Skype Translator Preview Program Opens Up to the Public

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 05 Nov 2014

The new Skype Translator feature has been rolled out to the public as a preview. The Skype and the Microsoft Translator team have worked hard to get Skype Translator ready for a preview release. And as of this week, everyone who is interested in testing Skype Translator can do so by signing up for the Skype Translator preview program.

Join the Skype Translator preview program by following this link.
The preview program is free, it is initially available for Windows 8.1 computers and tablets only, and it kicked off with a limited selection of languages.

Skype Translator is a new feature that uses speech-recognition, automatic-translation, and machine-learning technologies to translate speech in real-time and transcribe speech in real-time.

Say you’re talking to a German friend for example. When you say something in English, Skype automatically translates what you said to German. When your friend says something in German, Skype automatically translates it to English – and it also presents a transcript of what your German friend just said.

To better put things in perspective, I am going to list Skype Translator’s main features.

Skype Translator – Main Features
  • Real-time translation – conversations are translated from one language to another in real-time. As soon as you say something, Skype Translator translates it. As soon as you conversation partners says something, Skype Translator translates it.
  • On-screen transcript – a transcript of what your conversation partner said is presented on-screen by Skype Translator.
  • Translate IM chats – instant message chats in 45 languages can be translated.
To put things in perspective even better, I’m also going to embed a couple of videos (because you know, a picture is worth a thousand words).

Peter Lee, Microsoft Research corporate vice president, presents Skype Translator in this first video.



And this second video, you can see Skype Translator in action – it is a live demo of speech-to-speech translation at WPC 2014.




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