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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."
If only they could translate what my 18 month old is saying!
It's not really ready until it supports Andorian, Cardassian, Ferengi, Romulan, Vulcan and New York City slang.
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I'm sorry, I'm not putting that in my mouth.
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Uzani, his army with fists closed.
We know Google really isn't into the whole "don't be evil" thing anymore as they have become a giant corporation like all others. And while I like the idea of something like this being freely available, the first thing that came to my mind was that now they will have access to people's actual conversations, not just search queries. I've thought for a long time that 'big brother' will not come from governments, but from corporations. Maybe it comes from watching the original 1975 Roller Ball movie and it's basis around the 'corporate state'.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Fine for ordering in a restaurant or asking directions. Not appropriate for business, medical or government communication, contracts, etc.
...omphaloskepsis often...
It's less creepy than having this damned fish in my ear all the time.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Now, it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some have chosen to see it as the final proof of the NON-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that You exist, and so therefore, by Your own arguments, You don't. QED".
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that." and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Oooh! So he was a pizza delivery guy... Now the plot makes sense!
I read the internet for the articles.
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!
Supports only 15 languages - Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norweigian, Farsi, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Unless and until Google starts to hire actual translators and pay them actual money, this is value subtracting and will suck income out of the very translators it depends on. If we are really unlucky, it will be an unsustainable parasitism, driving translators out of work and actually reducing the ability of the world to deal with multiple languages.
I tend to think that Google Translate provides professional translators with a neverending supply of work, while they try to extract their client from whatever mess Google Translate got them into.
Seriously... GT does the sort of work that nobody ever hired a professional translator for. This frees them up to do the real work. And if a professional translator can't do better than GT, then that's a job that's becoming more specialized... kind of like the farrier and the haberdasher.
The Westboro Baptist folks were very excited when they heard that millions of fags are burned in the UK every day.*
*With apologies to Gaiman & Pratchett, who made this joke years ago in Good Omens.
Some other potentially embarrassing English-to-English translation problems I've encountered:
"Hi, I'm Randy." Randy = popular male first name in American English, horny in British English.
"Knock me up in the morning." Knock up = wake up in British English, get pregnant in American English,
rubber = eraser in British English, condom in American English
"Blow me" = expression of surprise in British English, insult where a male insinuates requesting a blowjob in American English.
pissed = annoyed in American English, drunk in British English.
first floor in British English = second floor to Americans, first floor in American English = ground floor to Brits.
And one German-to-English one when the weather is hot:
"I am hot" literally translated is "Ich bin heiss" or I am horny. Germans say "Es ist heiss", or "it is hot". Either "I am hot" or "it is hot" works in American English, but the former is common enough that it's assumed to refer to the weather first, a brag about how good looking or lucky you are second, and a statement that you are horny a distant third.