Automated language translation is a difficult problem that will probably never be solved completely... because at some point, it requires the software to actually comprehend the meaning of words and sentences.
Google translate relies a little bit on humans providing better translations, and I think there will likely be more and more apps/services that try to crowdsource translations. The problem is that humans are relatively expensive compared to processors...
The thing is, tho, most tourists probably have the same top100 most commonly asked questions. eg. where is this hotel? how much does this cost? etc, etc.. and those translations should be easily automated... it's the answers that might be difficult to translate.
I use Babelfish almost on a daily basis. I need to communicate in written Spanish some of the time, and rather than look up words I just use Babelfish to get it roughly right, then tidy it up. I guess it makes me lazy, but it's certainly useful.
Isn't it amazing on how far the world of technology has come? Who would have thought 20 years ago we would have an app that would make translation as easy as talking? I cannot believe that, but I suppose that is where the beauty is in technology. You never know what tomorrow will bring you and it keeps us all guessing.
was on g+ hangout last night and one of my friends was chatting while working. Transcribing brail she was. I asked why isn't there software that handles that and she mentioned the cost factor. I suppose that niche market has room to mature. Mature as in lowering cost of ownership to provide a better ROI for the company.
Another Star Trek concept is getting closer to reality. The line between science fiction and science fact continues to blur; thankfully, the Star Trek universe would be a pretty good place to live. Contrast it with 1984, or perhaps Leigh M Lane's World Mart. The possibilities are frightening.
Funny things in translation don't actually require that there be any foreign languages involved. Just toss in a touch of hearing loss and some creative imaginations...you get surprising results!
"Google Translate should have a way of letting us know when its throwing a wild guess."
I agree with that bit...or atleast to tell you that this translation could be grammatically incorrect to x degree.
What i'm doubtful of is the effectiveness of the asking people method for some situations. In some cities i've visited, trying to ask general questions like directions to traders on the road just earned us blank stares. We were ignored and soon we realized we had to learn how to use our own tools and maps or suffer.
You can even play a game, putting a text in Babelfish, and translating through several languages before putting it back in the original. It arrives unrecognizable.
I occasionally have to do email interviews with folks in other countries, and sometimes they use Google Translate. You can tell because some things seem weird -- not in a non-native-speaker weird, but computer gibberish weird.
I make sure to double-check everything with them a couple of times, with different wording, just to be sure of what they mean.
But as long as both people know that computer translation is being used, everyone sets their expectations accordingly. You expect to see a few funny things.
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