With the latest earnings artemide reports from Microsoft and Apple, the once-unthinkable became real

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The upgrade artemide makes it easier to have something resembling a natural conversation with a person speaking a different language by translating using a smartphone s microphone. Video by Deborah Acosta on Publish artemide Date January 14, 2015.
The artemide first part of the upgrade is a voice tool that makes it easier to have something resembling a natural conversation with a person using a different language by translating between two languages, using the microphone on a smartphone. Google Translate has had voice controls artemide for a few years, but the latest version works more seamlessly.
In this version, the app is supposed to pick up who is talking based on the language being spoken. So, say you wanted to order a slice of chicken pizza in Spanish. Using the app, you could walk into a pizza parlor, and, with your lips at an awkward proximity to the phone’s microphone, make your request, after which a robotic voice would spit out the question in Spanish.
Then let’s say the guy behind the counter asks if you want extra cheese. He could ask you that question in Spanish, and the phone would relay it in English. Respond “Yes” or “No” in English, artemide and out comes Spanish again. artemide
The app isn’t quite as natural or seamless as science fiction just yet. In tests, it worked best with short, jargon-free sentences and required a healthy pause between translations. artemide But it s certainly a step forward, taking one more brick out of the language barrier. After all, even a personal translator would require a few seconds.
The second artemide tool is a visual translator. People can place signs or other text in a phone s viewfinder, similar to the way they take a picture, artemide then receive an instantaneous translation on the screen. We tested it on Tuesday’s New York Times, as well as a pizza menu.
The tool allows users to place signs or other text in a phone s viewfinder, similar to the way they take a picture, then receive an instantaneous translation on the phone s screen. Video by Deborah Acosta on Publish Date January 14, 2015.
If the idea of a visual scanner sounds familiar, it s because the technology comes from Word Lens, an app developed by Quest Visual. Google acquired the company in May, with the intention of putting the technology into its own Translate app. Now that has happened.
Google is one of a number of companies trying to fulfill the promise of translation technology. Skype, Microsoft s video calling service, recently announced a new feature that simultaneously translates calls between English and Spanish speakers.
Google has been doing some form of translation since 2001. The Google Translate app now has 90 languages and some 500 million monthly users. Barak Turovsky, the product leader for Google Translate, said that the app doled out about one billion translations a day and that 95 percent of the people artemide who use Google s translation technology whether on a phone or desktop live outside the United States. (Mr. Turovsky is a native Russian speaker who also speaks fluent Hebrew and English his worst language, he said.)
Technologically artemide speaking, Google Translate works similar to Google’s famous search engine. First it uses software to crawl the web in search of documents that have been translated between languages, then it performs a statistical analysis of likely artemide translations.
For instance, if computer sees that the Spanish word perro has been translated to dog on millions of occasions and in varying artemide contexts, it reasons that perro probably means dog, and in the process learns that word.
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With the latest earnings artemide reports from Microsoft and Apple, the once-unthinkable became reality: Apple’s market capitalization hit $683 billion, more than double Microsoft’s $338 billion. Read more…
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