Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
New Cool in High Technology
Aired February 17, 2003 - 11:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up next, well, we'll kind of change gears here to talk about something else cooler than snow even. We're talking about a techie conference under way this morning in the Arizona desert. How about that?
Sixty companies there are showing off what they hope is going to be the next big thing in high tech.
And our tech expert, Dan Sieberg, joins us today from Scottsdale, Arizona.
And I've got to tell you, man, half of the East Coast wishes they were there with you right now.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. They're not really going anywhere at the moment, are they, Leon?
But we are here in the desert out in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's a little cool yet this morning, but we here where there is some pretty hot technology going on. In fact, this is kind of the show where the buzz begins. Over its 12 or 13 year history, products like the Palm Pilot and TiVo have gotten their start here -- a lot of futuristic stuff.
And right now, we're going to be talking about one that's fairly futuristic from IBM.
And I'm joined right now by Alison Sue from IBM -- she's an engineer there -- to talk about Info Scope (ph), and the idea behind this is, we've got a sign up here that you would see as a traveler. And you could potentially use your PDA or your cell phone and a digital camera to translate a language that's on one of these signs. Tell me how that works.
ALISON SUE, IBM: That's right. So, here we have a PDA with a camera on it.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And so, if you are in this train station and you see a sign and youre not sure what it says, what you can do is go up to the sign and -- there we go -- go up to the sign, take a picture with the camera.
SIEBERG: Yes. So, it's grabbing the picture right now. Then, you're going to basically -- right now, we've got a laptop set up here, so you can send it over. But ordinarily, you wouldn't obviously need a laptop. You would just have your cell phone or your PDA, and a lot of cell phones come with a digital camera these days.
SUE: That's right. And in fact, that's one of the reasons why this is being developed is because so many of these mobile devices have cameras, and this is such a great application. So, what we do is then select the text we want to translate.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And we say "translate." And at the moment, we just happen to be using infrared. But like you said, we will be able to simply send it as an e-mail attachment off somewhere and get the translation back.
SIEBERG: Wherever you are potentially in the world?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: And we've got a Chinese sign up here right now.
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: But it works with Chinese, Spanish, Italian, German and French.
SUE: Correct.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: To English and back.
SIEBERG: And back again, right?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And so, as can see, it's already done translating.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And it shows that this says "reservation."
SIEBERG: "Reservation."
SUE: And so, in the case of a cell phone, in fact...
SIEBERG: Yes.
SUE: ... you would get this instant message back. I don't know if you can see that. It also says "reservation" as a text message.
SIEBERG: OK. So now, this is a couple of years away, right?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: Because this is still being fine-tuned. IBM is still working out some of the...
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: ... some of the kinks in the system basically.
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: And eventually, though, you could use it on your cell phone. Right now mainly on a PDA, but potentially in the future, you're walking around with your cell phone and you can hold it up, right?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: All right, well, Alison Sue from IBM, thanks so very much for joining us to talk about this technology that is still a couple years away. But that's kind of the theme of this show here, Leon, stuff that's futuristic. You know, if you don't want to carry around a translation book, maybe this fits in your pocket a little bit easier.
Leon -- back to you.
HARRIS: Good deal. That makes sense to me. Thanks, Dan, appreciate it. Dan Sieberg in Scottsdale, Arizona.
SIEBERG: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 17, 2003 - 11:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up next, well, we'll kind of change gears here to talk about something else cooler than snow even. We're talking about a techie conference under way this morning in the Arizona desert. How about that?
Sixty companies there are showing off what they hope is going to be the next big thing in high tech.
And our tech expert, Dan Sieberg, joins us today from Scottsdale, Arizona.
And I've got to tell you, man, half of the East Coast wishes they were there with you right now.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. They're not really going anywhere at the moment, are they, Leon?
But we are here in the desert out in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's a little cool yet this morning, but we here where there is some pretty hot technology going on. In fact, this is kind of the show where the buzz begins. Over its 12 or 13 year history, products like the Palm Pilot and TiVo have gotten their start here -- a lot of futuristic stuff.
And right now, we're going to be talking about one that's fairly futuristic from IBM.
And I'm joined right now by Alison Sue from IBM -- she's an engineer there -- to talk about Info Scope (ph), and the idea behind this is, we've got a sign up here that you would see as a traveler. And you could potentially use your PDA or your cell phone and a digital camera to translate a language that's on one of these signs. Tell me how that works.
ALISON SUE, IBM: That's right. So, here we have a PDA with a camera on it.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And so, if you are in this train station and you see a sign and youre not sure what it says, what you can do is go up to the sign and -- there we go -- go up to the sign, take a picture with the camera.
SIEBERG: Yes. So, it's grabbing the picture right now. Then, you're going to basically -- right now, we've got a laptop set up here, so you can send it over. But ordinarily, you wouldn't obviously need a laptop. You would just have your cell phone or your PDA, and a lot of cell phones come with a digital camera these days.
SUE: That's right. And in fact, that's one of the reasons why this is being developed is because so many of these mobile devices have cameras, and this is such a great application. So, what we do is then select the text we want to translate.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And we say "translate." And at the moment, we just happen to be using infrared. But like you said, we will be able to simply send it as an e-mail attachment off somewhere and get the translation back.
SIEBERG: Wherever you are potentially in the world?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: And we've got a Chinese sign up here right now.
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: But it works with Chinese, Spanish, Italian, German and French.
SUE: Correct.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: To English and back.
SIEBERG: And back again, right?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And so, as can see, it's already done translating.
SIEBERG: OK.
SUE: And it shows that this says "reservation."
SIEBERG: "Reservation."
SUE: And so, in the case of a cell phone, in fact...
SIEBERG: Yes.
SUE: ... you would get this instant message back. I don't know if you can see that. It also says "reservation" as a text message.
SIEBERG: OK. So now, this is a couple of years away, right?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: Because this is still being fine-tuned. IBM is still working out some of the...
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: ... some of the kinks in the system basically.
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: And eventually, though, you could use it on your cell phone. Right now mainly on a PDA, but potentially in the future, you're walking around with your cell phone and you can hold it up, right?
SUE: That's right.
SIEBERG: All right, well, Alison Sue from IBM, thanks so very much for joining us to talk about this technology that is still a couple years away. But that's kind of the theme of this show here, Leon, stuff that's futuristic. You know, if you don't want to carry around a translation book, maybe this fits in your pocket a little bit easier.
Leon -- back to you.
HARRIS: Good deal. That makes sense to me. Thanks, Dan, appreciate it. Dan Sieberg in Scottsdale, Arizona.
SIEBERG: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
