Zoom is developing real-time translation capabilities for video conferencing.

ByShehryar Makhdoom | Published date:
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(Image credit: Unsplash)

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, video chatting applications like Zoom have seen a dramatic rise in popularity. Unsurprisingly, the application has been adding new features regularly, and the streak continues.

Zoom has just acquired a German firm named Karlsruhe Information Technology, which has built a technology that incorporates machine learning in real-time to provide real-time translation. Zoom intends to use this to integrate real-time translation into their platform.

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Kites are also the German firm's name, which comprises a dozen researchers affiliated with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Zoom has not disclosed the financial terms of the transaction, but it has stated that the acquisition will aid in adding machine translation capabilities to the app.

Also, they announced that an R and D centre would be established in Germany due to the acquisition.

Zoom's president of product and engineering, Velchamy Sankarlingam, stated

"We are constantly exploring innovative methods to delight our users and boost meeting productivity, and [machine translation] technologies will play a critical role in expanding our platform for Zoom clients worldwide"

This improvement should help Zoom compete with rivals such as Cisco, which recently enhanced its Webex software with machine translation.

While the exact date of when Zoom will integrate live translation to its app is unknown, we anticipate learning more in the coming weeks.

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