KDDI begins testing multiple language voice translation system for visitors using taxis in Okinawa

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KDDI, KDDI Research, Okinawa Hire-Taxi Association and Okinawa Cellular have begun a social experiment using Multiple Language Voice Translation System for tourist taxis in Okinawa.

Due to expansion of flights to and from Okinawa and increase in the number of cruise ships, foreign tourists in Okinawa have increased by approximately 21%, recording an all-time high record of 1.5 million people during the first half of FY2017. This has also raised the need to provide more fluent multilingual communication between Japanese taxi drivers and the foreign tourists.

In order to realize fluent communication between the driver and tourist, KDDI and KDDI Research have developed a Multiple Language Voice Translation System that is installed within Okinawa tourist taxis. Furthermore, when a tourist travels between places such as harbor and airport or tourist spots, the driver can guide the appearing points of Okinawa by using this system.

In this social experiment, KDDI added a new function to translate terms based on the current location using GPS to greatly improve the accuracy of specific geographical terms and enable fluent and stress free communication.