A "Tower of Babel" device that gives the illusion of being bilingual is being developed by US scientists.
Users simply have to silently mouth a word in their own language for it to be translated and read out in another.
The researchers said the effect was like watching a television programme that had been dubbed.
The system, detailed in New Scientist, is not yet fully accurate, but experts said it showed the technology was "within reach".
 The idea is that you can mouth words in English and they will come out in Chinese or another language
Tanja Schultz 
The translation systems that are currently in use work by using voice recognition software.
But this requires people to speak out loud and then wait for the translation to be read out, making conversations difficult.
But the new device, being created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, is different.
Electrodes are attached to the neck and face to detect the movements that occur as the person silently mouths words and phrases.
Using this data, a computer can work out the sounds being formed and then build these sounds up into words.
The system is then able to translate the words into ...   more »

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday that both private investors and central banks were shifting away from the U.S. dollar and toward the euro.
"We're beginning to see some move from the dollar to the euro, both from the private sector ... but also from monetary authorities and central banks," Greenspan told a conference sponsored by the Commercial Finance Association.
His comments pushed the dollar down, a sign that Greenspan, who retired from the U.S. central bank in January, still holds some sway in financial markets.
As he had done repeatedly when he led the central bank, Greenspan said it was imperative for the United States to resist protectionist pressures that could make an unwinding of the large U.S. current account trade gap economically painful.
"We'll get to the point at some point that willingness to finance it will slow, and if you can't finance it, it won't happen," Greenspan said of the broad trade measure.
He said, however, that if the economy remained flexible, the adjustment "should have very little effect on production and capacity."
Greenspan warned, however, that if the United States threw up barriers to isolate itself from the pressures of globalization, "the adjustment ...   more »