Localizing the bad breath indicator

You know you've been in this line of work too long when you look at every innovation and wonder, "How are they going to localize that?"

China and India may have the growing numbers of cellular subscribers, but Japan and Korea are winning the race for edgy wireless applications, as the Associated Press/NewsEdge article cited below underscores. Still, I wonder how they'll localize it...

DoCoMo's prototype phone gives users fitness check
It can take your pulse, check your body fat, time your jogs and tell you if you have bad breath. It even assesses stress levels and inspires you with a pep talk. Meet your new personal trainer: your mobile phone.

The prototype Wellness mobile phone from Japan's NTT DoCoMo targets users with busy lives who want a hassle-free way of keeping track of their health, according to company spokesman Noriaki Tobita.

I applaud this novel use of mobile technology. Life sciences and telephones are snuggling up together in many other ways, and this strikes me as a good next step in the evolution.

But how do you localize the bad breath sensor?

I don't think they'll be able to do it correctly from Japan; it will require a lot of in-country research. What constitutes bad breath in Japan may be a breath of fresh air in Idaho, and vice versa, and it would be hard to get it right working only from the source country.

Can Trados handle that? What extension does a bad breath profile have: .bbp? How do you qualify translators for it?

"It's with you wherever you go, like a portable personal trainer," Tobita said.

Does every country have personal trainers? Do they do the same thing in every country? Will I be able to tell them to go away in my own language, and have them obey me?

The Wellness phone, developed by NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric, also asks questions to assess stress levels, and offers advice.

Now that's nice. Are the questions the same in every country? I would bet that the definition of "stress" varies widely from culture to culture. I've wandered into markets in other countries that were so boisterous and nerve-wracking that I didn't even want to buy - let alone sell - there, but what struck me as panic was just day-in-the-life commerce for those people.

DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile phone carrier, has not set a release date or price for the Wellness phone and has no immediate plans to sell it overseas.

That's just as well; we localizers need a little more time to think this one through.

Full article http://www.telecomasia.net/article.php?id_article=5956