I just saw this [link1] on MetaFilter [link2], and I wanted to know EXACTLY what the monks are talking about.
So here's the idea:
A website (much like Babelfish [link3] or Google Language Tools [link4]) which allows you to post (links to) videos and/or audio which analyses the speech and translates it.
Translating audio 1 to audio 2. Pehaps it might work like this: e.g. 1) Speech in language 1->text in language 1. 2) Translate text (language1 to language 2). 3) Replace the audio from text language 2 ->audio language 2 (could even add subtitles)
{Similar to a few other HB's but I couldn't find anything quite the same - 2x translating browser [link] and audio translator [link]}-- Dub, Oct 05 2006 Monks discussing stuff http://www.youtube....watch?v=zotTf0G9STM [Dub, Oct 05 2006] Found via Metafilter http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/47940 [Dub, Oct 05 2006] Babelfish text language translation http://babelfish.altavista.com/ [Dub, Oct 05 2006] Google language tools http://www.google.c...anguage_tools?hl=en [Dub, Oct 05 2006] HB-Translating Browser 2x_20translating_20browser [Dub, Oct 05 2006] Audio Translator audio_20translator [Dub, Oct 05 2006] 'Tower of Babel' translator made http://news.bbc.co..../health/6083994.stmGettiing there [Dub, Oct 26 2006] Ha! Someone's gone and done it? http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/13072 [Dub, Nov 12 2006] On Youtube http://blogoscoped....2009-03-08-n31.html [Dub, Mar 08 2009] Word Lens - English-Spanish / Spanish-English http://lifehacker.c...-can-see-on-the-flyWord Lens is a Mind-Blowing App that Translates Any Text Your Camera Can See On the Fly [Dub, Dec 18 2010] The results are bound to be hilarious.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Oct 05 2006 I love the idea, especially if it could actually work well, but since it most likely would not, it seems halfish enough to be on the half bakery. It's very doubtfull that it would work in reality, but as [Galbinus_Caeli] the half results would be half the fun.-- James Newton, Oct 05 2006 If the original video is close-captioned, then step 1 - which is probably the biggest hurdle - is already done. The rest is just arranging known technology: captions -> text translator -> TTS -> ear -> eyebrows-- lurch, Oct 05 2006 I'd love to say 'baked'. Some of the research I am involved in looks towards this kind of thing, not so much the translation of a language, although that is certainly an application, but more of a toolkit of content adaptors that change the modality of a content or service: video - text, or text to audio, etc. Since this is only academia, and the guys working on it are still in dark, dark rooms... no-bakedness here!-- Jinbish, Oct 05 2006 [21 Quest] I meant specifically for video and audio recordings - It does implicitly rely on high-quality speech recognition / translators and synthesisers (or voice generation) - but I know that there're devices you can buy which do half the job - i.e. from text (translated) and output as speech.
[lurch]Good point, that is becoming more frequent nowadays - This might open the door to Video->Signed translators, too.
[Jinbish] Yes, the compiler / interpreter / translator is a hugely powerful tool. Sadly, lots more work is required.
Oh, I like this very much. Thanks peeps - I'm thinking of applications I hadn't thought of before. I always like that.-- Dub, Oct 05 2006 Translation software is reliably hilarious. I put the Declaration of Independence into Google's translator, from English to German, and back to English. It's great. Adding speech-to-text might get you all the way down to gibberish, but it's just bound to be funny.-- colorclocks, Mar 08 2009 random, halfbakery