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COMMERCIAL PROFILE - SCIENCE FOUNDATION IRELAND:The World Cup brings football fans from around the globe together and a new technology from an Irish-based research centre will help them communicate

AFICIONADOS OF the long-running movie and TV franchise Star Trekwill no doubt be familiar with the universal translator – the piece of fictitious technology which allows the crew of the starship communicate with one and other and a variety of exotic alien species without the need to bother learning any language but their own. While more a dramatic device than a genuine piece of futurology on the part of the scriptwriters, such technology is now coming close to reality thanks to work being carried out by the Science Foundation Ireland-funded Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL).