SK Telecom announced on the 22nd that it has launched the AI simultaneous interpretation solution ‘TransTalker’, which supports 13 languages. It is expected to be useful for foreign tourists visiting Korea for shopping, using public transportation, finding hotels, government offices, tourist attractions, and restaurants.
The languages supported by ‘TransTalker’ include Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and a total of 13 languages. SKT plans to add more supported languages based on customer feedback and demands.
- Supported languages: Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, French, German, Russian
When a foreign tourist asks a question in their language at a microphone installed in front of a transparent screen, the translated Korean sentence appears on the desk staff’s screen. Then, when the staff answers in Korean, the response is converted into the tourist’s language in real-time and displayed on the monitor.
‘TransTalker’ consists of a transparent LED display, a ‘directional microphone’ that captures only the sound in front while minimizing background noise, and a PC. For AI-based simultaneous interpretation, it has applied functions such as speech recognition (STT, Speech to Text), natural language processing (NPU), translation engines, and LLM (large language models) in collaboration with AI-specialized company Conant Technologies, a member of the K-AI Alliance.
Lotte Department Store has signed a solution introduction contract with SKT to enhance shopping convenience for foreigners and installed ‘TransTalker’ at the 1st floor of AvenueL Jamsil and the information desk on the B1 floor of Lotte World Mall. SKT plans to secure various corporate clients in need of simultaneous interpretation services, starting with Lotte Department Store.
SKT explained that ‘TransTalker’ can be utilized not only in public transport, hotels, governmental offices, tourist attractions, shopping malls, and restaurants frequented by foreigners but also in general enterprises. For instance, companies with overseas branches can install the solution and a microphone on their work computers to utilize simultaneous interpretation in meetings through remote conferencing solutions on their computer screens.
Currently, SKT offers the ‘TransTalker’ solution based on the cloud. In the future, it plans to launch an on-premise model with a focus on security for enterprises and public institutions and also develop an on-device AI translation solution.
Shin Yong-shik, Vice President in charge of SKT Enterprise AI CO, said, “The greatest advantage of ‘TransTalker’ is its support for various languages and real-time interpretation. We plan to introduce services that manage operations to allow small businesses to implement solutions at a low cost in the future.”
Contact: Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr