Skype Translator is the most futuristic thing I’ve ever used (original) (raw)

It took a moment to get used to the pacing of the conversation—the brief delay for the translation means that if you understand the language of the other person, there’s a temptation to respond immediately, without waiting for the voice to read the translation—but once this rhythm was learned, the conversation was fluent and continuous.

In this preview, Spanish and English are the only spoken languages on offer. It also handles text conversations, and there are some 40 different languages on offer for text.

Intellectually, I understand that all the different parts have been done before—Microsoft has shipped speech-to-text and text-to-speech technology for the better part of 20 years now, and robotranslation of Web content is relatively commonplace, if a little haphazard. But tying these pieces together has turned them into something magical and awe-inspiring.

There are many more languages available for text-only translation.

Credit: Microsoft

There are many more languages available for text-only translation. Credit: Microsoft

The technology powering this opens up so many possibilities. Translation is, of course, significant, and one can easily see how this will find value in the business world. I can also imagine that it will open up new possibilities in mixed language families where, for example, grandparents and grandchildren may not have a common tongue.

I can also see the same technology having a ton of value beyond the translation use case. I use Skype for telephone interviews; automatic transcription of those interviews would be very neat. Skype is widely used by podcasters, and, similarly, automatic transcriptions could be a valuable addition—while the automatic robo-transcription won’t be perfect, given that the alternative is usually no transcription at all, the robot’s effort will still be welcome.

With minor modifications, this might even find utility in the deaf community, by allowing hard of hearing Skype users to read and type to hearing users.

Truly, this is transformational technology. It’s not often that I use something that leaves me excited, something that makes me say “wow” not out of cynical sarcasm but because I’m genuinely impressed. But Skype Translator did it. Whether you call it a Star Trek Universal Translator or Babel fish, Microsoft is building it, and it’s incredible.