Naver 'Debut 2021' Opens
AR Image Instant Translation Launching Next Year
Metaverse Ecosystem 'Arcverse' Unveiled
Naver is bringing a world without language barriers closer by advancing its "national translator" Papago. They are preparing an augmented reality (AR) service that shows videos translated in real time through Papago. On the 24th, Naver held Korea’s largest developer conference, "DEVIEW 2021," where they unveiled pioneering technologies preparing for the global future.
Evolving Translator
According to Naver, next year they plan to launch "AR Image Instant Translation" in their AI translation service Papago. By pointing the Papago camera, users will be able to see videos translated in real time. Papago is the number one translation service in Korea with a monthly active user (MAU) count reaching 13 million.
"AR Image Instant Translation" is an upgraded version of the existing "Image Instant Translation." Naver’s "Image Instant Translation," launched last year, is a service that translates the captured image as is. It can accurately translate even complex backgrounds, light reflections, and heavily distorted shadows on menus. It is widely used in various everyday areas such as contactless language learning, overseas direct purchases, and K-pop content. Currently, it supports 13 languages including Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Vietnamese, and Thai.
Naver is taking a step further by developing "AR Image Instant Translation," which aims to show real-time image translation results on videos captured by the camera, targeting a release next year. For example, when pointing Papago’s camera at an English sign, the translated video will appear instantly. This will enhance convenience by enabling real-time use in daily life situations where translation is needed, such as overseas travel. The Papago team is focusing on services for a world where conversations happen without language barriers. Papago engineers Youngbin Noh and Seungjae Kim said, "We will advance the service so that accurate and convenient translation can be used in everyday life, not just as research."
To achieve this, Naver Papago’s developers are concentrating on enhancing image translation technology and object tracking technology. Object tracking is a technology that tracks the position of moving objects over time in consecutive frames of a video. Naver continuously improves the performance of the deep learning model HTS, which analyzes the design and sentence structure of recognized characters in images to find sentences suitable for translation. Research is also ongoing on "inpainting," a technology that naturally fills character areas using information such as texture and color around the characters in the image.
Metaverse Ecosystem ‘Arcverse’
At DEVIEW, Naver also revealed its business plans for the recently spotlighted metaverse (extended virtual world). Seoksangok, CEO of Naver Labs, introduced the metaverse technology ecosystem "Arcverse," which they aim to build based on Naver Labs’ advanced technologies including autonomous driving, robotics, 5G, AI, cloud, and digital twin.
CEO Seok said, "Naver Labs’ mission is to naturally connect online Naver with the physical world," adding, "Arcverse, completed with digital twins that create virtual worlds identical to reality, robots, autonomous driving, and AR that can directly interact with the real world, and 5G, AI, and cloud systems that serve as bridges between the two worlds, will enable organic interaction between data and services in physical and digital spaces."
He continued, "Since Arcverse incorporates all the solutions and systems that Naver Labs has researched over the years, we will disclose results through collaboration with local governments, companies, and academia." In addition, eight responsible leaders from Naver shared various technologies such as search, AI, cloud, and robotics at DEVIEW.
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