Forum - View topicINTEREST: Tokyo Airport to Test Megaphone Translator
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
|
|||||
|
With discretion, I think this extraordinary device could come in handy for breaking language barriers in rescue missions.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
GATSU
Posts: 15317 |
|
|||||
|
I can see it working, as long as Babelfish had no hand in translating it.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
|
|||||
Retcon? I remember that explanation being right in the movie. But more to the point, it's, y'know, a metaphor. Whether you agree with it is another matter, but it's pretty blatant commentary on Americans' increasing obesity, unhealthy eating, and lack of exercise. Taking existing problems and extrapolating them to a dystopian future is pretty ubiquitous in sci-fi... not usually accurate, but that's partly because we start writing scary-future stories about these issues before they get out of control. The whole thing with Totally Not Wal-Mart taking over the world and overconsuming it into a garbage pit is the same deal. Anyway... I sorta wonder how well this translator megaphone actually works, since they only show it translating one simple sentence, and machine translators are still generally flaky. It may really just recognize a few specific sentences, maybe with gate numbers or whatever thrown in. |
||||||
|
||||||
Kadmos1
 Posts: 13560 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
|
|||||
|
If they had a anime episode of this, I would find it interesting that a fansub might translate this. That is, a copyright-infringing and questionable in accuracy group translating a questionable in accuracy machine.
|
||||||
|
||||||
unready
 Posts: 400 Location: Illinois, USA |
|
|||||
Please help prevent safety. |
||||||
|
||||||
koinosuke
 Posts: 271 Location: Fukushima, Japan |
|
|||||
|
How about actually hiring employees that can speak these languages to at least a reasonable degree? That seems to already be the case with most Narita employees, at least for English. Much better than a translation machine that spits out ridiculous sentences that lack all cohesion. There's plenty of people in Japan who speak all the listed languages fluently and would be much better to have in an emergency than an unreliable and likely crappy piece of technology.
|
||||||
|
||||||
ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
|
|||||
|
Because apparently somebody looked at the garbled mess of nonsense that is auto-translators and thought: "Yeah, but is there a way this can be blared in public to a bunch of confused/upset tourists in the event of an emergency?"
|
||||||
|
||||||
SailorDJ
 Posts: 162 Location: In a land far, far away |
|
|||||
|
That's a pretty awesome megaphone there.
|
||||||
|
||||||
AnimeLordLuis
 Posts: 1626 Location: The Borderlands of Pandora |
|
|||||
|
I prefer my translators in the form of a talking mechanical velociraptor thank you very much.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
SWAnimefan
Posts: 634 |
|
|||||
More accurate to say it's closer to Star Trek in using universal translators to communicate.
Given advancements with technological translating devices, it's inevitable. |
||||||
|
||||||
leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
|
|||||
Someone catch that Red John before he causes more trouble! Which way did he go?
This device is never going to be as good as having a human translator on duty. Even with the oddly prevalent Engrish in Japan, even they will usually provide you with a sentence at least close enough to their original intent for a native English speaker to figure out. And I'd guess the same goes for Chinese and Korean. (I'm a frequent visitor to Engrish.com though, so maybe I've grown used to them and are able to glean their intended meaning most of the time.) This megaphone will also not be able to account for travelers and tourists who do not know Japanese, Korean, Chinese, or English, though I don't know how many foreign visitors come to Japan that fit those specifications (but I'm sure a lot come from Europe who don't know any of those languages).
Is that a pretty easy thing to do, to hire people fluent in those languages and can translate on the fly? I know after Japanese, those are the three most spoken and most understood languages in the country, but are they that common that you can quickly locate someone who speaks the language in an emergency? |
||||||
|
||||||
Nilrem
 Posts: 142 |
|
|||||
That I suspect is the key thing, the ability for any member of staff to pick it up and use it at short notice. Most airlines and airports already try and get staff on the international side and are "customer facing" who can speak at least one additional language already, but that doesn't really help when the staff member speaks say Japanese and English but is unexpectedly dealing with passengers from China, Korea France etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the early version works they roll out updates (after all it's basically a software issue) to let the user select additional languages as needed depending on the situation. I'd also suspect it will likely be a lot more accurate than most machine translations as they can programme it with common and specific phrases, in much the same way your home dictation software may not be as good as the specialist versions created for certain jobs (if you know quite specifically the use of something like voice recognition or translation you can make it far more accurate than a "general" version, if just by giving weight to certain known common phrases for that task so if it's in doubt it is more likely to select those). |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group