\n
At the end of its I\/O presentation on Wednesday, Google pulled out a \u201cone more thing\u201d-type surprise. In a short video<\/a>, Google showed off a pair of augmented reality glasses<\/a> that have one purpose \u2014 displaying audible language translations right in front of your eyeballs. In the video, Google product manager Max Spear called the capability of this prototype \u201csubtitles for the world,\u201d and we see family members communicating for the first time.<\/p>\n
Now hold on just a second. Like many people, we\u2019ve used Google Translate before and largely think of it as a very impressive tool that happens to make a lot of embarrassing misfires. While we might trust it to get us directions to the bus, that\u2019s nowhere near the same thing as trusting it to correctly interpret and relay our parents\u2019 childhood stories. And hasn\u2019t Google said it\u2019s finally breaking down the language barrier before?<\/p>\n
\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"wDtYCb\">In 2017, Google marketed real-time translation as a feature of its original Pixel Buds. Our former colleague Sean O\u2019Kane <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2017\/11\/16\/16659314\/google-pixel-buds-review-bluetooth-headphones\">described the experience<\/a> as \u201ca laudable idea with a lamentable execution\u201d and reported that some of the people he tried it with said it sounded like he was a five-year-old. That\u2019s not quite what Google showed off in its video.<\/p>\n<p id=\"MVPwzp\">Also, we don\u2019t want to brush past the fact that Google\u2019s promising that this translation will happen <em>inside a pair of AR glasses<\/em>. Not to hit at a sore spot, but the reality of augmented reality hasn\u2019t really even caught up to Google\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4\">concept video from a decade ago<\/a>. You know, the one that acted as a predecessor to the much-maligned and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2013\/5\/28\/4372928\/using-google-glass-at-the-indy-500-and-coca-cola-600\">embarrassing-to-wear<\/a> Google Glass?<\/p>\n<p id=\"3B2jxp\">To be fair, Google\u2019s AR translation glasses seem much more focused than what Glass was trying to accomplish. From what Google showed, they\u2019re meant to do one thing \u2014 display translated text \u2014 not act as an ambient computing experience that could replace a smartphone. But even then, making AR glasses isn\u2019t easy. Even a moderate amount of ambient light can make viewing text on see-through screens <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/2\/14\/18223593\/focals-smart-glasses-north-review-specs-features-price\">very difficult<\/a>. It\u2019s challenging enough to read subtitles on a TV with some glare from the sun through a window; now imagine that experience but strapped to your face (and with the added pressure of engaging in a conversation with someone that you can\u2019t understand on your own).<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"EjYlYQ\"><q>Even a moderate amount of ambient light can make viewing text on see-through screens very difficult<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"3xal9i\">But hey, technology moves quickly \u2014 Google may be able to overcome a hurdle that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/3\/10\/22969007\/magic-leap-2-augmented-reality-headset\">stymied its competitors<\/a>. That wouldn\u2019t change the fact that Google Translate is not a magic bullet for cross-language conversation. If you\u2019ve ever tried having an actual conversation through a translation app, then you probably know that you must speak slowly. And methodically. And clearly. Unless you want to risk a garbled translation. One slip of the tongue, and you might just be done. <\/p>\n<p id=\"uKduym\">People don\u2019t converse in a vacuum or like machines do. Just like we code-switch when speaking to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, or the Google Assistant, we know we have to use much simpler sentences when we\u2019re dealing with machine translation. And even when we do speak correctly, the translation can still come out awkward and misconstrued. Some of our <em>Verge<\/em> colleagues fluent in Korean pointed out that <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/15q3e6oO8o8ypCzyXJmpdXOSSfCi-8Wkn\/view\">Google\u2019s own pre-roll countdown for I\/O<\/a> displayed an honorific version of \u201cWelcome\u201d in Korean that nobody actually uses. <\/p>\n<p id=\"WsHgu1\">That mildly embarrassing flub pales in comparison to the fact that, according to tweets <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tha_rami\/status\/1524448087581806592?s=20&#038;t=MhWEZ73_aoWMOZr0lIeKyQ\">from Rami Ismail<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DHammarskjold\/status\/1524495881633865728\">Sam Ettinger<\/a>, Google showed over half a dozen backwards, broken, or otherwise incorrect scripts on a slide <em>during its Translate presentation<\/em>. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidpolice.com\/google-translation-mistake-io\/\"><em>Android Police<\/em> notes<\/a> that a Google employee has acknowledged the mistake, and that it\u2019s been corrected in the YouTube version of the keynote.) To be clear, it\u2019s not that we expect perfection \u2014 but Google\u2019s trying to tell us that it\u2019s close to cracking real-time translation, and those kinds of mistakes make that seem incredibly unlikely.<\/p>\n<div id=\"LHhE3l\" readability=\"6.6929577464789\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" readability=\"7.5295774647887\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Congrats to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Google?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Google<\/a> for getting Arabic script backwards &#038; disconnected during <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sundarpichai?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sundarpichai<\/a>&#8216;s presentation on *Google Translate*, because small independent startups like Google can&#8217;t afford to hire anyone with a 4 year olds&#8217; elementary school level knowledge of Arabic writing. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pSEvHTFORv\">pic.twitter.com\/pSEvHTFORv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rami Ismail (\u0631\u0627\u0645\u064a) (@tha_rami) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tha_rami\/status\/1524448087581806592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"raLSgF\">Google is trying to solve an <em>immensely <\/em>complicated problem. Translating words is easy; figuring out grammar is difficult but possible. But language and communication are far more complex than just those two things. As a relatively simple example, Antonio\u2019s mother speaks three languages (Italian, Spanish, and English). She\u2019ll sometimes borrow words from language to language mid-sentence \u2014 including her regional Italian dialect (which is like a fourth language). That type of thing is relatively easy for a human to parse, but could Google\u2019s prototype glasses deal with it? Never mind the messier parts of conversation like unclear references, incomplete thoughts, or innuendo.<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside id=\"sL5T89\"><q>Google is trying to solve an immensely<em> <\/em>complicated problem<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"QebtUi\">It\u2019s not that Google\u2019s goal isn\u2019t admirable. We absolutely want to live in a world where everyone gets to experience what the research participants in the video do, staring with wide-eyed wonderment as they see their loved ones\u2019 words appear before them. Breaking down language barriers and understanding each other in ways we couldn\u2019t before is something the world needs way more of; it\u2019s just that there\u2019s a long way to go before we reach that future. Machine translation is here and has been for a long time. But despite the plethora of languages it can handle, it doesn\u2019t speak human yet. <\/p>\n<hr class=\"p-entry-hr\" id=\"Gezl2R\">\n<h2 id=\"4rKxEc\">Related:<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><code><br \/><\/br><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/5\/13\/23068759\/google-io-2022-ar-glasses-translation-concept-challenges-vaporware\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/5\/13\/23068759\/google-io-2022-ar-glasses-translation-concept-challenges-vaporware<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: At the end of its I\/O presentation on Wednesday, Google pulled out a \u201cone more thing\u201d-type surprise. In a short video, Google showed off a pair of augmented reality glasses that have one purpose \u2014 displaying audible language translations right in front of your eyeballs. In the video, Google product manager Max Spear called [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-5695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-google","category-technology","tag-google"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Google\u2019s AR translation glasses: it\u2019s really not that simple - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/05\/13\/googles-ar-translation-glasses-its-really-not-that-simple\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google\u2019s AR translation glasses: it\u2019s really not that simple - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: At the end of its I\/O presentation on Wednesday, Google pulled out a \u201cone more thing\u201d-type surprise. 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