In the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a person can instantaneously communicate in any language merely by placing a creature called a babelfish in his or her ear. With the advent of software and computers, that vision has become nearly a reality through various types of translation software. Now law enforcement agencies are looking for ways to take that capability into the street, where the varied languages of immigrant populations can create a challenge for community policing efforts. The device has preprogrammed phrases in various languages. The officer can select a particular phrase when he or she needs to make statements to, or ask questions of, a person.
Statements generally seek to convey basic information.
The VRT then speaks the full phrase in the desired language. If the subject can't respond in English, he or she can get the message across with body language, such as by shaking his or her head to indicate yes or no. Such signal responses are needed because the device does not enable the officer to translate what a subject says. Although the idea holds great promise, the device has not fully met expectations, according to at least one California man who is helping to test it for the department. They also were hard to hear when there was a lot of ambient noise, James says.