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In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

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Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#31

Post by hyperpallium »

piyush_soni wrote: post #9

I think making the device is the easy part, the hard part is doing the translation right in most of the cases, which both Google and Bing have been unable to do so far. 'Google Translate' app already has a communication mode where two people with different languages can talk, but if it worked good there was nothing preventing them to make such an earpiece.

They are something like 95% right, 1 wrong in 20[], which is pretty often. But in a face to face conversation, with so much non-verbal communication going on, it may be more than enough. Very different from cold, isolated translation or online.

It's certainly far ahead of having no language, or trying to look up a phrase book.

BTW It's like "word lens" for audio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Lens Google bought and made it free. I've tried it, and it works, it's very cool. But I don't know if it's actually that useful, or even gets used much, in the field.

[] EDIT sorry, those figures were just for speech recognition!

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#32

Post by piyush_soni »

hyperpallium wrote: post #31
piyush_soni wrote: post #9

I think making the device is the easy part, the hard part is doing the translation right in most of the cases, which both Google and Bing have been unable to do so far. 'Google Translate' app already has a communication mode where two people with different languages can talk, but if it worked good there was nothing preventing them to make such an earpiece.

They are something like 95% right, 1 wrong in 20[ ], which is pretty often. But in a face to face conversation, with so much non-verbal communication going on, it may be more than enough. Very different from cold, isolated translation or online. It's certainly far ahead of having no language, or trying to look up a phrase book. BTW It's like "word lens" for audio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Lens Google bough…

> They are something like 95% right, 1 wrong in 20

Which set of languages is this stat about? For example, trying English with Hindi (they don't support it right now), though Google Translate is impressive, there are still a lot of mistakes (much more than 1 in 20). For English to Spanish, I assume the error rate would be lesser in comparison.

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#33

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

piyush_soni wrote: post #9

I think making the device is the easy part, the hard part is doing the translation right in most of the cases, which both Google and Bing have been unable to do so far. 'Google Translate' app already has a communication mode where two people with different languages can talk, but if it worked good there was nothing preventing them to make such an earpiece.

Even if Google Translate worked well for text (and it doesn't), translating text may be easier than translating the spoken word. When we speak, more things are left unsaid, because we can pick them up from nonverbal cues or from context. We also don't produce nice, grammatically-correct, complete sentences, we produce fragments instead, and make mistakes, and go back and correct things. And we slur things in ways that make it difficult for voice recognition to understand us. We also use intonation, timing, and so on in speech, which a voice recognition-translation-text to speech roundtrip probably destroys. We use less standardised, colloquial language which can be highly specific to groups of people, both in vocabulary and grammar.

Real-time translation of speech is difficult even for interpreters. They have to be aware of the context (in some cases specifically prepared beforehand, depending on the topic) and make assumptions based on human experience. You'd need to make a computer that can do that, too.

I suspect that a babelfish with current technology will work fine if you're listening to a prepared speech from a political leader, and poorly in actual social situations if people speak normally.

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#34

Post by westiseast »

phireal wrote: post #20
scotty79 wrote: post #19

I'd like to see more audio augmented reality systems. Translation, taking baby cry down a notch, amplifying speech directed at you, autofiguring out best moment to tell you things you might need to know.

> taking baby cry down a notch This could end badly. I think the whole purpose of babies crying is to ensure you do something about it. Not that there's always a solution, but I'd rather be awoken by a loud, irritating cry frequently than not hear them when they might need me.

What if it's other peoples babies? ;)

But in seriousness as well, my first kid cried a lot, and it's not a ln on/off switch - even if you're hugging and cuddling and comforting them, they will still cry for ten minutes because that's what kids do. It mostly just makes your job more difficult. My second son had lungs of an opera singer, and the noise made it physically unbearable for me to be near him when he needed help. I mean literally painful to my ears. There were more than a few times when I have had to leave him alone until his crying calms down or stops because I can't do anything for him.

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#35

Post by samastur »

piyush_soni wrote: post #32
hyperpallium wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are something like 95% right, 1 wrong in 20[ ], which is pretty often. But in a face to face conversation, with so much non-verbal communication going on, it may be more than enough. Very different from cold, isolated translation or online. It's certainly far ahead of having no language, or trying to look up a phrase book. BTW It's like "word lens" for audio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Lens Google bough…

> They are something like 95% right, 1 wrong in 20 Which set of languages is this stat about? For example, trying English with Hindi (they don't support it right now), though Google Translate is impressive, there are still a lot of mistakes (much more than 1 in 20). For English to Spanish, I assume the error rate would be lesser in comparison.

It isn't that better. Admittedly I am only learning Spanish, but I get odd or incorrect translations far more often than 1 in 20 and because I am a beginner, I don't throw really difficult cases at it.

This is also text only use so ignoring things like accents (was that a p, v or b?) which can make the whole thing even more difficult.

For other languages, like my native Slovenian, it is even more ridiculous.

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#36

Post by jdbernard »

phireal wrote: post #20
scotty79 wrote: post #19

I'd like to see more audio augmented reality systems. Translation, taking baby cry down a notch, amplifying speech directed at you, autofiguring out best moment to tell you things you might need to know.

> taking baby cry down a notch This could end badly. I think the whole purpose of babies crying is to ensure you do something about it. Not that there's always a solution, but I'd rather be awoken by a loud, irritating cry frequently than not hear them when they might need me.

Like others said, it's more about attenuating the volume when you already know what they need but they keep crying. My firstborn was colicky. There were long periods of time were he would cry loudly and all I could do was hold and rock him. I bought gun-range ear muffs.

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#37

Post by impy »

I'm skeptical we'll be seeing this device. I guess it'll mainly depend if they'd get funded and even then I only see this as a short lived gimmick. The machine translation software just isn't good enough. It's unmissable to me, but for real time translation, it's simply not there yet. Since they have to license the speech recognition and machine translation technologies, in the end they'll just be competing with bluetooth headsets that are suited for picking up voices in conversations and they'll simple draw the shortest straw.

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#39

Post by nxzero »

saalweachter wrote: post #30
nxzero wrote: post #21

Always imagine everyone using tech like this, slowly using their own slang, then something goes wrong, devices die, and no one understands the slang languages each person now uses. __ Person : Babel. Person2: Babel? Person : Babel!!

To a certain extent, this is equivalent to "imagine everyone's glasses fell off and broke". Sure, these devices are more complex and only a handful of people know how they work, but by the time they spread through an entire civilization and we adapted to be unable to communicate without them... they'd be as robust as modern day glasses and you'd have repair services in every mall.

Maybe, maybe not, but agree that your version of the future is just, if not more, as possible.

That said, more complex things get, the more likely that something will be missed, an error made, and/or unaccounted for due to its not having been seen before. On the bright side, intentional disruption rarely have this sort of impact.

Re: In-Ear Device That Translates Foreign Languages in Real Time

#40

Post by dcw303 »

I have a bad enough time getting Siri to understand my Aussie accent. Throw in something as inaccurate as Google Translate and you'll have... A pile of garbage really.

I desperately need something to translate Japanese into my ear, and I'm probably just good enough to relay my point back without the other party needing an eng->jp version, so I would be a prime customer for this gadget. But the technological accuracy is just not yet there in either speech recognition or translation.

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