Universal Translator: Sci-Fi or Reality?
I went searching for an old French colleague on Facebook the other day in hopes of holding a seamless chat conversation in French. Later on, I went looking online for my long lost Swedish relatives in hopes of speaking with them in their native tongue.
Impressed? Don’t be. I don’t speak a word of Swedish or French. I was simply emboldened by the VoxOx Universal Translator, a new capability of the VoxOx unified communications service that enables instant, seamless foreign language translations across SMS, email, chat and social networks (specifically Facebook Chat, MySpace Chat and Twitter @replies).
It really is a wonder: I select my language, my contact’s language, and then begin chatting, texting or emailing away. The VoxOx Universal Translator provides instant translation for both parties … to them, it looks like I speak perfect French or Swedish (or Cantonese or Portugese or dozens of other languages I can choose from). The best part is that only one person has to be using VoxOx to make it work. The service is also interoperable with every major IM client.
To Trekkies, the “universal translator” is a (plot) device that Spock and Kirk used to communicate with alien species. While instant voice translations may still be a way off, instant translations through electronic communications (chat, sms, email) is now here.
Watch the VoxOx Universal Translator in action below or download the service here. You can also read a write up in the popular blog, Gizmodo.
