How would an English-speaking person cook a dish following a recipe in German or French or Italian? Or how could someone ask for instructions from a distant person? Thanks to technology, what were once impossible to do, can now be done.
In a recent Cook Match challenge held at Global City Innovative College, four teams, each composed of YouTube content creators (Bret Maverick Higham, Crisha Uy, Daniel Marsh, and Raiza Contawi), GCIC chefs, and members of the press, tested Google’s technology by cooking dishes with the help of the tech company’s apps.
(Inset) Each team created a three-course meal, composed of (from left) Smoked Salmon and Caviar Profiterole, Glazed Pork with Mashed Sweet Potato, and Strawberry Flambe.
Teams were divided into two with each pair delegated a task. Pair 1 was handed a print-out of the list of ingredients in German, Italian, and French which they needed to translate using Google Translate app. In addition, the measurements were in different units which they had to convert using Google Search. Meanwhile, the second pair waited for the translated list in the marketplace.
During the challenge, the two pairs were only allowed to communicate via Google Duo.
Each team created a three-course meal, which consisted of Smoked Salmon and Caviar Profiterole, Glazed Pork with Mashed Sweet Potato, and Strawberry Flambé. All presentations were praised by the judges, but it was Crisha Uy’s team who went home victorious.
The challenge offered a fun way to carry out certain tasks with the help of technology, enabling everyone to become productive and effective at the same time.
Language barrier no more
You’re probably wondering how today’s Google is able to translate a sentence or paragraph in a much more natural way. It is because the neural system translates whole sentences at a time, rather than just piece by piece.
In September 2016, they introduced Neural Machine Translation, an end–to-end machine learning systems that learn over time, to create better, more natural translations. It uses a so-called “deep neural network” with many layers of “neurons,” which lets it learn to recognize patterns and structures in sentences.
This technology makes grammar in a translated sentence sound much more like a human speaking and since it’s easier to understand each sentence, translated paragraphs and articles are a lot easier to read.
In fact, with Neural Machine Translation, the company saw a bigger translation quality improvement in a single jump than in the last 10 years combined, rolling out for 97 language pairs (to and from English) including 11 Indian languages, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Hindi, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
With the Google Translate app (Android and iOS) users can easily type in 103 different languages or hand write phrases in 95 languages. There’s also a feature that instantly translates when phone is pointed to the text. This feature is available in 37 language pairs, and works even without Internet connection.
Another amazing feature is the two-way chat using conversation mode, which supports 32 languages. To get started, pick the language pair you want, hit the microphone, and from there, Translate will listen to both languages as you speak and translate so you can have a smooth conversation.
Google Translate is also integrated into other Google products like Chrome, Search, Gmail, and Youtube.
Face-to-face conversation
Google also presents its latest app Google Duo, a simple, high quality video calling app. Its innovative feature allows seamless transitions from Wi-Fi to cellular network connection without dropping the call.
Google Duo is available for both Android and iOS devices, and it is based on your phone number so you can reach everyone without having to create an account. Its Knock Knock feature allows users to see the person calling them even before they pick up.
Google Duo’s video and audio stay synced even with slow network connection, as it optimizes every aspect of the call so that calls connect faster than other video calling apps which are heavily reliant on fast internet connection. It also guarantees security as all calls are end-to-end encrypted.