The dream of a universal translator machine is stronger than ever, and the portability and popularity of iPhone/iPod Touch apps are getting people excited about the potential. The upshot is, to put it simply, communication problems or language barriers you may face during an important meeting in China, or trying to understand the diagnosis a doctor wrote down for you in a foreign language won't happen in the future. But, I've got to say, dreams of a machine translator that will accomplish such a task is just that - a dream. Research and development for such a device have been going on for decades and to be realistic (sorry you optimists out there) is a utopian dream.
So machine translations are unreliable, but hiring a team of interpreters or translators of various languages is expensive and impractical. Surely there must be some kind miracle collaboration that takes the instant connectivity of machines and computers, with the expertise of human translators and interpreters?
Well the future may be here! Some hospitals, including the Heritage Hospital in Tarboro in North Carolina and the Corona Medical Center in Los Angeles have been utilizing a machine called My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter, MARTTI for short, for its translation and interpreting needs. The machine displays a live translation "attendant" so that nurses, doctors and patients can communicate with one another, in real-time. What I find most exciting and interesting about MARTTI is the implications for MARTTI-like services that could be used in other important, life-threatening situations. For example, soldiers in war-zones needing to communicate with the locals, or the police arresting people who don't speak the primary language - these are instances in which proper, reliable translations and interpreters are vital for all parties involved. You can't rely on machine translation devices or having to search through generalized pre-recorded or written phrases to show when confronted with this problem. If there could be a MARTTI iPhone or iPod Touch app in which the user can get connected with instant human translators, that would definitely be a dream come true, wouldn't it? And at myGengo we're working on expanding and improving our services to be that mediator so that we can provide a new kind of interactive, global community of translators and the people that use them, that has never been done before. With the right R&D spent (and in my opinion, cut down on trying to improve automated machine translations), I think we will see a portable MARTII-like product soon.
For more information, please check out:
Language Access Network, makers of MARTTI Website
"Video interpreters save lives" on NBC Los Angeles
"High demand interpreters, translators in training" on UA News
"Medical interpreter career profile - overview of medical interpreters' careers" on About.com
