Much of the technology featured in Star Trek, besides the whole trekking through stars thing, is quickly becoming a reality. Google Glass, for instance, has much in common with the visor Geordie wears on The Next Generation. Those VR glasses Oculus Rift is strongly reminiscent of an early form of the Holodeck. What’s next? How about their much vaunted universal translator? This device, as seen in the shows, is either part of their badge or implanted in their ear canal(depending on which iteration) and lets people both understand and reply to alien languages. Guess what? It’s coming and Google is making it.
Google has been hard, and secretly, at work on their version of the universal translator, which they say is approaching “near 100 percent accuracy.” How it works, regarding the algorithms used, remains a mystery but for now it is enough that it actually works. The functionality is extremely similar to the sci-fi classic. You hear another language and the device instantaneously feeds you the translation. You reply and their device automatically does the same. It all happens in real time and, if anything, should make visiting other countries a bit easier for us lazy and single languaged Americans.
Of course, this is only a prototype design for now. Google hasn’t even announced what kind of gadget this would show up in, but our money would be on an in-ear device that couples with Google Glass. That sure would be cool anyways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqX3YBNXBDQ
