Slashdot Mirror
Wearable Translators
johnwebster writes "Another Sci-Fi utility gets closer to reality:
wearable translators." Babelfish, Earth-style, so you too can speak any language fluently: For example: what would you say of translator wearable of language when on a foreign execution? No fumbling for a book of expressions, any cumbersome portable computer. This mobile and light device now placed by ONR is really a flexible device, computer of girdle-model - not larger than a package fanny - making it possible the language of the speaker to be translated in the real time near for the listener. Excellent.
FREEZE MOTHER FUCKER OR I'LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!!
German:
Mother is too warm, please interrupt your coital activities, or I'll have to turn up the fan to the point where it will likely destroy the foam cap on your beer.
French:
You could have sex with the older lady, though she is frigid and unskilled, but I will give you oral sex if you so choose.
Spanish:
Drop the chalupa!
I can't believe people could take such a small, speculative story and turn it into a "universal translator" device. The current state of Machine Translation is abysmal, even on large mainframes, and they think they're going to squeeze this down into a wearable device?
I do have some experience with electronic dictionaries since I am fairly fluent in Japanese. Portable dictionaries are already common, and are useful tools for those who can already speak the language. However, no "digital phrasebook" is going to cut it for those with no language skills. I remember seeing one of these devices demonstrated on TV a long time ago. Someone input the phrase "can you direct me to the taxi stand" and the device spoke it in spanish. And the reply was a stream of incomprehensible rapid-fire spanish that could never be input rapidly enough to capture the meaning. The best you could possibly do is to use the device to teach the foreign lang speaker how to use the device. Then he could use it to translate back into English. Totally unworkable.
For the curious, I recommend a more extensive article on this subject by a former UN translator, including some examples of problem phrases.
The less curious, of course, are under no obligation to read it.
Chu vi parolas Vikipedion?
Pennock discusses this a little in his book Tower of Babel .
Danny.
I have written over 900 book reviews
"Give me a shoe with cheese on it, shove it down my throat, and I'd like to massage your grandmother."
:-)
Apologies to Steve Martin.
Hopefully this device will have an American tourist mode:
Tourist: Where is the bathroom?
Translator: WHERE...IS...THE...BATH...ROOOOM???
I can't be sure, but I suspect that the data you mentioned probably failed to include Chineese (with roughly a billion speakers) and whatever they speak in India (my apologies, too late to look it up) (with probably a few million more).
The evidence seems to indicate that English is the most useful and extensible language around, so you can expect to see enormous surges in that column. Can you imagine anyone finishing school in western Europe and not knowing English any more? I can't.
Side note about sentence structure. Thanks to prepositions and other glue, English is quickly becoming a purely positional language, which means that almost any noun or verb can be converted to a verb or noun with only little modifications, if any. "benchmark" comes to mind here... Also, almost no English speakers have trouble understanding this Yodaism: "Parse this sentence well, do I."
See that "Preview" button?
Sorry. My favourite euro-trash joke there (it will probably cost me some karma points). But seriously, when I see people on Slashdot writing something like "whats teh point english is the universal language anyways so why should I learn a foreign language it is stupid" I fear there the joke is too close to the truth...
Learning a foreign language is opening yourself up to new ways of thinking. How can you claim you truly understand a foreign culture if all you know about it is what *they* choose to tell you about it, in English?
************************************************ ** *
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
The article, in Eng -> German -> French -> English on babelfish
One of much of sectors which supports the office of the search for navy, is that of the data processing. The study in this sector covers, the cognitive stages and to perceive neuralen organization, with an accent on the units under development for military operations. P. E.G.: how on a translator wearable if on a transaction from abroad? No Fumbling for sentence a book, not of vast computers of lap-signal. A flexible device, the computer of kind - not more largely as fanny a sentence - is true allowing this mobile and compact unit which is financed now by ONR, that the language of the loudspeaker is translated into narrow Istzeit for the years zuh50rer. Moreover, it to translate, however could not a right word for word include/understand the context, in which a designation or Idiom is used, to influence the translation resulting. It would be able piles of list; p. ex. " cliqueter " is to the soldiers to measure distance, while with civil it be a short clay. By having it the list of soldiers which is piled up on the standard list, the system can fix a suitable translation for the circumstances of the person in charge. The software is currently developed, to translate Korean, bosniaques, Arab, more siamesischer and Chinese of tangerine, as well as the European hauptsaechlichsprachen. A worn translator would not encourage only the soldiers but also of the personnel of airport, it that edge patrouilliert and customs officers, Telefonbediener and tourists, under others.
That's funny! Please mod up.
Obscure?? pffft...
My hovercraft is of eels!
you have beautiful thighs!
I can't wait for the French to hear American tourists speaking to them through these things. I have a horrible feeling that the stereotype of the Ugly American will be given new life. I have to say that, in all honesty, I think it is a little rude to try to communicate in this way. Most people would appreciate it if you made an effort to actually learn to use their language. (Of course, there may be legitimate and appropriate uses for the technology, but having a conversation over dinner, or getting directions to the local landmark aren't among them.)
what would you say of translator wearable of language when on a foreign execution?
PARSER ERROR
No, thanks, I don't smoke.
Language strains our mental abilities, even with special hard-wired support. No matter how great the genius, he occasionally has a misunderstanding and asks for something to be rephrased, or misses the mistake and says something stupid. A good portion, perhaps even the majority, of philosophy could be described as arguing over the meanings of words.
There is simply no possibility for a machine without humanlike intelligence and learning ability to have the capacity for language that would make it remotely comparable to a human interpreter. Even then, there needs to be a base of utility for the proper reinforcement of correct speech, and that's hard to build into self-contained simulations, so we're talking about years of training in serial, probably before you even find out whether the thing can learn to speak at an adult human level.
I really think that this is an area where people really shouldn't even bother trying... at least in the form of commercial ventures.
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'course I went through it and fixed up some of the errors and got rid of shit we wern't meant to know, but that meant I only spent 1/2 an hour on a 5 hour project.
--
Laptop006 (RHCE: That means I know what I'm talking about! When talking about linux at least...)
/* FUCK - The F-word is here so that you can grep for it */
No... way too obvious, but very well written and thought out. Much better than just posting a link to goat.cx, etc.
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
Read his profile. He's a troll. Supposedly Amish from Penn. who went to graduate school in Florida. He misses milking his cow. Used to milk her all morning because she enjoyed it. The profile cuts off just as he gets into the thing about the cow.
Elequoent trolling though.
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
MSK
I had a linguistics prof who used to say that he thought that Mark Okrand (who actually created the language, not Gene Roddenberry,) must have been a real genius, to create such a realistic alien language -- "realistic" in the sense that it's completely unlike any language spoken on Earth.
MSK
Do you write for The Onion?
I will not buy this tobbaconist, it is scratched.
--
The scalloped tatters of the King in Yellow must cover
Yhtill forever. (R. W. Chambers, the King in Yellow)
The scalloped tatters of the King in Yellow must cover
Yhtill forever. (R. W. Chambers, the King in Yellow
... someone will find a way to hack into my translator, and it will utter the equivalent of:
"I want to fondle your bum."
when I try to make a purchase in a shop.
- Mike
I used to study linguistics. It is very interesting, but also makes you feel very humble. Human language has far more subtleties than most people credit it with. It is true that if you're a Chomskian, you will tend to see languages as more similar than different (the opposite of most non-academic views). However, even if you do believe in Universal Grammar and all that the idea entails, it has to be said that there are some fundamental difficulties in machine translation. As I'm not in the field, I don't know if they've been solved yet, but I imagine they haven't reconciled the:
1) Differences in language syntactic structure. How do you reconcile a VSO language with an OSV language and still maintain real-time processing? More specifically, if, in, say, language 1 one would form a sentence like "John buys milk" (Subject-Verb-Object, like English) but in lanuguge two you would say "buys milk John", how do you begin to immediately translate, word for word, when the words are not in the same order? Answer is, you don't. The longer and more clausal the sentence gets, the more or a problem this becomes. This assumes the translator is going to have to decide where to pause so it can rearrange the sentence, parse and translate it. This is fine, except that:
2) Natural speech doesn't necessarily follow the same rules as written language. So the speaker many not speak in nice, neat, parseable chunks. So the translation machine has to start making some decisions. For the benefit of the doubt, let's say that we're going to pause nicely after each complete sentence to let the translator do its work. You still have the problem of:
3) Context. A.k.a. the "frame" problem (to some degree, though not exactly). Computers have no context w/ regards to language (they have no actual experiential knowledge of meaning), and thus have no concept of relevance (if you believe in Relevance theory pragmatics). They have no basis upon which to "guess" at word meaning or pull meaning out of inferential utterances -- no basis which to understand sarcasm, humor, hyberbole, or anything your lit professor taught about -- and here's the kicker folks, all of that plays a role in figuring out meaning, which is usually the tiebreaker in any case of:
4) Ambiguity. Wonder why Babelfish only works half the time? Because idiomatic expressions exist. Because words are ambiguous -- one word can have multiple meanings and multiple words can mean the same thing. One word can have different meanings to different people. (BTW, if you want to explode your head, just *begin* to study semantics).
This will probably be another "nobody will ever need more than 16k of RAM" quote, but I think we'll have a hell of a time getting machine translation up to human standards until the machine is thinking for itself. Not that i'm arguing it can't be done, it's just not as straightforward as L&H, or IBM, or the Office of Naval Research would have you believe.
just my blog and pix
Watching those foreign executions is so drab when you don't speak the language!
No offence intended...just late night humour!
-Ben
Say what you mean, mean what you say! But please know what #$@% you are talking about!
Not as crummy as you made it. Although it did mistranslate "militaries ties" as "military neckties".
Say no to software patents.
not larger than a package fanny Uhh.. did this go through a babelfish translation from a romance language... or is this a butt in a box? (or a box in a box for those across the Atlantic)
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"Defenestration" is to throw out of a window; what's a word for throwing 'Windows' out of something?
will it translate l33+?
maybe arabic leet?
"ph00l1sH am3r1cAn p1gd0gz! 3y3 sp1t 0n j00r fLaG!!!! nAtAl13 p0rtmAn 1z A h0t cH1x0r i g1v3 j00 3 cAm3lZ f0r h3r!!!!!!"
/Fross
having recently re-watched first contact, how do you suppose the vulcan's UT translates without /any/ english for comparison?
Is this thing really wearable or will I end up looking like a freak with a computer taped to my belt? Some of these wearable devices lack styling. How can you spot a tourist at 50 yards? Just look for the big tanslator on his hip.
>neotope
Sorry, this is false.
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how much bandwidth has been wasted by this sig?
The phrase "serves you right" springs to mind.
I can see people who are too lazy to learn another language getting into all kinds of sticky situations. CIA agent pulling a gun on a foreign criminal: FREEZE MOTHER FUCKER OR I'LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!! What the foreigner hears: Would you like a new puppy?
So? If someone points a gun at you and starts screaming at you it doesn't matter what words come out, you get the idea. You can use the same non-verbal clues to help you in conjunction with the translator.
George Dubya talking with the president of france (he's to stupid to learn another language)
Sadly many English take an equally arogant and ignorant view
: I would like to build a STRONG relationship of compassion between our two natIONS. I want to help execute and build military ties with you.
In the language of diplomacy, even a 100% accurate translation would bear little resemblance to what the speaker actually means.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
"Their would like to use good day I restroom more finely please"
It might be more effective to just speak in your own language and use gestures to try to get your point across.
-Legion
Yeah, I think so... Looks like the linked-to piece has been run through the babelfish a time or two.
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
"Please Sir, to be giving me that large expensive computer around your waist, or else I be blowing your head off with my handgun."
I tried to use babel fish for a spanish project in my highschool. Big fucking mistake, it turned out to be pure gibberish and I got a big fat F.
I can see people who are too lazy to learn another language getting into all kinds of sticky situations.
CIA agent pulling a gun on a foreign criminal: FREEZE MOTHER FUCKER OR I'LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!!!
What the foreigner hears: Would you like a new puppy?
George Dubya talking with the president of france (he's to stupid to learn another language): I would like to build a STRONG relationship of compassion between our two natIONS. I want to help execute and build military ties with you.
What the french president hears: I think we are going to take strong military action against the nation of france. And I am going to have you executed.
Scary stuff.
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Thanks for the info. Was I the only who got the joke when I first read the topic?
:)
Some people are so literal
Mordred
I know that as soon as I fire up one of these, I'll be saying things like, "My hovercraft is full of eels" and "Would you please fondle my bum."
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
AFAIK some of the troops in Bosnia were
equipped with similar translators.
means, "Busty school girls with big eyes are great. Please have freaky circus sex with me."
means, "Are you enough of a loser to go out with me?"
See?
If a corporation is a personhood, is owning stock slavery?
Damn it all of you, Stop evolving!! your messing with God's Plan!!
Hella
and how long does it take them ...
days
A blog about stuff.
Ummm... well, actually, if I knew I was going to be executed in another country, I probably wouldn't go in the first place... Oh! You mean foriegn excursions.
Will it translate "geek"?
They had these in the movie "The Last Starfighter" in 1984. Good movie, great idea.
Except Adams, in H2G2, called it a Babel Fish.
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?
Will I retire or break 10K?
I didn't read the whole blurb. I didn't recognize the "Babelfish" variant spelling of "Babel Fish".
OK, I thought of another one. There were stories in Contact magazine (used to be put out by the same people as Sesame Street magazine) about such a portable device. More to the point, this was an electronic device that operated when the user stuck his or her finger in it.
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Oui. Ja.
Christians say no to Ouija boards (or, as they were called in Nintendo Power, "Luigi boards").
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?
Will I retire or break 10K?
English is SVO. Spanish, French, and Italian are SVO or SOV depending on whether the object is a noun or pronoun respectively. Japanese is SOV. Irish is VSO. Arabic and Hebrew used be VSO; now AFAIK they're SVO. Klingon is OVS. German is largely IvSOV (I = initial subject or adverb; v = auxiliary verb). Yodaisms are OSV. Lisp and Scheme are largely VSO.
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Original text: For example: how about a wearable language translator when on a foreign operation?
Slashdot translation: For example: what would you say of translator wearable of language when on a foreign execution?
That's amazing! Now if only they could perfect the Slashdot to English module...
yawn, whenever there is a linguistic topic in slashdot someone trots out this bollocks. i see someone tiresome has also done the "if there are mono-lingual they are american" joke too
u mean its not that? damn... i wonder if i can cancel my order
The machines will embody human qualities, they'll convince us that they're human. And we'll believe them.
Trolls, it must be cool to be that bored.
Excuse me, but last time I checked, voice reconization at all requires very clear and precise speaking, involving hours of vigious training at a computer. The amount of time it would take to get a sensable translation out of these things could be used to teach the officers using them numorious languages. Not only that, but the officers would then be better, more educated and intelligent people for the training.
Of course, if you actualy READ the announcement, it just says that they are planning on designing one, not exactly a sure sign of hope.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Surely I can't be the only Brit who thought of getting a sex toy delivered mail-order when seeing the phrase package fanny? Here, of course, a fanny is a girl's front bottom, as it were.
not larger than a package fanny
;-)
In England fanny is slang for the vagina. Strange sex toys you yanks have
(this is for southern california kids who have just recently gone to college and started to have to associate with people from other (bay-area) parts of california)
how many bay-area kids does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
"Moreover, it wouldn't just translate word-for-word, but would be able to understand the context in which a term or idiom is used to influence the resulting translation.
It would be capable of dictionary stacking; for example, a "click" to the military is a measurement of distance, whereas to civilians it is a short sound. By having the military dictionary stacked on top of the standard dictionary, the system will be able to generate an appropriate translation for the wearer's circumstances."
So hopefully this means no problem with those compensations.. Theoretically you could just stack a 'slang' dictionary or a 'doublespeak' dictionary and be prepared for any occasion.. You just best hope that the people programming the dictionaries aren't messing around with the translations..
'My hovercraft is full of eels.'
air and light and time and space
At my sleep deprived state, "petaflop" really seems more like a cooking technique than a gauging of processes. I think anything that involves this word will be forever lost in convolution.
Most people commenting on machine translation take either of two extreme stances. My wife is a translator and we often have lively discussions on the subject. Some say it is the best thing since sliced bread because it will break down language barriers all over the world and help people communicate and put an end to wars and all that stuff. Others insist that it is impossible because it produces utter nonesense and is unreliable - "Look it made a mistake! This is so baaaaaaaad!".
I believe there are different levels of translation quality, each very well suited to different applications. Just like restaurants.
a) The ultimate where everything is perfect. This is where the text is handled by a professionnal and experienced translator with extensive knowledge of the field and reviewed by other professionnals of the field in the target language. You want this for contracts involving large sums of money, for written agreements between countries, for operating manuals of life-critical systems and the like. This could be assimilated to the best restaurants in the country, the five stars ones you find in posh travel guides. This is unfortunately what most people think about (and expect) when they hear the word "translation".
b) Normal, cost-efficient, human-made everyday translation. This is where the language is correct and there are no obvious mistakes for the casual reader. It often contains misinterpretations and missed jokes but the meaning usually gets through. This is what you get with translated news, instruction manuals of cheap, foreign made VCRs and internal specifications for international projects. You could liken this to the nice little family restaurant a few streets away. Nothing too fancy but it's better than what you would make yourself.
c) Machine translation where you can see the obvious mistakes and the language is often improper. But if it is not high end litterature, some of the meaning gets through. This is like most fast food. You can do better yourself but it's fast, cheap and convenient.
Machine translation opens a whole new market of "understanding" foreign texts. Although the result is almost never suitable for publication, it allows many people to have cheap and fast access to information they would never have used otherwise. And sometimes to spot pieces that are worth translating with a higher level of quality.
Machine translation will not bring perfect free translation to the masses and it will not put translators out of business. Just like McDonald's did not bring top gastronomy to your average shopping center and it did not put good restaurants out of business.
We should not expect perfect results form machine translation. It should instead be recognized as a very usefull addition to the tools at our disposal with it's own cost/efficiency ratio.
If you want any interesting travel experiences ... learn a different language
-Christian Most literate people now speak English, either as a first or second tongue. The Internet has of course aided in the spread of English. Thus, this gadget would be of limited utility. If you want to communicate with someone, use English.
our written thoughts are gifts to our future selves
Second ... I really disagree with your assertion that the US looks down on people for speaking poorly more than ANY other "industrialized" country in the world. Don't you seem so worldly?
France (notably Parisians) has a terrible reputation for being snobby and uncivil towards those who do not speak French properly ... even towards those that have tried for years to learn their language.
Look at it this way ... English with an accent sounds cool. If I hear a woman speaking with a Spanish or French or German or justaboutanyother accent ... I think it's sexy. I don't think I'm alone there. My entire family is Argentine ... and they speak with funny accents ... people like it! However, when we go over there, and the natives hear how my family members' accents have changed, or how off my accent is, they laugh and make jokes and DEFINITELY notice. Now, as for those who aren't Argentine trying to speak the language ... it sounds ugly ... and tons of people think so. It's almost as if Spanish only sounds good if a native speaks it ... with no real accent ... again, I do not believe I'm alone here ... especially among the natives.
This device is likely to rock. I'd love to be able to get along better in any non-English speaking place ... it'd also be nice to hear what people were saying about you, too. Also, I'm sure that there'd be tons and tons of mildly humorous webpages and late night talk show host skits with slightly messed up translations when it makes it to market.
One more thing, want good chances to get hard looks in just about any other country besides the US? Talk like a loud American. Yes, just the accent brings about bad looks and conversations about lousy US foreign policy. Go tell them those folks they're xenophobic and prejudiced and lighten while you're at it you damn hippy.
-Christian
our written thoughts are gifts to our future selves
To admit that English is a unviersal language or a lingua franca is not arrogance, but recognition of fact. There were previous so called universal languages (French, Mandarin, Latin, Greek). it's not "american" arrogance to say this. What language unites India? English. What language is used at Dutch universities? English. and so on. You could say chinese is the mother tounge of more people,but the word "chinese" is too vague. More people speak english as a second tounge than any other. Most people can speak a basic level of it. that doesn't mean that learning a second language isn't important (i'm studied mandarin for almost 4 years). language translators are booooring sydney, boooring.
Any response will certainly help out the moderators.
-Crypthanatopsis
I personally didn't think the trolling was that good though. It was too obvious. Better luck next time, rk!
-Crypthanatopsis
As I was washing the dishes just now, it occurred to me that maybe the idea of including a physical threat in the joke was not such a great idea. I mean, I hope it was obvious that the whole thing was a joke, but there are a lot of crazy people out there in the world, and although it may be obvious that I'm not really a klingon, it may not be obvious that I'm more or less sane, and not at all inclined to violence. Sorry, Michael.
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Reading and posting on Slashdot am I from Klingon homeworld through wearable universal translator device, operating with optional subspace radio module and speech-too-text and text-too-speech technology. Device excellent is it, but a day very good two die had better it bee for Michael, because has he insulted are honor through him saying that was this device invented by humans.
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>a man who just gave birth.
Strangely enough, don't see any goatse.cx links in the comments for this article yet. But I'm sure the local trolls will fix that real soon.
>I do not believe I will be returning to this Web-site.
Oh, if only it were true...
Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!
Yes. Da. Si. Oui. Ja. Damn straight.
Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!
mv
It's followed, not very closely at all, by English, then I think it's one of the asian languages. I read this a few years ago, so it may not be completely accurate, but there was such a disparity between spanish and english that I can't imagine is meeting that fast.
funny munging
I seriously wonder how this thing would translate a rap song... or any slang for that matter..
The fact of the matter is that most people won't want to spend thousands of dollars to tell people that their "cheese is a watch" or other jibberish..
Just think about the speech recognition problems: if YOU cannot understand what is said, how can your computer ? Much less translate.
One advantage I can see of the translator being wearable is to carry it out. While it may be useful in a business environment - though people there are supposed to be educated enough to speak foreign languages (ok, well maybe not), it could not do anything for you out in the street, where they have to deal with mangled words and thick accents.
Kind of defeat the purpose. Kind of defeat the purpose.
Did The Fish render this translation?
However, most literate English speakers speak English.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, post on Slashdot about it.
Maybe I'm just sheltered, but I do not know what a 'yid' is. Please elaborate. Also, for everyone that is going to tell me something like 'look in the mirror', I will laugh for you in advance: . Ok, thanks.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, post on Slashdot about it.
Sounds like a pretty cool guy.. the gaylord part, I can deal with, but the scientology/metallica thing, I don't know about...
Those who can, do. Those who can't, post on Slashdot about it.
I hope for your sake you don't actually [try to] use *.cise.ufl.edu for anything.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, post on Slashdot about it.
But it's still imperfect. Example conversation. Japanese and English
american:"HI I LIKE AH-NAH-MEE MUCH"
japanese:"AH-NAH-MEE IS VERY GREAT IN JAPAN"
american:"DO YOU PLAY YOUR VIDEO OF GAMES WELL"
japanese: "YES. A WINNER IS ME AT FANTASY FINAL 7 NOT LONG."
american: "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US"
etc. etc
Yes, I wouldn't try asking a date out in a foreign language with this thing
The johnwebster writes a " other Sci-Fi utility obtains more close to reality: translators wearable." Babelfish, Ground-model, thus you also can usually speak any language: For example: what would you say of the translator wearable language when on a foreign execution? No fumbling for a book of the expressions, any cumbersome portable computer. This device of mobile and light now placed by ONR is really a flexible device, computer of the gird-model - either large that a module fanny - making to him possible the language of the loudspeaker to be translated in the real time near for the listener.
Oh yeah - this is gonna work out real good.
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"Almost isn't good enough - but it's almost good enough."
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"Almost isn't good enough - but it's almost good enough."
-Me
Would you like to come back to my place? Bouncy bouncy! My nipples explode with delight!
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Does he? I'm *learning* Spanish, through school, and I acknowledge as such... I'm not fluent or anything, but I can hold a pretty good conversation and read Barrapunto.com and so forth :) What astounds me is the number of people, in high school and older, who claim that for knowing a few phrasebook sentences ("Cómo están?" and "Creo que educación tiene la mejor importancia" I suppose would be Dubya's favorites), they KNOW Spanish. I wouldn't be surprised if, among his hypothetical collection of political-science and remedial English books, there lurks a tourist's Spanish phrasebook :)
It's a point well-taken that machine translation is imperfect; it's no substitute for careful third-party translation, let alone an implicit understanding of both languages. However, for tourist/business usage, especially for Romance languages, it can't be THAT bad. I like the stackable-dictionary idea, but that's for another post. Many people have replied to the topic with MP's Hungarian Tourist in a Tobacconist's Shop skit. Still more have hypermutated text through 4 or 5 different languages on AV Babelfish. Hilarity ensues. But the above examples aren't that realistic; if in a Spanish hotel trying to translate your English for the receptionist, you are not, for example, going to run your speech through French and German first. She might look at you with that knowing smile specially reserved for turistas, but the Spanish will probably be intelligible, if not too grammatical, viz.: "I would like a double room, please" will probably parse through your belt-pack Babelfish as "Quiero un cuarto doble, por favor" although it SHOULD be "Por favor, quisiera un cuarto con doble ocupancia." However, the poor receptionist will certainly notice that you are asking for a room, pick up the word "doble", and derive that you're a monolingual American who wants a double-occupancy room and is at least TRYING to get the point across. English speakers can parse Yodaisms or Shakespeare - even broken English - without too much trouble. Instruction booklets of foreign-made electronics, for example, can use incredibly bad English, but one can follow it regardless. How are native speakers of other languages any different? If you're just trying to get by, a belt-borne Babelfish may not be THAT terrible of an option. That said, I'd still advocate learning a bit of the language itself. Would that all were so motivated.
...I don't know that this'll still ever replace the real thing. No matter how good machine translation gets, it's still going to be off. I work for a company that does translation stuff, besides babelfish, we're one of the other 3 in the world with machine translation engines. By and large they're still incredibly inaccurate - in terms of documents they have great use because the individual can interpret the translation, but to carry on a conversation through this style translation can be very tricky, simply because so many things can be interpreted so many ways, which may not be noticed by the fluent speaker (imagine having a conversation about one topic but the translation ends up making it a different yet still valid conversation to the fluent person. what's the point? as far as each person knows you've had two separate conversations)
For the last time, PIN Number and ATM Machine are redundancies!
Hmm, add a lisp interpreter, elisa, and could you test a pair of these by having them coverse with eachother, each using different languages... man that would be wierd.
what would you say of translator wearable of language when on a foreign execution?
:P
whaa? sounds like this was the victim of babelfish... or was that the point?
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"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Sounds like this dude's the first beta tester.
This sentence reminds me of... executions... translators... that one scene in a Star Trek movie where Kirk and McCoy are on trial with the Klingons.
--hongpong.com
I want a translator woven into my clothing.
There's University-level research going on in this area right now, and it could actually be here in time for us to be able to use it!
that way they will finally understand the terms "thingy","dohickey"and "watchamacallit"
This is probably a big improvement over how normal tactical units communicate with locals. Right now, hand signals, emphatic yelling, etc. are the tool of choice for dealing with the language barrier between soldiers and civillians/prisoners. Even the ability to generate simple imperative or declarative statements on the spot would be quite helpful, "Go over there" or "You must leave your house. We have requested indirect fire near here."
Assuming this application, the best thing a designer could do would be to add a way to specify that a statement is imperative, since imperative statements would probably be the most common. In English, for example, a simple imperative statement is distinguished from a declarative statement only by context. In romance languages there is generally another verb for imperative uses so the translation is ambigious unless some contextual information by the English user.
What the hell is a package fanny?! Is this a polite way of saying "turd" in some weird country?!
Its the goatsex.cx sicko! Beware!
!!!!!!!!
I would hope that for anything this important they would still invest in paying a human interpretter.
Have Fun.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Consider that there are still people alive who were born at the time the invention of the telephone, and people who remember when the first cinema opened in their town in the late 18th century, early 19th. Picture explaining to these, when they were teens, that there would be lightweight carry-around devices that would not only put you in instant communication with anybody on the planet, but also (like taking it for granted) translated your communication for you if you spoke different languages.
I wonder what an example today of the same degree of magic, that we will still see in our lifetime, would be like?
is full of eels!
mmmmmmm Shiner Bock
No need learning all those messy languages, global domination is possible now that I can say "Touch thy penis" in all the languages of the world! Ah, Buttman would be proud.
prosebeforehos.com
The pricing I think could make all the difference.
If it is too costly a tourist would hardly consider buying it.
All the same it could prove very helpful to business people who have to do business in foreign lands. Here where the east meets the west in their own language.
But in countris like India even businessmen may not consider buying this equipment if it turns out cheaper to employ a person who has learnt the language.
Talking of India, this equipment, if cheap could be a lot of help to the countrymen within their own country where every few hundred KMs brings you face to face with a new language.
There's always sufficient, but not always at the right place nor for the right folks.
who modded this flamebait? Moderators who don't get jokes need to lose mod privs.
Yes people, this is a troll. Or rather a joke. Dear god, why doees noone understand humor anymore?!?
Someone watched "The Last Starfighter" one too many times. It would seem the idea came straight from the classic space film, where our hero was completely lost, meandering through a sea of various space creatures until someone pinned the translator on him. Instantly, he could be understood by everyone. It was amusing that everyone's lips moved along with the translated words they were speaking.
-WetDog
"I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame it on you."
to see how long untill they are banned in schools(I really could have used on in classes), but what about noise filtering, location of Microphone, (I'm assuming right now that everything is brought in by a radio of some type), actual dictionary, and storage. Also is it something that might make it's way into civilian life. And how about other 'slang' than military. We all know what 'WTF' means, but will these things? Side note: I saw one in about 1995, and it was as cool as I thought it would be. And it only had a vocabulary of 10,000 word in English and Spanish. I tried to have it say "I can't do that Dave." in spanish with that really cool voice. But it didn't know what 'Dave' was.
Alas, poor clippy, I loath him so.
In the UK, "Nova" cars were manufactured by Vauxhall, which was/is owned by the US firm GM (General Motors). A few years ago (perhaps 5) the rest of Europe had a car that looked identical, but was called the "Corsa". Now it's a new shape and called the "Corsa" everywhere. I guess that mistake you pointed out was the reason for the name change.
Follow me
Maybe someone'll think twice before using this translator
Follow me
"My hovercraft is full of eels" "If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" and of course: "My nipples explode with delight!" --vxd
If you are in California or New York etc. you'll blend right in. I've lived all over the US and if you talk funny, most people just wouldn't be able to understand you. The US is large enough to have several strong regional accents. Sometimes it difficult to understand people from our own country. "xenophobia", ha! give me a break. PS: I have enslaved a goldfish but he doesn't seem to mind.
do you really wanna know what people are actually saying to/about you? honestly?
___ alwaysBETA.com - Hey, you've got nothing better to do.
Reading the article, a thought just popped into my head ...
English language has different word order than most other languages.
Do they plan to compensate for this? Or will it just wind up sounding like a web page run through every language in babelfish?
Hmm.. I could just imagine the impact on diplomacy, or negotiations ...
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The (Hopefully) Great Slashdot Blackout
"Now we can speak all the languages! And all are going to understand to us, right? This it was translated by Babelfish. He is so correct, no? I am certain that this he is English perfect (same that what a native one would speak)"
We can all talk like this now, and foreigners can have even more reasons to laugh at Americans.
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- It ain't easy, being green.
Je serai baisé
I think that if you were to walk around a foreign city with a wearable computer that output a computerized voice with the grammatical capability of the Altavista Babelfish, you'd soon be beaten within an inch of your life.
The text in the article is a section of the press release translated from English to French and back from French to English with the Fish.
I have to admit, I am a bit disturbed by the lack of morals of the people posting on this site. I have already clicked on one link and been taken to a Web-site with an image of what appears to be a man who just gave birth. And the responses to my message were simply offensive. One person simply berated with a stream of insults engineered to offend me, while another substituted the letter 'X' for Christ about 3 dozen times -- I do not believe I will be returning to this Web-site. I do promise, however, to pray for you all.
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"I'll spot you a NAND gate, and this guy here,..."
Our Divine Father split up the languages for a reason -- To punish us for our sins. That this article mocks this event ("Bab*lfish") in such a heretical manner makes me ill.
We as a race should not be trying to undo the work of God -- there is already enough sin in the world, this surely can only cause more!
While I am, much contrary to my parents' views, in favor of the use of sciences to better the human condition, I am strongly opposed to defacing our divine-inspired bodies for the sole purpose of standing at God's feet and mocking Him in such a disgustingly perverse manner.
I shall pray tonight for the sins of the creators of the clearly Sat*nically inspired device.
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"I'll spot you a NAND gate, and this guy here,..."