Breaking language barriers across the world

26th June 2012

Communication experts at the University of Sheffield are helping to break language barriers across the world with a new speech to speech translation app for visitors to the Olympics.

The University is a partner in an international consortium called U-STAR created by the Japanese Research Lab and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), which has developed a speech translation app for the iPhone.

The free iPhone application will be used to have a conversation with a person who does not speak English by translating into and from their native language in real time. For example visitors to the Olympics will be able to ask for directions, recommendations and even dates – fundamentally breaking down language barriers between cultures.

Dr Thomas Hain from the University's Department of Computer Science and his team in the Speech and Hearing Research Group are developing the British English section in the complex speech recognition server. The service encompasses 95 per cent of spoken languages throughout the world.

The communication aid will be launched at an international conference taking place in London later this week (Wednesday 27 June 2012) in the Crowne Plaza London The City Hotel.

Click here for more information about the Speech and Hearing Research Group.

Editors can find the press kit here.