Phraselator

The Phraselator is a ruggedized hand-held device that provides unidirectional translation from English to another language. It was developed by VoxTec using SRI technology.

The design of the Phraselator is quite simple. The user either speaks, or selects from a menu, an utterance from among the 500 to 1,000 pre-translated English phrases stored in the Phraselator. Phrases are stored in separate plug-in modules which can be swapped in and out depending on the target language and intended domain (medical, military, etc.). The Phraselator then plays a prerecorded translation of the input utterance through a built-in high-fidelity speaker.

The Phraselator has recently been used in military exercises and by NGOs throughout the world. It was deployed to U.S. troops in Afghanistan in early 2002 and to Iraq in 2003.