Universal Translator and the Tower of Babel

There's a lot of news in the spirit of Star Trek in my life this week. I recently received the Star Trek movie boxed set in the mail, which I had found on some closeout site for $30 and free shipping. How could I resist? I'll talk about my favorite, ST II: The Wrath of Khan some other time.

Anyway, this led to a number of conversations with people, about such topics as "It's the 21st Century, where's my flying car?!" and a great show on the History Channel called, "How William Shatner Changed the World".

So when I saw this piece on TechCrunch, I was sort of amazed by the possibilities. Apparently, Google Talk is adding a new translation bot for chat, which will provide translation from English to Chinese. The bot can be used as a direct look up tool, or in an actual group chat on-the-fly.

Can you imagine what a powerful tool this can be in the worlds of commerce and communications? It's a direct, real-time way of communicating with ANYONE, once the service can crunch the language. I'm no linguist, but I'd estimate that Chinese is much more difficult to translate than any of the Latin-based languages.

Bring on the Vulcans.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/19/google-talk-gets-one-step-closer-to-the-ultimate-babel-fish/

Star Trek DIY: Fans make their own 'Webisodes'

To quote my colleague Dave, "The future of CGM and TV are here in full effect."

This is really really cool -- not just 'cause I'm a geek for this stuff (yes, including the Star Trek angle), but because it was done COMPLETELY with consumer-grade hardware and software. I estimate it was done for about $3K for all the equipment involved. In addition, it was worked on by remote teams, who communicated via Skype and email (free).

From a public relations / media relations standpoint, it's a great example of consumers taking a piece of pop culture into their hands and creating something for mass consumption... Much like we're about to do with Swiffer/You Tube in January.

I realize that this was produced by an IT guy and a printing shop guy, but this is an extreme example. But think about it: media editing technology is getting simpler everyday, and the digital cameras we all have are getting better video quality by leaps and bounds (aka, 'you don't need a special camera'). Engaging consumers like this will explode soon. Have you seen the material out there that's been done by WGA Letterman strikers?

The moms we're targeting for Swiffer/YT are just the tip of where this can go... Just think of all the new tech-savvy moms we have around here, who have the technology and the skill to do it....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/20/star.trek.podcast/index.html