For people who cannot communicate the way most of us are used to, receiving phone calls or talking to people over their phones is not always that easy and sometimes near impossible. A new product that Google introduced at their ongoing I/O Developer’s Conference can help with that. Google Live Relay can “translate” what you type into audio and also vice versa, depending on which end of the conversation needs to be helped. Everything happens in real time so it’s like you’re having a live conversation over a phone call without necessarily needing to talk to each other.
If you’re talking to a real person but you don’t have the capability or capacity to talk to them, you can type words on your phone screen and Live Relay will translate it to audio that the person on the other end of the conversation can hear and respond to. The great thing about it, at least based on what they demonstrated, is that the translation to audio is extremely fast so it’s like they’re actually talking to you over the phone.
It can also work in reverse. If the person you’re talking to cannot hear the audio, it will get translated to them in text form because of the audio-to-text onscreen feature. They can then reply using the text-to-audio feature and you can converse using voice if you’re capable of doing so. In short, you’ll be able to communicate in real-time conversations over the phone through the powers of Live Relay.
There are actually several relay and real-time text services available already and Google doesn’t want to replace them, according to Google Software Engineer and Live Relay Developer, Sapir Caduri. The idea is for it to be an additional option in case the service cannot fulfill a user’s needs or if the user wants a fully automated system that also has their privacy in mind.
Live Relay is actually still in the research phase though so it might take some time for it to roll out for all users. They’re also looking at integrating real-time translation so that may make it even longer. But when they do make it available for everyone, it should be a great accessibility tool not just for those who cannot hear or speak but also for those with crippling social anxiety issues.
