Business Bytes
Curt Finch

Smartphone Translator

 

Remember the universal translator device from Star Trek? The real thing might not be far away. Dial Directions, a voice activation and recognition software company, and Sakhr Software, an Arabic speech and language tech company, merged on Tuesday for a new initiative to bring a voice and text translator to smartphones like the iPhone or Blackberry. The new application would allow users to speak either English or Arabic into the phone and have it translated through a cloud-based service. "I would put it close to very close to actually having a perfectly fluent translator with you in your pocket," says Adeeb Shanaa, CEO of the new joint company.

I'm wondering if there are humans in that cloud, ala Amazon Turk or Jott.

Curt Finch writes for a project management blog as well.

Curt Finch has more than two decades of software development and distributed workforce management experience. In 1997, Curt created the world's first internet-based timesheet application and the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt has a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. His book, All Your Money, is available on Amazon. @curtfinch