#FutureIsHere: Microsoft created human hologram capable of speaking any language
As technology continues to grow, high-quality 3D holograms will be the way to deliver life-like presentations and speeches around different parts of the world. The tech has been in development for a long while, and now, Microsoft has developed a hologram that can speak in different languages, even without changing the voice of the person whose hologram it is. Here's all about it.
Microsoft demonstrated life-sized hologram speaking Japanese
At a recent conference, Microsoft executive Julia White explained how difficult it is for her to deliver speeches around the world in local languages. But then, she demonstrated the Redmond giant's solution to the problem: a life-sized, mixed reality hologram that leveraged AI and spoke Japanese. White didn't know how to speak Japanese, but her hologram did, and that too in her own voice.
Mixed Reality, neural text-to-speech leveraged to create hologram
Though the hologram demonstrated by White looked futuristic, the tech behind it is totally real. They created the virtual rendition with two main technologies - Mixed Reality capture studio and neural text-to-speech. First of all, the studio was used to record White delivering her presentation in English and then to generate a virtually identical, life-sized hologram of her doing the same.
Then, they made the hologram speak Japanese
After creating the English-speaking hologram that anyone could see using Microsoft's HoloLens 2, the company made it deliver the same speech in Japanese, in White's exact voice. It first transcribed the speech into text and translated it into Japanese using Azure technologies and then employed an AI tech called neural text-to-speech to convert the Japanese text into real speech sounding like White.
How the hologram sounded just like White
The hologram sounded just like White because the neural TTS created a personalized signature of her voice and applied the same with the Japanese translation on the virtual holographic render.
This tech could end barriers of communication
The holographic technology showcased by Microsoft could be streamlined and used for ending barriers of communication and distance in the near future. Basically, people could have the power to deliver speeches in different parts of the world without actually being at a particular place or knowing a particular language spoken at that place. This could completely revolutionize the keynotes of the future!
