Sunday 12 July 2020

バベルフィッシュ

From Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links (always worth checking out and much more to explore), we are introduced to an innovative incubator called Donut Robotics that proposes to have our facial coverings pull double-duty with the addition of an internet-connected microphone and voice-box that will allow the wearer to translate their speech from Japanese into several other languages—or to make calls or simply turn up the volume to overcome any muffled words. In order for us to truly benefit from instantaneous exchanges and real-time interpretation—to really achieve universal translation, such programmes and neural networks need to be brought out into the wild and widely deployed—such as this start-up is suggesting and ultimately the sophistication and articulation of our personal protective gear might pull us all closer together as this crisis abates.