Fujitsu releases hands-free speech translation service

Fujitsu Ltd. on Thursday released a multilingual speech translation service that does not require users to operate devices by hand. The service is designed for settings in which multilingual communication is needed amid a rise in the domestic population of non-Japanese speakers, such as medical facilities. It automatically translates speech after identifying the voices and locations of users on the basis of sound picked up by directional microphones connected to tablet devices. Fujitsu said that the voice recognition is highly accurate thanks to technology limiting the effects of background noise. In addition to medical settings, the service is expected to be used at tourist sites.