Skype Translator preview goes live starting today

Microsoft has been demoing its real-time Skypetranslator system for several months, but today is the beginning of the public preview. Users who want to try out the instant voice translation features of Skype on Windows 8.1 need only head over to the Skype site and sign up. If you’re not at least a little excited to try this out, the demo video below will get you there.Skype Translator is launching with support for voice translations between Spanish and English only, but more languages will be added in time. It also has IM translation support for 40 languages right now, but that’s not as impressive as being able to carry on a conversation in two different spoken languages. After each party finishes speaking, Skype repeats what was said for the other participant in their native language. It’s a little slower and probably requires a more measured conversational style — no talking over each other.Microsoft’s translation technology relies on machine learning, meaning that Skype Translator will get smarter the more it is used. The more words are used in conversation, the better Skype gets at understanding and translating them. Turning people loose on the product will feed it all sorts of unusual accents and slang to learn, but it’s not clear if it will work nearly as well as it does in the video. It could be amazing if it really does work that well.The Skype Translator Preview is starting out with support for Windows 8.1 on the desktop and phones. If you’ve got one of those devices, you can give it a shot. You can still sign up for the preview if you’re not a native English or Spanish speaker. The form will ask you to set a language preferences, which will be used to prioritize the addition of other languages to Skype Translator.

http://mobile.geek.com/microsoft/255489-skype-translator-preview-goes-live-starting-today