As Seen On Star Trek, Coast Guard to Get Universal Translator

Well, maybe not quite, but MyCG reports,

The customized translator is expected to be roughly the size of a standard phone and provide instant translations for 16 different languages. The initial prototypes – developed by myLanguage and Kynamics – are at different stages of completion. Coast Guard officials expect some devices could be available for testing on cutters as early as third quarter fiscal year 2023.

9 thoughts on “As Seen On Star Trek, Coast Guard to Get Universal Translator”

I always suspected the Coast Guard was the branch of the military that’s most similar to Starfleet, and not just because they both have primarily white-hulled ships.

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That’s not a universal translator. It’s a communicator for calling up to the ship or to other crew members. This is a universal translator.

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Chuck Hill on March 23, 2023 at 5:02 pm said:

@John, thanks, I updated my post. I had looked for a universal translator image, but couldn’t find one.

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- John Wampler on March 23, 2023 at 5:23 pm said:
  
  Glad I could help out.

Both are somewhat expensive, ranging in price from ~$600-K for the “Kynamics” (based in Mountain View, CA.) for each unit and being 95% accurate in real time translations! The other “myLanguage” for ~$800-K each, and can translate up to 20 languages! myLanguage is also developing an APP for translation, but it’s unclear whether or not the USCG plans to use the APP system or an actual hand held unit…

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David Harten Watson on March 24, 2023 at 7:07 am said:

“Both are somewhat expensive, ranging in price from ~$600-K…The other “myLanguage” for ~$800-K each.”
Are you saying it cost $600,000 to $800,000 each?
That’s outrageous. The Coast Guard can’t afford that.
Or are you saying they cost only $600 to $1,000 each?

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- Secundius on March 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm said:
  
  “MyCG” ran an article on the same day that Chuck posted his article on the UT, sighting their limitations, among them being their per unit cost! I tried to post three links about the subject, but each time I did one or all of the links provided got blocked by the DISCUS security filters! The MyCG article is in titled “Could a handheld device help the Coast Guard avoid getting lost in translation?” dated March 23, 2023 by Kathy Murray, MyCG Writer…
- Chuck Hill on March 25, 2023 at 10:00 am said:
  
  @Secundius, I linked to the MyCG article in my original post. It is where I got the information.
- Secundius on March 25, 2023 at 12:29 pm said:
  
  My bad then! The other two links were provided by:
  
  1. slator dot com, “US Coast Guard Moves Ahead With Hyper-Ambitious “Language Translator” RFP”, dated 15 October 2020 by Marion Marking
  
  2. nij dot ojp dot gov, “The Voice Response Translator: A Valuable Police Tool” dated July 1, 2005 by Mark P. Cohen
  
  The actual prototype of the UT was being developed by the Soviet Union just before it collapsed! Research rights were bought by IWT (Integrated Wave Technologies)…