DOCOMO’s ability to deliver highly valued-added smart-pipe services via the cloud is about to take on a whole new meaning when it launches an on-demand translator-phone service! Using this unique mobile cloud service, a customer will simply speak into their phone and the other receiver will hear the message interpreted promptly into the language of their choice.

Trials have shown that the average processing time takes just about two seconds, fast enough for a reasonably natural conversation under the most unnatural of conditions, i.e., two people conversing easily without understanding each other’s language! DOCOMO and some 400 monitors are testing the service in Japan now through March 2012. Tourist facilities, retail companies and hospitals also are participating. The trial system, which interprets Japanese and English, has about 90 percent accuracy in understanding what users say in Japanese. Accuracy for English is about 80 percent at present.

If all goes well, a commercial service will be offered to customers after fiscal 2012. Chinese and Korean services are already available to customers, and other languages will be introduced sequentially. Potential applications are envisioned in fields such as tourism, retail, health care and education.