A Translator device is a piece of equipment used to translate one language into another in real time, usually between races with an anatomy to radically different that could not otherwise vocalize the sounds necessary to communicate in certain alien tongues.
There are several different designs used by various races. The Vorlons for example had a large flat, hexagonal translator attached to the front of their encounter suits that interprets their overlapping musical tones, chirps and chimes.[1][2]
The pak'ma'ra developed a small portable spherical device able to accommodate most known racial languages, though they often make the normally soft, whispery voices of the pak'ma'ra sound harsh and metallic in English. The Gaim in particular have made good use of adapting these devices for themselves as, like the pak'ma'ra, they are physically incapable of forming the sounds common to most humanoid races.[3][4][5]
The Drakh have also been observed using a palm sizes spherical device to translate their own language into Adronato.[6]
Small, pocket sized translators are also used to manually translate text rather than sounds and enable people to read books such as the Book of G'Quan that are not printed in any other language.[7]