Author: Mehdi Rais, M.D.
Last week, Google announced an updated version of Android Translate. In the previous rendition of this app, Android Translate allowed users to speak words and phrases and translated them to text, allowing the user to SMS these messages and translate messages from foreign messages. In its updated form, this app has introduced a game-changing translation tool, coined Conversation Mode, that will bridge the communication gap between clinicians and patients allowing for real time conversational translation.
Google previously highlighted this mode in an alpha preview at the IFA Conference back in September of 2010. Fast forward to 26:24 to get a glimpse of its power in a conversation between German and English speakers, and you'll begin to see why I'm so excited.
At its core, this new functionality within Android Translate allows real time translation between English and Spanish during conversation. The function is uber simple: press the microphone button for your language and start speaking; Android Translate will translate the speech to text and dictate it out loud such that the other participant in the conversation can hear the translated version and see the translated text.
The clinical application of this is enormous with on-the-fly translation with patients and family members. In a rural setting, hospitals and clinics often struggle to find translation services in this urgent setting, costing clinicians valuable time to initiate treatments.
Currently Android Translate only supports this conversation mode between English and Spanish, and is only available in the Android Market. Many forecast it will become available soon to iPhone users.
With Google's growing dominance in the mobile computing market, I believe very soon this application will become the new standard for translation services in the clinical setting for most languages. It is only a matter of time for Google to acquire the enormous data set it needs to identify and break down the many different dialects that exist for each and every language and add this data to the computing cloud for Android's Translation.
The app is available for free in the Android Market by searching for "Google Translate." Else, you can use the QR code below.
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