Microsoft Adds Real-Time Captions and Subtitles To Skype -- PowerPoint To Follow

Skype is getting real-time captions and subtitles, and PowerPoint will have these features, too, next year. From a report: Ostensibly an accessibility feature (and launched on United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities), the new option means that Skype will be able to use voice recognition to show you the text of what is being said in a voice or video call. Microsoft will also bring the same feature to PowerPoint next year. Microsoft promises that live captions and subtitles are "optimized to be fast, continuous, and contextually updated as people speak", and in the current incarnation they will automatically scroll during a call. In a future update, however, it will be possible to manually scroll through subtitles and take advantage of additional viewing options.

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[cheesybagel]

I think it is neat. They FINALLY allow us users to read the NSA text transcripts.
They should have had this ability ever since they switched Skype from a peer-to-peer protocol to a centralized one were all video fees go through their servers.

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[cheesybagel]

s/fees/feeds/

sorry my mind slipped for a moment there...

Hilarity ensues

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Skype is getting real-time captions and subtitles, and PowerPoint will have these features

Hilarity ensues. Can't wait for the first international conflict caused or massive business deal lost by a printed misinterpretation of garbled speech.

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[Drethon]

>> Skype is getting real-time captions and subtitles, and PowerPoint will have these features

Hilarity ensues. Can't wait for the first international conflict caused or massive business deal lost by a printed misinterpretation of garbled speech.

I'm pretty sure the software is better than it used to be, but this still kind of sums up my thoughts on the matter: http://ars.userfriendly.org/ca... [userfriendly.org]

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[zlives]

not to mention what the censorship rules will "autocorrect" the text to.

Re:

[grep -v '.*' *]

Can't wait for ... misinterpretation of garbled speech.

The Vodka Is Good But The Meat Is Rotten. Old translation error, not garbled. That'll make it even better.

Voice: "We release these balloons in honor of our friendship and hope you find them beautiful". Skype: "You bastard, missiles away, pretty clouds arriving soon."

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[phantomfive]

The Vodka Is Good But The Meat Is Rotten. Old translation error, not garbled.

FWIW Google translate still made that mistake well into the 2000s when they hard-coded the translation to be correct.

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[Trogre]

Cod am pizza ship.

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[Darinbob]

Even native English speakers in voice mail have hilarious Microsoft transcriptions. Even though it's out there, I don't think this service is really ready and was rolled out to customers by mistake. It's not getting better over time, I had a Skype voice mail last week that was nearly gibberish.

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[WillAffleckUW]

The Computer is your Friend, citizen.

no more 2-way conversations

[BringsApples]

Big Brother is truly here now. Better to ditch Skype, if you haven't already done that 3 years ago.

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[Drethon]

Big Brother is truly here now. Better to ditch Skype, if you haven't already done that 3 years ago.

Where I work they ditched the exiting (very stable) chat software for Skype due to security reasons...

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[BringsApples]

Sounds like a very standard case of clueless management. Microsoft has a built-in AI bot in all Skype conversations now. There's literally no way to be less secure.

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[Waffle Iron]

I'd be willing to live with that security risk if Microsoft adds a "Cover this meeting for me" button to their bot.

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[BringsApples]

It will have that, but it'll require:

access to create/delete contacts
access to make and receive phone calls
access to create/delete texts
access to create/delete files
access to send/receive emails
access to camera
access to create/delete videos/pictures
access to GPS

Paranoia.

[westlake]

Big Brother is truly here now. Better to ditch Skype, if you haven't already done that 3 years ago.

In the US, IP telephone captioning for the disabled is a free service provided by the federal government --- transcription by human operators not automated speech recognition. Can't Hear on The Phone? [captel.com] Explain to why having an operator captioning your calls over an open line is more secure and less intrusive than an automated system doing the same over an encrypted link.

Not to mention that access to Skype's service doesn't require filing a certificate from your doctor or other proof of disability., which

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[thegarbz]

Big Brother is truly here now. Better to ditch Skype

What are you talking about? Big brother has been known to be here in Skype for over half a decade. Not a single person will ditch Skype over this. Anyone concerned about privacy left long ago and the only remaining users don't give a crap.

Perfect

[Anonymous Coward]

Micro Soft Peach recognition is perfect. Their have bean no errors in peach recognition in the soft wear ever.

All you knead is to speak clearly, and the peach recognizer will print out your peach.

think of it, no miss steaks and errors in the output text of the recognized peach.

Alternatives?

[fluffernutter]

This is fairly scary. Honest question, does anyone know of an alternative to Skype? It should have the following: - Work seamlessly on every PC and mobile OS - Allow mobile sharing of images/files - Group/solo text messaging - Voice calls, conference calls - Group/solo video calling - File transfers for binaries and screen shots/images - A company not transcribing calls

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[fluffernutter]

This just seems to do video calls. Also, doesn't seem to be native Windows or MacOS applications. I despise web applications. Browsers are made for websites, not applications.

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[zlives]

meh, try webex... i am sure there is a on prem solution that is available if you are security concious even from MS side.

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[fluffernutter]

Oh I forgot "free"

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[zlives]

Free and Secure don't work anymore unless you are capable to roll your own.... and if you are talking about mobile devices... all bets are off.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[zlives]

Microsoft and everyone else has given up... on security :)

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[gravewax]

what the fuck? you think before this people weren't transcribing automatically for recorded calls? I guarantee you anyone interested in the content that was already abusing access will have been doing that for a long long time. The only difference here is the transcription is also available for the legitimate users.

Translation: they are recording what you say

[WillAffleckUW]

Just saying.

Big Brother is captioning you, and testing it's accent translation software for the military industrial complex.

(mind you, I saw the original military intel specs where they planned to do this, so I'm not that surprised, even if you are)

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[fustakrakich]

Doesn't matter, resistance remains totally and utterly ethereal, never seen on election day where it's needed most. Who's even "surprised" anymore?

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[thegarbz]

Just saying.

Just saying what? Common knowledge? They've been recording and analysing Skype conversations for years. There are literally no new privacy implications in this.

I seem to recall, not that long ago

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

"Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all."

Courtesy of Microsoft....

On the other hand...

[balbeir]

Add translation to that and I may be able to figure out what is being said in Chinese during the next call to Shenzen. The chinglish that is being spoken on those calls is undecipherable anyway.