The latest stable release of the Chrome browser today contains a cool new feature: speech input through HTML. This means that you can talk into your computer’s microphone, and your recorded audio will be translated to text and typed out for you.
That’s great for speech-to-text input in general – for the purposes of dictation and transcription. But as Google demonstrates, there are a number of other ways in which this can be utilized, including in Google Translate.
The text-input box for Google Translate now accepts voice input. Simply speak the word or phrase you’d like translated – no typing necessary. (You can also hear the translation spoken aloud too.)
This new feature has been in the beta version of Chrome since late March. Thanks to the HTML speech input API, developers can add this ability to their Web apps.
In the future, when you see that little microphone on a website, it means that this functionality is in place. Time to brush up on your elocution and give your keyboarding skills a rest.
