John Archambault: Digitalist
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August 18, 2006 Digg | del.icio.us | Facebook | newsvine | Reddit
Handheld Voice Translation Is Promising, but Has a Long Way to Go
I recently returned from two and a half weeks overseas in Europe, a truly amazing experience where I had the opportunity to drive through the French, Swiss and Austrian Alps, spending many days hiking through some of the most sublime mountain scenery that I have ever seen.

Being the sort of traveler who likes to connect with the local culture, and knowing that I was going to be spending time in rural areas, I had, for the purpose of facilitating communication with non-English speakers, explored the possibility of downloading some sort of translation software to a handheld device. I envisioned using it to have robust, meaningful conversations with the people that I met, and I became excited about the prospect of doing something totally new.

One of my friends loaned me his unused HP iPaq Pocket PC, which has audio input and output. After hunting around for quite some time, I was disappointed to find no 'on the fly' translation software for handheld devices. Eventually I decided to demo a trial version of a French/Spanish/German/English translation software suite from LingvoSoft. This package, filled with predetermined phrases, purported to meet 80% of a traveler's needs, and would output an audio translation of the selected expression.

The trial version of LingvoSoft was very unimpressive. Many of the expressions that one could select seemed unusual; I didn't anticipate needing to know where the stadium was, or how to get to a marina. The audio output of the translations was of extremely poor quality, and did not take advantage of the iPaq's full aural range.

While sitting @ a cafe in Innsbruck, I met a San Franciscan named Dave, who makes a living in web services. We discussed my consternation with LingvoSoft; he relayed his own experience of downloading a German dictionary to his Palm device, only to have it offer up translations that were either arcane or incomprehensible. He found himself being told by German speakers "that's not how we would say it... "

What all of this taught me was that handheld translation clearly has a very, VERY long way to go before it reaches its potential. But when that does happen, cultural exchanges will be greatly enhanced. What if, in five to ten years, a person could speak into a Pocket PC, and have an instant audio translation of their words into another language? As I can personally attest based upon my experience while riding the sleeper car on a train from Zürich to Vienna, this could be a big help to travelers everywhere.

Too much was made of the old notion that digital technology would prevent meaningful human relationships. Everywhere I go, I see increasing evidence that the digital age is being melded in such a way as to enhance the lives of those that live in it. Hopefully, when I next visit Europe, handhelds will have come far enough that I can carry on a lengthy conversation with someone while using such a device as a translator; I would love to have a chance to put this to the test in a mountain hut in the Austrian Alps. It's even possible that a cell phone could be imbued with such capabilities (although that might be further off).

Every day, we're moving in the right direction ...