Microsoft has years of experience with language technology. The team responsible for Microsoft’s language technologies is the Natural Language Processing Group from Microsoft Research which consists of 20 scientists, lexicographers, linguists, software engineers and machine learning experts. To celebrate International Language Day today, my colleague Steve Clayton has published a story today on the Next at Microsoft blog that talks about our goal of breaking down language barriers by creating new communication experiences for people based on our years of investment in advancing machine learning and more natural ways to use technology.
Our translation technologies are available to customers across many of our major products such as Windows, Windows Phone, Office, Bing, and many others.
For Windows 8, you can download the Bing Translator app from the Windows Store.
The Bing Translator for Windows 8 was announced in June and takes advantage of key Windows 8 features like the Share charm. You can highlight text within another Windows Store app for example and use the Share charm to share that text to the Bing Translator app that will then translate that text.
Bing Translator is also available on Windows Phone.
On your Windows Phone, Bing Translator provides a fast, easy and natural way to help you understand different languages by translating text, audio, and video. It will recognize and translates languages spoken aloud; scanning signs, transit schedules, menus, etc. with your phone’s camera without actually having to take a snapshot of the text, and text that is typed into the app.
Both Bing Translator on Windows 8 and Windows Phone allow you to download language packs for use when you’re not online.
For more on our continued investment in language technologies here at Microsoft, read Steve Clayton’s blog post.