bquenin/interpreter

This application can translate text captured from any application running on your computer.

What it solves

Interpreter is an offline screen translator designed specifically for Japanese retro games. It allows players to understand game text in real-time by capturing the screen, performing optical character recognition (OCR), and displaying English translations as a floating overlay, all without requiring an internet connection or paid APIs.

How it works

The tool operates through a four-step pipeline:

  1. Screen Capture: It captures a target window or a video device (like a capture card) at a set refresh rate.
  2. OCR: It uses MeikiOCR (optimized for pixel fonts) by default, or can connect to an external owocr server for alternative engines (e.g., Google Lens, Apple Live Text).
  3. Translation: It uses Sugoi V4 by default for offline Japanese-to-English translation. It also supports connecting to LLM endpoints via Ollama or OpenAI-compatible APIs for higher quality or different languages.
  4. Display: The translated text is shown via a "Banner" (subtitle bar) or "Inplace" (text overlaid directly on the game window).

Who it’s for

Gamers playing Japanese retro games who want real-time, private, and free translations without relying on cloud services.

Highlights

  • Fully Offline: No cloud APIs or internet required after initial setup.
  • Retro Game Optimization: Uses MeikiOCR for better handling of pixelated game text.
  • Flexible Overlays: Offers both a subtitle bar and others a transparent overlay that places text directly over the original Japanese text.
  • Extensible Translation: Supports integration with Ollama and other LLM endpoints for improved translation quality and
  • Multi-Language Support: Can translate games in Chinese, Korean, and several European languages if configured with owocr and an LLM endpoint.

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