Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • 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
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Mobile

    Microsoft Translator Uses AI to Break Language Barriers on Smartphones

    By
    Pedro Hernandez
    -
    April 18, 2018
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Microsoft Mobile Translator

      Travelers who rely on Microsoft Translator’s offline mode when they venture into unfamiliar territory can rest a little easier. The app can now deliver higher-quality, neural network translation services to modern iOS, Android and Amazon Fire devices even when they can’t access the company’s powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the cloud.

      Users of the newly-updated Translator app, available for Android and hitting iOS devices by April 21, can now download AI-enabled translation packs, a feature that was previously available to a just a couple of smartphones from Chinese device maker Huawei.

      Microsoft partnered with Huawei in 2017 on downloadable neural machine translation packs for the translation app that used the AI coprocessors in the Huawei Mate 10, and later the Honor View 10, to provide faster and more accurate translations without an internet connection. Now that capability is making its way to iPhones and stock Android devices without specialized AI chips.

      Arul Menezes, Machine Translation Partner Research manager at Microsoft, told eWEEK that his group “figured out how we can run neural machine translation without specialized hardware.” Noting that on-device neural networks are CPU- and GPU-hungry, getting the technology to work on a phone has been a challenge, said Menezes.

      Microsoft set out to refine its AI algorithms building off the experience the company gained with the Huawei alliance. The company also tapped the processing power of NEON, an SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) extension found in Arm-based mobile chipsets, to enable recent Android smartphones, plus the iPhone 5S and above, to run Translator’s new offline language packs.

      In terms of quality and speed, the translations provided by the new Translator offline packs are “going to be very close to our online service,” Menezes assured. Since users typically use the app to translate words or brief phrases, not lengthy text strings, most users won’t be able to tell the difference between the cloud-based and local translations, he added.

      Overall, both the online and offline flavors of Microsoft’s neural network translation technology yield faster and more fluent translations than the statistical machine translation approach of the past, said Menezes. “[We made] tremendous progress in the past few years because of machine learning and neural networks,” he said.

      As an added bonus, the new language packs take up less mobile storage. The move to neural machine translation has reduced the size of Translator’s packs by 50 percent.

      There are also some perks for Android developers wishing to add the Translator’s new neural network translation capabilities to their own apps.

      Using Android’s bound service technology, which allows one app to interact with another behind the scenes, developers can incorporate Translator’s offline, neural machine translation into their own applications with a little additional code.

      If the device is connected to the internet, Translator will fetch translations from the corresponding service on Microsoft Azure. For end users, Menezes promised a seamless experience, “whether you’re online or offline.”

      The new local translation features for Android developers is currently in beta but is expected to be made generally available within 90 days.

      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

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 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.

      ×