Universal Translators in the Next Few Years?

The universal translator is a sci-fi staple: Star Trek made it infamous. Star Wars had C3PO. Hitchhiker’s Guide had the babel fish. Stargate and Dr. Who both had some variation of a voice-to-voice translating device. In some ways, the future is already here: Google Translate can turn around a workable text translation almost instantly (automatically in Chrome), and it’s letting the multilingual web talk to itself. Word Lens will even translate text you see in real time as augmented reality on your smartphone. Text translation is all well and good, but when will the holy grail arrive? When will voice-to-voice translation become a reality? When can you finally toss your Rosetta Stone software?

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It looks like there are still some bumps to work out but when this becomes smooth and fluent it should be a good service for humanity.
I am surprised that this has not come about before now, but I have always anticipated this technology and look forward to using it sometime. I think it will be a great tool and may spare me the time and effort of learning a whole new language, which I have tried but it did not stick enough.
I like this opition better than the matrix style bio port in the back of the head.

Peace,
spec

Awesome, yet not universal
Happy new year!

This would be great, I've tried to teach myself Spanish and Japanese over the years but it never sticks, I can't stay invested in it long enough to learn more than a few words here and there. Some would say a device like this is the lazy man's way but not everyone has the time to truly immerse themselves in a new language, I'm all for it.

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


That is promising news. I just hope it's not a slimy fish you have to cram into your ear. Now if it could translate animal speech I would definitely buy one. Thanks for the info.

reply to post by incarnating

I guess it could be considered arrogant ot premature to actually call it "universal," maybe global instead, unless it knows Ferangi.
Happy New Year to you too

peace,
spec

reply to post by bigern


I too thought about the "lazy" aspect but hey, our lives are pretty full now and my brain is one hardrive that could use some defragmenting, so I would say this more of a blessing than a weakening crutch.
Thanks for the reply!

Peace,
spec

reply to post by RainDog

I just hope it's not a slimy fish you have to cram into your ear.

Now what sci-fi adventure did you get that notion from?
Animal translator? Now that would be cool!
Thanks for the reply...

Peace,
spec