When traveling in foreign countries,
people often rely on traditional phrase books for language
translation. However, these phrase books only work in a limited
number of common situations, and even common situations will often
deviate from the predefined script the phrase book relies on.
Translation software exists for Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
devices, but users must write out every phrase they wish to
translate, slowing communication. We aim to solve both problems with
a PDA application called GloBuddy 2. Using a
vast knowledge base of
commonsense facts and relationships, GloBuddy 2 is able to expand
on the user’s translation request and provide words and phrases
related to the user’s situation. The result is a dynamic phrase book
that can adapt to the user’s particular situation due to its breadth
of common sense knowledge about the world. GloBuddy 2 is
considerably more effective than using a conventional phrase book
across a wide variety of situations.
