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Navy Unveils Polyglot Chat For Iraq

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the asl? dept.

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.'"

7 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft patent??? by javatips · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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!

  2. Language technology... by James+A.+J.+Joyce · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...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.

  3. Just teach everybody the Aggressor Language. by lifebouy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

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  4. sample babelfish translations by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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
  5. You can do this, too by bmetz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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/
  6. Irony at it's finest... by b0z0mind · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...since Iraq was originaly the Babylonian empire :-)

  7. Re:Machine translation? by Malc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.