Interest

Tokyo Airport to Test Megaphone Translator

Tokyo's Narita International Airport announced that it will test a megaphone that repeats announcements at a higher volume, then translates them into three foreign languages: English, Chinese and Korean. Called the Megaphoneyaku (yaku means "translation"), its translation ability is roughly equal to that of a smartphone app, so its ability to handle airport-specific terminology is uncertain.

It may seem like a device Doraemon would whip out, but the Megaphoneyaku was developed by Panasonic and was inspired by floods in 2014, when airport staff had difficulty communicating with stranded foreign travelers they were distributing sleeping bags and water to. Follow this link to see a video of the gizmo in action.

[Via Mainichi Shimbun]