Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Evolutionary success ... is going to absolutely require mobility on, at a minimum, an interplanetary scale. We either go or we die out."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Translator Discs | ||
| Wearable devices that wirelessly connected to a speech translation computer. |
Niven provides a realistic version of a universal translator in Ringworld.
| "Stay on your vehicles," Speaker ordered in a low voice. "Wait until they reach us. Then dismount. I assume we are all wearing our communicator discs?"
Louis wore his inside his left wrist. The discs were linked to the autopilot aboard the Liar. They should work over such a distance, and the Liar's autopilot should be able to translate any new language... The tattooed one made a short speech. That was luck. The autopilot would need data before it could begin a translation... Presently the discs were filling in words and phrases... His voice was almost a chant, almost a recital of poetry. The autopilot was translating Louis's words into a similar chant, though it spoke to Louis in a conversational tone. Louis could hear the other translator discs whistling softly in Puppeteer, snarling quietly in the Hero's Tongue. |
| From Ringworld,
by Larry Niven. Published by Ballantine in 1970 Additional resources -
|
Rather than just presenting a magical device, Niven makes sure you know that interpreting speech is a processor intensive task, and might be best done centrally. Also, he notes that the machine needs a good-sized sample before translation is possible.
Compare to translatophone (1901) by Frank Stockton, the Babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams and Language Rectifier from Ralph 124c 41 + (1911) by Hugo Gernsback.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Ringworld
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to Ringworld
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
Translator Discs-related
news articles:
- NEC Translator Cellphone Turns Japanese To English
- Universal Translator, Babelfish Possible
- Dolphin Whistle Translator
| The Future Of Elon Musk's Neuralink |
| BloxVox Mutes Cellphone Convos |
| Sonitus Audio Interface Positioned Beyond The Noise |
| FlexPai Foldable Phone By Royole |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'...a seal of compressed plastifoam to save the air.'
'My hearing, vision and awareness went along with that excellent imitation of a young Adonis...'
'In the gloomy half-darkness the three idiots sat babbling.'
'...a sound tape to supply the noise of a soi-disant "[internal combustion]" engine...'
'You said you wanted him to be able to distinguish between laugh-power in different gags...'
'It drew its power from six square yards of sunpower screens on its low curved roof.'
