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Re: Universal Translator

From: "Legacy 'Xunker'" <>
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 18:46:51 -0700

Alex Feinman wrote:

> > 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.
>

can you imagine the stir this would be if if every time you talked to someone you
pulled out a big black thing that looks like an alien ray gun?  You have mass
hysteria every time you asked where the toilet was!

>
> 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.

Yeah, and languages like Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are very hard for an
untrained ear to tell apart.  Romance and indo-euopean languages sound too much
alike for most program to discriminate.

>
> > .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. ;-)

I suppose it gives "Read my lips" new meaning?

--
-LX "...hello Rebel..."

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