skip navigation
URC Consortium Logo

You are here: MyURC.org > white paper > examples > language translation

How URC Allows Users to have a Remote Control that Operates in their Native Language

The following example shows how a controller can also effectively serve as a language translator in a situation where the products being controlled have implemented the URC standards (in this case, the alarm clock, thermostat, and television).

Man inserting key card into hotel door.

 A Japanese businessman enters a hotel room in the Netherlands...

Japanese businessman staring at sign on table written in Dutch.  Man has question mark above his head.

He finds that all the signs and all the products in the room are labeled in Dutch - of which he knows none.

Man standing in hotel room looking at his PDA and saying in Japanese that he wants to adjust the temperature to 20 and set the clock to 6:45 am.

Pulling out his cell phone which has a V2 URC application on it, he is presented with a list of the various devices in his room, and is able to select and control them in Japanese since his URC presents an interface for each in Japanese.  The URC finds Japanese labels on the manufacturers' web resource sites for those devices that do not provide them directly.

PDA tells man in Japanese that "room temperature now set at 20 degrees. Alarm now set at 6:45 a.m.   Time is 10:50 p.m."

He sets the alarm for 6:30 wake up and adjusts the temperature of the air conditioning via his URC.

Man turns to television and again is using cell phone to turn to CNN.

Turning, he is able to control the television using his URC - again in Japanese. 

"So nice to be able to operate everything in my own language" he reflects as he pulls up CNN and gets captions in Japanese on his URC via a network translation service.    "Someday they will integrate these services into Televisions so I can see Japanese captions directly on the TV".

Next Example: Example of Using the Same Familiar Interface with All Similar Products.

This site is maintained by the University of Wisconsin Trace Center, a member of the Universal Remote Console Consortium.