Syber News

Believe it or not, there's a Pentagon News Channel, and recently one of their reports had a segment on a high-tech translation device. Not really all that exciting, except for the fact that the device is actually an iPod Touch.

They call it a VCOM, and as they reported, you simply have to choose the language, and then the combat scenario you are in, such as a raid (as demo'ed on the video), and then select what you might want said like "Drop the weapon" or whatever.

After you do that, an avatar shows up on the screen and verbalizes the phrase, which is then said through the iPod Touch's speaker. It's pretty cool, but I wonder how they got it onto the iPod Touch without passing it through the App Store.

Watch the segment (the full episode is available on the Pentagon's News Site linked above):