The DARPA Phraselator is a hand-held, voice actuated phrase "book". The Phraselator (see Figure 1) is a handheld, wireless computer used to translate more than 1,000 spoken English phrases into languages such as Arabic and Pashto. Five hundred units were delivered to Peacekeeping troops recently in Afghanistan. The Phraselator, built by Applied Data Systems, incorporates SRI's DynaspeakTM speech recognition software. Phrases are translated in advance by a translator, recorded and saved in a phrase database. When an English phrase is spoken into the system, the translation is played back. The system is not a two-way translator. Input phrase is matched with prerecorded translation and played back through a built in speaker. A Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Phraselator could be used by the civilans for translations such as doctors; firemen and policemen interact with people who speak foreign languages. It can provided to foreign movie goers, at the museaums, at entertainment activities. Travelers can use the Phraselator while visitingforeign countries. A Phraselator would also enable teachers to interact with foreign students
