Speech Input in Dictionary and Translate Apps
Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 9:30AM 
Speech input is finding its way into more and more mobile devices and apps. Dragon Dictation for iOS came out in December 2008 and is probably the best way for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch users to speak into their devices and have it turned into text. The dictated text can then be pasted into other apps. Perhaps future versions of iOS will include speech-to-text across all apps.
iOS's rival mobile operating system, Android, introduced a voice-enabled keyboard with version 2.1. Any time the keyboard is on the screen, Android users can simply tap the speech input icon (or swipe across the keyboard) and then say what they want typed. The device displays the spoken words on the screen.
An app that takes advantage of speech input is the Merriam Dictionary app for iOS and Android. Users can search words by voice. This means that you don't have to know how to spell a word to look it up! The app also will pronounce the word, provides synonyms and antonyms, and contains sample sentences. Unfortunately, the free app also contains advertisements.
An even more amazing app that features speech input is Google Translate for iOS and Android. The app translates words and phrases from more than 50 languages. For many languages, you can speak your phrases and hear the corresponding translations. Not only could this be useful for learning a language, but it could be a helpful communication tool for teachers, students, and parents who speak different languages. Translations can be displayed full screen by holding the device in landscape. Tapping a translation gives you the option to copy the text for use in other apps. As the comments to this post indicate, beware when relying on technology to communicate. You may not be expressing what you actually mean or the translation could turn out to be gibberish or offensive.
Of course, for speech input to work your device must have a microphone. Those with older iPod touches without built-in microphones can use Apple Earbuds with Microphone or very affordable mics from Amazon and DealExtreme. (sorry first generation iPod cannot use any kind of microphone). Going forward, pretty much all mobile devices will have built-in microphones because of features like speech input.
Reader Comments (2)
As a Spanish teacher, I couldn't read your comments on translation tools and just let them go without responding. I have never used the speech input features of Google Translate, but I have enough experience with the text input method to know that Google Translate is not "great for learning a language." Admittedly, it is better than most other translators, and often does a pretty good job, but to say that an electronic translator is great for learning a language is like saying that wearing stilts is great for growing taller. Additionally, you state that this can be "a helpful communication tool for teachers, students, and parents who speak different languages." I would agree that it could potentially be useful for such a thing, but let the user beware. If you are relying on machinery to interpret your messages for you, you could wind up communicating things that are far from what you intended to communicate. The detrimental impact of this ranges from being confusing to seriously offending someone.
The very example that you use in your picture demonstrates this. The Spanish sentence that can be read on the face of the iPod is poor Spanish, not gibberish, but bordering on incomprehensible. At best, it is comical (not in the way it is intended to be comical), and does not get the desired message across.
We may not be far from the day when computers are able to accurately and reliably translate from one language to another, but we have not yet reached that point. And even when we reach that point, we may want to use such resources sparingly. Any means of communication is better than no means of communication at all, but do we really want to rely on C3PO to help us communicate with other people?
David,
I appreciate your comments. I've updated the body of the post to reflect the spot-on points you brought up. Users do need to be conscientious of the limitations and drawback of Google Translate.