raytalks Posted September 12, 2014 Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Great News for us, if it works!Microsoft claims that Skype will soon be able to translate languages semantically and grammatically in real time. It will be able to translate voice messages and will then pop out translated text and voice-over audio. If you speak French and you are talking to a person who speaks English, then that person will hear your audio in French, as well as a translated audio in English. This could break the language barrier.At the moment this feature is undergoing testing, and is already working for English to German. Other languages will be added shortly. Though it is available on Skype, this feature may not be free. We can expect to see it in action by the end of the year, with translations working for a few languages, with more added later. How cool is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holunderminze Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Yeah that is great news but lets hope it really works first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedonologist Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 When are they expecting this to be available? I'm not very convinced at the moment, I think it will have years of teething troubles considering how bad voice recognition still is in 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidney Posted September 13, 2014 Report Share Posted September 13, 2014 Since Skype is not free at all, then for sure they will charge for that extra service. But that is a good and beneficial improvement for foreign language speakers, since the language will be automatically translated in audio and text form. I would prefer the text form though, because translated voice audio can have some inaudible parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedonologist Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 Since Skype is not free at all, then for sure they will charge for that extra service. But that is a good and beneficial improvement for foreign language speakers, since the language will be automatically translated in audio and text form. I would prefer the text form though, because translated voice audio can have some inaudible parts.That's a good point, I wonder how much they will charge. I assume there may be an initial free trial period. Hopefully it is not so ridiculously expensive as to price most out of the market. Especially as most Skype users are in poor countries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathbyprayer Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 Wow that's really cool news. But I was just wondering, how fast and accurate the translation will be. I mean sure it's real time but I can't help but imagine some really awkward scenarios once the mistranslated words roll off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chigreyofthenorns Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 That is very great news! I sometimes have to conduct interviews with foreigners who do not speak English very well over Skype because of work. I guess that if this feature indeed comes to fruition, I will no longer have a difficult time looking for translators! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyIdol Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 That's pretty neat. I guess in the mean time we can use Google Translate and copy and paste the text from Skype. I don't expect them to be very accurate, as GT is a bit off, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PixelBaebee Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 I hope this works, it'd be so much easier for me to talk to my family members in other countries. If it's a paid service, I might not have to worry about anything since I have Skype premium. If it's entirely separate, though, I'll be pretty disappointed. Here's to hoping this feature is free, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kektheman Posted September 14, 2014 Report Share Posted September 14, 2014 This sounds amazing! But I fear it won't work as great as advertised. Being able to translate a voice input is no small task, so Skype will probably have some problems doing it. If you look at google translate, for example, it can only translate words, sentence structure gives it a bit of a headache, since it's so different across different languages. I can't wait to put it to the test! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hexahedron Posted October 20, 2014 Report Share Posted October 20, 2014 That would be so awesome! But I am more than a bit skeptical if they will be successful with this ambitious task. Voice recognition is already quite average, coupled with foreign languages and accents, I doubt it will work as advertised. Anyways, we'll get to know in a year or two hopefully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trellum Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Woah, as soon as I read this I thought about all those LDR that couldn't be because of the language barrier. This could be a great thing, could mean more opportunities for a lot people, people who might not have had those opportunities because of the language barrier. Like for example some business people who had to hire a professional translator to communicate with other business partner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zabina12 Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 That sounds really good if it will going to happen. That will really be a very useful site if ever since there is no need for translators or any tools one need to download or buy. I just wonder if they will not put any fees on it and will be just free for everyone who use Skype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowfairy Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 This is great news however it is more likely that this won't be a free service. But still it can be very helpful especially for people conducting their business online. Of course at the start Skype would probably have some technical problems but hopefully they can develop it more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baburra Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 This sounds amazing and at the same time a little scary because it's so advanced and obviously could be used to spy on the whole world but I guess it is inevitable as we find more and more problems to solve. I think it will be very useful nonetheless and I surely will be trying it out once it is introduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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