Every so often the Duo run across some item of so-called technology that delivers so poorly on its promises that it simply begs for an elaborate thrashing. Such is the case with the Ectaco SpeechGuard, which claims to translate spoken English into seven languages. The boxy gadget is derived from a product that the military uses to communicate with people who don't know English.
The way it works, at least in theory, is pretty simple. You hold the SpeechGuard up to your mouth, hold down the Recognize button, watch the screen until the prompt that says Silence changes to Speak Up--which takes longer than you'd expect--and then say the phrase you want translated into another language. Steve demonstrates with the word "beer," which the device translates into ... the Chinese term for "medium-rare."
Angela, aghast, notes that though the SpeechGuard can also translate into German, French, Japanese, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, the main problem is that only a mere 600 phrases are available in each language, which isn't a sufficient number to be useful--even before taking into account the poor translation.
Steve comments that you have to preselect a specific category--like transport, restaurant, or hotel--for what you say to have any chance of the gadget working. You also must match the machine's phrasing very closely; if you say, "Could you show me a better room?" and the machine has the phrase, "Would you please show me a better room?" you won't get what you had in mind unless you're very lucky. (There is a list of phrases in the translator, and Angela suggests that users would be better off scrolling through, choosing the one closest to their needs, and pressing the button.)
Its military roots leave the SpeechGuard with another sort of limitation. Though soldiers may be in a position to simply make a series of statements via such a device ("Stop or I'll shoot!"), there's no facility for the gadget to translate from other tongues back to English. If you ask a question and the person you ask responds in his or her native language, you're simply out of luck. The device has neither numbers nor letters, making addresses (not to mention shopping) an impossibility.
SAVE/DELETE
Steve: DELETE
Angela: DELETE, because a translator that doesn't know from beer is of no practical use
Ad Choices