I have travelled Second Life and seen some wonderful things and some dreadful things, too. Haven’t we all? I have met people from different countries in sims dedicated to those countries and their languages and had to use an online translator just to find out if I was making a fool of myself with my schoolboy Italian. (I was!)However, someone recently brought to my attention a translator, a FREE translator, which used Google to do the translation in Local Chat, immediately and for several languages at the same time.
I already had a translator but found it difficult to use so kept it in the bottom drawer of my inventory.
Well, it sounded to good to be true. However with my newshound’s hat on, I went to Phaze Demesnes (227, 224, 24) and found Ferd’s free Google Chat translator. I was standing in queue waiting for the others to get their copy.
I clicked the board and the translator went straight into my inventory, and I was amazed. There was a long list of languages, clear instructions and within half a minute, my world had changed.
At the bottom of my screen, there appeared a list of names, distances and languages.
Then, when we all got talking, I could see someone saying something in Spanish, somebody else in French and someone in Korean. THEN, it came up on the screen in English, for each one!
Astonished at how quick it was… and accurate, (I speak French and could tell with that language, at least.) I went off to foreign sims and tried out “my” new skills. Well, I’m a happy bunny. I can go anywhere and be understood in over fifty different languages, just by speaking English. All we need is to get this into Real Life!
I was so pleased that I contacted the creator and he introduced me to it’s sister application, Ferd's Chat to Speech V1.4 Universal Web Translator. You could have knocked me down with a feather!
This one is based on the translator, but converts the typed words into audible SPEECH!
Now, that is a very difficult thing to do and uses up a lot of bandwidth so it is limited in its distribution to people with poor eyesight and organisations who represent them.
But, how wonderful! I know we have got adapted keyboards and screens and all sorts of clever stuff in RL, but it is something like this that shows the potential of SL.
A few people like Ferd Frederix, with their skills can open up new worlds to many more people who may not otherwise have been able to communicate in text, because this is not just Voice, it is simultaneously translated, a different thing altogether.
Ferd reserve all rights to determine which individuals and organizations may use the Chat to Text Speech system.
Examples:
· Sight-challenged individuals
· Organizations that support the blind
· Event organizers
With these two apps, I think Ferd will have made an enormous contribution to communication in SL. And I, for one, would like to thank him.
Kim Trefusis
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