Skype Translator |

Being lost in translation might soon be a problem of the past, as tech companies are starting to work on a much needed app niche- better, real time voice and text translation tools. According to a new report, Google Translate will not only translate texts in real time but also speech. Google intends to work on launching such a tool as soon as possible to catch up with Microsoft’s similar app. The tech company’s pursuit might have even been driven by the recent launch of Skype Translator, a Microsoft application that can translate to and from English and Spanish in real time.

While Microsoft’s app can only be used by Skype users, Google’s is probably going to be used by a significantly larger number of people worldwide and it will be more adaptable. Skype Translator is only accessible by several thousand users but when Google rolls out the Translate update it will come as a free upgrade to the Android app, reaching thus hundreds of millions of subscribers.

Also, Skype translator is restricted to English and Spanish and will probably introduce Russian and Chinese translations as well. Even though it is not known how many languages Google Translate will endorse, it is safe to assume that there will be more than two for such a wide take off.

But who exactly will the new app work? Google’s Translate tool will record in real time what a speaker is saying and then automatically turn the oral speech into written content.

Additionally, Google plans to roll out an app that can be very useful for tourists and travelers. This upcoming application will translate foreign street signs automatically. All users have to do is place their phones’ camera on the street name and the app will show the translation on screen.

The New York Times reports that with in excess of 100 million individuals going for Google’s Translate application, the new feature could be used by a potential 500 million month to month users.

With supposedly 80-90% of the world’s web content written in about 10 languages, removing language barriers would be a defining moment for communications technology.

However, taking into account that the current version of Google translate has still a lot of accuracy challenges when working with written content, users should not expect a perfect translation. On the contrary, spoken languages might prove more difficult to translate, because of different pronunciations. This would be another issue, added to the existing ones related to grammar and syntax.

Image Source: Engineering and Technology Magazine

It is an honor to receive news from a man that is both a Star Trek and a Facebook icon, so when George Takei shares tech news, you can’t just overlook them. What was Mr. Takei so excited about? Well, he apparently is very happy to have lived enough to witness the universe of Star Trek coming to life and reality as we speak, all thanks to Microsoft and… Skype.

If you didn’t know, Microsoft bought Skype around three years ago, for a breathtaking sum of $8.5 billion. From our point of view, (as regular Skype users) nothing changed much, except the fact that Skype became mind-blowing popular especially in the business environment.

If you take into account the fact that Skype counts 300 million users per month, you realize that Microsoft proved to be a genius to purchase the company. But even if we didn’t see spectacular changes taking place with Skype, this doesn’t mean the two companies didn’t work together to revolutionize the world.

Let’s see together what made Mr. Takei and all tech journalists clap their hands last week:

Microsoft isn’t just pushing Skype as the text, voice, and video communication service to use, it has set its sights on emulating Star Trek. Yesterday at the Code Conference in California, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Skype corporate vice president Gurdeep Pall, introduced Skype Translator. It’s the first time that this new feature has been demonstrated publicly, and involved a Skype conversation between Pall speaking English in California and Diana Heinrichs speaking German in London.

In other words, the Skype Translator aims to break down the language barriers of the world, by translating in real time the conversation between to people, for each of them in their own language. For now, the translation skills are not spectacular, but pretty good to make two people get on the same page really fast. This is a major step for Skype as it tries to ease and support communication among people all over the world. It is definitely good for all companies and business out there, and it will be a good business for both Microsoft and Skype.

According to journalists covering the subject,

For business users especially, it’s going to make Skype look very desirable for those international calls and video meetings, and eventually much cheaper than actually hiring a translator.

The Star Trek reference is obvious, we hope. On a secondary note, we cannot but to reiterate our respect for Microsoft’s CEO, who is not only a visionary, but a man who is not afraid to work hard to accomplish the goal of giving back Microsoft its former glory.

Nobody knows yet many details about the Skype Translator regarding the number of languages it will support eventually, nor about an official availability date. We will just have to wait and see.

Google Translate Will Also Process Real-Time Speech

Skype Translator Brings Star Trek Closer Thanks to Microsoft