Microsoft Announces 'Skype Translator' Early Preview for Windows 8.1 Users

[xARx2]

Windows 10...

As others have stated, the demonstrated translation was anything but acceptable for day to day use.

Moreover, if this is to be implemented into Windows 10, Microsoft needs to work the kinks out of this software, because it obviously isn't at its prime.

I realize this is an "early preview", but there are some issues that seem rather fundamental (grammar, etc.).

Live and let live, though.

 

[MechaSpanky]

I have lived in Japan for the past 8 years and I've read thousands of "computer translated" things and they are terrible, if not laughable. Many companies don't want to bother hiring someone to translate something and so they just use their computer or some free internet translator. Single words are normally fine, some simple phrases are some times okay but beyond that, no way. Full sentences are rarely translated correctly. Idioms are almost never translated correctly and if you throw in something like Cockney rhyming slang or any slang for that matter, it is worthless. As well, many English speakers "translate" documents into Japanese and think that it is close enough. When the documents are read by Japanese, they can't understand any of it. Computer translation software is improving but it is still a long, long ways away from real time interpreting. Interpreters and translators still have some time before they need to start worrying about their job.

 

[Marx55]

Just lear one language. Everybody. And such language is English. Otherwise is is a huge waste of time, errors and misunderstanding!

 

[MelanieShepherd]

If they can make it work correctly, this would be an amazing feature. I'm looking forward to it!

 

[APlotdevice]

Not exactly real time. Someday we will have the Star Trek style universal translators that are real time..

Eh, I don't think that will ever be possible. Even human translators need some delay (and imagination), due to the fact that, in real life, languages don't all follow the same word order and also many words lack of direct translation from one language to another.

Now the Farscape method might actually have some merit... (e.g. put something inside a person's head that lets them understand other languages)