URL: J-E/E-J translation device from NEC.

From: mirror (mailto_at_127.0.0.1)
Date: 10/11/04 

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 19:14:24 GMT

FYI...

"Device Translates Spoken Japanese and English"
New Scientist (10/07/04); Knight, Will
-----------------------------------------------
A handheld device that facilitates Japanese-to-English and
English-to-Japanese translation of spoken language is expected to
make its Japanese debut in the coming months. The NEC gadget uses
a speech recognition engine to identify spoken English or
Japanese and convert it into text, software to translate the
language into its Japanese or English equivalent, and a voice
synthesizer to generate the translation vocally--all in
approximately one second. Carnegie Mellon University machine
translation expert Alan Rudnicky believes the NEC system will
only be applicable under certain circumstances, and should not be
viewed as a replacement for normal verbal communication. "It's
better to think of these as communication devices that enable two
people to communicate across a language barrier," he argues. The
product will initially be marketed for Japanese tourists and
business travelers, although NEC researcher Akitoshi Okumura
thinks the system can be adjusted to translate other languages.
Training the system to recognize native speakers is essential to
its performance, and Okumura says this process requires the
sampling of roughly 100 unique voices. The researcher thinks a
workable translator for mobile phones is a possibility, although
such a breakthrough requires functionality upgrades that include
the ability to distinguish a voice from background noise and
recognize different accents.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996503

(I'd like to see the source code for this bad dog.)

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