* SRI International's speech-to-speech translation system is secure and untiring
SRI International, a very interesting place that I am pleased to count among my former employers, has developed a speech-to-speech translation system known as IraqComm.
SRI International, a very interesting place that I am pleased to count among my former employers, has developed a speech-to-speech translation system known as IraqComm.
The system works by recording English or Iraqi Arabic speech and then converting the recording to text. The text is then translated into the other language and then displayed on-screen and also spoken audibly. The system is being used initially by the U.S. military to train Iraqi policy and military personnel.
The IraqComm translation system runs on fairly minimal hardware: a 1.2 GHz Windows XP-equipped notebook, tablet PC or desktop computer with 1.5GB of RAM and 40GB of disk space. IraqComm contains a vocabulary of 50,000 Arabic words and 40,000 English words.
The IraqComm system offers significant potential for application in a variety of messaging systems. For example, integrating similar technology into voice-enabled instant messaging systems would allow a user to speak into their IM client, automatically translate their words into another language and then converse with someone in that language.
In addition, the applications would include being able to converse with someone in technical support speaking a different language. This would allow supporting customers worldwide instead of requiring customer service representatives to know specific languages.
The technology could also be applied to e-mail, automatically translating e-mail from one language into the language of the recipient based on the settings stored in that computer. One of the advantages of the IraqComm technology is that the system stores a text version of the spoken words, permitting archiving of spoken conversations in conventional archiving systems.
