're all so thorough and well done. They strike such a good balance of being a joke, being a unique concept, and actual execution of the idea.

This isn't GBoard.jp's first joke. For example here's 2022's, a linear keyboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G3DWHf1xX0

and 2021, a teacup-shaped one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20pC05yisRM

I think that every year Google.co.jp makes a joke about keyboard, I believe this one is like the 10th one: https://github.com/google/mozc-devices.

The long-neglected Windows/macOS version of Google Japanese Input (with the macOS version still not supporting Apple Silicon!) has left users feeling apathetic, even when Google Japan releases a new Japanese input hat.

You can 3d print some of the components and assemble it. Possibly this will be my Halloween costume :)

https://github.com/google/mozc-devices/tree/master/mozc-caps

i'd like a smaller version that i can wear as a more casual hat

Man they sure have fun at Google.co.jp

Unlike the fun their Ads vs Chrome team have!

some context:

Google open-sourced a hat shaped like a giant keycap—and it actually types

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/google-open-sourced-...

What. Is. Happening. Here.

Is this the GBoard on Android? (can't load the website in a useful state, too much google tracking and bs) This must be the worst keyboard on mobile phones. Laggy (I can write faster than it lets the characters appear) and crashing (when I type too much ahead of what it can make appear).

Oh, how cute Google. It really is a smoke screen for Evil Corp.

They are having fun at Google JP office, don't they?

caps-lock got a good chuckle out of me

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