Whether it's the "universal translator" of Star Trek fame or the weird but effective Babel fish from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, devices (and animals) for overcoming the language barrier have long been loved in science fiction.

Today, the reality might be closer than ever.

Over the weekend, Google announced that it will soon release updates to its mobile translation app, enabling the program to automatically recognize when a user is speaking in a popular language and turn it into text in real time, The New York Times reports.

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Source: http://www.adn.com