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Sony Unveils PSP Translator

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:36 AM
from the essential-survival-toold-for-tokyo dept.
Sony Entertainment Games
jonerik writes "Sony has released software for its popular PSP handheld gaming device called TalkMan. In development for some time now, the program currently stores about 3,000 conversation patterns in English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. 'A user may speak the words "Koko-wa-dokodesuka?" (Where is this?) in Japanese, for example, into the device's microphone, upon which a cartoon bird acting as an interpreter will pop up and start talking in the user's language. The bird is also able to translate the reply into Japanese.' A European release for TalkMan is expected in the spring."
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  • potential potential... (Score:5, Funny)

    by oringo (848629) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:37AM (#14615886)
    Now I don't have to rely on the stupid dubs when watching hentai movies on psp...

  • And if you speak the words... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ale3ns (453301) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:38AM (#14615896)
    "Koko-wa-dokodesuka-rootkit?"

    It replies:

    "what rootkit?"

    • Re:And if you speak the words... (Score:5, Funny)

      by meringuoid (568297) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:45AM (#14615962)
      "Koko-wa-dokodesuka-rootkit?"

      ...Rutokitto wa nan desssssssss$SYS$
      KORE WA RUTOKITTO JA ARIMASEN. REALLY. HONEST.

    • Re:And if you speak the words... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Zangief (461457) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @11:06AM (#14616226) Homepage Journal
      Original: "Kawaii! Nintendo DS!"

      Translation: "Cool! Sony PSP!"
      • This reminds me of an N64 game, I think it was "Hey You Pikachu!" where you could interact with Pikachu with a microphone. If you said Playstation he would spaz and have a little electrical seizure.
        • It did make me wonder... is Japanese really so short of excitable superlatives? Or is Kensuke just totally inarticulate?

          The second thing.

          Which is why they were probably wrong to translate it like that.

          He could have said things like "omoshiroi", "subarashii", etc. But he didn't. He was gobsmacked, and his repition of the same adjective over and over was a humorous indicator of his state of mind. Make him sound like a human thesaurus, and you strip that element out of the story.
    • Actually, desu ka is used to end a sentence. It's kind of like a verbalized period. It roughly correlates to the "be" verbs in English.

      Japanese language [wikipedia.org] is really cool. Verbs always come at the end (hence why desu ka is like a verbalized period - verb at the end of the sentence), and they have very few pronouns and don't use them nearly as much as we do. Their language is VERY dependent on contextual clues. The same word could be used to reference the self, another person, or an inanimate object; in
      • Actually, desu ka is used to end a sentence. It's kind of like a verbalized period. It roughly correlates to the "be" verbs in English.

        Actually, it's more like a verbalized question mark.

        The "verbalized period" you speak of would be "desu".
        • Oh, and a more accurate romanization of the question you were trying to write (assuming the borrowed word "rootkit" is used) would probably be

          ruutokitto wa naN desu ka.

          "Nani" means "what", but when it stands on it's own like that (to ask "what is it?") it's almost always shortened to "naN."

          (The capitol "N" represents the Japanese nasal sylable, which has pronunciation dictated by the sound which follows it... in this case, it should be pronounced just like the Enlgish "n".)
            • Arigato, Golias-sensei.

              dou itashimashite.

              I also find it amusing that you translated rootkit into how the Japanese would probably say it. Such is the price they pay for ending all their "syllables" but one with a vowel.

              Japan has a system of converting borrowed words into sounds which can be spelled with the katakana alphabet. It gives their language a great deal of flexibility.

              I've never seen a double u before.

              Actually that's a RU followed by an U. It's a six sylable word (assuming I nihoNgo-ized the word
              • Just out of curiosity, how is the stand alone t syllable pronounced? I know consonant only syllables exist in languages (Hebrew has them), but they usually have an attached implict vowel(once again, the hebrew shewa). just curious how that one syllable would sound phonetically.
                • Just out of curiosity, how is the stand alone t syllable pronounced?

                  It's a stop. You hold the silence of the "t" a moment longer.

                  The "i" and "u" are "whispered vowels" in Japanese if they appear between two non-voiced consonants. For example, the "u" in "desu ka" is whispered, so to westerners it sounds like "dess ka".

                  (Note: Some people from certain regions of Japan, most famously near Osaka, sometimes voice the whispered vowels, and might even insist that whispering them is not required by Standard Jap
          • To be fair, you, the guy you were correcting, and everybody else in this thread are probably better at translating Japanese than the PSP is likely to be.

            A quick look Google's Japan/English tool (beta, of course... this is Google, after all) will confirm that translating correctly between Japanese and English with software is damn near impossible with current technology and programming logic.
      • The contextual dropping of pronouns (and even subjects) is hadly unique. All languages tend to drop superfluous words. Think of "ture", which is shothand for "that is true". or the simple conversation:
        "He is coming here."
        "who?"
        The "who" is shorthand for "who is" or even "who is coming here". You simply forget how many words are dropped in english if you speak it every day, while it is more pronounced in unfamiliar languages.
        In addition, by not having obvious case/gender endings english is less contract
    • Minor note... Japanese grammar is different than English grammar (imagine that...), so the subject (and nearly everything else) goes before the verb. Hence:

      rootkit wa doku desu ka?
    • "Koko-wa-dokodesuka-rootkit?"

      You just said "Where is here? Rootkit."
    • Rootkit ga doko desu ka?

  • I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AKAImBatman (238306) <akaimbatman.gmail@com> on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:41AM (#14615922) Homepage Journal
    'A user may speak the words "Koko-wa-dokodesuka?" (Where is this?) in Japanese, for example, into the device's microphone, upon which a cartoon bird acting as an interpreter will pop up and start talking in the user's language.

    Popular phrases used to test the device are "Polly wants a cracker?", "I thought I saw a putty-tat!", and "I did! I did see a putty-tat!" To date, most American users are put off by the device's inability to translate "putty-tat", a common term for the average house cat. Sony has promised to take a look at this issue.

    • Re:I can see it now...Putty-tat (Score:4, Funny)

      by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:49AM (#14616016)
      most American users are put off by the device's inability to translate "putty-tat"

      Putty-tat is owned by Warner Brothers Studio, part of AOL Time Warner. If you think that ATW is going to license a competing studio -- Sony -- to use their intellectual property then you are crazier than Daffy Duck (also owned by ATW, and emphatically not licensed for use in this Slashdot post.)

  • Bluetooth earpieece.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:41AM (#14615929)
    It is rumored that the bluetooth ear piece resembles a small yellow fish.. The user by placing the earpiece into their ear canal can now understand all language, and though logic unbeknownst to us, disproves the existance of god.

  • Soon to be followed by (Score:3, Funny)

    by Saint37 (932002) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:42AM (#14615937)
    Next Sony will probably make the announcement that they will own all conversations facilitated by the PSP. They will implement DRM to enforce this. Should you want to playback your conversation, you will need to rent it.

    http://www.commodore69.com/ [commodore69.com]

  • Paperclip? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by XMilkProject (935232) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:43AM (#14615946) Homepage
    This is actually really slick. I hate to support Sony nowadays, but this is exactly the sort of utility that will make hardware like the PSP more useful to people. Hopefully in the near future all our PDA's and Cellphones will be able to translate live as we talk.

    I hope theres an option to have a talking Paperclip though, I'd feel more at home with that. <sarcasm/>

    Let me know when its in a device that will fit in my ear :)
  • Now the PSP gaming networks will be filled with people mangling Japanese, Russian and any of 25 or so Indian languages instead of just English.

    Still, I think it's that people will be able to play video games with people from the other side of the world ("It's night-time by you, right?" "No, noon.") without having to learn another language.

  • News? (Score:5, Informative)

    by CMiYC (6473) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:44AM (#14615953) Homepage
    You've been able to import this from Lik-Sang for quite some time now. In fact, here is their hands on review [lik-sang.com] from Nov.

  • I'm glad (Score:4, Funny)

    by dr_dank (472072) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:46AM (#14615984) Homepage Journal
    A user may speak the words "Koko-wa-dokodesuka?" (Where is this?) in Japanese, for example, into the device's microphone, upon which a cartoon bird acting as an interpreter will pop up and start talking in the user's language. The bird is also able to translate the reply into Japanese.'

    I'm glad that Bonzi Buddy has been able to find a new job.

  • no wonder it understands twice as much japanese (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dhardisty (914014) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:48AM (#14616010) Homepage
    "The technology is said to be able to translate some 50,000 Japanese words and 25,000 English words." I'm not surprised this thing was invented in japan -- since japanese only has 5 basic vowel sounds and no consonant clusters, it must be easier for the software to encode. That, and it makes sense to support the language of the people you are marketing it to.

  • Old news (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This game has already been on shelves for a long time in Japan. I suppose it could be used as a translator, but it's definitely not useful as something a person could quickly pull out to get a translation. That talking bird is annoying as hell -- think going through 3 menus just to get to clippy. Barf. You also need to have an awkward mic plugged into the USB port that renders all carrying cases useless.

    What's cool about this game isn't its ability to translate, but moreso its capacity to correct pronun

  • Futurama (Score:5, Funny)

    by Roj Blake (931541) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:49AM (#14616013)
    Unfortunately so far it only translates into an incomprehensible dead language.

    Speaks into PSP: Konichiwa
    Reply from PSP: Bonjour

  • what about Hungarian? (Score:4, Funny)

    by nomadic (141991) <nomadicworld.gmail@com> on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:55AM (#14616071) Homepage
    My hovercraft is full of eels.

  • European (Score:5, Funny)

    by MagicM (85041) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @10:57AM (#14616110)
    A European release for TalkMan is expected in the spring.

    Oh goodie! I've always wanted to learn to speak European!

  • Does it do Hungarian? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bob McCown (8411) on Wednesday February 01 2006, @11:05AM (#14616207)
    I do not want this tobacconist, it is scratched.
  • I don't pretend to know English or Japanese very well as none are my native language, but isn't the correct translation for "Koko ha doko desu ka" actually "Where am I", with the meaning "what is this place I'm standing in right now ?" ?
    Is "Where is this ?" equivalent to "Where am I ?" in american ?
    Does the translation come from the device or from the news submitter ?
    I'm confused.

    It's good that the software seems so advanced.
    What cost will it have though ?
  • Go to the official site [playstation.jp] and click on the whities. The video is hilarious proof of why this product is totally worthless as a translator, yet hilariously awesome.

    "Shumi wa nan desuka?"
    (What do you like to do?)
    "I, like, to, eat!"
    (Can you describe it with gestures?)

    Disgrace.

    Then in the end, the Japanese guy hooks up with a girl with an Italian accent. Hmm, Italy's public education system apparently can teach English, so what's Japan's problem? (Don't answer that.)
  • Too bad it doesn't do arabic. I know at least 140,000 customers that could really use it, like, yesterday.
    • Can you query: Where is the p0rn?

      Sure. My Japanese is restricted to what I pick up from anime, but the phrase here was fairly simple:

      'Koko wa doko desu ka'

      'Doko desu ka' means 'where is it?'. Whatever you stick before 'wa' is the it to which 'doko desu ka' refers. 'Koko' is 'here', so the question is effectively 'where is here?' or in better English, 'where is this?'

      So, you want p0rn? Simple. 'P0rn wa doko desu ka'. Except that you'll probably have to spell it in Japanese lettering at some point, so

      • 'Koko wa doko desu ka'

        I won't ask how often this as come in handy for you.

        Now all we need is the other n languages supported by the translator.

        Thx!

      • So, you want p0rn? Simple. 'P0rn wa doko desu ka'. Except that you'll probably have to spell it in Japanese lettering at some point, so 'Porunno wa doko desu ka' might be the way forward :)

        Huh ?
        Doko is for places. I don't even know if they will understand p0rn, and they will start figuring out if there is a place named 'poruno'. As your japanese is what you picked from anime, you should have figured out that p0rn is dubbed 'H' ('etchi' in japanese) for hentai.
        And for things, aru is the verb for general thin

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