Google takes a shot at a “universal translator”

The “universal translator” is a crucial plot device in science fiction, giving aliens from far off worlds the ability to, at least from the perspective of the protagonists and audience, speak perfect English. They’re what enable a multi-species crew to effectively serve together on the Enterprise. The “babel fish” enabled Arthur Dent to understand the many races that populated the Milky Way in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Today we learned that Google is working on what could be considered a universal translator for Earthlings, which will be built into a mobile phone. It makes sense for Google, who have made significant strides in both text translation technology and voice recognition.

“We think speech-to-speech translation should be possible and work reasonably well in a few years’ time,” Franz Och, Google’s head of translation services told the outlet.

The idea behind Google’s plan is simple: when a user speaking one language says something into a phone, Google’s translator software, which would be running on the recipient’s phone, would interpret what the person said, translate it into the recipient’s language, and recite it back in that second language. In order to limit conversational pauses, the company apparently plans to translate as phrases are spoken, rather that waiting until each sentence is completed.

Google hopes to make the application available “in a couple years.”

Even as undoubtedly clunky the first iteration of this technology will prove to be, it will be a huge step toward bringing people together from around the world. Imagine how much easier it will be to book foreign travel plans, or conduct business with overseas suppliers?