Home > Columnists > Stephen Manes Digital Tools Translation Trek Stephen Manes, 07.04.05, 12:00 AM ET Hope: You speak English, and a device squawks your phrase in another language. Reality:Star Trek's Universal Translator this is not. Speech recognition has been treating me kindly lately. First Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 ably turned my vocal utterances into text on my computer screen (see FORBES, Feb. 28). Then VoiceSignal's VoiceMode did the same trick on a little cell phone (Apr. 25). So I had high hopes for speech-to-speech translation, formerly the province of fictional devices like Star Trek's Universal Translator. The idea: You speak English, and a voice inside the device squawks the phrase in another language. Or so promises Ectaco, the New York maker of the $400 SpeechGuard TL-4 Multilingual Speech-to-Speech Translator. The company says the device is based on a similar model created for the U.S. Army; it's certainly the only mobile consumer electronics product I've ever seen that comes with a strap on the back to help you hold it. Far too big to fit into a shirt pocket, the clunky 11-ounce package feels enormous by the standards of today's mobile consumer electronics, and the monochrome touch screen and feeble backlight seem recycled from ancient PalmPilots. "Travel with confidence!" says the box, which also boasts "Instant Translation" of "4,000 phrases." Well, sort of: Turns out the number refers to the total number of phrases that the unit can say across seven different languages--German, Chinese, French, Japanese, Italian, Russian and Spanish. The English phrase list is just shy of 600, half as many as a Berlitz one-language phrase book that costs $9, weighs 4.5 ounces, occupies one-third the space, requires no batteries and includes a 2,000-word dictionary. The tiny Collins Gem French-English dictionary I use claims over 50,000 references in about half the Ectaco's volume. It also works in both directions, which SpeechGuard emphatically does not. Say you have the unit speak the phrase "It seems my baggage has been lost" in a language you don't know. When the listener responds incomprehensibly, what next? You could press "hints" and have SpeechGuard utter, "Please write it down for me." Better idea: Hand over a two-way dictionary in which your respondent can point to the local term for "tough." Mr. Spock would raise his eyebrows at SpeechGuard's inability to let you simply say "Good evening" and instantly hear "Bonsoir." To have a chance of getting your utterance recognized, you first have to navigate to one of nine categories such as transport or sightseeing. Next you press the unit's "recognize" button, wait at least a second for the "Silence!" prompt to change to "Speak Up!", say your piece and release the button. Then comes the fun part. When I tried "Where are the bathrooms?" in the restaurant category, the unit spoke what it claimed was the French translation for "With butter, please." (It was actually French for "Do you have butter, please?" but never mind.) To find a bathroom, you need to navigate elsewhere. But even after Igot that right, SpeechGuard once blurted out my bathroom inquiry as "Where can I get a ticket?" Don't even think about saying "toilet." It's not in there. Unless you find the right section and say the exact phrase stored in the device (which often fails), results are almost always more hilarious than useful. You're better off scrolling through the phrase list, picking what you want and pressing the "say" button. Failing that, you can use a poorly implemented search function that lets you tap letters on an onscreen keyboard. So even when it works within the device's narrow goals, voice recognition here is as silly as the startup message's recommendation to "avoid noisy places and situations while using the device." And so is a unit that lacks any way to translate numbers and letters and includes the phrase "Do you have a smoking section?" but not "Do you have a nonsmoking section?" Perhaps that's why Ectaco's Web site popped up a window asking me to "Bid Your Own Price" for the SpeechGuard. This thing might liven up a party, but it isn't likely to help you much on a trip. Captain Kirk and his 23rd-century crew may have Universal Translators. Twenty-first-century humans still don't. Stephen Manes ([email protected]) is cohost of PC World's Digital Duo, which appears weekly on public television. Visit his home page at www.forbes.com/manes. http://www.forbes.com/technology/free_forbes/2005/0704/068.html -- ┌───◆=Λ= 深太空九号 =Λ=◆───┐▇─┐ 优质连线服务隆/重/豋/场!! │ telnet://bbs.kkcity.com.tw:21844/ │┴ └─▇ KKADSL 带你环游全世界 └──《From:218.171.175.36 》──┘ KKADSL ┴ http://adsl.kkcity.com.tw