InkPeek - a pop-up dictionary & translator (offline, open source, optional AI)

[Gormagon]

Thanks for v0.6.156!

The grey layer problem is now solved.

I tried the offline AI translation on 2 devices, both with 8 GB of real RAM. The fast one ("Fast - Mozilla") is really fast and the result is ok for me. I tried English -> German and German -> English, the later only with the Mozilla model.

On another device I tried "AI model - Hy-MT2". That model really likes to take its time with translating. The result with a snippet from a novel isn't so much better with translating English to German with the Mozilla model. Well, of course Geman is tricky and "you" can mean "Du" or "Sie" depending on the context. And here the fast model was partly more accurate than the slow one. On the other hand the slower model translated "shop assistant" in this case correctly with "Verkäuferin" and not "Verkäufer" and handles the last sentence better, the translation of the Mozilla model really doesn't make much sense with "und dich zucken zuckend an", but the slower model uses "Sie" where "du" would be appropriate. A mistake this model makes on all occasion. At least it's consitent. The Mozilla model mixes "du"/"dein" with "Sie"/"Ihr". Like I said, German can be quite tricky.
I've attached some screenshots (moz2 and Hymt2_2) with a translation of the first chapter of "The Mare". Here a man describes how he met his future wife.

With a more scientific text there aren't really any relevant differences (see moz1 and Hymt2_1). The Mozilla model is better with "Zell-Zell" instead of "Zell-zell".

I've also noticed while downloading the English -> German packs that after the download is finished the download pop-up stays without a success notice, just with "Cancel" und "Hide" button (see inkpeek2). After the download of the pack for German -> English for the Mozilla model there was a success notice.

I've tried to install another model after downloading "AI model - Hy-MT2". But then I get a notice that the previous model (i.e. "AI model - Hy-MT2") will be removed (see inkpeek1). Does remove mean deleted and I'd have to download it again when I want to switch the models? That's not very practical since I've downloaded 1,133 GB of data for this model.

InkPeek detects a text in English as English but does not translate it into German when the "Language of the app and the answers" isn't set to German (see inkpeek3). I use English as system language on all my devices. If I set the language of the InkPeek app to German the translation works. It would be more practical if the app just translates the language it has detected. I had only the language packs English/German and German/English installed on this device. Or maybe a list of available language packs could appear and one just clicks on the language the text should be translated to.

I also included a screenshot of a translation with the Mozilla model from German to English (moz3). This fast translation seems usable to me.

[kafeg]

Oh, wow! Thank you so much for detail and deep testing and new good comments and requirements! Let me analyze this and try to make it more useful in the future versions.

The only one problem with Mozilla models - all of them translates between each pair of non-english words over the English, like de -> en -> ru, or fr -> en -> de. But in the same time those models are fastest and works everywhere and that is why they're defaulted. Other models will be there just as option for more powerful devices, but like everything in the app - they're are optional and could be ignored.

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by kafeg

Let me analyze this and try to make it more useful in the future versions.

Take your time. I use InkPeek as dictionary to look up a word every now and then not to translate whole sentences or paragraphs. And for that the app is perfect as it is for me.
Although I will keep the downloaded AI packs. Maybe there will be a use some time in the future.

I don't know how complicated it is but maybe you could also offer InkPeek on F-Droid. It was just luck that I'm on mobileread and discovered your app. This isn't usually the place I look for apps.

[kafeg]

I made some additional changes and polished of the UI/UX and did few bugfixes sessions. I guess current version would be like a final with no other big changes.

Un fortunately with F-Droid I just can not register the account and login, but I prepared everything on my side, will try to do it later again.

Thanks again for all testing and comments, that helped a lot to make app better and stable!

[kafeg]

Ok, so I made new version which could like a final for the project in major changes. it contains UI/UX fixes, also latest improvements based on your experience. F-Droid unfortunately not an option right now but I will follow that direction later, I prepared the build infrastructure for it but for some reason can not register on gitlab.com, it all the time requires human verification and always fail at the end.

Thanks once again for all your help here and I hope finally the app can cover all major use cases now!

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by kafeg

but for some reason can not register on gitlab.com, it all the time requires human verification and always fail at the end.

Have you tried a different browser and/or disabled ad blockers or other restrictions in the browser used? I can't talk about gitlab, but some other sides don't seem to like my default browser but work in another browser which less restrictive settings.

I've tried v0.8.200 of InkPeek. I now can choose the language of the answers while still using my default language for the app itself. I also noticed I now can select one of the three offline translation models if I've downloaded them all as well as switch them without downloading a model again.
I also noticed that in the translation pop-up I now can click on the small portion of the original text and I can see the whole paragraph, previous I only could scroll in the small portion.

I exported the history of my dictionary lookups. I got a tsv file. But when I tried to import the tsv file into InkPeek on another device I get the error "This is not a InkPeek backup". Then I tried the "Export" button, which created a db file, with that db file an import worked. Maybe you could elaborate why the tsv file is created. Opening it, it looks like a simple text file. Obviously that's not the file to import my notes into another InkPeek instance.

One more thing of a cosmetic nature...I noticed that the first entries in the app itself are a little close to the statusbar, see the attached picture. This makes it sometimes difficult to go back with a click on the arrow.