Published on 10/27/2006
U.S. scientists at Carnegie Mellon University are currently working on a "Tower of Babel" device that works as if you're watching a dubbed TV program, taking a very different approach from the conventional translation systems that use voice recognition software. The Tower of Babel device comes with electrodes which are attached to the neck and face, detecting the movements that occur whenever the subject spews words and phrases silently. The computer will the process what the subject is actually saying, and construct the correct words in order to form a sentence in the desired language which is subsequently read out by a synthetic voice. There are currently a couple of prototypes available - an English-Chinese one and an English-Spanish/German model. It is advancements like these that make the world a truly global village.