Have you ever wanted to say something in Arabic but could not because you simply don't speak Arabic? Well, those days are over. A new iPhone mobile application created by Sakhr and Dial Directions has made it possible to translate from Arabic to English (and vice versa) your spoken words...on the spot! How cool is that! Can you imagine how important this will be to the Tourism industry for instance in the future? This is really big news and a great achievement for Arabic voice recognition technology.

Watch Sakhr's iPone mobile speech to speech translation demo

"I've seen Sakhr's speech-to-speech mobile translator on the iPhone in action, and it could be a game-changer," said Hythem El-Nazer, the senior vice president of Boston-based TA Associates, speaking to Business Wire. ""Instant, open speech translation on a mobile phone hasn't been done before now, because it's simply really hard to do."

It's certain that Arabic speech recognition is changing and improving rapidly. The technology has already been successfully used in a number of businesses in the Arab World.

What is Speech Recognition?

Speech recognition (also known as voice recognition) is a technology that has become extremely popular over the years and currently has a wide range of applications. One common use is its implementation in automated telephone systems, enabling callers to browse through menu options and input choices without pressing any buttons. Speech recognition is also used in homes and businesses where users dictate to their computers and transcribe words into applications such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. The technology is being widely used for transcription in legal and medical fields as well.