Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson heads out into the mean streets of Brooklyn to test-drive a language translation gadget used by US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The voice response translator is produced by Integrated Wave Technologies, and is used in both combat and peacetime missions, with the ability to translate into many different languages.
Joel, who describes himself as "an ignorant white doofus," says:
Some of the phrases were really quite violent, commanding people to get on the ground and put their hands over their heads. The guy who sits outside the five-and-dime all day on a folding chair thought those were especially funny.
Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion and downloadable video.
