Translating glasses idea wins TI's Vision for Voice contest and 56-inch Samsung TV

As part of my VoiceCon 2008 coverage, I wrote about Texas Instrument’s Vision for Voice contest. TI asked individuals to submit a short video that describes a specific VoIP product, improvement to a current voice technology, or a new voice technology they would like to see within the next 20 years.

After receiving more than 250 entries, TI announced the contest winner on June 3, 2008. Jonathan Chung, an engineering student from the University of Maryland, received the grand prize (a 56-inch Samsung HD DLP TV) for his entry entitled, “Visualizing the Translation.” Chung’s idea was a pair of glasses that could translate a foreign language as it was being spoken and display the translated text in the lens. You can watch Chung’s video submission and an interview with Chung about his idea on TI’s Vision for Voice Web site.

I recently spoke with Tom Flanagan, Director of Technical Strategy for Texas Instruments’ Digital Signal Processing Systems. Flanagan explained why Texas Instruments sponsored the Vision for Voice contest, how the company is involved in voice technology (more so than many of you probably thought), explained why Chung’s submission was judged the winner, and highlighted a few of the wackier contest entries, like voice-control lighting.