Microsoft debuts real Star Trek universal translator at conference

This could be the closest thing to the Universal Translator in "Star Trek": a real-time video translation service for Microsoft's Skype.

 

Microsoft demonstrated the potentials of its "Skype Translator" service at the inaugural Code Conference in California.

 

 

 

"We’ve invested in speech recognition, automatic translation and machine learning technologies for more than a decade, and now they’re emerging as important components in this more personal computing era," Gurdeep Pall, Corporate Vice President of Skype and Lync at Microsoft, said in a blog post.

 

He said the demo involved near real-time audio translation from English to German and vice versa.

 

The technology combined Skype voice and IM technologies with Microsoft Translator, and neural network-based speech recognition, he added.

 

A separate report on BusinessInsider said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the company plans to launch a real-time translation for Skype before end-2014.

 

It added Pall demonstrated the technology by calling up German-speaking Skype executive Diana Heinrichs and holding a five-minute conversation.

 

"The first executive would say something in English. Then, after a pause, the a computer voice would repeat what he said, but in German. Then the German executive would speak in German. After a pause, the computer spoke in English. There were subtitles in both languages on the screen, too," it said.

 

"Imagine in the very near future technology allowing humans to bridge geographic and language boundaries to connect mind to mind and heart to heart in ways never before possible," Pall added.

 

Pall said Skype presently has more than 300 million connected users each month, and more than two billion minutes of conversation a day.

 

Yet, he said language barriers have been a blocker to productivity and human connection.

 

Pall said "Skype Translator" is being eyed as a Windows 8 beta app before end-2014.

 

Pall said that while the demo showed the technology is still in its infancy, "the Star Trek™ vision for a Universal Translator isn’t a galaxy away, and its potential is every bit as exciting as those Star Trek examples." — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News