The Next Big Thing – The Real-Time Universal Translator
In 2010, local businesswoman Alison Duff opened the Calmababy in Peterborough – the first centre to bring together a whole range of new baby relaxation and bonding techniques under one roof, including baby and pregnancy yoga, baby massage, birthing education, newborn flotation and baby swimming sessions. It proved so successful that she has now been accepted onto the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme. One of her key inspirations was Sally Lomas of Birthlight, an educational charity dedicated to promoting an integrated, holistic approach to pregnancy, birth and babyhood. Now, the wheel has turned full circle as Sally Lomas joins Calmababy to teach and plan new classes. The Moment talked to her
We’re now all so familiar with the iPad and other similar products that we probably forget how and where it first appeared – as a piece of science fiction on Star Trek: The Next Generation (in which it was called a Personal Access Display Device or PADD). We also take for granted the fact that we carry our personal communicators with us (AKA ‘smartphones’). While faster-than-light travel and matter transporters may still be some way off, there’s one other Star Trek-style device that is becoming a reality, and will completely revolutionise travel and business over the next few years – the universal translator.
Speak in English, and your phone will translate and repeat the phrase in Italian, or Korean, or whatever language you choose, and also display it as text. Vocre 2.0 for iOS, currently in its Beta version, includes live translated video calling, allowing you to hold a conversation with someone on the other side of the world even if neither of you speaks a common language.
This is not the only option, of course – several are now available. SpeechTrans – also for iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) – offers an incredible 154 languages and promises 99% speech recognition accuracy, with two-way translation on the fly. It’ll even translate Facebook chats live. It also allows you to take a photo of text – anything from a printed document to a road sign – and have the text in the photo translated into your chosen language. Considering how powerful – but also how cheap – this technology is becoming, it is only a matter of time before such software is able to translate seamlessly via an earpiece, with us barely having to be aware that it is happening. Can you imagine the impact this will have on international business? Not quite a babelfish capable of translating unknown languages, but a revolution, nonetheless – and one that science fiction has dreamt of for decades.
