Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have spun out nearly two dozen companies that use computer technology to convert text to synthesized speech or human speech to text, sort vast amounts of text, and even translate human speech into synthesized speech of another language. One of the newest technologies to hit the market was developed by Alex Waibel, CMU professor of computer science and language technology, who heads the International Center for Advanced Communication Technologies, or InterACT, at the university’s Language Technologies Institute. Around 1990, Waibel began writing programs to translate English spoken into a microphone into synthetic Spanish coming back through a computer speaker. Now, he has a $24.99 iPhone app that can spit back up to 40,000 words — from English to Spanish, or vice versa — within about three seconds. The program allows an English speaker with no foreign language knowledge to visit a Spanish-speaking country and converse, and a Spanish-only speaker can do the same to communicate in English. Waibel launched the technology through his start-up company Jibbigo, Inc., which stands for “the gibberish of language on the go.”
The technology doesn’t require users to type anything or to connect to a server and ring up a big phone bill from abroad. The voice recognition, language translation, and speech synthesis capabilities are built into the cell phone. “That means you can use it in the remotest village or on a plane or in the military without the enemy detecting where you are,” says Waibel, who intends for Jibbigo to target health care workers in developing nations and government installations overseas. To use the app, the user speaks a sentence, such as, “Where is the nearest hospital?” into the iPhone. Within three seconds, the device repeats the sentence in the opposite language. To erase and rephrase the sentence, the user just shakes the iPhone. “So far, it’s English to Spanish and Spanish to English,” Waibel says. “But in the next six months, we hope to have four more languages.” A laptop version already handles seven languages.
Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review