As technology progresses, what was deemed only possible in sci-fi movies of the past are slowly turning into reality. One of the coolest gadgets ever thought of has got to be a real-time, language translating device (seeing how I’m terrible at my second languages, I’ve always dreamed about having one as a kid). Well, the folks over at DoCoMo (a carrier in Japan) are developing a real-time speech-to-speech translation system that will make language barriers a thing of the past.
Called the Simultaneous Interpretation System, it uses a mixture of cloud-based services already in the market to recognize your words, translates them, and then turns the words into speech of another language. DoCoMo isn’t using its technology for the system, but will be using what it thinks is “the best technology from around the world.”
DoCoMo recently demonstrated it in Wireless Japan 2011 with promising results, but the company hasn’t gotten the voice recognition to 100% yet and it doesn’t know how long it will take to get there. But DoCoMo has plans to release it before it reaches 100% so folks will be able to enjoy its convenience soon enough. DoCoMo is hoping that the technology will help businesses who deal with a lot of international clients that don’t speak the same language, and to help people in matchmaking – as they’ll be able to communicate with people who speak in different languages. Watch a video demonstration:
Filed in . Read more about Docomo, Japan, Language and Translation.