Computer Can Hear, Interpret Two Languages

Japan’s NEC Corp. said today it has developed a computer system that can interpret limited conversations in both Japanese and English.

Earlier computer-interpreting systems required speakers to register their voices to compensate for speech idiosyncrasies, but the new system is believed to be the first to be speaker-independent, a spokesman said.

Although the computer interpreters will not be on the market for at least 10 years, the development marked a milestone toward the goal of a practical automatic interpreting machine, he added.

“It’s not perfect, but we’ve reached the first stage toward realizing this goal,” he said.

The system has a vocabulary of 500 words and can interpret an average sentence in four to five seconds. It presently can handle only conversations related to buying a concert ticket but is 95% accurate.