I predict that Google will soon offer a translation service via the Android phone operating system. It would operate by recording speech, crunching it, and then translating it into voice or text in another language. The pieces are already there:
- Google Voice and 1-800-GOOG-411 collect voice samples which Google can transcribe to text. Google Voice is capable of transcribing both English and Chinese.
- Google also has extensive text translation services. For a long time, the search engine could translate web pages to another language. Google just added translation services to its popular RSS reader, Google Reader.
- Google quietly just launched its own dictionary today.
Put the pieces together. Google knows the meaning of what a person says (at least in English and Chinese). As Google Voice rolls out to the rest of the world and accumulates enough data about other languages, it will be capable of translating other languages.
Why would Google provide such a service? Google owns all the pieces already. It fits their motto of managing the world’s information and facilitating communication. I won’t go as far as to predict an ETA but I think it is a near certainty this translation service is in the works.
No related posts.
Jon Mallin
Founder of Tech Bottle Blog. Attorney & Amateur Blogger. B.A. University of Michigan 1997 and J.D. NYU School of Law 2000.
Jon Mallin on Google+ (Preferred) --
@JonMallin on Twitter --
LinkedIN C.V. -- Email Jon@TBOTTLE.COM-
http://realurl.org/twitted.php?id=6345448674 Twitted by mallinj
