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Jen: This, of course, isn’t the only instant translation technology in the
world.
Neil: No, Google has something similar, though it’s less advanced
than this Japanese app. Listen to the first part of a report from the BBC’s
correspondent, Richard Taylor. How does the Google technology work?
BBC correspondent Richard Taylor: You simply talk into your
smartphone. That’s then sent to the server from Google, which does real-
time voice recognition and then machine translation on it and then that data
is sent back to your phone either as a script or, if you pay a little bit extra in
terms of data charges, as a voice file.
Neil: He says when you talk into your smartphone, it’s sent to the server –
a central computer which other computers get their information from.
Jen: The server does real-time translation and then sends back a text or
voice file.
Neil: So you read the translation or, if you pay a little bit more, listen to a
translation sent as an audio recording.
Jen: Amazing stuff!
Neil: Indeed, but this new app in Japan, developed by the company NTT
Docomo, goes even further.
Jen:That’s right.With this technology, you can have an actual conversation
with someone on the other side of the world, speaking a different language
to the one which is coming out of your mouth!
Neil: Incredible! Now listen to the second part of the report from the
BBC’s Richard Taylor.
BBC correspondent Richard Taylor: But they’ve actually taken the
concept and applied it to normal phone calls. So, you’re making a phone
call to somebody from Japan in Japanese, on the other side of the world,
for example in Britain. It will take that Japanese voice, do the real-time
machine translation on the server, couple of seconds later it would bring it
back down to you in English. Or at least that’s the idea.
Neil: So, the difference is that this app allows people to speak to
foreigners in real time – with a slight pause while the real-time translation
takes place.
Jen: So, which languages does it convert?
Neil: At the moment, Japanese to English, Mandarin and Korean. But
more are to follow.