Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cloud
    • Networking

    Microsoft Previews Skype Real-Time Translation Tech

    By
    Pedro Hernandez
    -
    May 29, 2014
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Skype Translator

      Microsoft unveiled a new technology called Skype Translator that may soon eliminate one of the biggest roadblocks in interpersonal communications.

      On May 27, during the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Gurdeep Pall, corporate vice president of Skype and Lync, showed how Skype Translator can provide near-real-time translation service. At the heart of the demo is neural net technology from Microsoft Research that enables a feature called “transfer learning.”

      While explaining transfer learning, Nadella said, “What happens is, say, you teach it English. It learns English. Then you teach it Mandarin, it learns Mandarin, but it becomes better at English.”

      Taken a step further, when the system is taught Spanish, it learns Spanish and “gets great at both Mandarin and English,” said Nadella. He also admitted that like some of the innermost workings of the brain, the phenomenon is a mystery to Microsoft. “And quite frankly, none of us know exactly why,” he said. “It’s brain-like in the sense of its capability to learn.”

      Pall then took to the stage to show a pre-beta version of Skype Translator in action.

      Enlisting the help of a German colleague, Diana Heinrichs, Pall carried on a Skype video call. After a slight pause, Skype Translator delivered both English and German translations of their spoken words via on-screen text and synthesized voice. Despite some minor grammatical errors, the demo went on without a hitch.

      Later, Pall explained in a blog post how Skype Translator came to be. The technology is the result of “decades of work by the industry, years of work by our researchers, and now is being developed jointly by the Skype and Microsoft Translator teams.”

      The demo delivered “real-time audio translation from English to German and vice versa, combining Skype voice and IM [Instant Messaging] technologies with Microsoft Translator, and neural network-based speech recognition,” he said.

      Like its sci-fi analog, Star Trek’s Universal Translator, the tech has the potential to dramatically change communications, Pall said. “Skype Translator opens up so many possibilities to make meaningful connections in ways you never could before in education, diplomacy, multi-lingual families and in business.”

      While Skype’s massive reach—300 million connected users per month and more than 2 billion minutes of conversation each day, according to Pall—has broken down communication barriers, language persists as a major hurdle. Calling language barriers “a blocker to productivity and human connection,” Pall said, “Skype Translator helps us overcome this barrier.”

      And users won’t have to wait for a far-off future to test the tech. “Skype Translator first will be available as a Windows 8 beta app before the end of 2014,” Pall said.

      Skype Translator isn’t Microsoft’s only effort to remove barriers to communication through technology. Microsoft Research Asia is working on a project, called Kinect Sign Language Translator, that can translate between different spoken and sign languages, also in near-real time.

      Avatar
      Pedro Hernandez
      Pedro Hernandez is a contributor to eWEEK and the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Previously, he served as a managing editor for the Internet.com network of IT-related websites and as the Green IT curator for GigaOM Pro.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×