IBM Smartphone Software Translates 11 Languages 102
coondoggie writes to mention that IBM researchers have an internal smartphone software project that is capable of translating text between English and 11 other languages (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic). There are no concrete plans to release this as a public product, but IBM certainly isn't shutting out that possibility. "Hosted as an internal IBM service since August 2008, n.Fluent offers a secure real-time translation tool that translates text in web pages, electronic documents, same-time instant message chats, and provides a BlackBerry mobile translation application. According to IBM, the software was developed from an internal IBM crowd-sourcing project where Big Blue's nearly 400,000 employees in more than 170 countries submit, update and continuously refine word translations. Every time it's used, n.Fluent 'learns' and improves its translation engine. To date, the tool has been used by IBMers to translate more than 40 million words, IBM stated."
Re:Gene Roddenberry was prescient. (Score:3, Informative)
This is nothing like a universal translator. If it was then it wouldn't work on 11 languages, it would work on all of them.
And you're jumping the gun a bit claiming hyperdrive as a real technology. Just because the pentagon is paying loads of money to research something doesn't mean it has any legitimacy, e.g. remote viewing.
Google Translate already? (Score:4, Informative)
My smartphone already does this - it's called google translate, and was a huge boon while I was overseas last month.