The bad part about visiting somewhere you do n’t speak the local lingua is that sinking feeling as you squint at a phrasebook , open your mouth , and prepare yourself to totally butcher the voice communication . If that ’s your incubus , good news . Google is work on an AI that can actually utter in another spoken communication using your own part .
ably named Translatotron , the AI is distinguish in aGoogle blogas an end - to - end , speech - to - speech translation model . What makes it novel is that it eschew the usual method of speech - to - text and then text - to - actor’s line voice conversion — which is whatGoogle Translatedoes . Instead , it employs a neural internet so it can hop-skip the average step of translate sound to text and back again . It also includes a “ speaker encoder ” that can save the original speaker ’s voice .
The new AI has a few advantage over the traditional method acting . Namely , Google points out faster illation amphetamine , eliminating compound erroneous belief , and honorable handling of Christian Bible that do n’t require version like right nouns and names . Right now , Google tell translation character using Translatotron lags behind conventional methods . That allege , if you check up on out theexample audio clip , the end results are not only the right way accurate , but also sound more natural . There ’s still that mechanically skillful intonation , but much less so compare to say , Amazon Alexa .
Getting lost in a foreign country can be an anxiety-inducing experience.Photo: Getty Images
mightily now , there are a few text - to - speech translation apps already out there — includingGoogle Translate , SayHi , Microsoft Translator , iTranslate , andTripLingo . That said , none of them use your genuine vocalisation in the final ware , and that can be moderately jarring in real living .
Translatotron might still be in the works , but fingers crossed that sometime in the dear futurity I can take that Paris trip I ’ve always wanted without having to embarrass myself mispronouncing “ confit de canard ” at a fancy eating house .
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