A Software That Can Translate Your Voice...

Imagine being able to speak to the locals while you’re traveling even if you don’t know the language. With new software being developed by Microsoft, this could become a reality. Researchers have developed software that uses voice recognition and text-to-speech to translate into 26 languages. This software is so advanced, that you won’t even get a robot voice reading your sentence… It will be your own voice!

The software was shown at a demonstration in Washington where Microsoft research scientist, Frank Soong, used the voice of his boss, Rick Rashid, to say a few sentences in English. He then used the software to say the same thing in Spanish.

On top of this, he was able to develop a “talking head” avatar of Mr. Rashid to say the phrases. He had previously used the software to develop the avatar and remember Mr. Rashid’s oral movements when making various sounds. He was then able to make the Spanish-speaking avatar’s lips move with the Spanish words, rather than retaining the English movements and making him look like he is in an old Godzilla movie.

Unfortunately, this software is not yet available to the public and right now is only being used by Microsoft to perfect it.

You can watch the whole demonstration here (starts at about 12 minutes into the video), or you can read a little more about this software and hear a few short sound clips of Rick Rashid speaking different languages here.