Glenn Cole writes:

>At a couple Interex conferences of years past, HP showed some marketing
>(I assume) movies that demonstrated their vision of the future.
>
>...
>One of the scenes in this second movie showed an English-speaking-only
>emergency worker talking with a Spanish-speaking-only citizen.  Both
>spoke their native language into a device similar to a PalmPilot the
>size of "standard" paper, and the device played it back in the other's
>native tongue.

This has been demonstrated in a limited-domain setting, making travel
reservations.

>Along these lines, there is a report today (Thu) on OGrady.com (a site
>normally geared towards all things PowerBook) that such on-the-fly
>language translation is being undertaken by the United Nations University.
>
>   The United Nations University is introducing a Universal Networking
>   Language (UNL), which it plans to unveil at a symposium on 18 November
>   in Brussels, Belgium.

This is the same basic technology used in the travel-agent demonstration.

>They're looking for help as well, but the tasks appear a tad daunting:
>one is "Codification of human knowledge in UNL and make it accessible
>through Internet. (UNL providers Society)."

A project to do something like this has been underway for almost ten
years. See <http://www.cyc.com> for more information.

-- Bruce


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