Computer giant Microsoft
has reportedly created a software dubbed the "Universal Translator"
that can convert English language spoken to it into 26 different
languages.
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| Universal Translator |
Frank Soong and Rick Rashid -- from the Microsoft
headquarters in Redmond, Washington -- created the software which can
also speak in the user's own voice, the Daily Mail reported. The
scientists hope that the software will one day allow visitors to foreign
countries have conversations with other people, even though they do not
speak the same language. Soong said his breakthrough could help
language students and might also work with navigational devices.
Hypothetically, it could be installed into a smart phone meaning
tourists have a ready made translation device sitting in their pockets.
"We will be able to do quite a few scenario applications. For a
monolingual speaker travelling in a foreign country, we'll do speech
recognition followed by translation, followed by the final text to
speech output in a different language, but still in his own voice,"
Soong said. Soong and Rashid created the software with colleagues at the
Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, the company's second-largest
research lab. The device needs around one hour to get used to a person's
voice, and then works by comparing the words that have been recorded
with stock models for the target language.
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