In the science fiction novel, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the author Douglas Adams starts by introducing a character, Arthur Dent, whose house is about to be demolished. Arthur decides that he is going to hitchhike the galaxy instead of staying home. He hitchhikes in the Vogon constructor ship where he is presented with a creature called a babelfish. The babelfish is used to translate spoken language and fits into the ear. However, how does Adams' translation device compare to others in science fiction? In the real-world? Current speech recognition software like Siri, and Skype are examples of language-to-language converters. Moreover, the science fiction character, C3PO, in Star Wars provides a more sophisticated translation model. Herein, the science fiction examples will be compared to the real-world counterparts and the correlations will be analysed. Also, future technology will be introduced to offer further comparison.
Adams' babelfish (Edwards, 2015).
READ! Babel-fish on Vogon Constructor Ship!!
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy describes the babel-fish as "…small yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier, but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the unconscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish." (Adams, 1980) Unfortunately, the novel doesn’t say anything more on the babelfish. So, the most we can decipher is that is has the capability to translate all languages. The translation only works one-way because the user is unable to communicate in the language that they’re hearing. The practical use of one-way receivers is only beneficial to the user who is hearing the voice. Unless, the other user has a babelfish, too. The use of two babelfi (plural?) is the ultimate user/receiver language barrier breaker. In addition, the babel fish could theoretically be used to detect what others are thinking instead of recognizing speech. However, the idea of two-way translation was never unfeasible because of the science fiction character C3PO in the movie series, Star Wars.
Science Fiction Example - Star Wars
In Star Wars, a droid, C3PO, understands a binary code that other alien races speak in. (Lucas, 1977) He (C3PO) translates audible beeps from R2-D2 and relays it to Luke. The translation is from ( )/to english. The audibles of any alien language are quite simply methods of sentinent communication, consisting of sounds and words. The translation from english/to ( ) is rarer in the movie. C3PO predominatly speaks in english but is programmed to speak in these different languages, too. (Hsu, 2010) The ability to speak multiple languages adds to the option of translating from/to, of which, is not shown in the babelfish. The niche of a bi-lingual speaker in a galactic world adds the two-way translation element which makes ease of communication more clear in the movie. Likewise, the movie utilizes subtitles for R2-D2.
R2-D2 subtitles in Star Wars (Cat_Bus, 2012).
Ultimately, Star Wars solves the language translation problem with a universal translator, C3PO. According to the movie, he understands more than six million forms of communication. (Burtt) But, the science fiction aspect is much different than real-world, thus far. As of now, Microsoft and Apple have the most noteworthy devices for translating, Skype and Siri, respectively.
How to create a translation device for dummies
In the article, How does Speech recognition work, the author Bill Robertson explains the process of current technology and being able to smoothly translate different languages to one another"…the word "cat." There's the "K" sound (not how you say the letter "K," but how it sounds in a word, sort of like "kuh"), the short "A" sound, and the "T" sound (again, not how you say the letter "T," as in "tee," but more like "tuh"). Now, say the phonemes in order, as in "kuh-a-tuh." Sounds just a bit like Siri, huh? The reason computer-based devices sound a bit robotic when they talk is that they're generating words by combining separate phonemes. So, one point for humans for being able to combine the phonemes more smoothly than computers do." (Robertson, 2016) The above passage is describing Apples’ core processor, Siri. Language translation software has become more advanced to understand human voice and convert it into text. Apple debuted the hardware device, iPhone 4S, and its speech-to-text technology in 2008 (Apple). Also, it(Siri) can schedule or move appointments, offer news and weather, look up facts, find restaurants, send text messages and browse the Internet to the user's heart's desire. Conversely, it has difficulty understanding certain requests. Therein, the device must have clear spoken words in order to reply. A sample reply will be followed by a confirmation of task performed, such as, "Ok. I set your alarm clock for 6:30." Or, after repeating a message it will ask for a confirmation like "Do you want me to send it?" And, if not promptly hearing your reply will state, "I didn't get that, do you want me to send (name of recipient) your message?" Yet, Siri speaks in 20 languages! (Apple). Likewise, the ratio of total languages is comparable to C3PO because 20 languages amounts to approx. 4 billion people. . (Paolillo, 2006) Furthermore, the majority of the world is able to utilize Siri. Still, Apple designed the app to be the user's instant assistant that is ready to provide answers to any question or statement when prompted, rather than a language translator. The goal of a translation device is more focused in Apples competitor, Microsoft's Skype.
Real-World Example – Skype
The Skype Translator shows an American elementary school english class speaking with a Spanish elementary school. (Skype, 2014).
The video above shows the brightside of Skype's translation device. The simple words that can be translated is suitable for learning and communicating in an elementary level classroom. According to Skype, the translation device translates in 8 languages for voice calls, and in more than 50 languages while instant messaging.(Skype).The wide array of accessible languages offered on Skype devalue it as a language translation device because it has been widely criticized for its inconsistency with language combos such as English to Mandarin, and vice-versa. (Sonnad, 2015) Currently, the Windows 10 updates and bug fixes are far superior than Siri and the closest example of Adams' babelfish. The difference lies in the structure of the devices. Skype can instantly translate words, utilize earbuds and has virtual face-to-face interaction. Plus, Skype adds the alphabetic translation in the users' mother tongue, of which, appears during the audio translation. The translation relies on the connection to a network and battery power (Skype). In contrast, the babelfish is an organic translating device. Yet, all organic life can die, like a battery, but its life span can be ten-fold or infinite as long as it isn't an endangered species or near extinct. To recap, the competitive advantage of Skype are its instantaneous translations, speech-to-text displays, and its learning capabilities.
What's Next? – "The Pilot"
The model translator called “The Pilot” produced by Waverly Labs is very similar to Adams' babelfish. The design allows up close and personal translating in each others primary language. Currently, the model is translating five languages; English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French. The device utilizes built-in microphones to receive voice and translates to/from based on the preferences made on the mobile app. The app allows any combination of current languages to translate. The expected delivery date is May 2017.
Conclusion
The babelfish displays the vivid imagination of Adams. The other science fiction version, C3PO, is an equally relatable translation that even allows two-way communication. The application of two-way communication is utilized in the real-world examples Siri, and Skype, too. These devices offer everything else from variety of languages, visual interaction, and speech-to-text. A distinguishing advantageous feature of the science fiction example in Adams' novel, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, is the biological make-up of the babelfish compared to the other examples. Yet, the bi-lingual translator gives the most human factor of translating languages.
Works Cited
Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. New York: Harmony, 1980. Print.
"Apple Press Info." Apple - Products - IPhone History. Apple, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
Burtt, Ben., DVD commentary on The Return of the Jedi.
Erard, Michael. "Are We Really Monolingual?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.
Hsu, Melinda (January 29, 2010). "The Mandalore Plot". Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Season 2. Episode 12. Event occurs at 7:57. "He was speaking in the dialect they use on Concordia, our moon."
KONOVALOV, GEORGIY. "Waverly – A World Without Language Barriers." Pilot Translation Kit. Waverly Co., 01 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
Paolillo, John C.; Das, Anupam (31 March 2006). "Evaluating language statistics: the Ethnologue and beyond" (PDF). UNESCO Institute of Statistics. pp. 3–5. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
Robertson, Bill. "Q: How does speech-recognition software work?" Science and Children, Nov. 2016,p.64. AcademicOneFile, http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=embry&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470368721&it=r&asid=aafcffdbb0eb498f4178a9eb1ff6898b. Accessed 22 Nov. 2016.
