Microsoft is bringing the dream of the Star Trek universal translator to businesses later this year with the launch of a new beta feature that offers live captioning of Skype for Business meeting broadcasts in 40 languages.
Using Microsoft’s Bing Translator technology, speakers will be able to talk in one of a handful of supported native languages, and their viewers will be able to view computer-generated text translation of what’s being said.
Skype Meeting broadcast is designed to allow a small number of speakers to broadcast a presentation to up to 10,000 viewers, for webinars, company meetings and other large occasions. Right now, those viewers can only hear the presentation in whatever language the speaker is using, but this translation feature will help bridge that language barrier. More.
See: PCWorld
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Spain
Local time: 17:12
Spanish to English
+ ...
Of course it will. Reminds me of the old joke (translated from Spanish)
A: " My father speaks 40 languages"
B: Really?
A: Yes, but nobody understands a word he says...
United States
Local time: 11:12
Russian to English
+ ...
on that, and trick investors. If they want to use MT—impossible. If they want to use real interpreters, very hard but more feasible. Quite expensive. $50-100/hr, with often 3 hr minimum.
[Edited at 2016-07-14 09:09 GMT]
Portugal
Local time: 16:12
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Of course it will. Reminds me of the old joke (translated from Spanish)
A: " My father speaks 40 languages"
B: Really?
A: Yes, but nobody understands a word he says...
Thanks, Neil! LOL!
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:12
Member (2008)
Italian to English
This proposal is based on the stupid, but widespread idea that there is nothing technology can't do.
Germany
Local time: 17:12
English to German
+ ...
The funding and support are there. The project has full support from NSA and GCHQ.
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:12
The funding and support are there. The project has full support from NSA and GCHQ.
They've been working on aspects of that for years.
Of course, YouTube still has terrible problems just transcribing English - I'd actually say speech recognition is less advanced than MT right now, the "speed wreck ignition" will butcher the message far worse than the MT could - but to be fair, it genuinely is improving rapidly now.
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