Skype Gets Star Trek Style Real-time Voice Translation
The first thing I saw today when I looked at my phone was an article about Skype getting a translator built into their video calling. I thought, “I’ve seen this before; Google does translations fairly well. I used to use Babel Fish for my Spanish assignments.” However, this translation service – though current only for Spanish and English – is done actively by voice within the Skype call. I immediately thought of the many scenes in Star Trek where they speak with an alien species and voices are translated both ways in real-time. Then I remembered the scene where Kirk is on trial in Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country and they have to wait briefly for the translation to occur. Microsoft’s Skype purchase may actually be paying off if this works well.
Here’s a demo of what a call could be like with Skype’s Translator:
Here’s their older video:
