Is the end of simultaneous translation near? It may still take a while, but with Skype Translator, we are definitely going down that road. In the future, if you're Skyping in English or Spanish, the software simultaneously translates your conversation. We are very curious to see how this will evolve and what possibilities this technology will offer to international events, meetings and congresses.
Simultaneous translation at the moment is still a pure human process. Thousands of interpreters daily earn their living with it on meetings and congresses. But will machines take over their jobs? Microsoft Skype Translator is working very hard to that purpose. If you as a Spanish speaker Skype with an English speaker (or vice versa), you can already enjoy a simultaneous translation by the computer. Without human intervention. And if we can believe the reviews, the translation is of a very high quality.
How quickly this evolution will go, is still a big question. However, it is certain that simultaneos translation will be done more and more by machines.
The application possibilities are inexhaustible. Soon you will have phone conversations in the most exotic languages. But also for our sector this is a genuine gamechanger. Where you had to be assisted by a small army of interpreters on international congresses and meetings, you will soon fix that with hard- and software. But also on other events, language barriers evaporate. Everyone can converse with each other in his own language and the machines ensure that we understand each other. The trend is set. The first steps are realised. To be continued.
