Microsoft shows off real-time Skype translator

Uh oh! There goes the Eikawa business!

If it is anything like Google translate is for the written word i would be very careful of using it. likely to upset the person you are calling!

Machine translators for Japanese should be called Engrish machines, they just don't work.

Onwards to the universal translator!

"Application that will translate the language in the world did you developed? I look forward to. But I wonder would really usable?"

(Yes, that's what Google thinks 世界中の言語を翻訳してくれるアプリケーションは開発されたんですか？楽しみです。でも本当に使えるのでしょうかね？means in English. Don't start banking on Sykpe just yet, folks.)

Machine translation has a long way to go.

As chance would have it, I was comparing some sites today - Google, Excite, Nifty, Livedoor, etc.

Try "I hate hanging up the laundry". (which was going through my head as I worked at home today)

The only site that got it right was... Livedoor. Wasn't aware they even had a online translation service.

These sites can still be helpful with long written translations though, at least to an extent, and with a pinch of salt.

Then, we have even more unreliable voice recognition. Mixed together, they're even more hopeless.

I'd really like to see both technologies take off once they improve though.

By the way, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8