18 thoughts on “An Accent Translator”

  1. What happens when the processing power comes online to censor BadThink™ speech in real time? “Not that it would come to that, of course.”

    On a more prosaic point: What is the correct accent? I am waiting for someone to tell me how everyone will agree on that.

  2. Many moons ago, a coworker answered the phone and found an Indian telemarketer on the line. He immediately put on a fake Indian accent and spun out a long friendly conversation, signing off with “May your sister have many many children, none of them with curly hair,” in his best Bengali accent.

    I was in pain from stifling my laughter. I’m sure it was terribly racist.

  3. Many moons ago, a coworker answered the phone and found an Indian telemarketer on the line. He immediately put on a fake Indian accent and spun out a long friendly conversation, signing off with “May your sister have many many children, none of them with curly hair.” No amount of accent shifting can make up for odd colloquialisms and vocabulary.

    I was in pain from stifling my laughter. I’m sure it was terribly racist.

  4. But seriously, I’d love to have this to help ME understand various people- with my substantial hearing loss, I often struggle to catch the meaning of of people with accents. Not just at the source, but it would help on the receiving end even for people who aren’t aware that they are difficult to hear.

    I even think it could help with people who have a narrowband voice, some guys have a very “smooth” voice with no vocal fry have no high frequency signals to help distinguish consonants, and are almost impossible for me to comprehend. Even with stereo headphones I can’t figure out some voices. This could be a powerful tool.

    1. I’ve got pretty bad tinnitus, and since I don’t know how bad it will eventually get, I make sure to get full subtitles for everything I archive, such as space documentaries. Sometimes I go in and clean them up if they’re particularly sloppy. If I do a thorough revamp I post the subtitles to TV.subtitles.net, such as I did for the SDH subtitles for every episode of Sanctuary and Farscape.

      Anyway, with this technology, couldn’t we convert episodes of In Living Color, Martin, and Sanford and Son into Monty Python, or convert Monty Python skits into Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle routines? Heck I think changing accents could potentially turn any drama into a comedy. I must pitch this idea to “Adult Swim”.

      1. “If I do a thorough revamp I post the subtitles to TV.subtitles.net, such as I did for the SDH subtitles for every episode of Sanctuary and Farscape.”

        Oh, you are that George Turner.

        ” Heck I think changing accents could potentially turn any drama into a comedy. ”

        Like the reading of the Trump/Hillary debate with British accents.

        1. Wow. Someone used my subtitles!

          A couple of months ago I had some particularly troublesome subtitle conversion where I needed to batch process them. So I started writing my own version of Subtitle Edit that did the key things I needed, such as stripping SDH, etc. Then I wondered if anyone had ever posted the source code for Subtitle Edit, and sure enough, it was on Github. So I downloaded and compiled the source code, and shortly later realized that Subtitle Edit already had batch processing built in. I just hadn’t noticed it before.

          I wonder if I could add a filter to convert all the subtitles to Ebonics, so when you watch “The Day the Earth Stood Still” the alien Klaatu comes out of the flying saucer, his greeting is captioned as “Yo. What ‘up my homies?”

          1. How about subtitles in Klatuu native? Some are easy:

            Gort baringha!
            Subtitled: Gort baringa!

            Klatuu barada nicto!
            Subtitled: Klatuu barada nicto!

          2. “Ebonics”; the dumbest idea I had ever heard of in my entire life. Up until it was topped by “defund (get rid of) the police”.

        2. Like the reading of the Trump/Hillary debate with British accents.

          Naw, make Hillary debate via Granny Clampett vernacular. Trump should be in Ed Sullivan voice….

  6. ” It could help doctors better understand patients, they say, or help grandchildren better understand their grandparents.”

    Umm, it would help patients understand their doctors. Grandchildren need to spend time with their family. That helps both the young and the old.

    It is funny to see the author tip toe around saying that it is annoying for everyone not being able to understand people and that not being able to understand people is racist.

    IMO, it is less an issue of accent than it is how well someone speaks English. Accents are endearing. If someone can’t understand what you are saying, it isn’t an accent issue so much as not being able to speak English well enough. You can’t be fluent if no one can understand you but it is possible to be fluent and still have an accent.

    1. Once the app becomes available, everybody should use Critical Drinker’s Scottish accent for everything, especially “Go away now!” for robocalls.

  7. Now all we need is a front end to this app which, prior to translating the accent, “demuffles” the speaker’s voice after its journey through his or her #$%&ing mask.

    1. I predict that within two years of this app’s widescale adoption, 50% of intercepted calls will seem to be between a pair of famous actors. ​Maybe Cary Grant and Doris Day, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, or Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd.

      People who swipe right will call each other a few times, then meet, and the reality will sound like Ernest T Bass talking to Fran Drescher.

      1. +42.

        Another type of app might allow, say, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi to converse with each other intelligibly.

        That would be the ultimate triumph of artificial intelligence over natural stupidity…

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