Tele Scouter projects translations to your eye

Leslie Katz | Nov 03, 2009

(Credit: NEC)

If Japan-based NEC has its way, people who act as language translators could one day be replaced with head-mounted displays that project translations onto a retinal display. Come again?

The Tele Scouter system is composed of an eyepiece with a front-mounted camera and a mic that picks up conversations and sends the data to a small computer worn on the user's waist.

The computer then transmits information to a remote server, which does the heavy processing work converting the foreign speech to text, translating it, and wirelessly sending it back to the tiny eye display for viewing. That seems like a whole lot of work to get to, "he said, 'Welcome to my country!'", but we'll roll with the idea for now.

Truth is we could use a translator to help us make complete sense of the English on NEC's product page, but we do know the TeleScouter isn't ready to show up at the UN just yet (or maybe ever).

Instead, NEC initially plans to market the device as a wearable handsfree display that could be used to show engineers and onsite and offsite technicians high-resolution user guides and manuals while they install or repair equipment.

In another workplace use, it could let a single expert simultaneously deliver text, video, and audio messages to multiple personnel--in real time.

NEC says it expects to start shipping the Tele Scouter next year, with a system that could serve a staff of 30 costing around 750 million yen (US$8.16 million). Despite such exorbitant pricing, the company is aiming to sell 1,000 systems in three years.

How do you say, "we're intrigued, but we'll believe all this when we see it", in Japanese?

Via Crave CNET | via Gizmag

Filed under: Future Tech
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