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Gadget Claims To Fit In Your Ear and Translate Foreign Languages In Real-Time (telegraph.co.uk)
An anonymous reader cites a report on the Telegraph about a tiny gadget that lets two people who speak a different language understand each other. The gadget dubbed Pilot translates English, French, Spanish and Italian. Pilot, which is yet to be launched, is priced at $129. From the report: It works by being connected to two different people, speaking two different languages, and translates what they are saying in your ear. Pilot is supposedly the first 'smart earpiece' capable of translating between two languages. Waverly Labs, who have developed the technology, said on their website: "This little wearable uses translation technology to allow two people to speak different languages but still clearly understand each other." They have not said how it works except for that it uses "translation technology" embedded in an app. We have reached out to them to find out more.
Is it a babelfish?
"My hovercraft is full of eels..."
Proverbs 21:19
1) Google Translate
2) Bluetooth Headset
3) PROFIT!
They have not said how it works except for that it uses "translation technology" embedded in an app.
So....it's really just an earpiece that connects to a device running a translation app? What did they do, just take speech-to-text input, run it through Google Translate, then output through a text-to-speech app?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
i would bet that it would explode trying to "translate" between say Southern (US) and Cockney (UK)
even with both of them being "English" dialects.
and does it work only 1 on 1 or will it translate between N persons??
Linguist game you have 4 base languages how long can you talk with the response being a DIFFERENT dialect of those base languages?
Just a wild guess.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Universal Translator v 1.0
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
Am I missing something? Google translate can already be set for automatic translation and will listen to anyone who speaks. It's far from perfect, but it does work. Perhaps the benefit here is that the translation is much better? Cheers, Bruce.
Bruce A. Knack
Silicon Surfers
This one ticks all the boxes:
* Unknown startup company
* Huge claims
* Big PR push
* IndieGogo campaign
Smart money says this either ships way late and barely functional, or never ships at all and the creator gets a nice new vacation home in France, Spain or Italy. Translating audio in real time is a fool's errand.
Pay attention the next time you're dictating using, say, Google's voice recognition, or you're watching automatically-generated closed captions on an unscripted TV show. (Sports commentary is a nice example.) You will *frequently* see the transcription change after the fact, replacing one or more words with others that are totally different.
If you claim to be transcribing and translating in anything approaching real time, that can't happen. Once you've said the wrong word, you've blown the meaning of the sentence. Correcting it in audio will take time, by which point you've missed (or are lagging further behind) the actual conversation. Or more likely (if this ever reaches market) your conversation is riddled with uncorrected errors and you have barely any understanding of what's actually being said.
I doubt it will ever even reach this point, though. Chances are good no product ever ships, but the money is taken regardless.
Gadget Claims
Surely the real news is that there is a now a gadget that is able to make claims about itself. Run! It's the singularity!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Heh. Here's s'more Slashdot'esque rationale:
"This device isn't patentable because it's (inconsistently) portrayed on Star Trek."
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
"Hallo, I'm a gadget. I fit in your ear and translate foreign languages in real time."
Seriously, who writes these headlines?
(Note to self: Never anthropomorphize gadgets. They hate it when you do that.)
In the presence of homonyms and synonyms you need context which means you need the full sentence before you can figure out what the words are.
We should sail, there is a sale on sails at Sail.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
It wasn't quite earpiece sized (and I'm betting even this device exports most of its computation to the cloud) and I'm not quite sure if it was an actual device or some promo but there was a (creepy) video on Youtube a while back about someone with a phone app in Japan that looked like it did some rather impressive on the fly translations of spoken word phrases. Unfortunately the entire video demonstration was some freak running around trying to coax girls into kissing him.
So, I took a basic dialog and ran it through Google Translator, converting it from English to German, then taking the German and converting it back to English. Here's what I got...
Original Conversation:
Person A: Look at this amazing gadget! It allows me to hear what you're saying in German in English! Here's a spare. Put it in your ear, and you can hear my English and translate it to German!
Person B: Great! Now our different languages won't stop us from understanding each other!
A: Just imagine, with this, we can break down language barriers that interfere with developing a mutual understanding of one another. This might be the answer to world peace!
B: I'm not so sure about that. Good luck getting this thing to turn what Donald Trump has to say into something peaceful.
And now, once translated and re-translated, we get...
Person A: Check out this amazing gadget! It allows me to listen to what you say in German in English there! Here is a replacement. Put it in your ear, and you can listen to my English and German dictionary!
Person B: Big! Now our different languages will not deter us to understand each other!
A: Imagine, with this we can break language barriers that interfere with the development of a mutual understanding of each other. This could be the answer to world peace!
B: I'm not so sure. Good luck always to turn this thing what Donald Trump has to say in a little quieter.
-----
Somehow, me thinks we still have a long ways to go. Though, I can say that this is a whole lot better than what Google was producing 15 years ago.
and pause slightly between each word? NECESITO UN pastilla de menta. USTED sabe donde puedo encontrar alguna?
Now my life can be just like dubbed Godzilla movies!
If I was 25 years younger, I would want to communicate with that French girl, too - although I speak French. Damn - youth is wasted on the young.
I comment occasionally so that I can mod others -1 overrated or -1 offtopic.
I got a universal translator from some guy I met at a Mike Tyson boxing match back in the 90s. I think he was carrying an iPhone.
Why are we still speaking 100's of different languages in the world? Seems a device like this side steps a fundamental advancement that human culture has yet to obtain.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Very likely. What could possibly go wrong?
My nipples explode in delight!
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Some mistakes I recall...
On February 1st, I think the captioning person accidentally put "President" multiple times in reference to Trevor Noah as the speaker on The Daily Show.
American Dad episode "Daesong Heavy Industries" it had like "horse said to noah" instead of "lord said to noah".
You are ignorant, or pretending for personal benefit. Language is not variable substitution, it is conceptual. The concepts are not unidirectional, they often run contrary. The company lying in TFA, and you, are attempting to pretend that language is nothing more than variable substitution. X => A, Y => B, Z => C, etc..
That in and of itself is a huge mountain to climb technically, but now stuff it all into voice recognition with all of the possible pronunciations and vocal differences/problems. Fat frigging chance!
We don't have perfect text to text translation, and you want to try and claim we can slap together voice? Dreams are fine, but at least put yours in proper context.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
More likely because he forgot the French lyrics in "Lady Marmelade."
Wow. OK, I'll feed the troll. Firstly this person is probably your customer, or your customer's customer. So they pay your salary. Next, are you sure they live in your country? On holiday? Visiting? Next, do they speak only in their foreign language all day, every day? Are you sure? Do you suggest everyone becomes fluent in a language before they visit the country. For some languages,with dedicated effort, even getting close to high-school level language will take several years on average. And guess what? The best way to learn a foreign language is to live in a foreign country? Are you so sure you'd be happy to communicate at the level of a one year old to your family, friends, co-workers if you were in their position. Source: I'm an English Teacher and part-time Japanese student in Japan. Please feel free to give specific examples of who does you such great injustices and I'll be happy to debunk them.
Oops, typos, formatting.
Wow. OK, I'll feed the troll.
Firstly this person is probably your customer, or your customer's customer. So they pay your salary.
Next, are you sure they live in your country? On holiday? Visiting?
Next, do they speak only in their foreign language all day, every day? Are you sure? Do you suggest everyone becomes fluent in a language before they visit the country?
For some languages,with dedicated effort, even getting close to high-school level language will take several years on average. And guess what? The best way to learn a foreign language is to live in a foreign country.
Are you so sure you'd be happy to communicate at the level of a one year old to your family, friends, co-workers if you were in their position?
Source: I'm an English Teacher and part-time Japanese student in Japan. Please feel free to give specific examples of who does you such great injustices and I'll be happy to debunk them.
I would hazard a guess that you've never learned another language. It's not easy, at least not as an adult. Much harder than learning algebra, for instance.
As for babbling in foreign language, I suppose it's equally possible that the Mohawks, Cherokees, Navajos, Ojibways, Aleuts, Sioux, Salishen, Lushootseeds and others get annoyed hearing you babble in English.
I don't know anything about this particular project, and yes I'd guess it's plausibly snakeoil. But...
Positive thoughts, critic and cynic acknowledged upfront. The cynic and critic will say you can see how bad Google translate is by translating and reverse translating.
So let's put voice recognition capability aside and ask what if this new gadget is exactly as good/bad as Google translate?
it will still save you your free hands and a lot of time from looking things up in a phrase book or one word at a time in a dictionary.
After living three years in Japan, I've become very good at communicating in very simple English and very simple Japanese. Google translate can give you workable results for bare and not unreasonably imperfect communication. Keep your sentences very short with self-contained context. Don't expect pronouns and plurals to translate.
. Develop the skill of talking simply, and with clear gestures. If you're lucky or determined you will find others with these same skills.
. Even current technology, well applied, could be a god send if your traveling well off the beaten track. Not to translate your life's work, but for a (newbie) stranger in a strange land.
my two yen.
It fits comfortably in your ear... as long as you are a Ferengi.
Even the Americans that do speak some English often butcher it up pretty badly.
one thing i have run into is folks that not only REFUSE to speak English but get offended when you can't speak %other language%. (they are also proud of their ignorance)