The latest version of Chrome lets you talk into your computer’s microphone and it will translate what you say into text. It’s another incorporation of HTML 5 technology. The browser has a little microphone icon you click on and then you begin talking, the browser translates what you say. Right now it only works in English but if you use it in Google Translate, boom, you’re multilingual. This could be a big help to people who have a hard time using a keyboard. It could also signal the way for making it easier to use the keyboard less and less. I’m just realizing this as I’m typing it, on a keyboard, having spent the last two days helping my 10 year old with his class report. It was hours of torturous hunt and peck but maybe in a few years he’ll just talk to the dang computer. Voice recognition software has been around for years, of course, but if it’s baked in to a browser or an operating system, that could actually be pretty revolutionary.
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