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Google Aims To Be Your Universal Translator
mpicpp sends word about Google's latest translate technology. "Google is beaming a bit closer to Star Trek's universal translator with the newest edition of its Translate app. Rolling out over the next few days for iOS and Android users, the latest version of Google Translate offers two key features — the ability to instantly converse with someone speaking in a different language and the capability to translate street signs and other images into your native language. Both features have been available in the Android app to some extent. For example, Google Translate for Android has long offered real-time translation of conversations. But Google's goal behind the latest version of the app is to enhance and simplify the features so they work more quickly and fluidly without any lag time. The latest version of Google Translate aims to change that. To converse with someone speaking in a different language, a user chooses his language and that of the other speaker. He then taps the microphone icon in the app, starts speaking in his native or selected language, and then taps the mic icon again. The app will recognize which of the two languages is being spoken, and then the two speakers can carry on their conversation without having to keep tapping the mic. In a test of the app's instant translation, The New York Times said it did prove to be a step forward; though, it's not science fiction just yet. The app fared best with short sentences that didn't include jargon, and it worked better when the users paused between each translation. Google also has beefed up the app's ability to translate street signs. Previously, you'd have to take a photo of the foreign text to get a translation of it. Now, you simply point your camera at the sign and the translated text appears overlaid on your screen — even if you're not connected to the Internet. This feature is made possible courtesy of Quest Visual's Word Lens app for iOS and Android, which Google acquired when it purchased the company last May. This feature supports English translated to and from French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Google says it's working to add more languages."
It's not really ready until it supports Andorian, Cardassian, Ferengi, Romulan, Vulcan and New York City slang.
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Proper nouns that are regular words can definitely provide some laughs for machine translation, but it's not as bad as it seems. Even to a native English speaker, a kid named North West is kind of funny.
Understanding a foreign language will always require some knowledge of the culture and society from which you are translating from, and so if you know the culture has kids named for "Sky" and "Hope" then to see those words pop up in sentences where it doesn't really fit you aren't surprised.
The best example of this is in Hofstader's GEB, where he talks about translating Dostoevsky to English. The translator has a choice to make when copying the name of the main street. It is an actual Russian word, that has an English translation. So maybe you translate the street name to it's English equivalent. But the Russian street name is a common Russian street name, whereas in English it's not a common name for a street at all. So maybe instead of simply directly translating the Russian name, you change it to a nice, comfortable English street name, like "Elm Street." He ends up humorously suggesting the best choice in translation might be to just read a Dickens novel!
I've thought for a long time that 'big brother' will not come from governments, but from corporations.
A few of the many important differences:
1) Consent. No one is forcing me to use Google products. (Well, except my employer, which contracts with Google for email and various other services, but anything that they have access to is my employer's property anyway and I have no expectation of privacy to begin with.) I could completely banish Google from my personal life without severely impacting anything I do. It's a little more difficult to escape the reach of governments.
2) Competition. Microsoft and Yahoo would be happy to handle my email instead. I can't switch governments without physically moving to another country. (Voting doesn't count, and I don't vote anyway.) Conversely, it would not be a huge burden for me to jettison all Apple or Microsoft products, although it would be problematic for my music collection.
3) Force. Google does not have the ability to dispatch a SWAT team to break down my door, shoot my dog, and haul me out in handcuffs. And why would they, anyway? They don't care what activities I'm engaging in offline except for the purpose of targeting advertisements.
There are certainly all sorts of things that corporations can do to make our lives unpleasant, but it seems rather perverse to worry about creeping corporate dictatorship because of Google's ad targeting, especially given the track record of governments.