Ted Hart / Microsoft Research. IMG Source: YouTube
After a couple of months of silence Microsoft has finally added German and French support to its Skype Translator. Now the app supports English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish.
Apart from that Skype Translator allows to translate 50 languages in written messages on the fly. The group of users speaking in supported languages covers 30 percent of the global population.
While Skype Translator is used to perform a real-time conversation between those who can hear and speak, Microsoft researcher Ted Hart has put effort to modify the app that would be useful to deaf.
The Microsoft research team had its own magical moment a few months ago, and it all started with one very determined Microsoft researcher, who happens to be deaf. He used the Skype Translator preview app with his wife and her spoken words were converted to text (close-caption) in near real time. He was able to respond right back to her conversation, in text, using the app’s instant messaging capabilities.”
Skype Translator is available in beta form, however, Microsoft aware of its success has decided that the software would eventually be a part of the desktop version of Skype. At the moment Microsoft's app is available to download via Windows Store on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. It seems that the product will significantly improve peoples' life and communication experience.
Source: blogs.skype.com
