Called JAJAH.Babel, the service allows anyone in China to use their mobile phone to call a local number, speak in English and immediately let someone hear their message translated into Chinese Mandarin.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":96211,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"mobile,","session":"D"}']It’s perfect for cab rides during the Olympics this summer. If you get into a cab, and want to tell the Chinese driver to take you to the airport, you call the local number and speak English directions into the phone, and the driver hears a real-time translation in his native Chinese. It works back the other way too: The driver can speak back to you in Chinese, and the JAJAH.Babel service translates it back into English.
The translation service is based on IBM Research.
AI Weekly
The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.
Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.
There are few services working on something similar. Yap, another company we’ve written about, only does a voice to text translation service so far. (However, we’re hearing Yap will be unveiling some competitive translation services soon. Stay tuned).
Other languages are planned in coming months.
At its Silicon Valley offices this afternoon, Jajah also demoed Jajah’s phone voice activated JAJAH services (JAJAH Concierge) and a prototype of an IP-TV application.
[Photo: Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation, credit]
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More