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Microsoft Patenting IM Translation?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the pipe-through-babelfish-equals-patent dept.

theodp writes "The USPTO just published Microsoft's patent application for a Method and system for translating instant messages, in which the software giant demonstrates how an English-speaking sender can type 'Hi' in an IM and it will be translated to 'Hola' for a Spanish-speaking recipient."

5 of 446 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Prior art? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even more obvious prior art: Kopete (kde instant messenger) has a plug-in that already does this.

  2. Prior Art by bflong · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kopete has a plugin for this already in CVS. I've been using it for the past few days. Kopete is really comming along nicely.

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    Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
  3. Prior Art? by VValdo · · Score: 5, Informative

    This patent was filed on December 28, 2001. Version 0.29.a of the fantastic GPL'd instant messenger Fire introduced "Automatic, inline foreign language translation" on December 12, 2001.

    I would also imagine that the feature was in CVS and publically downloadable before that.

    W

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    This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  4. Re:1337? by katsushiro · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me help you out here: Normal to 733t5p34k translator.

    --
    "Two things are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the first one." - Albert Einstein
  5. Been available for Mac OS X for over an year by pedroziviani · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've been using for a few years a fantastic multi-protocol IM client for Mac OS X called Fire.

    It has had automatic translation capabilities in several languages for well over an year, and it works very well. Further more, Fire also supports AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo, IRC protocols.