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Microsoft Demos Skype Translation Tool Coming Later This Year [Updated]
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Yeah, not ****. That was creepy.
She's probably the hottest German speaking person they were able to round up at Microsoft
-t
Nonsense
Pretty funny: They present an "innovation"...
However, it is not even pre-alpha. Neither of the sentences translated to German made any sense. Event the simplest ones were a collection of German words translated word by word from the English text. Words were not put in the correct form (tense, ...) and the combination of words never made any sense.
If that is state of the art, it will never leave pre-pre-pre-alpha - the quality of the translation has not improved during the last 10 years and is still far from being used in any way.
So probably "crazy eyes" was the only German they could find at Microsoft who was willing to make fun of the English audience.
Pretty funny: They present an "innovation"...
However, it is not even pre-alpha. Neither of the sentences translated to German made any sense. Event the simplest ones were a collection of German words translated word by word from the English text. Words were not put in the correct form (tense, ...) and the combination of words never made any sense.
If that is state of the art, it will never leave pre-pre-pre-alpha - the quality of the translation has not improved during the last 10 years and is still far from being used in any way.
So probably "crazy eyes" was the only German they could find at Microsoft who was willing to make fun of the English audience.
I am German and I also watched the video ... and it is a pretty "staged" demo - unfortunately.
The German translation came out basically in the same quality as you would see from Google translate (typical mistakes) while the English translation seemed almost flawless. The latter was because the German words for the English translation seem to have been chosen carefully in order to archive great translation results - Germans wouldn't typically or always speak like that. So, I would love to see this tool in action for a real conversation.
Nevertheless, I think it's a great technology and approach by MS and we will get there in terms of translation quality some day. But for now, I have to destroy your illusion ... sorry.
Meh, Windows 9 will be Windows 8 with a UI change. Translation for Skype is much more interesting and useful IMO.
This started in the 80s 3 decades ago....
Always believed the day would come....Dune 1984.... Macintosh 1984.... wait.... who invented this?
Always believed the day would come....Dune 1984.... Macintosh 1984.... wait.... who invented this?
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I disagree. Windows 9 will make or break Microsoft. I suppose that's why its taking longer. They recognize this also.
Yeah, in much the same way they secretly record your conversations with Siri to find more hotdog stands.
Google is in the process of developing something very much like this. Will be interesting to compare to two.
And Google will be doing this very soon because they already have the translation tech built into their neural net.
Apple kinda feels boring next to this stuff, I must admit.
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You sound like a Windows fan. Don't you know that Windows 8 just got released? Why the rush?
Apple kinda feels boring next to this stuff, I must admit.
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You sound like a Windows fan. Don't you know that Windows 8 just got released? Why the rush?
Windows 8 was 2012. Windows 8.1 was 2013. Microsoft already had Build 2014 and no beta to show. They are clearly behind. 2 years ago was not "just released".
Ahhh... was wondering about this when I was watching. Oh well... it's a while off yet I guess.
At least with English and German you can probably get the gist of what the other means. No so with Japanese to English translation or vice-versa. It's just a massive pile of WTF...
Correct me if I'm wrong but windows 8 released late 2012 which makes that 1.5 years.
It's actually been 3 years since the first preview. http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/live-from-microsofts-windows-8-preview-event-at-computex-2011/
Windows 9 should have been in preview by now.
Google Translate and Bing Translator are still very bad.Had some fun with it chatting with people from all over the world, though Google Translate was very bad back in the days, which lead to funny results!
Yeah, the English <-> German Translation here makes absolutely no sense sometimes if you don't actually already know English and German, and know things like the fact that "Verschieben" and "Umziehen" both translate to "move" in English, but that one refers to an appointment and the other refers to actually relocating your household. That was a real facepalm moment for me and I turned the video off right there. Didn't need to watch any more after that.
Worst demo ever ...
I can only repeat the criticism made by others in this forum. The translation from english to german was really awful, i.e., not a even one sentence was translated correctly. Many of the translations weren't just slightly off but could only be understood when translated back to english (word by word) to get the meaning.
The german lady on the other hand, spoke super clear, very slow, and very unnatural, almost like a computer herself. She obviously spoke carefully selected phrases. In essence, this demo has shown nothing at all and I'm curious about the final product in particular when it comes to languages that are more different than english and german.
I can only repeat the criticism made by others in this forum. The translation from english to german was really awful, i.e., not a even one sentence was translated correctly. Many of the translations weren't just slightly off but could only be understood when translated back to english (word by word) to get the meaning.
The german lady on the other hand, spoke super clear, very slow, and very unnatural, almost like a computer herself. She obviously spoke carefully selected phrases. In essence, this demo has shown nothing at all and I'm curious about the final product in particular when it comes to languages that are more different than english and german.
The crazy-eyed woman is probably a language tutor or something - she's doing the typical over-the-top expressions people do to others who don't speak their language. In addition to that, she's speaking very clearly and pausing between each word. Real spoken German is nothing at all like that.
I'm in Sachsen, and I'd love to see them get my next-door neighbour on that call. You need to really concentrate whenever he speaks to even recognise that it's German at all.
The Indian guy was speaking more fluently/realistically, and as expected there were lots of speech recognition errors (I would have blamed the hall, but he was wearing a mic). It failed to translate some more idiomatic phrases and, while I'm at it, the synthesis didn't sound particularly natural.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Microsoft Research - they do some really fantastic work. My opinion of Microsoft has waxed and wained over the last 10-15 years, but I've always held MSR in high esteem. So once Nadella started going on about neural networks and how this was using decades of MSR technology, I was really excited. In the end it was utterly and totally disappointing.
Google's voice recognition has always greatly impressed me, and their translation and synthesis is also second-to-none. This Microsoft demo looks about as good at recognition/synthesis as Siri. Maybe not even that good.
Now I can pick up on German chicks without having to learn the language!
Technology FTW!
They are rather going to laugh at you because of just that ignorance