CNN
CES blitz: Work and playthings
If you travel a lot but languages are not your strong point, then a Russian company might just have the answer. It has developed a handy pocket-sized gadget that translates English phrases into French, German or Spanish.
BBC
Languages in the palm of your hand
If you travel a lot but languages are not your strong point, then a Russian company might just have the answer. It has developed a handy pocket-sized gadget that translates English phrases into French, German or Spanish.
Forbes
Lowering The Language Barrier
As we've come to live with rapid technological change, it's not uncommon to try and compare the way things are turning out to the way the creators of the TV show Star Trek envisioned. Ectaco's Universal Translator: Not quite as good as the one on Star Trek. Sure, we've got personal communicators similar to those of Captains Kirk and now Archer--we call them mobile phones--and in some cases, the resemblance is striking. But one feature ours are lacking is the universal translator.
USA Today
Update: Wireless products to star at CES
Finally, look for some buzz to be created by a new handheld device called the Universal Translator that integrates sophisticated speech recognition technology.
CyberBeat.com
The UT-103 Translator from Ectaco
The radio show that tells you what's new, what's cool, and what's next in technology.
National Geographic Traveler Magazine
Got the Jitters? (jan/feb 2002, page 17)
Cat got your foreign tongue? Speak into this battery-operated translator and a menu of related phrases pops up; press a button, and the gadget spouts an audible translation in French, Spanish, or German.
PC World Magazine
A Cumbersome Traveling Companion
Most of us would probably take a stab at speaking sentences from a foreign phrase book when overseas. Ectaco goes one step further with its handheld device--but it's overkill.
Tech TV
Translation Tools
Imagine your life as a top-secret government spy in the vein of Sean Connery's James Bond, James Coburn's Derek Flint, or even Dean Martin's Matt Helm. You're a jet-setter with a job to do. You travel the world to take on super-baddies bent on world domination. Now step back into reality and remember that although diamonds are forever, you barely squeaked through your high school foreign language class. Sure, you could live the high-rolling life of a secret agent, if only you could get past the whole foreign language barrier. Take heart (and put down that book promising to teach you Esperanto in 14 days or less). Technology is coming to the rescue.
Goverment Computer News
UT-103 talks in four tongues
Speech recognition technology has stagnated for several years. Faster processors shorten the time needed for voice training but, beyond simple voice navigation or word processing, vendors have made few notable advances.
E-commerce Times
Detroit Free Press
Comdex Opens Today Under Tighter Security
Voice-recognizing translators: It's not quite the "Star Trek" universal translator, but it's close. The Pocket Voice Translator™ UT-103 from Ectaco holds 3,000 common phrases in French, German and Spanish. To say the right thing to your foreign hosts, you just speak into the unit. The translator records your words, recognizes them, looks them up and then says the proper phrase in the language of your choice. It'll fit in a pocket with ease. It uses AA batteries and includes an alarm clock.
Pocket PC Life (United Kingdom)
Ectaco Universal Translator reviewed
While most people would not use such a program as this for phone conversations, the real benefit that I see is to learn another language. For children to learn to a new word, they have to correctly use it 75 to 100 times before it is added to the long-term memory. Knowing that, how can anyone expect to learn another language just from going to a class that meets once a week? There are no shortcuts to committing to memory the verbal nuances of a particular language.
China.com (Chinese computer newspaper)
Ectaco Universal Translator reviewed
TWICE, Las Vegas
Comdex Opens Today Under Tighter Security
Ectaco today unveiled its UT-103 universal translator. The handheld device translates English to French, German and Spanish and has a bank that holds 3,000 pre-recorded phrases that a vacationer might need. The UT-103 user speaks into the device and it recognizes the phrase and pronounces the translation to the other person through a small speaker. Pricing and shipping dates were not available.
Ananova.com:
Handheld device promises instant translation
A new handheld gadget promising to translate voice commands into different languages is about to be released in the US. The Universal Translator™ 103 converts selected spoken English phrases into French, German or Spanish.
International Herald Tribune:
IHT: Russia Takes Advantage of Brain Power at Home
The city is home to a large community of computer programmers who are fueling a growing outsourcing industry to international companies. Many business people and analysts say a number of Russian cities, especially St. Petersburg, are already becoming important centers of information technology development for the next decade.
