One of the most important innovations from Microsoft Translator was showcased earlier this year. During a  talk at the Code Conference, by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, unveiled an early look at the Skype Translator app. This app represents a breakthrough in language translation jointly developed by Microsoft researchers and Skype engineers, bridging geographic and language barriers through the use of real-time speech-to-speech translation.The functionality combines Skype voice and instant messaging, Microsoft Translator and machine-learning based technologies for speech recognition used in Windows and Windows Phone Translation applications.

In addition to the Skype Translator app, below is a summary of additional highlights from Microsoft Translator over the last year:

• Song Translator App – Last fall, our Translator Summer Interns: Michelle Agcamaran, Priya Ganesan, and Kat Zhou built an app to showcase the capabilities of Translator and our partners in a new and interesting way. After three months of work they launched: Song Translator. The song translation app allows users to upload their favorite songs with lyrics, add timestamps to the lyrics, then translate and record the song in another language.
• Release of Welsh – In February, Microsoft Translator is announced Welsh as a new supported language in partnership with the National Assembly for Wales and leveraging the Microsoft Translator Hub. The Welsh became the latest to join a growing list of languages to benefit from translation services provided by Microsoft Translator.
• Blog Plug In – Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. released a new Bing Translator plugin that lets you apply the power of Bing Translator to any WordPress site running version 3.8 or later to translate your site into any of the 45+ supported languages. Adding WordPress to the list of blogging sites including Tumblr.
• App Localization – This year Multilingual App Toolkit (MAT) team announced the release of MAT 3.1. The Multilingual App Toolkit integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio to provide Windows Store apps and Windows Phone apps with translation support powered, translation file management, and editor tools powered by Microsoft Translator.
• Yammer Language Support – Earlier this year, Yammer announced key localization updates across its web client, mobile apps, and the Yammer Success Center, and introduced message translation in both the iOS and Android Yammer apps, powered by Microsoft Translator®. 
• Updates to Windows and Windows Phone Translator Apps –  Over the past year updates were released for Windows and Windows Phone Translator apps which include: speech-to-speech for Windows app, new offline language packs, new language support for camera, keyboard modes, user interface design improvements, amongst many other updates and improvements.

Real-time communication and collaboration technologies from video conferencing to social media have removed the physical barriers of communication and today translation technology is paving the way for removing the barrier of language in the same way. The Microsoft Translator team is committed to helping to enable business, communities, and consumers to be able to communicate and collaborate regardless of language through technology innovation.

This is just a small sampling of the many things that Microsoft Translator has been working on over the past year, to learn more about what Microsoft Translator has been up to, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Happy translating!
 

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During Nadella’s conversation with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg of the Re/code tech website relating to a new era of personal computing, he asked Gurdeep Pall, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Lync and Skype, to join him on stage. While on stage, Pall demonstrated for the first time publicly the Skype Translator app, with Pall conversing in English with German-speaking Microsoft employee Diana Heinrichs.

Watch the Demo

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Speech has been a natural evolution of the translation work that Microsoft has been delivering to consumers and businesses across a broad number of products and solutions. The work represents over a decade of work within Microsoft Research that has become a reality through a series of remarkable research advances in translation, speech recognition, and language processing. This demonstration is the next step in delivering the real time speech translation experience to users that Rick Rashid, then the worldwide head of Microsoft Research, demonstrated a year and a half ago.

The Skype Translator app will available first on Windows 8 later this year as a limited beta.

It has been an exciting day as we unveil this remarkable technology advancement that brings people one step closer to removing barriers of communication regardless of language or location!

Learn More about Skype Translator

• Skype Translator from Microsoft Video
• TechNet Blog Post from Gurdeep Pall, Corporate Vice President of Skype and Lync at Microsoft
• Microsoft Research Feature Story: Enabling Cross-Lingual Conversations in Real Time
• Code Conference Coverage of the Demo

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Advancements in technology to support and preserve languages create greater awareness of the linguistic and cultural traditions celebrated throughout the world, which in turn promote understanding, tolerance and dialogue. Helping to enable business, communities, and consumers to communicate and collaborate across language barriers through technology innovation is a core focus for the Microsoft Translator team.  

As part of that focus, Microsoft Translator is announcing Welsh as a new supported language in partnership with the National Assembly for Wales and leveraging the Microsoft Translator Hub. The Welsh language today becomes the latest to join a growing list of languages to benefit from translation services provided by Microsoft Translator.

In 2012, the National Assembly passed the Official Language Act into law, which placed a statutory duty on the Assembly Commission to treat both languages on the basis of equality. 

The Assembly’s Presiding Officer, Dame Rosemary Butler, said:  “One of my key roles is to ensure that all the people of Wales are able to engage with the Assembly’s work, whether through the Welsh or English language. That’s why we have been working with Microsoft to create an automatic language translation system to help the Assembly to meet our own language goals.”

Machine translation is a key part of the Assembly’s commitment to delivering a fully bilingual institution where businesses and services can be delivered through the Welsh and English languages. Users can now translate to and from Welsh using the breadth of Microsoft products including: Office, Bing Translator as well as in the Bing Translator applications for Windows Phone and Windows. 

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeHcZEd7VEo]

 In addition to backend service updates to the Microsoft Translator API, new updates have been released for Windows and Windows Phone Translator apps which include: 

• Offline Language Packs for Polish and Turkish
• Availability of Polish, Czech, Turkish, Greek and Hungarian in Camera Mode
• Addition of Welsh and Maltese in Keyboard Mode
• Release of Wide Tile for Windows Phone

 To further commemorate IMLD, the Microsoft Local Language Program, a part of Microsoft YouthSpark, announced the Language Toolbox, an additional resource to the Microsoft Language Portal (LLP), serving as a consolidated inventory of free language resources and tools provided by Microsoft to help bridge the gap between language and technology. You can read more about this new resource here. 

At Microsoft, we are excited that the continued advancements of machine translation features and functionality are enabling users to achieve a shared understanding and make the world a little smaller every day.

To Learn More 

• National Assembly for Wales Machine Translation Site 
• National Assembly for Wales Blog
• Video Blog from Presiding Officer Dame Rosemary Butler AM
• Video Blog from Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM and in Welsh
• Microsoft Citizenship Blog
• Language Portal Blog

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For the past few weeks the team has been heads down getting the app ready and tested for the new phones running Windows Phone 8, and we are pleased to announce that owners of the new Windows Phone devices are now able to download the app from the App Store.

You can download from the marketplace here.

As a Windows Phone 8 user, you will also discover a new translator “lens” whenever you launch your camera – allowing you to quickly access the camera mode translation functionality of the app.

For those of you who are new to the app, here is a behind-the-scenes look:

We hope you find the app useful as you navigate an increasingly multilingual universe.

– Vikram Dendi,
Director of Product Management,
Microsoft/Bing Translator

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With the new Translator app for Windows Phone, you will be well equipped for an adventure of your own – especially in going to places where you don’t read or speak the local language. With the app on hand, translating printed language on street signs, posters, transit schedules, restaurant menus, etc., is a snap. Well, easier than a snap – all you do is point and observe! The brilliant video mode translation equips you with the magical experience of just looking through the camera to see everything continuously translated, nicely overlaid over the original language.Think automatic subtitles for everyday life. Able to work entirely offline after downloading a small language pack, this feature relies on a highly optimized and compressed translation system, one built using the same technology that powers Bing’s other translation features.

Here is a behind the scenes look at the app:

You can learn more about the functionality of the app on the Bing blog. If you are an existing user of a previous version, you should shortly see a notification to update.Translator for Windows Phone is now available completely free, on the Windows Phone Marketplace. We would love to hear your feedback and feature suggestions on our user forums.

In building this app, engineers and researchers on our team solved tremendous technical challenges and dealt with the nuances of voice, cameras, data availability and language complexity. Yet, our focus was on delivering a scenario that was truly useful to our users. If we are able to provide you that little bit of extra confidence that makes the difference between going somewhere and not – then we would have succeeded.

– Vikram Dendi,
Director of Product Management,
Microsoft/Bing Translator

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