In 2009, Microsoft invited deep learning pioneer Geoff Hinton to visit its Redmond campus to work with its researchers on neural networks, and although Hinton has since joined Google, Microsoft has moved ahead with its own deep learning research, which became the foundation for both Skype Translate and its new digital assistant, Cortana. The technique dates back to at least the early 1980s, but it stayed on the fringes of academia until the mid-2000s when powerful computers became cheap enough to start doing practical work. Deep learning models are no where near as complex as the brain, which contains tens of billion of neurons, but the approach allows machines to 'learn.' They can improve their performance as they analyze more and more data. Real-time translation is a tough trick to pull off because it requires both accurate speech recognition and on-the-fly language translation, but the technology is finally becoming a reality thanks to advances in a field of computer science called 'deep learning.' This involves new kinds of 'neural networks'-computer simulations of the connections between neurons in the brain-that can mimic the way the brain behaves, at least in some ways. >Honest-to-goodness translation technology is finally on its way-and it won't involve implanting a fish in your ear.Īccording to an article published by Microsoft Research, the company has been working on this technology for over a decade. It's not the first time the company has showed off the technology that underpins this app-Microsoft Chief Research Officer Rick Rashid did a similar demo at an event in Tianjin, China in October 2012-but now, the software giant has wrapped this translation engine in a package that's ready for everyday internet users. The app was unveiled last night at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, where Microsoft vice president of Skype Gurdeep Pall used the tool to have a conversation with a German-speaking colleague named Diana.

Later this year, Microsoft will release a beta version of Skype Translate, a near real-time translation tool.

Skype translator app