Multilingual Telephones

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:29

I read somewhere recently that a multilingual phone was being developed. I can't seem to find a link to it. Has anyone else read about this?

waddo


Joined: 29/11/2008
Posts: 1966

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:31

If you mean by that it is a phone that can be used in any language - April is too far away to start now! But I do have some left handed tea cups I can let you have cheap if interested..........

AlsancakJack



Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 5762

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:34

Waddo

They are only of any use if you can find the tea bags to go with them.

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:35

No. The way I understand it is that if for example I wanted to call a Lawyer in a foreign country who couldn't speak English then the phone would translate the call into that language.

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:39

It's developed by Google. And if it's as good as Google's on line translations - we're still a long way from Dutch <-> English <-> Dutch on the phone. But, Waddo (msg 2): I'm absolutely convinced that one day it will happen. Remember: 15 years ago, when you and I started to use the Internet, we were called "freaks". At the moment the world would stand still without the Internet! Right ? In a couple of years I will call you (from my computer) in Dutch and you will hear it in English on your computer or phone via your computer. Wanna bet?

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:42

Thanks Hans. I knew I wasn't going mad!



I'm sure this phone will be with us within 5-10 years.

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:43

What a revelation that phone would be.

Jeannie


Joined: 04/08/2009
Posts: 3283

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:46

Bill/Hans - sounds like a brilliant innovation.



I find myself wondering whether it will be possible for this piece of technology to translate English - English (if you know what I mean)



J

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:49

Jean. Do you mean 'cockney' to 'brummie' for example? That's impossible I'm afraid. )

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:52

RE msg 4: You're right, Bill! It's a fascinating future and that future - though still in the software labs - is near. Example: how many people know what OCR (Optical Character Recognition) means? I use it daily. It saves me hours and hours of typing. The same goes for TextExpander, etc, etc. How many people can still understand what you can do in PhotoShop? And... and... and... Most of us on this board are too old to even try to understand what the world will look like in 2025 - but the software and the Internet will change the world more than in the past 15 years. Not true? Ask you grandmother about her thoughts when some gentleman introduced electricity. In her opinion it was the end of the world - oh, yeah, grandma?

Jeannie


Joined: 04/08/2009
Posts: 3283

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:53

Bill - never say never. I feel sure it would catch on, big time!



J

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 20:55

Ask you grandmother - sorry: Ask your grandmother

AlsancakJack



Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 5762

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:00

And next they will be inventing radios that do not need batteries.

Jeannie


Joined: 04/08/2009
Posts: 3283

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:17

Dave, message 13. Eeeh - by 'eck - you youngsters an' your big ideas

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:20

Laugh, my dear old friends! Some youngsters will make a fortune on what you don't believe to come true.

Jeannie


Joined: 04/08/2009
Posts: 3283

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:24

Hans - come on then, my Dutch friend - what other things can you see coming to pass that us old 'uns cannot see coming to fruition?



Actually, I think that most of us of a certain generation, i.e. most of us on here - would say that we wouldn't be surprised by anything any more



Warm regards.



Jean

AlsancakJack



Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 5762

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:25

Yes but Hans

As you know radios without batteries were invented when I was knee high to a grasshopper. And they were totally 'green'. When they invented batteries they needed something to power, hence the invention of the valve and later the transistor radio. And it all went downhill from there.

AJ

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:35

I think within 2 years you'll be able to buy a video call mobile phone.

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:42

Laser weapons will be used in the future - like the Star Trek type, no bigger than a mobile phone which will have the power to kill you.

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:44

RE msg 16, Dear Jeannie: It's not interesting what's going to surprise you - it's what you are going to use in daily life. Not decided by you, but by the smart ones who make it available and hence necessary. And the cards are dealt. You are going to use computerised gadgets: for Internet browsing, to email and to communicate. That's it, that's what most current users are doing now with race cars (PC's) when they only need a Volkswagen. This next step into the future was visible last week when Apple's visionary Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. And the descendants of "PC Bill Gates", this great borrower of good ideas, will follow suit.

P.S. Would you really like to know what you will use at home and on the road within a couple of years?!

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:49

RE msg 17, AJ: (...) And it all went downhill from there. (...)

=> AJ, on the white wall of my house I've written in white paint: "It will last my time". With a pair of good sunglasses you can read it...

P.S. By the way: "Her gün bir Pazargünü!"

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 21:50

Message 20. Yes, come on Hans - spill the beans. )

DutchCrusader



Joined: 19/05/2008
Posts: 11281

Message Posted:
09/02/2010 22:16

RE msg 22, Bill: One of the most promising developments imo (can be used in existing and new pieces of hardware): Computers, which use light to process large amounts of data faster than ever before, are just one of many groundbreaking potential applications of a new £6 million research programme at Queen’s University Belfast and Imperial College London, launched September 1, 2009.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is funding the two universities to establish a world-leading research programme on the fundamental science of so-called ‘nanoplasmonic devices’.

Nanoplasmonic devices’ key components are tiny nanoscale metal structures - more then 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair – that guide and direct light. Are you still with me..?

scoobydoo


Joined: 10/11/2008
Posts: 2434

Message Posted:
10/02/2010 07:53

Then we need a telephone that has a lie detector strategically hidden in it for when you are dealing with 'lawyers' in the TRNC!!







PS they already make radios without batteries

andrew4232



Joined: 04/07/2009
Posts: 1543

Message Posted:
10/02/2010 10:09

it all sounds a bit like 'beam me scotty' to me

flightholiday


Joined: 19/07/2007
Posts: 3217

Message Posted:
10/02/2010 12:51

Andrew4232 - just give it another 25 years and it will decimate the airline industry.

waddo


Joined: 29/11/2008
Posts: 1966

Message Posted:
10/02/2010 20:45

How about crystal memory then - the more you need, the more you grow? Possible or just a dream? Go on, you know you can not resist it - Google Crystal Memory - we were talking about this in 1988 by the way!



Maybe a computer screen you can roll up and carry in your jacket pocket? No chance is there, errm maybe so - I actually saw one of these things as far back as 1999, took my breath away but not seen one since - go on, Google "Flexible computer screen" - the things that are about that you think are Sci Fi are just too real to believe.



Way back in 1975 I field tested what must have been the smallest metalic paper printer in the world for the army special forces - it was about the size of a fag packet and could receive bursts of morse code and print out the translation in seconds - don't know what happened with it but it was a diamond bit of kit I would have killed for - probably so far ahead of its time that the MoD turned it down!



Translation Phones - they must be on th