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The accidental tourist - portable computer voice translator

Nation's Business, April, 1989 by Michael Barrier

The Accidental Tourist Not long ago, Stephen A. Rondel showed some visitors to his office the first working model of a sleek, 2-1/2-pound gadget that would fit comfortably in an over-the-shoulder bag. This was not his first demonstration of the product, but before, he had to use clumsy external electronics; this was his first chance to try out a complete machine, with its own compact, densely packed circuit boards. For Rondel, as for his visitors, the question was: Would it work?

To find out, Rondel did not press a button or turn a dial. Instead, he spoke to the machine as if it were a desk clerk: "I would like to reserve a room, please." Immediately, it repeated his message--in highly mechanical but distinct Spanish. Rondel spoke again, as if to a waiter: "Bring me a fork, please." And again, Spanish words emerged.

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The machine was, to be sure, slightly temperamental; Rondel had to repeat some words. "The machine expects you to talk to it in defined, rigorous steps," Rondel said. "We'll be able to adjust that, I think, as we get down the road."

"We" is Advanced Products & Technologies, a 35-employee firm that Rondel, 44, founded and runs from its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., a Seattle suburg. APT has made its name as a travel-products company, selling ingeniously designed accessories to affluent tourists through department-store chains such as Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom.

APT's products include a voltage converter for foreign electrical outlets; a portable smoke detector; a fabric shaver, which removes the "pills" that often form on sweaters, trousers, and otherr apparel; a portable safe that looks like a coat hanger; and an exceptionally compact drip coffee maker that is barely larger than the cup into which the coffee drips. Two years ago, APT adopted the Ronde label for all these travel products.

The translator, a portable computer called Voice, is a truly upscale travel accessory--its retail price, when it finally reaches stores later this spring, will be around $2,000. That price will not include the software that permits the translations; those cartridges will sell for $250 or more apiece.

The first two cartridges will have a capacity of at least 35,000 sentences that can be translated from English to Spanish. Cartridges for translating English into French and japanese will follow in a few months. By inserting two cartridges--one for English and one for a foreign language--the English-speaking traveler will be able to ask foreigners far more questions than could be included in a typical phrase book. (Voice will not translate their replies, though--at least not yet.)

From the beginning, APT has been a sort of closet computer company. Rondel, a systems engineer, started APT in 1976 by making voltage converters in a horse barn, as a sideline to his regular job with a company that made computers for phototypesetting. "I had the urge to make computers," he says. "I thought the voltage converter was going to get me into making them. I never knew it was going to get me into travel products."

Now he has come full circle. He describes his voice-activated computer as "state of the art," and if it is not unique--other voice-activated computers have been announced in recent months--it is extraordinary in its compactness and portability, in the size of its vocabulary, and in its ability to translate one language into another.

And Voice is only his opening shot in a war on computer keyboards, Rondel says. "I think it's stupid to have to type." He speaks of a future when assembly-line workers, "hands busy, eyes free," will converse freely with a computer that helps them do their jobs--and when a videocassette recorder will understand when you say, "Tape Johnny Carson tonight."

Now that voice-activated computers are a reality, Rondel says, "it's just phenomenal how you begin to think of things to do, problems to solve, and ways to control complex mechanical things."

But Rondel has a problem that his voice-activated computer has created more than solved. Over the past few years, as he expanded the Ronde line and developed Voice, he in effect built two companies simultaneously. But because he has had more difficulty raising capitalthan he expected, he has had to build them with money scarcely adequate to keep one company afloat.

APT's travel products have yet to make money; Rondel has never had the capital to build an inventory that could support his expanding sales. And like other American manufacturers of consumer electronics, he has had to fend off strong competitors from the Far East--competitors that usually enjoy more favorable financial terms from American retailers than APT does, thanks to age-old trade practices. Voice has produced no revenue yet, but it has instead, Rondel says, consumed "well over $1 million" in product-development costs. As a result, APT has reported heavy losses since it went public in 1986, including a 1988 loss of $1.8 million on sales of only $1.5 million.

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The accidental tourist - portable computer voice translator

Nation's Business, April, 1989 by Michael Barrier

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