Iphone Translate App Readied For Olympics

[Maestro]

iPhone translate app readied for Olympics

Published: June 27, 2012 at 5:22 PM

LONDON, June 27 (UPI) -- A new speech translation iPhone app will be available for the millions of tourists expected to descend on London for the 2012 Olympics, researchers said.

The app, dubbed VoiceTra4U-M, will allow people to converse with foreigners in their own language, NewScientist.com reported Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/S.../#ixzz1zj3uZwZz

[bangkockney]

Really catchy name they chose.

[Maestro]

The Nation television channel had a programme about the VoiceTra4U-M translation app but it was in Thai language. Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) was mentioned, which let's me hope that Thai will be one of the languages included in the translator, and I also heard Android mentioned, the OS on my smartphone.

[Maestro]

Universal speech translator app ready for Olympics

15:23 27 June 2012

Jacob Aron, technology reporter

In one month's time, millions of tourists from across the world will descend on London for the 2012 Olympics, creating the perfect test bed for a new speech translation iPhone app.

The app, dubbed VoiceTra4U-M, is a bit of a mouthful to say, but lets people converse with foreigners in their own language. It was developed by the Universal Speech Translation Advanced Research Consortium (U-STAR), which is made up of researchers from 23 different countries, and supports full voice translation for 13 different languages, with text translation for a further 10.

Read more: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/06/universal-speech-translator-ap.html

[Dancali]

Sounds interesting. It sure seems like technology will some day get to the point where people can converse amongst foreign languages without having actually learned a foreign language. However, we're still very far from a science-fiction universal translator.

I think this thing won't be more than a gimmick. Google already has something very similar, even superior in many ways (likely much more comprehensive database), and hardly anybody uses it for anything. And this is coming from somebody who frequently makes use of Google Translate and appreciates it as amazing technology.