An app offering real-time translations is to allow people in Japan to speak to foreigners over the phone with both parties using their native tongue. NTT Docomo - the country's biggest mobile network - will initially convert Japanese to English, Mandarin and Korean, with other languages to follow. It is the latest in a series of telephone conversation translators to launch in recent months. Lexifone and Vocre have developed other products. Alacatel-Lucent and Microsoft are among those working on other solutions. The products have the potential to let companies avoid having to use specially trained multilingual staff, helping them cut costs. They could also aid tourism.
However, the software involved cannot offer perfect translations, limiting its use in some situations.
Cloud technology
NTT Docomo unveiled its Hanashite Hon'yaku app for Android devices at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (Ceatec) show in Japan earlier this month, and plans to launch it on 1 November. It provides users with voice translations of the other speaker's conversation after a slight pause, as well as providing a text readout.
"French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai will be added for this application in late November, raising the number of non-Japanese languages to 10," the firm said in a statement.
"Fast and accurate translations are possible with any smartphone, regardless of device specifications, because Hanashite Hon'yaku utilises Docomo's cloud [remote computer servers] for processing."
The caller must subscribe to one of Docomo's packages to be able to use it.
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