In the Skype Translator project we set ourselves an ambitious goal - to enable successful open-domain conversations between Skype users in different parts of the world, speaking different languages. As one might imagine, putting together two error-prone technologies such as speech recognition and machine translation raises some unique challenges.
In this talk, we will share what we have learned over the course of the Skype Translator project. We will discuss what we are doing to bridge the gap between ASR and MT, how we are adapting our ASR and MT systems to the real world challenges presented by our open-domain conversational scenario, and what it takes to get this technology into the hands of real users. We will also touch upon some of the open issues and challenges we still face.