Snip from Wired News report:
Even in a work environment as unsafe as modern Iraq, the job of a war-zone translator stands out as exceptionally dangerous. Dozens of interpreters hired to work with U.S. troops have died in the course of the war, victims of combat or targets for assassination. To date, the principal tools-of-the-trade are body armor and a firearm.
The risky business of battle-zone translation could get a technological boost, however, as researchers prepare to test a system that instantly translates spoken conversations to and from English and Iraqi Arabic.
Funded by Darpa, the system would allow troops to communicate in Arabic through a laptop computer equipped with voice recognition and translation software. Troops could speak in English and have their words instantly translated into Iraqi Arabic, "spoken" by a computerized man's voice. The program also translates Arabic into English.
Link to story by Joanna Glasner.
