Star Trek-like 'Phraselator' Helps Police

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."

What could possibly go wrong?

[Token_Internet_Girl (1131287)]

"I thought she was asking for sex, turns out she just wanted directions to the 7-11. Oopsies!"

This is horrid

[QuantumG (50515)]

The summary is the first 3 paragraphs of the article and, not surprisingly, fails to summarize the article. So when you actually go and read the article you get the feeling that maybe it is an example of how poor automatic translation is, as the article has incredibly horrid grammar.. to the point that the whole second half of the article makes no sense.

Oh, and when you finally do figure out what the hell this article is about, it's boring as hell.. who cares about a mobile language translator device with text-to-speech that doesn't even do speech recognition? Travelers have been able to pick up such technology for $50 for a decade now.

Yawn.

Re:This is horrid

[ichbineinneuben (1065378)]

It included the processor and the clock speed, just what do you want???

Re:This is horrid

[ZzzzSleep (606571)]

You could try this [wired.com] blog post in Wired [wired.com]. But I don't know that it's much better.

Re:

[Itninja (937614)]

Yeah, I agree. I think this story was picked up just because of the weak Star Trek reference. This just in! Motorola makes an amazing portable telephone called the PHAZR!!!!

Re:

[TFGeditor (737839)]

It also seems a bit overdone for the purpose. Cops investigating an "incident" need very basic information (who, what, when, where, how). When I was in the U.S. Army, we had "pointee-talkee" cards with common questions/answers printed in English and in whatever local language. The questioner pointed to a phrase in English on the card, and the respondent read it in his own language printed immediately beneath. Respondent then pointed to the appropriate response in his language, and the questioner then read i

Re:This is horrid

[QuantumG (50515)]

Ahh, but you still have the problem of pronunciation, which Americans find impossible.

Phraselator?

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

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

Re:Phraselator?

[moosesocks (264553)]

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"

Re:Phraselator?

[DFIE (984796)]

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.

Re:Phraselator?

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

interpreters work better and stop bullets.

You must have gone through a lot of interpreters.

One Way Tool?

[Faizdog (243703)]

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.

Re:One Way Tool?

[QuantumG (50515)]

And what's really stupid is that there are commercial devices available [ectaco.com] which are bidirectional for under US$600. Sounds like great US military spending.

Re:One Way Tool?

[adminstring (608310)]

Or better yet, they could just use a simple, inexpensive megaphone. Because everyone knows that if you just speak LOUDER and LOUDER, eventually you will reach a volume where the non-English-speaking person will finally understand you!

Re:

[Dutch Gun (899105)]

Military (or police) equipment is on a whole different level than most commercial devices when it comes to acceptable tolerances for failure. This process is often described as making a piece of equipment "solder-proof". People who don't understand this need to realize that when lives are literally on the line (for both soldiers and civilians), you often have to pay a premium for both the reliability and/or the specialization needed for military applications. You have to take ALL the specifications into

Re:

[hughk (248126)]

If one looks at the average military procurement program the prime concern is not whether it works, just that there are enough retired senior military officers on the company's payroll. Note that PDAs have been used for some time by people like surveyors, construction workers and so on. These ruggedised versions are best to use for comparison purposes. Yes, they do cost more than a regular PDA, but that much?

Re:One Way Tool?

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

This process is often described as making a piece of equipment "solder-proof"

Nothing is impervious to my soldering. I can destroy anything.

Re:One Way Tool? The price is high because...

[davidsyes (765062)]

SOMEwhere in there is an embedded, county/parish/municipality based digitized asshole:

Contempt Modes

CM1 "SCUMBAG, get ON the GROUND NOW, or i WILL DROP YOU."
CM2 "Turn the FUCK around. PUT your DAMNED hands UP."
CM3 "FREEZE, MOTHERFUCKAH.*"
CM4 "Don't FUCKIN' LIE TO ME, PEDRO/Patel/Nguyen/(sub a name you want)I'm gonna deport your ass."
CM5 "Go back where you came from..."

(As someone given false tickets at least 1 time by local police and TWO times by CHP, and nearly screwed by the judges on the case/docket, I

I can just imagine it

[davidc (91400)]

"My hovercraft is full of eels"

WHAT??

Re:I can just imagine it

[QuickFox (311231)]

"My hovercraft is full of eels"

WHAT??

Let me explain. What this means is that the guy who wrote the comment is the owner of a hovercraft, and he's complaining that it's full of eels.

Re:

[Megane (129182)]

Do you waaaaant ... do you waaaaaant ... to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?

Re:I can just imagine it

[tkw954 (709413)]

"A légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal"

For further information, please visit this page. [omniglot.com]

Re:

[ChrisMP1 (1130781)]

The Esperanto for it is wrong.

Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj

This suggests that your hovercraft is completely made of eels. Try "Mia kusenveturilo estas enspacita de angiloj."

This phrase comes features in a sketch about a badly translated English-Hungarian phrasebook from the British TV comedy show, Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Badly translated English-Esperanto phrasebook anyone?

Re:I can just imagine it

[TeknoHog (164938)]

That's it! I've had it with these motherfucking eels on this motherfucking hovercraft!

Can see some amusing things happening

[by Anonymous Coward]

Citizen: Someone's planted a bomb in there!
Phraselator: "Somebody set up us the bomb."
Soldier: What you say!!

Good thing?

[gotzero (1177159)]

I am not sure those two sides will want to know what the other is saying... Does it work two ways? It seems like it would be more helpful but also more cumbersome as a dialog.

Doesn't work in every major city yet

[cashman73 (855518)]

The reason they're not using it in all major cities is simple,... it won't translate jive . So it's useless in the ghetto,... I guess we'll still have to look for little, old, white ladies that speak jive!

Enough of this early 80's jive!

[BorgCopyeditor (590345)]

The original "Airplane!" movie (1980 [imdb.com]) called. It wants its joke back.

Reminds me of Mars Attacks...

[Mister Transistor (259842)]

Aliens: "Bak Bak, BaBa Bak Bak, BAK BAK BAK"

Translator: "We come in peace, we mean you no harm!"

"See? They mean us no harm!"

Re:

[Megane (129182)]

Ruri: "Baka, baaaaka."

Re:Reminds me of Mars Attacks...

[RuBLed (995686)]

Funny, it reminds me of an elevator conversation joke in our native tongue (Tagalog).

The scenario is that a foreigner (english) and a native was taking a ride down the elevator and it stopped halfway down, the door opened and the native outside the elevator asked if it is going down. The native inside said Yes it is going down. The conversation goes like this...

Native Outside Elevator: Bababa ba?
Native Inside Elevator: Bababa.
*Both natives understood each other*

The root word is "Baba" meaning "down" or "under".
Doubling the first syllable "Bababa" would mean continuing action as in "going down"
Adding a word "ba" after an action denotes a question (like adding "ka" at the end in Japanese)

So "Bababa ba?" means "Is this going down? (elevator)" to which the answer is an affirmative "Bababa." meaning "Yes it is going down."

"Ba" is pronounced like the "ba" in "bat"

The foreigner then asked if the natives just had a conversation :D

How would this device fare against such scenarios. I dunno. There are so many possibilities when it comes to languages...

Will it help them with speakers of other languages

[miskatonic alumnus (668722)]

like Français, Deutsch, or Español?

Re:Will it help them with speakers of other langua

[TheGoodSteven (1178459)]

My guess is no. 10,000 phrases might sound like alot, but I can imagine that they would get used up very quickly. Sounds like the only application for this is for police to give commands. With the speech recognition software, not only would only a handful of people be able to use it, but they would also have to know the limits of the device, as far as how fast you can talk, what extent of a vocabulary it has, and so on.

Popular phrase

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr. (142215)]

Todos son de su base nos pertenece
Toutes vos bases sont nous appartiennent
Ihre Basis sind gehören zu uns

Al uw uitvalsbasis zijn bij ons horen
       
Tutti sono la base appartengono a noi

Toda a sua base são pertence a nós
       

Obligatory

[jmac1492 (1036880)]

DON'T PHRASE ME BRO!

I read this as...

[deft (253558)]

I read thais as a star trek item with a VOGON 3200 Speech Recognizer.

Vogon would be pretty impressive.

Noise canceling microphone?

[croddy (659025)]

What the hell is a noise canceling microphone?

Re:

[ChrisMP1 (1130781)]

What the hell is Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]?

Re:Noise canceling microphone?

[RuBLed (995686)]

A microphone for mimes?

H2G2

[LordHatrus (763508)]

>> a VOCON 3200 Speech Recognizer
A VOGON 3200 speech recognizer? Don't the Vogons use Babel Fish like the rest of us? :-)

mHz?

[UbuntuDupe (970646)]

PXA255 400mHz

I don't know, maybe they should get one of them new-fangled Intel chips that's rumored to do a full processor cycle in *under* two seconds?

We're making INCREDIBLE progress..

[MindPrison (864299)]

...like all translation devices up to day:

Police: Ok Stan, this is a dangerous situation but our new Phraselator 4000 will deal with the situation, just talk into the mike:

Stan: Everything will be just fine, just drop your weapons.
Phraselator 4000: Every Bill be Your time, you topless weapon.
Terrorist: Allah will punish you, infidel!
Phraselator 4000: Allah will puke you, insurance!
Stan: (looks at the other officers and talks)
Stan: This is your second and final warning, drop down your weapons - NOW!
Phraselator 4000: Piss is your semicolon and finally warm, top down groove you weapon - HOW?
Stan: I don't think this is working, sir...
Phraselator 4000: I don't think, piss is lurking, sir...
Stan: Will you shut that useless piece of cr*p down!!
Terrorist: In soviet russia - camel piss on you!

(*everyone fires their guns, Phraselator 4000 has saved the day - once again*)

But can it handle cultural references?

[MobyDisk (75490)]

Darmack and Gillard at Tenagra! Shaka, when the walls fell.

Why translation is hard

[AmiMoJo (196126)]

Translating between related languages (such as western European languages which all derive mostly from Latin) is often a case of translating each word and re-arranging the sentence a little. It might sound a bit funny but will convey the meaning. Thus, all the translation software needs is a dictionary and some rules about converting word order in sentences.

Translating between unrelated languages, such as English to Japanese, is much harder. Not only are the words different, but so are all the forms for expressing ideas. In English you might say "John is here", but in Japanese you would effectively say "as for John, here exists." In English you say "John has that book," in Japanese it becomes "at John that (other) book exists." (In Japanese you can say "that book you have" or "that other book", but just generally "that book".) The translation software has to actually understand the meaning of what is being said, in order to re-phrase it in the context of the target language.

In fact, you do get a bit of that even in European languages. For example, in English we say "I am lost," but the French say "I have lost myself."

Re:obvious

[Radres (776901)]

Now the police can safely ignore the Spanish equivalent of "Don't tase me, bro"!

Re:

[Myrcutio (1006333)]

i can imagine the translator going off at odd times,

Police: "Freeze!"
Criminal: "No mi gusta las fresa! No el tase yo!"
Phraselator: "I don't like strawberries, you can't appraise me!"

If only you could harness the power of awkward silences...

Re:obvious

[Harmonious Botch (921977)]

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...

Re:obvious

[by Anonymous Coward]

Translation of "AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH" from other common languages:

Russian: "You are correct, I should not have been reading that book, comrade."

German: "I apologize for being too Jewish, and will now board the crowded yet impressively prompt train."

Canadian: "Oh darn. Iced the puck again."

Japanese: "I believe the voice actress for my favorite anime is making an appearance nearby."

French: "My cheese!" or "You appear to be trying to add a non-French word to the French language", depending on context.

American: "It appears my Tivo did not record this week's episode of Lost."

Mandarin: "Hello."

"Australian": "Crikey, look at the size of that stingra--"

Jamaican: (nobody has ever heard this phrase from a Jamaican)

Anybody left I didn't offend?

Re:

[The Evil Couch (621105)]

Cantonese: "Hey! Get out of the way! The brakes in my tank don't work!"

Hindi: "Why the hell do people keep forgetting about us?! There's a couple billion of us and we have nukes, dammit!"

Arab: "Holy crap! I think I just saw a glimpse of female flesh, I must stone her to death and then put out my eyes!"

African: "Whoa! Cheap, brightly colored laptops for children!"

That ought to round out your list a bit.

Re:

[loganrapp (975327)]

I just nuked everyone I could. I'll let you guess which civilization I chose.