When police officers, paramedics, firefighters or other first responders arrive on the scene of an emergency, communication with the parties involved is extremely important. But if there is a language barrier, it can be almost impossible for the two sides to communicate with one another. RTT Mobile has released a product called ELSA that will eliminate those language barriers with the touch of a button.

The ELSA, which stands for Enabling Language Service Everywhere, is a small handheld device that, when activated, connects the user with a network of interpreters who can translate 180 different languages. This allows immediate communication between parties, and the conversations are recorded for future playback.

The device contains a high-quality microphone and speaker, enabling clear communication. Many of the the network of interpreters have special training in medical, business and government terminology so they are able to correctly translate even the more complex concepts. So far the ELSA isn’t being widely used, but we can see it becoming an essential part of every first responder’s gear.

The post Handheld Device Gives First Responders Instant Translation first appeared on Gajitz.

Flip phones have gone out of vogue in favor of the sleeker, flatter smartphone, but designer Kristian Ulrich Larsen has a new take on the whole concept of a phone that flips. The Flip Phone is a revolution in the arena of mobile phone design. Instead of the ubiquitous flat rectangle that seems to represent every smartphone these days, the Flip Phone features three separate screens.

The screens can be arranged and used in a variety of different ways, even running different apps on all three at the same time. They can be opened up to create a large display or folded into a triangle to make a traditional-looking clock. They can become a screen and a keypad or a book-like e-reader – and there are seemingly endless other configurations.

The phone was the product of a six-week creative workshop involving Larsen and other designers. Larsen then further developed the idea as part of his MA program. He saw that people are using their mobile phones for far more than just communicating verbally or via text; they’re using them much in the way that we use our laptop computers.

This led him to design a phone that would work more like a computer and allow users to do more – or less, depending on just what they need at the moment. The phone would consist of three flexible AMOLED screens covered in Gorilla Glass, a lightweight aluminum case and steel mesh at the joints to make the phone easy to bend and flip around.

It’s safe to say that the highly unusual design is unlike any mobile phone on the market today. Whether it is ever developed into a real product remains to be seen, but judging from the demo video it’s going to take a lot of fancy software to make this phone capable of everything Larsen wants it to do.

The post High-Tech Triple Screen Could Bring the Flip Phone Back first appeared on Gajitz.

Thirty years ago, Atari was on top of the gaming game – and they also apparently employed some remarkably clairvoyant people. Atari’s Chief Scientist Alan Kay collaborated with Encyclopedia Brittanica consultant Bob Stein to picture how people might use encyclopedias in the future.

Their result was these surprisingly accurate illustrations (drawn by Disney animator Glenn Keane). In essence, the men predicted Wikipedia…way back in 1982.

The images look kind of commonplace to us these days. Most of us have looked up old videos online, read about things in which we’re interested on Wikipedia, or checked stock quotes from a portable device.

But for all of their accuracy, the images missed a very important factor: the human one. Stein points out that, in imagining their conceptual future network, the men completely overlooked the fact that this type of technology could connect people to one another.

Interestingly, the predictions included handheld, wireless devices that were way smaller than the computers being used for real in 1982. See the images and their original captions over at the Future of the Book blog.

The post 1982 Atari Drawings Predict Wikipedia + Portable Computers first appeared on Gajitz.