Breaking the language barrier could be made easier than ever with new technology that translates speech in real-time - without even changing the sound of your voice.
Microsoft's chief research officer Rick Rashid demonstrated the technology at an event in China last month, and video of the event was posted online yesterday.

The clip shows Mr Rashid's voice being translated into Mandarin as he speaks to the crowd, with just a few seconds of delay.

"There's much work to be done in this area," Mr Rashid says in the video.

"But this technology is very promising and we hope in a few years that we'll be able to break down the language barriers between people.

"Personally, I believe this is going to lead to a better world."

Mr Rashid said the new system was not only fast but was more accurate than other speech recognition technology.

He said the technology had attracted public interest since the demonstration in China but researchers had not yet used it to speak to someone outside the company.

"What I've seen is some combination of excitement, astonishment and optimism about the future that the technology could bring," Mr Rashid told MIT Technology Review.

"We don't yet know the limits on accuracy of this technology - it's really too new.

"As we continue to 'train' the system with more data, it appears to do better and better."