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Navy Unveils Polyglot Chat For Iraq
An anonymous reader writes "According to ScienceBlog, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, trying to keep friendly armies in Iraq from accidentally blowing each other to smithereens, is helping create software that connects instant messaging (IM) with machine translation (MT). The result: Chat software to be used in Iraq that automatically translates your messages into the correct language of the reader, called the the Coalition Chat Line - it's 'getting rave reviews from U.S. and allied-coalition personnel.'"
Was it microsoft that applied for a patent related to automated translation with IM? Maybe they can now sue the Navy and get event more licensing revenue!
...is better than you may think. Though it is as difficult as everyone says to translate a random text from one language to another, translating short texts in a specialised domain between well-linked languages isn't too hard. Heck, they might even be able to get away with using lookup tables.
Hey, like it or hate it, Esperanto can be taught in just a month or two, to a level allowing excellent communications. I think its great to have such software, but that doesn't help face to face, whereas everyone learning a neutral language will help in every situation. So if we are going to pour money down a funnel, lets pour it down the funnel that has long-term benifits for mankind.
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
Aint that the truth! One of the most common reasons for UK tourists in the USA getting into embarrasing situations has to be the simple act of going into a shop and asking where they keep the "fags". It is comical how the most innocent word can mean something very different in another language. I was recenty in Denmark, on my way through the city of Odense I passed a sign with a big arrow on it above which was written: "Middlefart". In Danish that is perfectly innocent but in English.....
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
original:
"Our troops will be to your left doing field exercises for 24 to 48 hours, please disregard hostile sounding noises during that time"
english to japanese, then japanese to english:
"As for our troops there is a noise of sound of the enemy between that you ignore on your left which does 48 hour field exercises from 24"
english to korean, then korean to english:
"Our unit in 24 48 hours in your left which does a hazard field exercise, the sound which will be hostile during that hour which disregards me will connect a sound arresting"
pray for our troops
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Sametime (IBM's instant messaging product for the enterprise) has had this for some time:
http://jkent.dfw.ibm.com/ebia/doc/LTSS.html
What did you eat today? http://www.atetoday.com/
...since Iraq was originaly the Babylonian empire :-)
The DoD has a shortage of translators at the moment, taskings come down all the time for foreign language volunteers. In fact, those that speak some of the more complex languages, (i.e. Arabic, Korean, Japanese, etc..), can cross-train any time they wish. I'm not sure what type of IM system the navy is moving to, AFAIK, (keep in mind I'm in the AF, and have only worked with the Navy for a month), ships use an IRCesque protocol on private servers to communicate back and forth with mIRC/MS Chat. As long as you have translators on those networks, I wouldn't see the need for a new-fangled system.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Becomes
The vodka is good but the meat is rotten.
Which is a perfectly valid translation if you ignore syntax. If my life was on the line I don't think I would count a computer to do translation. They don't do syntax very well, so you tend to get philosophical musings translated into commentary on last night's meal.
Seriously though, isn't this very similar to real occurance that occurred about 50 years ago? In that particular case it was a Briton who said they were in a bit of jam. The Americans not understanding British understatement didn't realise the urgency of the situation and were surprised at the British losses.
"Time for a brew". (Apparently "brew" is an American synonym for "beer". In English, and certainly in the context of the army, it would refer to a cuppa tea.)
I was reading an article in Canada's The National Post yesterday that interviewed an English speaking Iraqi. He said that a lot of Iraqi's are detained or apprehended needlessly at US guard checkpoints simply because they cannot speak English to the guards.
The interviewee used to do translation for the US army, but after an incident he is now being sought as a member of the former Iraqi army. Despite this, he still has less trouble going through checkpoints simply because he can explain his business in English.
IANANES (I am not a native English speaker), please don't look at this comment too closely ;-)
I don't like spell checkers. They catch all the trivial mistakes that you mostly just read over anyway, give you a nice feeling that the text is okay, but then they leave the really grave, embarrassing mistakes in. Most spell checkers should more accurately be called typo checkers. I English, they're able to also analyse grammar a little, beause it isn't all too complicated, but firstly this is absolutely not an option in most other languages and secondly I have to ask if we really want to help people who can't tell 'its' (_one_ word, possessive form of the pronoun it) apart from 'it's' (_two_ words, contraction of it is) in a way that makes them think even less about such things?
but what do i know, i'm just a model.
This uses the PROMT software engine from the company of the same name in St. Petersburg, Russia. I have used their software extensively including in an online forum. It works ok, but heaven help those who want to translate soemthing very technical or diplomatic.