The future of global communication seems to be more and more in the hands of AI rather than organic intelligence. It looks like things are getting closer with the first devices almost in reach.
http://youtu.be/fQp9-C1AJKc

Yes, the Sigmo handheld translation device may not be perfect, but even in imperfect form should be very attractive to travelers. Much less effort than learning Esperanto!!

Esperantists must wake up and smell the coffee and be ready for probable developments in this field.

Wondering this machine can work in the sea ?

Would the battery run out of it when it is on the mountain ?

Learning Esperanto is about 150 hours and many still like to spend a great deal of time to do the research, especially in China, too many progrmmers are out of jobs and they are trying hard to do something.

Esperanto world needs to do is making Esperanto more useful in daily life, especially work like the Esperanto hostel , hotel, restaurants etc.

How UN is fair to have the Swahili programmes but not Esperanto when Esperanto is recommended by UNESCO since 1954.

Next year is the 60 anniversary, what campaign programmes will install for the world to awaken the from the sleep.

I wonder if Sigmo can translate the word "vaporware" ...

Notice that there is no actual demonstration of Sigmo working in the YouTube video. This speaks volumes (no pun intended) with regards to how ready for primetime this product is. From descriptions on other websites, it appears that Sigmo is nothing more than a Bluetooth speaker/microphone that needs a separate app and internet connection to actually do the translation - not self-contained at all.

To wit, I have a cheap (<$10) app on my iPhone (iTranslate voice) that does a startling good job of translating voice from one language to another, but it also relies on a connection to a remote server to do the translation. Frankly, for what international data costs, it might be more effective to hire a full-time translator

I did notice that "business meetings" was one of the intended applications. Unless you count haggling with a street vendor as a business meeting, I can't imagine any professional ever using this for a business meeting. Being able to speak English and/or having a competant human translator is part of the cost of doing business for anyone doing business internationally, and no serious business person would ever try to get around this by using a machine translator.

Given the proliferation of smartphones, I think it's far more likely that someone would simply use an app on their phone. Presumably someday there will be enough internal storage/processing power to do translation locally (no internet connection), but by then everyone will speak English anyway

Amike,
Paul

Even if we obtain something that is able to translate perfectly word-for-word we will still have slang and colloquial speech problems. That doesn't even bring up the question of words with multiple meanings in either language, which would require the device to understand context.

What about parts of speech/grammar that don't exist in one or the other language? I have a hard time of understanding the adverbial participles if I try to think of what they would be in English, especially if they are used by someone whose native language includes them.

Not that these devices aren't a good thing, but they are not a final solution. I fear the day when AI translators are as good as the real thing, because that means they understand what you are saying...