Skype who roll on with the tagline 'We keep people together, wherever they are' are now in the process of creating real time translated conversations to break the language barrier across different countries and various conversations. This idea was initiated over an year ago with many attempts by the Microsoft research team to make this a success story.Chris Wendt, program manager of the Machine Translation team says “We felt speech translation was a very natural evolution of the text-translation work we’ve been doing,” .This technology would help people from various parts of the world to successfully communicate with others thus breaking the language barrier that might hold them back.

The problems that are faced in creating a technology that translates real time conversations as noted is the 'disfluecy', where there are a lot of pauses and unusual utterances while talking and also use of the social media way of talking or the internet slang. We can understand how extremely difficult it will be  to recognize and translate all possible accents and languages, this initiative by Skype is highly appreciable and would find high level of usage in both professional and personal life.

Once these are fixed, the skype translator is scheduled to be made available for windows 8 beta app by the end of this year (2014). 

Source: The official Microsoft Blog

For more information about this, follow this link.

"This could change the way we view and interact with art"

Not so long ago I did a research on how people perceive virtual communication, to be precise concentrating on what impact that the youtube vlogs have on their audience, whether the clip culture pretends to be real when it is not really the whole picture about a person's life. My findings from that research was the fans of the famous youtubers who I might call here as the 'Youtube celebrities' knew that they were subjected to a hyper real or environment but most of the time the content produced tends to blur the lines between reality and hyperreality. 

To explain it with an example that I have quoted in my research where I concentrated on Bethany Mota's vlogs, who is a Youtube teen who produces content on makeup and some parts of her life that she likes to share with the people around the world. Talking about both the ends, starting with the Youtuber's end, most of the vlogs are filmed in their bedroom,car, or even on a picnic. What this exactly does is create an artificial environment which undergoes a lot of editing, lighting and we see just the best bits, which is critical and is not easy to comprehend the difference between what is produced and what happens in reality. 

To be fair to the Youtubers part who are similar to any other individuals who deserve privacy and also the same treatment everyone needs. The exact problem arises when they produce a content that looks like it is going to showcase most of there life when we leave out the other part. So, the audience of these celebrities are trying to take more advantage/ which naturally happens when we tend to consider someone very close to us, when we really cross the border and are not able to take in any other flaw about them even if the YouTubers themselves tend to agree. (Of course, to Err is human). The strong cult that they have grown over years make it difficult for them when there happens a sudden change in there life which they don't want to take in as a part of the youtubers life. 

But we cannot forgot, what they do is also a business and they can very well take advantage of their audience and play a part of manipulating there mind. It's the human nature that when I strongly believe in a person whatever they tell to me is going to be true and also If they recommend me something, then my mind insists me to go out and buy them if it is a product or use them if it is a service. This is none less than a celebrity endorsement that we see on TV. There is more sense of endorsed content when we watch it on the television, because it definitely strikes our mind that happens on TV is edited. 

When we see the problem of blurred lines between the content that doesn't seem like a content but looks like an interactive venture (hyper realism). Ofcourse, I truly support YouTube on providing a platform for a lot of people in connecting the world which was not made possible before Youtube. There are many many advantages of youtube as it helps in crowdfunding, connecting the two worlds, a great platform for exhibiting the new talent and projecting them, some errors like this can be avoided by just changing the perspective and the way the content is perceived by both the producers of content and also the audiences/fans of the content.

Here is a link to the research report on how people perceive virtual communication and the impact of vlogs on the audience.

Drizzly mornings, hot coffee with still the steam rushing out of the mug, sitting by the window, inhaling the fresh air with the mild tinge of mud breezing in through my window, listening to The Fault in Our Stars from which every sentence lingers in your mind with the spatter of the rain on my sunshade can be quoted as a blissful morning. At last its time to relax after all the night time studies, pulling through an all nighter (Which I wouldn't recommend! seriously my eyes hurt even now! lol, just kidding), delusional sleeps, exams are finally over. I went to a lot of places as soon as my holidays started.

This time in my holidays I was a little confused on what was I doing all my life, and what I really want and wish to do. This confusion broke out as I try to convince myself what I was dealing with was the right way. But, Convince is the key there, I wish to do what my heart wants to do and I live by that. So, this time convincing it to do something was never a choice for me. What I wanted to do this time in my holidays was to go out and feel the nature. It had different choices, as I was going with my family. The last call was Wayanad and Coorg. Coorg is a kind of place that one will fall in love with at first sight. It is a bliss to be at the top of Talakavery which is one of the remarkable places, and to be there for the second time without the rush is totally a magic. All you can see from the top is the mountain ranges and clouds which give you chills midst the really cold climate that one can die for. (And from chennai though, you can understand! :p) 

So, why I felt the need to explain about my trip here is that, I recently checked out the video that literally answered all my querries on what I was feeling. Liked the way that my mind kindoff alerted me to do the right thing at the right time.

 





Share your stories, feel the change, Live Life!

Social media has been effective at all times and this time its the Election 2014 in India. Posting selfies is fancy but flaunting with your inked finger is all fancy this Election. When we look at social media as a whole it has been very impressive in communicating and collaborating with a large mass. It's not rare anymore, since we already saw how Arvind Kejriwal and his party (AAP) ruled social media and effectively communicated to youngsters, it has been a game changer in the recent years. 

Coming back to the #GetInked selfies in Twitter and Facebook it looks like more than the PSA's and manifestos the social media trump card worked. Great to see a social change brought alongside using technology, this clearly showcases how we can never underestimate the power of social media. It's not just another entertainment platform, but on seeing the involvement of the youth of today, looks like it could change political positions. 

Not long ago Facebook which joined with Watsapp has introduced I am a voter button. Along with clicking on that button users can share a story in their timeline. This button will be visible on Facebook when the local area election polling starts. As this time its going to be the millions of first time voters who are going to be influencing the ruling party, political parties have been continuously campaigning and connecting with the first time voters.

In my honest opinion an effective campaign can easily influence a first time voter, since they are very vulnerable and haven't been around in a while in this whole political setup. Taking an advantage of this social media works its chart out in the LoksabhaElections2014.
Another interesting website I as a first time voter myself came across is ADR (Association of Democratic Reforms) not to mention that this was also shared in my social media page through which I came to know about this. So, what's there in this website ?

1)It let's you know who is the candidate from your constituency contesting in the Elections. (Oh! wait, the main picture is not this, its the second point)
2)Background reports based on

• Criminal
• Financial
• Educational
• Income Tax details of Candidates and Winners (MPs, MLAs and Ministers) who have contested Elections to State Assemblies. 

3)It has an app that let's you know about the parties who break the election campaign rules, and acts as a link between the people and their representatives and has many more exciting features if you want to look it up!

Get involved and Get Inked. Vote for Change!

*Designs by Chumbak

It has not been so long when I talked about how some advertisements objectify women, use them to sell their product. No! It's not just another feminist ramble here, I want to make some points very clear through this post. 

So, on 9th April Dove owned by Unilever has come up with an ad to showcase the real beauty of women. It's not an advert which tries to sell you any product, but tells you to believe in the real beauty and real you. This advertisement uses a placebo effect, which might seem a bit complicated to understand - but to put it simple, it is the act of believing without actual evidence. To put in big terms, it is providing medically simulated or ineffectual treatment for a medical condition to deceive the patient. 

Not deviating from the real story, recently there was a controversy in the Facebook page of Women's rights news, which is a feminism related page that addressed this advert to be 'awful' and makes women look more gullible and dumb. Shocked to hear such a thing about a dove ad campaign which has proved its way to touch the hearts of many women all round the globe, this is my point of view about it - In my eyes this advert just tries to tell you that you don't need any product be it a beauty cream or a face wash that can give you instant fairness. It tries to stand for the women and get them to believe in the 'real beauty'. 

When we think about this in a broader perspective, Dove is trying to put down its opponents without making a big statement, but indirectly influencing the minds of their target audience and additionally what they get for it is we believe in real beauty. On a contrary, Dove is owned by Unilever and the brand also makes the commercials for 'AXE'. Needless to explain how they objectify women to sell the product, and the amount of bans they have underwent to broadcast their adverts. 

Before you believe in anything, just question yourself on is it worth believing. That would make a change.

Have your say on this advert?