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]

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

ObPython

[Anonymous Coward]

My hovercraft is full of eels

Can see some amusing things happening

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Phraseleator

[acrobg]

Hm, Sounds like the DARPA version of the babelfish. now if only it could be placed inside everyone's ear

Re:This is horrid

[ichbineinneuben]

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

Doesn't work in every major city yet

[cashman73]

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!

Reminds me of Mars Attacks...

[Mister Transistor]

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:obvious

[Radres]

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

Re:I can just imagine it

[QuickFox]

"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.

Popular phrase

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

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
       

Re:One Way Tool?

[adminstring]

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!

Obligatory

[jmac1492]

DON'T PHRASE ME BRO!

Noise canceling microphone?

[croddy]

What the hell is a noise canceling microphone?

Re:Noise canceling microphone?

[ChrisMP1]

What the hell is Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]?

Re:Noise canceling microphone?

[RuBLed]

A microphone for mimes?

Re:obvious

[Myrcutio]

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...

H2G2

[LordHatrus]

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

Re:obvious

[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?

We're making INCREDIBLE progress..

[MindPrison]

...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*)

Re:Phraselator?

[MichaelSmith]

interpreters work better and stop bullets.

You must have gone through a lot of interpreters.

Re:One Way Tool?

[MichaelSmith]

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

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

Re:Phraselator?

[dalleboy]

Do they really have their own dead Jim?

Re:This is horrid

[QuantumG]

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

Re:obvious

[4D6963]

French: "My cheese!"

French: "Quick, my emergency white flag!"

Ha and I'm French so somehow you can't mod that flamebait!

Re:obvious

[loganrapp]

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

Re:I can just imagine it

[TeknoHog]

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