It's funny but in the last few years I've found Google translation tools pretty handy for looking at various websites, but the the thought of being able to turn a cell phone into a Star Trek Universal Translator would change the world:
Star Trek's Universal Translator - Within Just a Few Years?
"Progress being made by European researchers on automatic speech-to-speech translation technology could help the EU tackle one of the biggest remaining boundaries to internal trade, mobility and the free exchange of information - language. Though the system still cannot match the accuracy of a human translator or interpreter, they're is convinced that, with further research a commercially viable automatic speech-to-speech translator will be feasible within a few years, at least for some simpler language pairs."