Microsoft’s New “Translating Telephone” Looks Promising

Posted 05/09/2010 at 9:21am | by Justin Kerr

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Microsoft TechFest is an opportunity for developers and researchers to preview some pretty oddball technology advances, but one of the more down to earth applications might just revolutionize the way international business meetings are conducted. The new "Microsoft Translating Telephone" allows users to communicate in different languages, and experience voice to text translation on the fly.

A representative from Cnet attending the conference claims they were able to comfortably carry on a normal conversation with a second party in German, and while it wasn't perfect, it looked pretty darn close. No announcements were made on when if ever this would become available to the public, but clearly it addresses a pretty important need.

If they could wrap this up into a nice tidy little application for Windows Phone 7 I dare say they would have the killer app for mobile business professionals who would suddenly find themselves able to order a beer in any language.

The Translating Telephone is tied in my books with the Air Guitar for best TechFest tech demo. Which one are you rooting for?