OVERVIEW

Not everybody speaks your language. But with the talkTEC language translation HUD, you can speak theirs. The talkTEC HUD facilitates connectivity between the virtual world of Second Life and services that provide free Systran-powered language translation.


The talkTEC HUD supports translation between the following languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, and Korean.* Choose your native tongue and your translation language for simple, direct translation between you and the world, or establish language filters so you always receive your international friends in your native language.

The slick interface makes operation user-friendly; with drop-down menus and simple, intuitive buttons, you can be up and running in a matter of seconds. And it’s minimizable, so it doesn’t take up space when you’re not using it.

HOW IT WORKS

There are several free internet-based services that allow text translation between languages using Systran’s powerful language translation software. The talkTEC HUD manages your chat, contacting these services and using the translations when necessary. You select which languages to translate to/from, and talkTEC will handle the rest. No more popping in and out of the Second Life client to visit your favorite translation website!

TERMS USED

Here’s a quick definition of the terms used in this manual:

  • native language - this refers to YOUR language, the language that YOU speak.
  • translation language - this refers to the language you don’t understand, that you wish to have translated.
  • public channel - this refers to the channel that talkTEC listens to other people on.
  • owner channel - this refers to the channel talkTEC listens to YOU on in order to translate you aloud.
  • private channel - this refers to the channel talkTEC listens to YOU on in order to privately translate phrases into your native language.

QUICK START

Getting started with the talkTEC HUD is simple:

  1. Wear the HUD.
  2. Click the “on” button so the HUD shows blue.
  3. Click the left dropdown menu to select your native language.
  4. Click the right dropdown menu to select the translation language.
  5. You’re set!

All chat on channel 0 (the public channel) will be translated from the translation language to your native language (if the HUD thinks the person is already speaking your native language, it will not bother to translate). Speak in your native language on channel 1 to be translated aloud. Speak on channel 2 in the translation language to have the phrase translated into your native language and spoken to you only (this is good for deciphering instant messages, notecards, signs, etc.).

THE INTERFACE

The talkTEC Interface

The talkTEC Interface

  1. ON/OFF BUTTON - this button turns the HUD on or off. When the HUD is on, it is a pretty blue. When off, it will be grey. While off, none of the translation functions will operate.
  2. NATIVE LANGUAGE DROPDOWN - Your native language is the language you speak. Click this field to choose this language from a drop-down menu. Then click the language you want to select that language.
  3. TRANSLATION LANGUAGE DROPDOWN - The translation language is the language you want translated to you. Once you have selected your native language, click this field to choose the translation language from a drop-down menu.
  4. WEB LINK BUTTON - This will offer you a link to a translation service on the internet (Google Translate). If the combination of languages you have selected is among the standard pairs offered for this internet service, these languages will be pre-filled in for faster use.
  5. MODE BUTTON - This switches between talkTEC’s listening modes (listen to all / listen only to filters). If talkTEC is listening to all chat, both people icons will be lit up. If talkTEC is listening only to filters, only one of the two people icons will be lit.
  6. OPTIONS BUTTON - This button brings up a menu to set talkTEC’s channels, language sets, and filters.
  7. HELP BUTTON - This button brings up this page, translated into whatever you have set as your language.
  8. MINIMIZE BUTTON - This button minimizes or maximizes the HUD. When minimized, only this button will show; click it to maximize the HUD again.
  9. BASIC OPERATION

General use operates much like the Quick Start section above. Select your native language in the left dropdown menu and the language you wish to translate in the right dropdown menu. talkTEC will attempt to translate any chat spoken on the public channel (by default 0) in the translation language to your native language. Speak on the owner channel (by default /1) to be translated out. Speak on the private channel (by default 2) in the translation language to have the phrase translated privately to you in your native language. Use the power button to turn the HUD on and off, and the minimize button to minimize/maximize the HUD.

CHANNELS

You may change the channels listened to by the HUD using the Options menu:

  1. Public channel - this is the channel talkTEC listens to everybody else on. This is set to 0 by default and should typically stay that way. You can change this, but doing so will cause talkTEC to only translate other people speaking on your new channel preset.
  2. Owner channel - this is the channel talkTEC listens to YOU on in order to translate you out. This is set to 1 by default and should probably be changed, as 1 is a common channel for attachments.
  3. Private channel - this is the channel talkTEC listens to YOU on in order to translate phrases for you privately. This may be used for translating IMs or signs quietly to yourself. This is set to 2 by default.

LANGUAGE SETS

This is an option you may select in the Options menu.

  1. Standard - The talkTEC HUD offers, by default, 36 language combinations natively supported by Systran. When selecting your language pair in the drop-down menu, only these combinations will be offered to you in Standard mode. This means that in Standard mode, you can translate between, say, English and Russian, but you cannot translate between Russian and Portuguese, because this combination is not supported.
  2. Extended - Extended mode allows translation between non-supported languages. Enabling this option will make any combination of the supported languages available to you. The tradeoff of this is that translation between non-standard language combinations (such as the Russian/Portuguese example we used above) will be far less accurate than translation between standard language pairs. Note that even if you are running Extended mode, if the languages you have selected are a standard pair, talkTEC will recognize this and use the standard translation method, so it is okay to leave Extended mode on when you are not using it.

Please note that standard language pairs are a strong recommendation, as translation is much faster and more accurate with these pairs.

FILTERS

Filters are great if you have several people you regularly interact with that speak different languages.

It’s best to explain this feature with an example. Let’s say you have a friend, Danno Ebisu, who speaks only Japanese. You run into him often, or perhaps do a bit of business with him.

  1. Click the Options button.
  2. Select “Filters”.
  3. Select the Add (”+”) button.
  4. Select the “Danno Ebisu” button.
  5. Select “Japanese”.

Now, whenever Danno speaks Japanese in within range, if your talkTEC is on, it will try to translate for you, regardless of what your translation language is set to. So if your translation language is set to Spanish, and you’re in a crowd with Danno, talkTEC will try to translate everybody else from Spanish, but knows to translate Danno from Japanese.

Now let’s say Danno stopped playing Second Life, or maybe you learned to speak Japanese. Remove him from your filters:

  1. Click the options button.
  2. Click “Filters.”
  3. Click the Remove (”-”) button.
  4. Click “Danno Ebisu.”

so he’s not taking up extra memory.

Remember that while talkTEC can theoretically hold up to 70 filters, the longer this list is the more work it has to do to remember your language pairs, and the longer your translations will take. It’s best to keep this number below 15 or so.

LISTENING MODES

The mode button (5) toggles between the two listening modes:

Everybody - In this mode, talkTEC will listen to, and try to translate, everybody. Speakers on your filters list will be translated from their languages, and everybody else will be translated from your translation language.

Filters Only - In this mode, talkTEC will only listen to people on your filters list.

The mode icon is two user icons side by side. When both are lit, talkTEC is in Everybody mode. When only one is lit, talkTEC is in Filters Only mode.

CAVEAT

Like any other translator for Second Life, talkTEC relies on internet services. We cannot, therefore, guarantee the perpetual operation of this product, because we are not entirely in control of these services. This is true of any translation device in Second Life. If these services should fail, be removed, change protocols, or block our requests, we will of course seek new methods and issue free updates if we are able to find them.