Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  21st century technologies for learning languages (01 Nov 2002) Until the children of the 21st century begin to learn these languages, they, like their parents' generation, will be forced to rely on phrasebooks or online translators. For those of us who do this already, one useful invention may help us. HP Labs have developed instant translating technology. It allows users to take photos of signs, menus, etc, with an add-on digital camera connected to their handheld Jornada device, which then translates the captured text using character recognition. No doubt it's useful when arriving in a foreign country with no knowledge of its language - but in some ways it is indicative of a culture in which bilingualism hardly exists. Il doit changer, as Babel Fish informs me in French. It must change. Article URL: http://www.nestafuturelab.org/viewpoint/tech09.htm Read 76 more articles from NESTA Futurelab sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Automatic Indexing: A Matter of Degree     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy