Microsoft’s Translating! Telephone

The folks over at TechCrunch had an opportunity to visit with Microsoft to get a sneak peak at some of the exciting new technologies they were working on.  I thought one was particularly relevant to the rural telephone market- The Translating! Telephone (video after the jump).

The system provides live speech-to-text and speech-to-speech translation of telephone calls.  Yes- read that again.  I did say “live”.  While not perfect, it has a way in which you can validate your intentions, and in a sense learn your speech patterns to become a better translator for you.  Oh, and a nifty little side benefit is that it will provide a complete transcript archive in a user’s Exchange mail box so that the conversation can be recalled in the future (wonder what privacy proponents would say about that).

Could this be the thing that helps keep POTS in the home?  Doubtful, but perhaps it will make actually talking to people cool again.  I hate it when younger family members never answer the phone, but immediately respond to a text.

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