Software that can translate spoken English into spoken Chinese almost instantly has been demonstrated by Microsoft.
The software preserves intonation and cadence so the translated speech still sounds like the original speaker.
Microsoft said research breakthroughs had reduced the number of errors made by the instant translation system.
It said it modelled the system on the way brains work to improve its accuracy.
Details about the project were given by Microsoft research boss Rick Rashid in a blogpost following a presentation he gave in Tianjin, China, in late October that had, he said, started to "generate a bit of attention".
In the final few minutes of that presentation the words of Mr Rashid were almost instantly turned into Chinese by piping the spoken English through Microsoft's translation system. In addition, the machine-generated version of his words maintained some of his spoken style.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20266427
