But barely two months into the July-awarded concept exploration contracts, Lisa Porter, NASA's new associate administrator for aeronautics, told the teams on Aug. 30 that there no longer was funding for a demonstrator. Team members are trying to devise cheaper alternatives for the next phase of research, but turmoil continues in the agency's aeronautics plans.

Posted by: wowpowerleveling at May 26, 2008 02:07 AM

The Vcommunicator was developed by an Orlando firm, Vcom3D. What they have programmed so far is just the start as I see it. I think now they need to go back to the drawing board and develop a device that can interpret what is slowly being spoken and translate it to English. I know it will be a painstaking venture, but we cetainly have the technology to do it. Maybe our military intelligence can help support this since there are so few translators in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East in general. When all else fails, it seems that complete immersion is the best way to go.

Posted by: Betsy Beamer Farner at December 9, 2007 10:25 AM

Hello All,

I just wanted to post with a little insight into the product. The device was developed with soldiers in mind at the squad level. Those that are "boots on the ground" The guys that get stuff done but don't have access to translators (or trust them) etc... Most deployed soldiers don't even get 4 weeks of language training and those that do get 4 weeks have to wait a month or so before deployment... Thus the retention level is low. So the military is trying to figure out a solution to the langauge problem. Even the Defense Language Institute is trying to figure out this puzzle. Those that attend this school learn Arabic in 18 months but only come out at a 5th grade level. Furthermore, the soldier attending is not your average soldier and is a very small percent of our armed forces.

My company stepped in with 10th Mountain Army to figure out a solution that can supplement and help the average Joe soldier. We are not teaching everything about the language but provide, cultural insight (the right gestures), language, phonetics, key phrases for day to day use, and the ability for soldiers to add custom phrases and content. The custom content comes in because it is a video iPod. I train soldiers to add videos and pictures of things important to a mission. For example, add a photo of a person of interest with a voice "Do you recognize this person" or add a map or any video/picture for that matter. So this iPod trains, communicates, and is a mission ready aid. It is very easy to use and familiar to soldiers. I have spoken with hundreds of soldiers from all forces and the need is there. Most don't have a voice and this provides one that is on a familiar interface.

Posted by: Ernie at October 8, 2007 07:58 PM

Usefull I guess but no way near effective as learning it yourself.

Posted by: 22lr at October 8, 2007 07:02 PM

I've seen lots of these iPod phrasebooks for sale in the travel section of bookstores. Searching for "ipod phrasebook" in Amazon.com turns up tons of them, though none in Arabic. It sounds like the major change here is that Vcom's product will print the words in Arabic and they have a lightweight speaker system as well.

Are the iPod durability comments applicable to units like the iPod nano (i.e., the ones with no moving parts in them)? It doesn't surprise me that a HD-based iPod would break quickly, but I would have thought the nanos would last longer in a combat zone with a lot fewer precautions.

Posted by: Edward Liu at October 8, 2007 11:38 AM

I think this is a brilliant method of beginning instruction, but I agree with the other two posts. This should be used as a basic outline to the language, but should not be relied upon as a primary method of translation as it may be difficult to operate an arm based device during a heated discussion.
Not to mention the fact that this ipod will be strapped to a mostly sunlit arm during intense periods of heat, as well as wind and sand. My first ipod lasted me only a month on a jobsite, and that was kept in my bag (my dusty bag, but I wasnt wearing it around.)
I'm wondering how much space each phrase dictionary would occupy on the ipod; with the advent of the newer technologies incorporated in their hard drives, the capacity as doubled from 80 to 160 gigs... That's a lot of language capability. They could make money selling this commercially for various languages around the world based on ipod tech.
Interesting.

Posted by: Nick at October 7, 2007 10:44 PM

I'm an infantry soldier at Fort Riley training for deployment to Iraq in May. Myself and 30 other soldiers in our Brigade were selected to participate in a full-time intensive Iraqi Arabic language course. As part of the program we were each given a Microsoft Zune which we are loading up with our own playlists as the class progresses.

I hadn't thought of organizing the playlists based on particular scenarios, but it is a good idea.

Our ultimate goal (one it looks like we will attain) however is to communicate in these situations without any need for reference material, hardcopy or digital.

I would encourage anyone with these devices to use them to familiarize themselves with the language and not rely on them at the moments translation is needed.

While they may be useful to communicate TO an Iraqi, they won't be much use when the Iraqi is trying to speak to the Servicemember. By listening to these phrases in their freetime, they will at least understand a few key words.

Posted by: Edward at October 7, 2007 06:41 PM

This raises a question: Is there a version of the iPod that's rugged enough to stand up to military (ab)use?

Mine can't even stand up to the light levels of abuse that come with just plain me. I'm not sure it could stand up to the abuse level of a war zone.

Posted by: Penta at October 7, 2007 10:49 AM