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Real-Time Computer-Based Translation in Iraq

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the remember-the-curse-of-the-babelfish dept.

[TheBORG] writes "The U.S. military has been testing software on laptops that translate English to Arabic and Arabic to English to have conversations with Iraqis without the need to have a Arabic linguist on hand. 'This year the military's Joint Forces Command has been testing laptops with such software in Iraq. When someone speaks into a microphone attached to the computer, the machine translates it into Arabic and reads that translation aloud over the PC's speakers. The software then translates the Arabic speaker's response and utters it in English.'" (See this related story from last year about this daunting machine-translation task.)

2 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Since when have lives matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Since when have lives mattered during this war? I doubt that most American soldiers would give a damn about talking to Iraqi civilians. Based on past incidents, they shoot first, kill innocent people, and then there are no consequences later.

    Hell, even CNN is reporting about over 500,000 Iraqis being killed so far. Reuters reports that US casualties are rising.

    Lives are already been lost, and at an astounding rate. I doubt this sort of technology will in any way save the lives of Iraqi civilians, or protect American troops.

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Comment removed based on user account deletion