Microsoft’s Universal Translator software was created by Frank Soong. It’s software that’s basically able to speak in the user’s own voice, smoothly in sentences. Right now, Microsoft’s UT speaks 26 languages but there are more to come. All you need to do is speak English into it and it will convert it into different languages, from Spanish to Mandarin. All told, it takes about an hour to train the system with your voice.

The software will be used to help students learn new languages and develop more accurate translation apps. You can hear some samples of the translated voices over at TechnologyReview, including the voice of Rick Rashid, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer.

While no translation software is 100% accurate, it’s still pretty impressive. This is really cool technology, and with the dramatic increases in mobile device capabilities, it’s only a matter of time before they could package it into a handheld gadget, just like the one in Star Trek. (Except for the part where it can translate alien languages it’s never heard before.)

[via DVice]

It wears a dress and has a pointy head that’s rather like Sputnik. The bot was created at the Tsukuba University in Japan and was intended to improve the interaction between man and machine. The bot is supposed to master non-verbal communication with humans and serve as a guide by moving the head, arms, and waist.

The collar the bot wears has cameras and a laser range finder to help it determine position and direction.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The thing reminds me of a character from some sci-fi flick or show, but I can’t quite place it. It will drive me crazy all day, so if you know the one I am thinking of, feel free to share.

[via Plastic Pals via CrunchGear]

And my personal favorite:

I know that fansubs are labors of love, done for free and for the good of millions of non-Japanese speaking anime fans, but come on. Seriously. Let’s have some standards here. Here are some more fails:

More at Sankaku Complex. Fansubbers, feel free to share your side of the story. How hard is it to sub? How long does it take? Have any of you been sued? And where’s the car?

Even the set-up is a bit DS-like. Users write on a whiteboard, using ordinary markers; a webcam then takes an image of the written word or phrase. The real magic is done by the software, which “analyzes the image and interprets the handwritten words into different output modalities.” In other words, what you write is what you get.

Unfortunately, the demo video doesn’t go into detail about the capabilities and the limitations of the software, like the number or kinds of languages it can interpret, the types of words (adjectives, proper nouns, adverbs, verbs) it can interpret, the number of words it can recognize, or if the virtual objects can be made to interact like in Scribblenauts.

Nevertheless, this is an awesome project, and preschool and elementary teachers will no doubt fall on their knees and cry buckets of joyous tears if and when WYWIWYG comes out, because it’s a clever way of capturing the attention of kids and motivating them to learn. After all, you can’t make green poop appear if you don’t know how to spell “green” and “poop”. You can watch the demo video at the Interactive Multimedia Lab’s website; be sure to check out their other projects as well.

Aside from the display, the microphone used to pick up speech is also mounted on the eyepiece. The mic sends data to the small computer, which is meant to be worn on a user’s waist. The computer then sends the data to the remote server, which takes care of the heavy stuff, converting speech to text and finally translating. Then the translated text is sent back to the computer, and finally displayed in the eyepiece. The text is displayed on the user’s peripheral vision, so you won’t go wall-eyed trying to read the translation.

…or so goes NEC’s big plan. Currently the system’s translating capability is not be good enough for real world application, so for now the device is being promoted as a convenient means of looking at user manuals or guides for engineers or technicians to use while their working on something. And since it can receive data from a remote server, the Tele Scouter can also be used to send instructions to several personnel all at once, in real time.

NEC will begin selling Tele Scouter systems next year. I don’t know if it will be fully functional by then, but even if it did it’s not like we’ll be able to afford it: a set-up good enough for 30 users will cost ¥750 million (approx. $8.3 million USD).

[via gizmag]

John Freeborn’s CODE Stickers are perfect for building geek cred with the guy in your rear-view mirror. For just $5 bucks, you’ll get a set of 5 vinyl stickers, including .NET, PHP, CSS, AJAX and good old HTML to cover your bumper or tailgate with. But they look best slapped onto the basket on the front of your Segway.

Java, Python, Ruby and Perl developers need not apply.

[via geekadelphia]

The Trinvo can cross-translate between 12 languages, including Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), and Turkish. English isn’t supported. I’m kidding, of course it is. The Trinvo (supposedly) speaks using a native human voice, and it’s dictionary holds over 2,500 words as well as over 750 commonly used travel-related sentences for each of the included languages. I hope it can say “I have to urinate”, “I missed my flight”, and “Mommy”. You can also plug in a pair of headphones and listen to the built-in words and sentences via the 3.5 mm jack. You can buy a Trinvo for only £35 (approx. $58 (USD) at Gadgetshop. Hangman and Quiz games included.

[via Gadget Blog]

The new portable translator not only translates over 450,000 words and 12,000 phrases, it contains recorded samples of speech to provide accurate pronunciation in all 12 languages. The TGA-490 speaks in Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The compact package also features an MP3 player, currency converter, world alarm clock and voice recorder.

The Franklin TGA-490 Universal Speaking Translator will be available starting this February for $229.95 USD.