Skype Translator: Breaking Down Language and Hearing Barriers A Behind the Scenes Look at Near Real-Time Speech Translation

In the Skype Translator project, we set ourselves the ambitious goal of enabling successful open-domain conversations between Skype users in different parts of the world, speaking different languages. Building such technology is more than just stitching together the component parts; it also requires work in allowing the parts to talk with one another. In addition to allowing speech communication between users who speak different languages, these technologies also enable Skype communication with another class of users: those who have deafness or hard of hearing. Accommodating these additional users required design changes that benefited all users of Skype Translator. The promise of Skype Translator is not only the breaking down of the language barrier, it is also for breaking down of the hearing barrier.