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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."

5 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Phraselator? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    VoxTec's marketing department should be summarily dismissed for coming up with that one.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    1. Re:Phraselator? by moosesocks · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's the US Government (and the military no less)!!! You can sell anything to them, no matter how poorly marketed, expensive, or functional it is, especially if it ties in with the "war on terror"

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    2. Re:Phraselator? by DFIE · · Score: 5, Insightful

      we have one in my platoon. did we use it at all in the 15 months we were in iraq? nope! why? interpreters work better and stop bullets.

  2. One Way Tool? by Faizdog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is pretty good, but it still doesn't solve the problem that the officer can't understand the other individual. This could lead to some problems. Now, an officer may wait for backup that speaks the language, or proceed forward knowing that he/she cannot understand the other person and vice-a-versa.

    Now, due to this device, officers could think they are making themselves clear, and behave differently, (i.e. I said get down, and I said it in your language, now get down or I shoot), but the other side could be saying something important and can't be understood.

    --
    -"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
  3. Re:obvious by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Using a taser does make the policeman's/soldier's job easier. When you tase someone, translations are simple: "AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH" is the English translation of "AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH" in Arabic. And Farsi, and Kurdish, and Najdi, and Khaliji, and...