Since October 11, one of the most popular video communication services, Skype, has launched support for simultaneous voice translation from and into Russian. Microsoft does not yet recommend using the translator for business purposes, however, according to our observations, even the preview version of Skype Translator copes with simultaneous translation better than many home-grown translators.
Russian has become the ninth language, we support Skype Translator in video calls. In addition, English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Italian, French, Portuguese (Brazilian), German and Arabic are available.
Users of Windows 10 Anniversary Edition do not need to do anything; the update will come to them automatically. Those who prefer earlier versions of operating systems will have to go to the website and download the Skype Translator application. It is built into the main Skype and adds a “Skype Translator” bookmark. And the contacts have a globe icon where you can select the translation mode.
Initially, the system will only work on PCs (desktops and laptops) with Windows 7 and higher, but in the future we can expect an upgrade for mobile platforms.
How does Skype Translator work?
If you have ever observed simultaneous translation, using Skype Translator will not raise any questions. Once the connection is established, you start talking, and Skype, in turn, starts listening. For the interlocutor, your voice is a little muffled, because, as expected, there is no particular benefit from it (the voice). When you pause, Skype Translator will begin to pronounce everything said in a language that your interlocutor understands. The volume of what is said is not limited, and, as experience shows, does not affect the quality of the translation. But it’s better, of course, not to read “War and Peace” in chapters, so that your interlocutor doesn’t get bored.
Translation is possible in any of nine “directions”, that is, it is quite possible to talk with the Chinese and Portuguese, even if you do not know a word of Chinese or Portuguese. It's better if the room is quiet, but in general Microsoft recommends using a headset with a microphone. Group conversations are, in principle, supported, but everyone will have to speak strictly in turns. Two voices will only cause confusion in the cloud brain.
In each country, Microsoft strives to accommodate all local pronunciations and dialects. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to test the translator on Perm and Vorkuta proverbs and sayings, but they would baffle even a living translator who came to these beautiful cities from Moscow. And if the robot fails, you shouldn’t blame it. However, the vocabulary is impressive. At the level of a simple conversation “for life,” no problems arise, and controversial constructions like “I kiss your thoughts” do not cause any stuttering in Skype. The only funny moment, probably, arose when I began to read the lyrics to Boris Grebenshchikov’s song “Electric Dog” using Skype Translator. The line “And this dog bites into the walls” was heard by the cloud brain as a “truck dog,” immediately giving rise to a new meme. However, the mice are still far from the herd workers.
An important point: currently, the “joining” of languages occurs through English. That is, when talking to a French person, Russian will first be translated into English, and only then into French. This does not affect the translation speed, but, of course, introduces a certain error.
I probably wouldn’t trust Skype Translator with a serious business or even personal conversation. But the communication barrier is really disappearing before our eyes. Even with flaws, but you really understand a person speaking an unfamiliar language. And this is amazing.
Neural networks in Skype Translator
The platform is based on Deep Neural Networks technology and statistical data processing methods.
Neural networks are a higher order machine learning system. The difference is that in machine learning the program follows an algorithm created by a person, while neural networks are able to independently set themselves a problem and find a solution by analyzing a certain array of data.
Such systems operate through a system of layers, each of which is responsible for one recognition characteristic. For example, contour, texture, etc. The more layers, the easier it is to train them, and the more possibilities the technology has. Conventional entertainment services (such as graphic editors - a prime example is the Prisma application) are built on neural networks of six to seven layers. Microsoft developed a deep learning platform with 152 layers (deep residual network), which made possible the emergence of functionality such as simultaneous speech translation in Skype Translator.
Skype Translator combines the capabilities of speech recognition and machine translation, which ensures the transformation of text into a machine-readable format, its recognition and translation, and the transition from recognized text to its voice reproduction. The service independently improves as it is used, and the more people work with it in the process of communicating with each other, the higher the quality of the translation. Skype users around the world make 3 billion minutes of video calls per day. If even just one percent uses translation, learning will be quite fast.
Talk to the future
There are quite a few alternatives to Skype Translator, but all of them (for now) are designed for short phrases, and are not very good for long intimate conversations, where the interlocutors’ remarks last for several minutes.
The opportunity to communicate with speakers of other languages (and cultures) is an absolutely amazing experience. And over the years, I've come to believe that foreign languages were the only thing that was really worth spending time on as a child, because other skills (okay, most of them) are acquired orders of magnitude faster.
Skype Translator will not imbue you with the history and culture of the countries where native speakers live, as happens with the standard learning model. But this can be done in the time freed from studying additional languages. And with the money saved.
And it seems that now the countdown for the death of another profession begins in Russia. Translator. Whatever one may say, the most reliable thing today is to teach children programming.
One of the most interesting functions that I have had in my lifetime Skype - translator. It looked great and seemed like a victory over language barriers. You wrote to native language into the chat, and the translator showed the interlocutor the words translated into the other person’s native language. You could simply speak (quite clearly) and the translator would recognize your speech; it ended up being accompanied by fairly accurate subtitles. Although why “could”? Despite the alarming news, translation on Skype is alive and well!
Using the function
On September 17, 2017, a terse message appeared on the Skype blog: starting with version 7.4.676.0, developers are disabling Skype Translator. What is it - working on mistakes or shutting down the project? In Microsoft's case, it's hard to tell the difference. A little later, the company announced that translation is no longer supported for older versions of Skype.
However, in the version from the store, the ability to translate text in real time still remains. The same applies to the mobile application
Translator bot
How to set up a translator for a conversation on Skype? The developers sensibly decided that in most cases there is no need to translate all messages: people who speak the same language communicate. And in special cases You can also use a special method.
Now, to enable the translator, you need:
Now, after each of your messages, the bot will check with the translation server and reset the version that your interlocutor understands.
Instructions for the mobile application:
If you want to change the language, do the following:
When using a translator, please observe the following rules.
Microsoft has included Russian in the catalog of supported translator languagesSkype and a number of other products based on the platformMicrosoft Translator. Russian has become the ninth language available to usersSkype worldwide, for simultaneous speech translation during video calls.
Skype Translator (a function for translating messages and calls in real time of the popular video communication service Skype) opens up a new opportunity for communication between users around the world, helping to overcome the language barrier. Today the service catalog has been replenished with a ninth language - Russian, available for simultaneous translation of speech between interlocutors when making video calls on Skype.
Thus, today Skype Translator supports Russian, English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Italian, French, Portuguese (Brazilian), German and Arabic languages when making voice calls, as well as more than 50 languages when exchanging instant messages.
Owners of personal computers running Windows 7 and higher can take advantage of the new benefits of Skype Translator. Skype Translator is integrated into the standard Skype desktop application for Windows. For users of devices running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update operating system, the new functionality will be available automatically in the “preview” version of the application. Users of devices based on operating systems of earlier versions need to find and select Russian in the conversation dialog from the Skype Translator drop-down language menu (under the globe icon).
Skype Translator is based on machine learning technology. This means that the service itself improves as it is used, and the more people use it to communicate with each other, the higher the quality of the translation.
The Russian language in Skype Translator is available to users in the preview version of the product.
Russian-language functionality in the Skype translator has become available thanks to an update to the Microsoft Translator platform - cloud service for automatic machine translation from Microsoft. Microsoft Translator exists as an independent product and is a platform for linguistic add-ons for a number of other products and services of the corporation.
The functionality of Russian-language speech translation is now becoming available also in:
- Microsoft Translator applications for Android and Apple iPhone, tablets, watches and Amazon Kindle;
- in Microsoft Translator Speech API.
“Inclusion of the Russian language in the Skype translator catalog - the result of many years research work and scientific and technical achievements of Microsoft. Russian - one of the most popular, at the same time the most complex and poetic languages. Thanks to the Skype translator, millions of Russian-speaking people around the world will be able to communicate in their native language with residents of other countries without experiencing difficulties in understanding each other. This is a shining example of how our cutting-edge technologies and innovations enable people to achieve more, - noted Dmitry Khalin, director of the technology policy department at Microsoft in Russia. - The appearance of the Russian language in the speech translation functionality of Microsoft Translator and the Microsoft Translator Speech API will allow developers of web and client applications to create solutions for automating language operations for any hardware and operating platforms.”
“For more than a decade, Skype has been providing people with audio and video capabilities for everyday, borderless communication. Today, with the announcement of support for the Russian language in Skype Translator, we are taking a new step in breaking down language barriers, facilitating communications between people,” - said Gurdiip Pall, Vice President of Skype.
“Universal technologies of computer linguistics are the future. Every day they become more accessible to a wide range of users thanks to the development of mobile technologies and the accumulated BigData array, which allows improving quality. At PROMT, we are seeing an increase in interest and demand for products that automate translation tasks for both private users and businesses. And in Lately Many IT corporations have begun to implement these products into their systems. In particular, Microsoft Translator is being transformed into a universal linguistic platform. It can solve many applied problems of translating data sets - this includes personal correspondence and business conversation. The new capabilities of Microsoft Translator will be able to spur the development of a wide variety of Russian businesses that use computer linguistics technologies to create custom translation solutions,” said Boris Tikhomirov, director of mobile and Internet projects at PROMT.
The language barrier on the Internet interferes with communication significantly less than in real life. Online translators allow you to instantly adapt a phrase or word to the desired language. In one of the Skype updates, such a function was integrated into the program. It is now possible to translate incoming and outgoing messages in a specific dialogue in accordance with the configured settings.
Enabling the feature
From the program settings menu Skype The translator cannot be activated. To do this, you need to enter a special command. Open a conversation with any user and insert the following line there: /setupkey UI/Ecs/Features/Translator/Enabled 1
In this case, the message will not reach the user; it will be visible only to you. The function will only turn on after restarting the program. In the tray, right-click on the Skype icon and select exit. Then launch it again.
Now a new item will appear in the main settings section - “Skype Translator”. It contains only one option to enable or disable this feature. 
Settings
Setting up a Skype translator carried out for each dialogue separately. Open any correspondence, under its name or the name of the contact there is a horizontal bar, closer to the right end of which there is a miniature globe. This is a special button that opens the options menu, press it. 
First comes the translator activation and deactivation slider, set it to the “On” position. In the next step you need to set your native language. The latter contains the language into which your messages will be translated. And if the user sends you text from it, then it can be transformed into the desired form. In the correspondence window, a button “View original” or “View translation” will appear under each phrase. 
Shutdown
If you plan to completely remove the built-in translator, and not just disable the function in a specific correspondence, then you need to enter the following line into any chat: /setupkey UI/Ecs/Features/Translator/Enabled 0
Then close and relaunch Skype. The corresponding item will disappear from the settings menu. The same applies to the globe in the dialog window.
Russian has become the ninth language that Skype Translator understands for voice calls. Before the innovation, the translator spoke English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic, and also translated text messages from 50 languages.
“Russian is one of the most popular, and at the same time, the most complex and poetic languages. Thanks to the Skype translator, millions of Russian-speaking people around the world will be able to communicate in their native language with residents of other countries without experiencing difficulties in understanding each other,” the director of the technology policy department at Microsoft in Russia is quoted as saying. Online companies.
PC users running the operating system (OS) Windows 7 and higher will be able to evaluate the new feature. For owners of devices running Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the translation will be available automatically in the “preview” version of the application.
Currently, the innovation is not available to MacOS users and owners of smartphones based on iOS or Android. The developers have not announced when the option will appear on other platforms.
The thing about Skype Translator is that it improves itself the more people use it. The program is based on machine learning technology, and the more users communicate using this function, the better the translation becomes.
Reception as heard
Before using the service, you must install Last update Skype. For a conversation, it is best to choose a quiet place without extraneous noise. It is also advisable to connect headphones with a microphone to minimize echo and avoid distracting sounds.
For Skype Translator to work, you need to activate the translation function in the settings by checking the corresponding box. Then select the contact you are interested in and activate the translator by clicking on the globe icon at the top of the message window. For each interlocutor, a different translation language is configured. With the Skype Translator option enabled, a black rectangle will appear in the conversation window where real-time subtitles are displayed during the conversation. At the same time, the speech of the “translator” will sound in the headphones in a male or in a female voice respectively.
It’s better to speak one at a time in simple sentences, slowly and clearly, as if using a walkie-talkie. Be sure to pause to allow the program to process the data. It is optimal if the phrase consists of seven to 10 words and contains a verb. Between the spoken phrase and the finished translation can take from 20 to 30 seconds. An interpreter will help you maintain a conversation with a foreigner about the weather, business, family and everyday things. The program even recognizes some profanity.
But when having a heart-to-heart conversation or on philosophical topics, when long sentences with numerous complex phrases are used, the program gets lost and begins to go astray.
Just like some people.
Pushkin is no longer everything
Skype Translator cannot perceive intonation. The soulless machine will not notice joy or sadness in the voice, and will translate the asked question into an even sentence.
Simple phrases like “Hi, how are you?” Skype Translator translates perfectly - not a single word is missing and everything is grammatically correct. With more complex sentence, with the statement “The thoughts of a philosopher are like stars, they do not give light because they are too sublime,” the program only got it halfway, getting confused on the second part of the phrase. “Thoughts of philosopher like stars. They don"t give the color, because it is too sublime." Although the meaning can be understood.
When the first lines of Pushkin’s poem were read to the translator “ Winter morning", it turned out ridiculous.
“Frost and sun, a wonderful day! You are still dozing, adorable friend...” turned into “Frost and Sun day wonderful this game is closer to each adorable.”
But Skype Translator, surprisingly, translated the slang well. The function coped with the phrase “This is a really cool feature, but it’s a little buggy” without any problems.
In general, translation from Russian into English works fine, but the reverse is not always accurate, although you can still understand the interlocutor.
The developers promise that the program will be constantly improved, the main thing is to use it as often as possible so that the quality of the translation increases.
Skype Translator is more suitable for home use, communicating with friends and situations when you urgently need to quickly translate something, and there is no person nearby who knows the language. In the near future, the program will definitely not compete with professional simultaneous interpreters.
The new feature will allow us to convey the general meaning of phrases, but it will still be a long time before we can call a Chinese relative and greet him in our native language.
With feeling, with sense, with arrangement
To rid the text of verbal garbage, TrueText technology is used, which corrects incorrect phrases and removes stuttering. You can configure the function to “beep” profanity.
The developers note that the translation algorithm is written taking into account the specifics of live speech. “Skype Translator and Microsoft Translator master languages themselves. They are offered an initial course based on existing human translations, and then the system will continue to replenish the database, “participating” in the process of live communication. As a result, it receives many translation options for various words and expressions depending on the context,” Microsoft developers say.
Lost in translation
Speech recognition technology in 2016 will no longer surprise anyone. You can recall Siri assistants in iPhone and Cortana in Windows devices, “Okay”, “Alexa” and developments for the “smart” home from Echo, IVR systems with voice control in call centers and developments.
meme "Cunning translator"
Work with foreign languages available thanks to the products of PROMT, ABBYY, Google and several companies that produce smartphones with the function of a pocket speech translator, for example the Russian Companion. They are available to every user; there are free and paid versions with advanced features.
The Google service can recognize and translate voice (speech-to-text), the PROMT translator is available offline, and in ABBYY dictionaries There is a text-to-speech function.
There are more and more technologies every day, but they are still far from ideal. However, people with the profession of translator still face a lack of context, “false friends” and the pressure “you’re a translator.”
