Today I thought of something that would be rather cool. It is probably not feasible yet, but given another few years of processor power increase for mobile devices, it could be. I’m thinking of a mobile phone that, after setting the speaker’s and the listener’s languages, could translate between the two.

It would record what you spoke, process the sentence - probably into text - then translate that sentence into another language. That translated sentence would then be sent to the earpiece of the person you’re talking to.

Some of the technology is here - speech recognition exists, with software like Dragon Naturally Speaking. That is one half of the equation. Translation tools exist - look at Google’s language tools. Text-to-speech synthesisers are easy, too, and are already in some phones I think - for reading out emails and text messages.

Problems? There are a few. It wouldn’t be able to translate on the fly - there would be pauses in conversation, like speaking with a human interpreter. This ties into the second problem - using Google’s translator, it often translates word-for-word, meaning sentences can be all out of order due to different language structures. Unless the translating algorithm can adjust sentence structure, it’s going to sound weird. It would also be part of the reason why it would have to listen to the whole sentence before beginning the translation.

Another problem would be potential market - who calls people who don’t speak their language? I guess the pauses would be quite off-putting to someone unfamiliar with what’s going on. Maybe it would need a little pre-recorded message at the beginning of the call letting the recipient know what’s happening. Anyway, it could have uses in emergencies, such as tourists in foreign countries trying to call an ambulance.

 I’m sure I’m not the only one who has thought of this, but it’s the first time it’s come into my head, anyway. The first example could be PC-based (maybe even using a VOIP service like skype). Even if the phone idea doesn’t work, just a dictation-style device, that speaks out what you just said into it (again, as a tool for foreign tourists) could be doable.

If it happens, hell, remember where you read it first.