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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.'"

4 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ah, English by Cornelius+the+Great · · Score: 1, Redundant

    "Indeed. I can't tell you how many fights erupt when a Brit asks a Yank for a cigarette."

    Did you just call me a fag?

    --
    Sigs are for losers
  2. Hmmmm by SuperDuG · · Score: -1, Redundant
    What the hell are you talking about?

    here, I did this on babelfish ...

    Translate Text: Put the gun down and walk away. Immediately place your hands behind your head and lay face down on the ground. Your life is at risk if you do not comply.

    Translated to German: Setzen Sie die Gewehr unten und gehen Sie weg. Setzen Sie sofort Ihre Hande hinter Ihren Kopf und legen Sie Gesicht unten aus den Grund. Ihr Leben ist an der Gefahr, wenn Sie nicht einwilligen.

    Translated back to english: Set the rifle down and leave you. Set immediately your hands behind your head and put you to face down from the reason. Their life is at the danger, if you do not consent.

    While this may be "adequate" I would much rather have a human translator there beside me. Plus this was from english to german and back, I'd hate to see what a non-similar languages would bring ...

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  3. The thing is... by Vexware · · Score: 0, Redundant
    it's 'getting rave reviews from U.S. and allied-coalition personnel'

    The American and English armies were fully satisfied of the English-English translation capabilities. Here's for hoping it works in English-Iraq mode...

    --
    "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect" -- Linus Torval
  4. My hovercraft is full of eels by Guy+Innagorillasuit · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This reminds me of the classic Python "Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch:

    Hungarian: I will not buy this record, it is scratched.
    Clerk: Sorry?
    Hungarian I will not buy this record, it is scratched.
    Clerk: Uh, no, no, no. This is a tobacconist's.
    Hungarian: Ah! I will not buy this *tobacconist's*, it is scratched.
    Clerk: No, no, no, no. Tobacco...um...cigarettes (holds up a pack).
    Hungarian: Ya! See-gar-ets! Ya! Uh...My hovercraft is full of eels.