Fully automated and simultaneous language translation is within 5 years of being perfected according to a recent article in The Economist.

If you follow this blog, you may know that on occasion we’ve made reference to Star Trek and the ‘universal translator’ device that was featured on the original 1960s science fiction TV series. We did so in drawing parallels between the capabilities of the sci-fi translation technology depicted in the series and actual developments in the field of automated language translation by Google and Microsoft.

Well, it appears that The Economist has followed our lead. Earlier this month the newspaper published a story suggesting that simultaneous translation by computer is indeed getting closer. In so doing it made reference to the travels of the Starship Enterprise and to Captain Kirk’s ‘Universal Translator,’ a device that could scan alien brainwaves and simultaneously convert extraterrestrial concepts into appropriate English words.

“How long, then, before automatic simultaneous translation becomes the norm…” asked The Economist.

“Not, perhaps, as long as language teachers, interpreters and others who make their living from mutual incomprehension might like. A series of announcements over the past few months from sources as varied as mighty Microsoft and string-and-sealing-wax private inventors suggest that workable, if not yet perfect, simultaneous-translation devices are now close at hand.”

The newspaper also cited the work of Will Powell, as we did ourselves last July. Powell is an enterprising inventor and programmer in the U.K. who managed to construct a pair of ‘automatic translator’ glasses, using ready-made devices and software.

The Economist also noted that, in November, Japan’s largest mobile carrier, NTT DOCOMO, had launched the world's first commercial service for language translation of conversations and signs. We covered this story last October. The automatic mobile language service translates phone calls between Japanese and English, Chinese or Korean.

“Each party speaks consecutively, with the firm’s computers eavesdropping and translating his words in a matter of seconds. The result is then spoken in a man’s or woman’s voice, as appropriate,” according to the newspaper.

Perhaps the best example of ‘universal translator’ technology in the real world today is Microsoft’s contribution which according to The Economist is also “the most beguiling.” And we concurred with this assessment when we reported on it last November.

The first public demonstration of the new software was made by Rick Rashid, Microsoft's chief research officer, on October 25 at an event in Tianjin, China.

“I'm speaking in English and you'll hear my words in Chinese in my own voice,” Rashid told the audience. The application works by recognizing a person's words, quickly converting the text into properly ordered Chinese sentences, and then handing those over to speech synthesis software that has been trained to replicate the speaker's voice.

"The results are still not perfect, and there is still much work to be done, but the technology is very promising, and we hope that in a few years we will have systems that can completely break down language barriers," Rashid wrote on Microsoft's blog.

Let us know how accurate the technology would have to be to meet your needs.

By Alex Dupont
Marketing Communications Specialist
Language Translation Inc.

See Also

• Today everyone has access to free automated translation (AT) also known as machine translation (MT) automatic translation through Google or Bing.
  According to The Economist simultaneous automated translation devices are now close at hand.
• Conquering Babel
  Simultaneous translation by computer is getting closer