Just say the word “hello” into your Android phone and you’ll instantly hear a response of “bonjour” or “hola,” if Google’s latest research actually comes to fruition.
Google called the idea of being able to speak any word or phrase and get an instant vocal translation “the next logical succession” in mobile technology. It actually showed off a working version of such a system but called the whole thing just a big experiment so far, according to a report from The Inquirer.
Google has already made big waves in the world of automatic translations. The online Google Translator service has wowed users with its ability to let users paste website URL and receive a completely translated version of the site in mere seconds.
At its demonstration in the IFA conference, Google reportedly demoed live voice-based translations between English and German. Again, it’s just an experimental technology at this point but indeed is something that could be very cool and useful if successfully deployed on a large scale.
Voice technology is one of the areas Google has been tackling since the launch of Android. It has a voice search functionality and has been working to fine-tune that from day one.
I personally can’t wait for the day that Google starts translating my tech support calls from the guys in India who always speak in incomprehensibly bad English. Now that would be the next logical step.
