Zenscrypt (Automatic translation device)
Thread poster: Harumi Uemura
Harumi Uemura
Harumi Uemura  Identity Verified
United States
Member (2012)
English to Japanese
+ ...
Jun 20, 2016

Recently a non-linguist friend of mine shared a post on Facebook about an earpiece that will allow the user to download an app that instantly interprets several languages (including Asian languages) in English. I was skeptic about how efficient the device is (especially in Japanese) and told her that "I'm not sure if it is that efficient in Asian languages". But the advertisement seemed to have convinced her that it is the real deal. I'm still very skeptic, but I was wondering what other linguis... See more
Recently a non-linguist friend of mine shared a post on Facebook about an earpiece that will allow the user to download an app that instantly interprets several languages (including Asian languages) in English. I was skeptic about how efficient the device is (especially in Japanese) and told her that "I'm not sure if it is that efficient in Asian languages". But the advertisement seemed to have convinced her that it is the real deal. I'm still very skeptic, but I was wondering what other linguistics think about such a device. Does anyone have experiences of testing or trying out such devices? What did you think as a linguist?

For the administrator: If there is already a similar topic please go ahead and re-direct me to the original one.
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Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 13:13
Member
English to Italian
Google translate Jun 20, 2016

Harumi Uemura wrote:

Recently a non-linguist friend of mine shared a post on Facebook about an earpiece that will allow the user to download an app that instantly interprets several languages (including Asian languages) in English. I was skeptic about how efficient the device is (especially in Japanese) and told her that "I'm not sure if it is that efficient in Asian languages". But the advertisement seemed to have convinced her that it is the real deal. I'm still very skeptic, but I was wondering what other linguistics think about such a device. Does anyone have experiences of testing or trying out such devices? What did you think as a linguist?

For the administrator: If there is already a similar topic please go ahead and re-direct me to the original one.


A while ago I read an article about this:
"Translate by speech

You can translate spoken words and phrases if your device has a microphone. In some languages, you'll hear the translation spoken aloud" - http://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142468?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en

Basically, you can already use your smartphone for this... so what you mention sounds like a specialized device based on the same principle. Voice recognition + automatic translation + speech synthesis. I guess the end result will basically depend on the quality of voice recognition + automatic translation... (in 1 on 1 scenarios)


 
LilianNekipelov
LilianNekipelov  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:13
Russian to English
+ ...
Total hoax. Jun 21, 2016

sometimes the voice recognition system has problems recognizing simple commands, like in banks, etc. There was one that required you to speak with the Southern accent for the system to recognize words (in the US) No, not for long, or more like never.

Good luck with languages like German and Japanese where the verb is at the end.

[Edited at 2016-06-21 15:33 GMT]


 
Harumi Uemura
Harumi Uemura  Identity Verified
United States
Member (2012)
English to Japanese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
So it is a hoax Jun 21, 2016

That is what I thought. I know that some devices can translate fixed commands, but I've never really heard of a successful interpreting device. I was hoping to learn how effective these devices are but I guess my expectations were right.

 


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Zenscrypt (Automatic translation device)






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