A tiny computer that fits in your ear, and translates what you hear into your own language? It’s not farfetched at all. In fact, all the requisite technology exists today, and all that’s missing is for someone to connect the dots.
This will end in our lifetime.
20 years from now, far fewer students will be learning second languages in school. It simply will not be the necessity it is today. And once again, it is to the accelerating rate of technological progress that we owe this great fortune. Developments in speech-to-text, translation and voice-synthesis software, will before long allow us to understand any common spoken language.
- Voice recognition software. Programs such as Dragon Naturally Speaking already do this well by having a person speak into a microphone, whereupon the software converts it to text. They’re still a little too slow to keep up with the pace of a normal conversation, so this part needs an efficiency boost, but that’s merely a question of processing power, which we pack twice as densely each 18 months anyway.
- Translation software. Have you tried Google Chrome’s built-in translation tool? Today you can view a website in any language and have it translated instantly to any common language by your browser. Granted, it’s not perfect, but the translation tool is impressively accurate. Some instant messaging programs let you chat in your own language, then translates what you’re writing in real-time, so that the person you’re chatting with (who doesn’t speak your language) can understand it.
- Text-to-speech synthesis software. Stephen Hawking has been speaking with a decent, although mechanical-sounding, robo-voice for years already. Even Windows 98 had a primitive program for this. These tools improve every year, and sound increasingly like real human voices.
- Speech recognition software converts first person’s spoken words into text.
- Translation software immediately translates text into text of second person’s native language.
- Speech synthesizer software pronounces the translated text into ear of second person.
- Bundle it all together in a practical, ear-piece sized computer, and sit back to watch a new world emerge.
Make no mistake, this will happen. It’s a question of when, not if, and my guess is that it will happen sooner rather than later. And when it does, it will change the world forever.
Sounds like a job for Ray Kurzweil or the Singularity University graduates looking to positively impact a billion people. I encourage anyone who thinks they can do it to start right away. A grateful world population - not to mention incalculable wealth - awaits you.
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