What would it take to make a personal language translating device...?

[Neogaia777]

What would it take to make a personal language translating device...?

An instrument of technology that would take your words spoken into it and emit it back out of it in another or other languages...

So and individual or individuals could use this to go into areas and them being able to hear your words in another, their language..

And one that could take what they speak and communicate it back to you in your language...

Could we make something like this now today...?

Comments...?

God Bless!

 

[Nithavela]

The technology is certainly existant. We have speech recognition technology and automatic translation programs, as well as programs that can synthesize text in another language. The amount of nonsense would still be pretty big if the translation software isn't perfected, but you could certainly get by.

Also, ambient noise may be a factor.

On the other hand, in most parts of the world, you can get by simply by speaking english, as well.

 

[Zoii]

Its already here... google language apps

 

[GreekOrthodox]

I work with language sensitive devices and there is a lot that goes into it. As for translating on the fly like a Star Trek Universal Translator, the problem with translations is that you can do word for word translations but when it comes to translating ideas or more abstract thoughts, you start running into problems. As an example, watch the Star Trek Next Generation episode, "Darmok". The Enterprise is trying to communicate with a civilization that only speaks in metaphors. So if I were to say, "Romeo and Juliet, their families at war", what would that mean to someone else who is not familiar with the story.

 

[Grandpa2390]

I work with language sensitive devices and there is a lot that goes into it. As for translating on the fly like a Star Trek Universal Translator, the problem with translations is that you can do word for word translations but when it comes to translating ideas or more abstract thoughts, you start running into problems. As an example, watch the Star Trek Next Generation episode, "Darmok". The Enterprise is trying to communicate with a civilization that only speaks in metaphors. So if I were to say, "Romeo and Juliet, their families at war", what would that mean to someone else who is not familiar with the story.

I agree. Something is always lost in translation as it is because it is difficult. You can generally get the metaphors or the literal but never both. Which is why studying the Bible absolutely requires that you also consider the Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic that it is translated from.

As for whether the technology exists, it does, but it isn't great. We first have to perfect dictation software. You may be familiar with it through your phone where you say something and it types it for you? And all of the mistakes it makes unless you are really careful?

I use google translate with some of my spanish speaking customers who speak very little english. It is not great, but it works. And I just have to hope that what I am saying doesn't pick up negative connotation through the translation.

With dictation software, you can train it to recognize what you say and translate it more accurately, but it is more difficult for it to recognize what everyone else says. As my professor once said: you can either teach a program to recognize many words from one person, or recognize a few words from many people.
We each took turns speaking into a program that measured the decibels and frequencies of what we were saying and displayed it on a graph by time. How the technology works is amazing, because we could not even tell where one word ended and another began. And so next time your phone messes up because you were speaking too fast...

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

What would it take to make a personal language translating device...?

Money.

(It is already for sale on the internet, btw - came out the last few years)
(at least was on xyz news broadcast via antenna tv)