E-translators: the more you say, the better

The device is the idea of Ace Sarich, a former Navy Seal, who works for VoxTech, the Annapolis, Md., company that manufactures the Phraselator.

After Sept. 11, 2001, "we were asked by the Department of Defense to speed up our development" of the device, says Shannon Dooman, a VoxTech spokeswoman. Phraselator was first put to use by the US military in Afghanistan in March 2002.

Unlike some computerized translators, the Phraselator requires no training to recognize individual voices, a "big benefit" when being used by troops, Ms. Dooman says. The translated phrases are pre-recorded by native speakers, not constructed by an artificial voice, so they are clearly understood. Individual languages are stored on secure digital (SD) cards that can be loaded into the device.

The crew of the USS Enterprise used the device to help give medical treatment to an Iraqi fisherman, Dooman says by phone. And "one soldier said he was able to find a large weapons cache by talking with teenagers using the device."

Currently, the translation is in one direction only, from English to another language. Responses still require pointing and signing, though spoken replies can be recorded for later translation by a person.

The company foresees civilian applications for the Phraselator for those working in law enforcement, disaster relief, fire and rescue, and humanitarian aid. A smaller, cheaper version may be developed for tourists.

More sophisticated devices that can put words - not just phrases - in their natural context remain some way off. Fully natural conversations - two-way translations - are "a very daunting problem," says Dr. Frederking of Carnegie Mellon. Even human translators aren't perfect at it, he adds.

In 2001, Frederking participated in a US Army field test of a two-way translation device in Zagreb, Croatia. "It worked OK about half of the time," he says by phone, but the Army decided "that's not really good enough to deploy something."

Carnegie Mellon is working on its own "Speechlator" for use in doctor-patient interviews, Frederking says. The limited range of the typical conversation in a doctor's office greatly helps. "The doctor knows what's he's interested in," he says. "And there's a finite range of symptoms you [the patient] have. That kind of [computerized translator], where you're working on a specific task, is not that far away. I think that might become possible in the next couple of years." But translating a conversation where obscure phrases or slang could be injected "is still a long time away," he adds.

That doesn't stop some scientists from making bold predictions. Researcher Yuqing Gao told Technology Review that in 10 years everyone may have a two-way translator built into their personal digital assistant or cellphone.

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