Microsoft's Futuristic New Tool Translates Skype Calls in Real Time

In the Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy books, characters from across the universe can communicate using something called the Babel Fish, a small creature that burrows itself into your ear and translates any given language by sending signals directly into your brain. It's not the first time the company has showed off the technology that underpins this app--Microsoft Chief Research Officer Rick Rashid did a similar demo at an event in Tianjin, China in October 2012--but now, the software giant has wrapped this translation engine in a package that's ready for everyday internet users. >Honest-to-goodness translation technology is finally on its way--and it won't involve implanting a fish in your ear. Real-time translation is a tough trick to pull off because it requires both accurate speech recognition and on-the-fly language translation, but the technology is finally becoming a reality thanks to advances in a field of computer science called "deep learning." In 2009, Microsoft invited deep learning pioneer Geoff Hinton to visit its Redmond campus to work with its researchers on neural networks, and although Hinton has since joined Google, Microsoft has moved ahead with its own deep learning research, which became the foundation for both Skype Translate and its new digital assistant, Cortana.