Microsoft's Real-Time Skype Translator To Be Available Before 2015

Chaitanya Kukde · 2014-05-28T19:34:29+00:00

Microsoft is working on a move that may just put translators out of business. The Skype Translator, a real time language translator was unveiled by Microsoft two years ago but it was deemed too inaccurate for public use. Now the Skype and Microsoft Translator teams have combined to produce its improved version that reduced the speech recognition errors by more than 30% by using neural networks. Thus, people who couldn't understand each other may now be able to communicate seamlessly. Microsoft demoed a conversation with real-time audio translation between and English and German speakers using Skype Translator. This translator converted the foreign language into subtitles for the other person, and then the subs were spoken aloud by a chosen voice. Skype Translator first will be available as a Windows 8 beta app before the end of 2014. The announcement came at the dÃ©but Code Conference at Ranchos Palos Verdes, Calif. where Microsoft demonstrated the Skype Translator publicly. Skype has more than 300 million connected users each month, and more than 2 billion minutes of conversation a day. The availability of Skype Translator is sure to add more to these impressive statistics. It seems Microsoft is actively trying to delve further in the speech recognition and real-time translation area, same as its rivals Google and Apple are doing. These IT giants now focus on Deep Neural Network models rather than the Gaussian Mixture Models. The GMMs were rampant for the speech recognition models before 2009 but their results could only be termed as "disappointment". However, tremendous advancement in the field of DNNs have only boosted the areas of voice search, real-time translation and now, real-time cross-lingual conversation. Microsoft certainly has had a breakthrough with this technology and now has definitely an edge over its opponents, especially Apple. With this development, Microsoft may be able to compensate the shortcomings from its voice-based search assistant- Cortana, as compared to Apple's Siri. The full story behind Skype Translator can be found #-Link-Snipped-#. The major developments leading to the Skype Translator can be found #-Link-Snipped-#. The Universal Translator from the Star Trek series that seemed quite impossible a few years ago, doesn't seem like a distant dream now. Source: #-Link-Snipped-#

Microsoft's Real-Time Skype Translator To Be Available Before 2015

Chaitanya Kukde
@chaitanya-kukde-yk3G31

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Views: 1.6K

Microsoft is working on a move that may just put translators out of business. The Skype Translator, a real time language translator was unveiled by Microsoft two years ago but it was deemed too inaccurate for public use. Now the Skype and Microsoft Translator teams have combined to produce its improved version that reduced the speech recognition errors by more than 30% by using neural networks. Thus, people who couldn't understand each other may now be able to communicate seamlessly. Microsoft demoed a conversation with real-time audio translation between and English and German speakers using Skype Translator. This translator converted the foreign language into subtitles for the other person, and then the subs were spoken aloud by a chosen voice. Skype Translator first will be available as a Windows 8 beta app before the end of 2014.

The announcement came at the dÃ©but Code Conference at Ranchos Palos Verdes, Calif. where Microsoft demonstrated the Skype Translator publicly. Skype has more than 300 million connected users each month, and more than 2 billion minutes of conversation a day. The availability of Skype Translator is sure to add more to these impressive statistics. It seems Microsoft is actively trying to delve further in the speech recognition and real-time translation area, same as its rivals Google and Apple are doing. These IT giants now focus on Deep Neural Network models rather than the Gaussian Mixture Models. The GMMs were rampant for the speech recognition models before 2009 but their results could only be termed as "disappointment". However, tremendous advancement in the field of DNNs have only boosted the areas of voice search, real-time translation and now, real-time cross-lingual conversation.

Microsoft certainly has had a breakthrough with this technology and now has definitely an edge over its opponents, especially Apple. With this development, Microsoft may be able to compensate the shortcomings from its voice-based search assistant- Cortana, as compared to Apple's Siri. The full story behind Skype Translator can be found #-Link-Snipped-#. The major developments leading to the Skype Translator can be found #-Link-Snipped-#.

The Universal Translator from the Star Trek series that seemed quite impossible a few years ago, doesn't seem like a distant dream now.

Source: #-Link-Snipped-#

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • May 28, 2014

I spent 4 years of my life learning how to communicate, read and write in Japanese, only to know that technology can one day make that knowledge obsolete!

😲 aah!

Now knowing foreign languages can only come in handy if your plane (carrying international passengers) crashes on a lonely island and there's no technology available. 😐

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • May 28, 2014

I already imagine a day when we'll not have to learn anything new. I'm sure the universities across the world will simply install a 4 year degree course in a chip and then fit it into our brain to turn us into engineers. Save the humans.

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Harshad Italiya

Member • May 28, 2014

One of my friend is waiting for this feature from a long time. He used to work with Brazilian company and it was a big headache to use google translator everytime.

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Narendra Grandhi

Member • May 29, 2014

Does this translator works even in watching online movies without having subtitles? That way I can enjoy any foriegn language movie without searching for subtiltles...

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Rajni Jain

Member • May 29, 2014

Exciting,
What all languages will it support?

I heard that when English speaking folks deals with non-English spoken (especially Chinese) folks, earlier they used to TRANSLITRATE and it used to give a horrid time to understand the transliterate language 😀.

I am sure this skype translator will help them a lot, and language will no more be issue for international boundaries.

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Harshad Italiya

Member • May 29, 2014

Aliexpress.com has their own messenger and they have feature so seller can type in Chinese but we used to receive message in English or whatever language we set.

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Chaitanya Kukde

Member • May 29, 2014

#-Link-Snipped-# In 2012, the founder of Microsoft Research, Rick Rashid took just eight sentences to electrify a crowd of 2,000 students and faculty in Tianjin, China. Decades of DNN and speech research culminate in a stunning live translation of Rashidâ€™s voice speaking in English while the Chinese audience hears his voice in Mandarin. The speech recognition system in the demo rehearsal exhibits an error rate of less than 7%, or about the same as a person might perform at taking word-for-word notes. Check out the video #-Link-Snipped-#

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PhL38Fr

Member • Jun 2, 2014

This seems to me a poorly thought-of assertion (even with a smile). I am pretty sure that, as a learner of japanese language, you realized (and still do) that you cannot come any closer than a certain distance of the meaning for the spoken words of a native mother language speaker. This is due to the ubiquituous ambiguity in languages where much of the spoken words depends on the context, local, social and personal mindset all together. I can only doubt that AI will get to the level of expertise that it can reproduce all the subtleties of any slightly complex sentence. You may want to answer that the speakers do not necessarily want to get subtle or complex but the fact is that human psyche is subtle and complex and every part of it makes its way, consciously or unconsciously through our spoken expression. Moreover, speech is not the only expression means in which we may need to know a foreign language: reading from a foreign author is something that -as far as I could judge from recent attempts with automatic translation tools- is still a long way from reach of the electronic tools for making it available in your mother language.
So, not only can you consider your investment is not spent in vain but you may want to invest more: the future is bright for people having the mastership of several languages.
PhL (frenchie)

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Jun 2, 2014

#-Link-Snipped-# Now that I think of it, no knowledge ever goes to waste. You are right. 😀

But with technology & research - the thumb rule is "Never say never!"

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