Real-Time Language Translation

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Real-Time Language Translation


Obama's Challenge: Create highly accurate, real-time translation between the major languages of the world.

Who's Got a Shot: On the edge are companies such as Waltham (Mass.)-based Lionbridge Technologies, which use human-assisted machine translation. A computer program tackles the first round of word-and-sentence conversion, about 90% of the work. A human then corrects mistakes, clarifies sentences, and refines the language. It's not instant yet—the industry averages rates of 5,000 words a day at around 12¢ to 15¢ a word—but progress in computing power and language research could one day make real-time translation a reality.