[ti:A Kitchen That Talks? This One Teaches French] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Technology Repor] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. [00:04.98]A "talking kitchen" teaches students [00:08.27]how to cook French and speak French. [00:12.15]Researchers at New Castle University [00:15.28]in the United Kingdom [00:16.84]have developed the French Digital Kitchen. [00:20.87]Professors Paul Seedhouse and Patrick Olivier led the project. [00:26.14]Professor Seedhouse told us on Skype [00:29.54]that it works like a satellite navigation system in a car. [00:34.08]PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "The sat nav speaks to you and it tells you, [00:37.29]for example, to turn left. [00:38.46]And if you turn left then it continues with the program. [00:42.09]If, for example, you turn right, then it's a mistake, [00:44.83]so it loops back and it gives you further instructions." [00:47.66]The kitchen equipment and tools use motion sensor technology [00:52.94]similar to the Nintendo Wii game system. [00:56.87]The sensors help a computer guide the students [01:00.75]through instructions in French. [01:03.35]PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "The system can tell whether you've done [01:06.23]what you were asked to do or not. [01:07.98]So let's say, for example, [01:09.37]the system tells you to take some butter [01:12.46]and cut it with a knife, right? [01:15.39]There's a sensor on the package containing the butter [01:18.74]so it can tell where the butter's being moved. [01:20.93]The sensor in the knife not only knows that the knife is moving, [01:25.40]but it also knows what motion the knife is making. [01:28.69]So it can detect whether the knife is slicing, [01:31.58]whether it's scraping or what. [01:33.91]And so it doesn't go on to the next stage of the program [01:36.51]unless you've done what it senses you've done." [01:40.13]Students can ask the computer to repeat the instructions [01:44.62]or translate them into English. [01:47.17]There are vocabulary lessons before and after the cooking. [01:52.30]Professor Seedhouse became interested in the idea [01:56.08]after he visited a talking kitchen [01:58.98]designed for a different purpose. [02:01.41]PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "It was actually for communicating with people [02:04.07]who suffer from dementia. [02:05.42]And so, for example, [02:07.62]it can speak to those people and it can tell them, [02:10.50]for example, that they've left the oven on [02:12.69]and they should switch the oven off." [02:14.23]He says the French Digital Kitchen turns the process [02:18.46]of learning language into a real-life experience. [02:22.36]PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "Here you're taking it out of the classroom [02:25.70]and you're actually using the language to produce something [02:27.94]which you can eat at the end of it. It's very enjoyable." [02:32.17]But the idea -- known as task-based language learning [02:36.85]-- required a few changes [02:38.90]as the researchers were designing the system. [02:41.63]PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "For example, we've found that [02:44.12]we put a sink full of water, right, [02:47.51]and as soon as people have finished cooking with an instrument, [02:49.85]they throw it in the water. [02:51.99]And for us that's deadly because the digital sensors [02:54.93]were immediately ruined by being in the water. [02:57.42]Okay, so - so you have to take actions [03:00.27]so that you don't have water in the sink [03:02.75]and you tell people not to throw them in the sink." [03:04.89]The system could be available for sale by the end of twenty twelve. [03:09.52]Adding the technology to a new kitchen [03:12.71]could add an estimated ten to twenty percent to the building costs. [03:18.43]The system could also be added to an existing kitchen. [03:23.17]The researchers are also developing portable versions. [03:27.76]And the European Union has given them money [03:31.54]to begin programs in six other languages, [03:35.47]including English, Italian and Spanish. [03:39.25]And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, [03:44.93]written by June Simms. [03:47.60]You can find a link to videos of the talking kitchen [03:52.23]at 51voa.com. I'm Steve Ember.