Google is working on a real-time speech translation system.

New feature will be the answer to Skype Translate

The New York Times reports that Google is about to release an updated version of the Google Translate mobile app on the Android operating system. The application will add the possibility of simultaneous translation of speech. Official announcement from Google has not yet been reported.

At the moment, Google Translate is already able to translate human speech, but the function is far from what the authors of science fiction dreamed of. The smartphone needs to be put on the record and wait for the machine translation to be ready.

The update will add a system that will recognize the speech of several of the most common languages ​​and convert it into text. The translation will be ready immediately.

The article also states that with the help of the new version of the application, you can point the smartphone camera at a street sign in a foreign language and get an automatic translation on the screen. In August 2012, Google added a similar function to Google Translate, but for this it was necessary to take a photo and highlight the area of ​​interest with a finger.
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The ability to recognize and translate text directly from the camera phone in augmented reality mode was in the Word Lens application. In May 2014, Google bought Quest Visual, the creator of the product. It seems that the Google Translate application will acquire this function by rebranding a third-party solution.


Word Lens Demonstration

Google promised a “near perfect” revolutionary translation without delay a year and a half ago.

According to statistics, the Google Translate application has 100 million installations, and, as stated in the company to the New York Times, most of the devices will be able to upgrade to the new version with simultaneous translation. Every month, half a billion people use the service on many different platforms, helping to improve the database of machine learning of the translation system.

At the end of May last year, Microsoft introduced a real-time speech translation feature. About a month ago, a new feature was added to Skype . At the time of launch, only two languages ​​were available - English and Spanish.

In October 2012, the Japanese mobile operator DoCoMo showed the function of speech translation in Japanese and English.
_{Sebastian Cuberos is testing the Skype Translator. Photo by Jim Wilson, The New York Times.}