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Star Trek-like 'Phraselator' Helps Police

Posted by samzenpus on from the set-phraselateor-to-drunk dept.

coondoggie writes "Yet another Star Trek-like device is making its way into the real world. VoxTec's Phraselator name sounds a bit like something the Three Stooges might have used long ago but no, this PDA-like device was developed through Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for use in Afghanistan and Iraq by American soldiers for communicating with locals who spoke Farsi, Dari, Pashto and other languages. It is now being used as one tool to help keep the peace between English and non-English speakers by police departments in California, Florida, Nevada. In a nutshell the $2,500 ruggedized Phraselator runs an Intel PXA255 400mHz processor that supports a built-In noise canceling microphone, a VOCON 3200 Speech Recognizer, 1GB removable SD card, 256MB of DRAM Memory and 64MB Flash Memory. It can store up to 10,000 phrases."

7 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. What could possibly go wrong? by Token_Internet_Girl · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I thought she was asking for sex, turns out she just wanted directions to the 7-11. Oopsies!"

    --
    Sure baby, I'll give you my phone number...in Hex
  2. Can see some amusing things happening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Citizen: Someone's planted a bomb in there!
    Phraselator: "Somebody set up us the bomb."
    Soldier: What you say!!

  3. Re:obvious by Radres · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now the police can safely ignore the Spanish equivalent of "Don't tase me, bro"!

  4. Re:One Way Tool? by adminstring · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or better yet, they could just use a simple, inexpensive megaphone. Because everyone knows that if you just speak LOUDER and LOUDER, eventually you will reach a volume where the non-English-speaking person will finally understand you!

    --
    My truck is like a series of tubes.
  5. Obligatory by jmac1492 · · Score: 5, Funny

    DON'T PHRASE ME BRO!

    --
    Jenny's got a new number! 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  6. Re:obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Translation of "AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH" from other common languages:

    Russian: "You are correct, I should not have been reading that book, comrade."

    German: "I apologize for being too Jewish, and will now board the crowded yet impressively prompt train."

    Canadian: "Oh darn. Iced the puck again."

    Japanese: "I believe the voice actress for my favorite anime is making an appearance nearby."

    French: "My cheese!" or "You appear to be trying to add a non-French word to the French language", depending on context.

    American: "It appears my Tivo did not record this week's episode of Lost."

    Mandarin: "Hello."

    "Australian": "Crikey, look at the size of that stingra--"

    Jamaican: (nobody has ever heard this phrase from a Jamaican)

    Anybody left I didn't offend?

  7. Re:Phraselator? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    interpreters work better and stop bullets.

    You must have gone through a lot of interpreters.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au