VoiceTra, TexTra multi-language translation applications available on the App Store

－ Applications developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology bring voice and text translation in 21 languages to the iPhone －

August 5, 2010

TOKYO - VoiceTra, a voice translation application enabling conversation via voice input, and TexTra, a text input-based translation application, are available for download from the App Store. Developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), both applications enable high-quality translation among multiple languages.

About VoiceTra and TexTra

[VoiceTra for voice input]
Compatible with iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, VoiceTra accepts voice input in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, English, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Malay (in progress). Support for additional languages is forthcoming.

[TexTra for text input]
Requiring no microphone input, TexTra is compatible with iPod touch and with iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4. TexTra can translate 19 languages into 20 languages. (Translation from Hindi and Vietnamese is not supported on iOS 3.0 due to lack of keyboard support.)

We state three ongoing goals for the technology: to boost translation quality by incorporating usage data; to place translation technology in the hands of more people by widening the range of application; and to commercialize the technology in partnership with private firms.

About Knowledge Creating Communication Research Center of NICT

Knowledge Creating Communication Research Center of NICT aims to achieve universal communication through research and development that includes multilingual translation, vocal and non-verbal communication, and information reliability analysis.

Knowledge Creating Communication Research
Center : https://www2.nict.go.jp/x/x151/index_en.html