posted
Sort of a trivial question to start an entire thread over, but what would you call a device that converts a lexigram board into audible english?
My character has a bonobo that uses this sounding board to communicate with his human friend.
posted
Vocalizer? I mean, all it does is give voice to whatever the bonobo keys in, right? This instrument seems like the sort of thing people would be quick to shorten.
Maybe Vox Box? It could be like brand name. Transvocalizer? Vocagrapher? Text vocalizer?
posted
Not just "cypher", the other half is "Linguist". Maybe it'd look clearer like this: Linguicypher. (An LC Module.) Posts: 3687 | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
Wouldn't it just be a lexigram with new added audible feature? They didn't rename the phone when they made it cordless, handsfree, or cellular, and at this point in history we've advances a long way from the original telephone. Why change the name of a simple plastic board, especially when you're going to have to explain to us what it is exactly once you've tagged on a new name.
posted
"Cell phone" is different than "telephone", but, with sub-vocal com-link systems (the military has employed a form of them since Vietnam), I wonder why that wouldn't be more readily available. Or, I'd imagine that the implants that the living cyborg is pioneering will have a nano-virus form that have their own advanced Wi-Fi connection and...
Hmm. Maybe I should write a story about...
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited April 26, 2008).]
posted
Vocoder wouldn't really work, because a vocoder is already something and it's not that. A vocoder is a musical device that converts speech into electronic signals (so kind of the opposite of what your device is). For example, you talk into a microphone, and the vocoder converts it into electronic signal that you can than manipulate with a keyboard or a guitar or something, and "play" your voice as an instrument.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I've generally heard vocoder referred to, mainly by critics, as a vox inhumana...
Neither voder nor vocoder is in my old dictionary, but I would think the derivation comes from Latin: voco, to call, vox or vocis, voice, vocare, call...i. e. English words like vocal or vocative or vociferate. (You get the idea.)
Telephone, on the other hand, is Greek...tele, afar, phone, sound. Shortened to phone in the USA, then linked with cell, Latin, small room.
posted
Might I suggest, that once you have established what you want to call it, your long scientific name, that you come up with a slang for it that most people will refer to it by. Sort of Snow Crash-esk, something humorous that will really mind this device into the mind of the reader... like Crackler, because of the static crackle beneath the voicing, for example. Mind you, thats just a generic example.
But it adds a flavor to stories to have a humorous street lingo. (more from Snow Crash: Minivan = Bimbo box person decked out in recording equipment = Gargoyle "Kourier's" skateboard = Plank Magnetic Grappler = a poon (from harpoon) Gated Suburb = Burbclaves Something with a little flare to make it memorable.)
posted
I love having the opportunity to discuss things like this with such dynamic and creative minds.
I posted the placeholder "transvocalizer" in the first thirteen of a story in F&F The jury is still out for me.
I think that the hardest thing for me is the circumstances surrounding its use. It isn't a common devise. it was developed by scientist solely for the use by the young prince's pet primate. There is no mainstream marketing. The world is based on a dictatorship.
posted
there actually is something called: iBot - can find videos on YouTube like a Super-wheel chair.... not a far cry from iWalk...
Posts: 13 | Registered: Apr 2008
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