[Reader-list] the robot interpreter

[Nitin Govil]

This dovetails completely with US militarism.  I wonder if VoxTec will
outsource the programming tasks and then sue folks that hack the unit (like
the robot dog) to mimic george w's "we're making solid progress"?

nitin

______________________________

The Economist, August 28, 2004
U.S. Edition. p. 42

SECTION: MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

HEADLINE: Elevate your hands or I ignite;
A robot interpreter

The US army's robot interpreter

A high-tech weapon for the war to win Iraqi hearts and minds

AMONG the many fields in which Americans excel are technological wizardry
and not speaking foreign languages. So it was only a matter of time before
someone invented a robot that can translate spoken English into other
tongues. Enter the "Phraselator", a palm-held electronic polyglot built by a
firm in Maryland called VoxTec. Its most immediate application is military.
Flesh-and-blood linguists prefer to work in places where their flesh and
blood are safe. Robots don't care.

Humans may be better interpreters than machines, but they "often have their
own political agenda", which can jeopardise accuracy, says the Phraselator's
designer, Ace Sarich. Plus, at $2,300 a pop, the device works out cheaper
than an interpreter's wages, especially if you expect to be stuck somewhere
foreign for a long, long while. So it's popular with coalition troops in
Iraq.
The seed money for the Phraselator was supplied by the American government.
After September 11th 2001, the Department of Defence decided it was going to
need a machine that could speak Arabic, among other languages.

Shawn Collins, a sergeant with America's special forces in Iraq, calls the
device "a godsend". After a recent battle, he found he was able to make a
group of Iraqi children laugh with his Phraselator's Star-Trekky vernacular.
He then asked if they knew of any hidden weapons nearby, and they led him to
a cache of rocket-propelled grenades.

For now, the device is best at translating phrases "commonly used by
soldiers", says VoxTec. But the company is exploring new markets, including
disaster relief, tourism and the preparation of Freedom Fries. "We've been
approached by fast-food companies that need to tell [non-English-speaking]
workers how to use the deep-fat fryer," says Mr Sarich.

The Phraselator's main drawback is that it cannot translate replies.
Questions have to be answerable with a nod of the head, or by pointing to
the window where the sniper is lurking. It lacks a certain human touch, too.
"Pointing a machinegun at enemy soldiers and yelling loudly in English and
motioning them to get down tends to work wonders compared to pulling out the
Phraselator and having it say: 'Drop your weapon'," says Sgt Collins.