Google is set to offer an update to the Google translate application that will make it much easier for people to have conversations even if they don’t speak the same language. Right now, the Translate app is able to give written translations in 90 languages and users can hear spoken translations in a few languages.
The new update will allow the app to automatically recognize if someone is speaking a popular language and automatically turn that into written text. Microsoft is doing something similar with Skype where it can translate languages on the fly if they are recognized.
As you might imagine there are some translation issues. Anyone who has ever used a speech recognition device knows that this type of software is prone to errors. Apparently, Skype makes its share of errors, but is able to correct those errors over time and with repetitions of the word.
For now, a few thousand people have access to the new service on Skype. The service is learning from its time with these folks before it is rolled out to all 40,000 users of Skype. One downside to this sort of translation service is that users have to consent to have their conversations recorded and many people don’t like that.
SOURCE: NYT