Quote:
Originally Posted by crystalblue
I have seen others that do other languages. Wont be long til you will be able to download all the more popular languages before going on vacation!
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You're absolutely right about that. Of the old portable translation devices that I recall, one unit in particular contained 18+/- languages. Mostly the things are like translation dictionaries that you can hear how to pronounce the words, although it also contained a fair number of common phrases.
The device you posted about is far more sophisticated, and remarkable because you simply speak what you want to know. To be fair, the translator would still have limitations, but it's truly impressive. I also think such devices will eventually have other languages available, either built-in or by using language cards you can plug in.
Seems like something similar was hoped to be common in computers. Remember the speech-to-text, voice commands, etc.? Those ideas have never really become commonplace apart from a few specialized uses. I recall years ago there was a fairly accurate and sophisticated text translation program (for documents, letters, etc.) that was used by government agencies and universities, but the cost was thousands of dollars. Way out of my budget.
I also remember one of the very first calculators made available to the public had a price of about $400.00. All it could do was simple math, used red LED lights for display, and used a wired connected "wand" to touch the metal keypad. Bulky thing too. Now you can get calculators that are extremely powerful in comparison and can be bought for less than $1.00.
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