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Re: Universal Translator

From: Alex Feinman <>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 12:57:44 -0500

> Well, its an interesting idea, but it poses some serious problems;
> 
> One, for Dragon Naturally Speaking, they'd have to talk directly into the
> microphone at a distance of about 6 inches, and the background noise would
> have to be kept at a minimum; Also, you'd need to lead a different 'speech
> pack' for each language, as languages have differing vowel sounds and
> consonants from ours that would be misrecognised.

I've been wondering about that. Do they sell mini-parabolic mics, or
perhaps mini-shotguns? Something with *good* directionality. My idea
is to attach one of these to, say, a finger, and then just point the
mic at whatever I want to hear - your mouth, or whatever. Might also
work for the crowded-cocktail-party effect.

The problem I see for a mult-translator is you have to set it to the
language they're talking in before they start speaking. Heck, even a
human has a hard time figuring out what language you're speaking, if
you tend to switch between 3 or 4 languages.

> .Now, the reverse way, where it translates *your* words, perhaps puts them on
> a little Matrix Orbital LCD, sounds actually quite usable.  The mike is close
> enough, it would be trained to your voice, and you could either have
> translation software or pipe the text through Babelfish if you have a net
> connection.

It might be nice to have the running text of everything I say all of
the time. Then again...maybe not. ;-)

Alex Feinman

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