Google seems to be working on a product that could be described as something straight out of Star Trek, a universal translator of sorts.

The not-so-evil empire apparently plans to base the device on voice recognition technology already implemented in the Nexus One phone. In other words, it won't translate dirty words making it rather useless if you were planning to talk to customs officers, tour operators, street vendors, hotel clerks, bartenders or pretty much anyone you have to deal with while abroad.

Head of Google's translation services Frank Och believes speech-to-speech translation should become reality within a few years. Och claims voice recognition should be very effective with phones, as the phones could get a feel for your voice from past voice search queries. So, you won't have to teach yourself a foreign language, but you will have to teach your phone to understand what you're saying.

Honestly, sticking an alien fish into one's ear sounds like a much better idea.

More here.