A recent article in Newsweek gives us a overview of new language technology coming out. Each of the products listed is quite interesting—exciting, actually.

One that caught my eye deals more with audio technology, but is reminiscent of the old Maxwell Smart “cone of silence.” DaimlerChrysler has created audio-beam speakers to shoot a cone of sound (not silence!) to areas as small as a seat. So, goodbye to the big headphones worn in places like the United Nations!

Other items listed were: the sign translator, Siemens’s Lecture Translator System, Nokia’s cell-phone translation/transcription software, and NASA’s software that analyzes words that are mouthed, not spoken.