The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute’s translation technology was adopted as an international standard by a French standardization association, the ETRI said Tuesday.

The ETRI’s translation technology called Zero UI was adopted as an international standard for the first time in the world during a meeting held by AFNOR, or Association Francaise de Normalisation Standards Organization of France, on July 28. 



The translation technology allows users who speak different languages to communicate without touching or looking at their smartphones. When a user speaks while wearing a headset, his or her voice is transmitted to his or her smartphone via Bluetooth. The translated words are then transmitted to another user’s headset through his or her smartphone.

The ETRI said its translation service is more accurate than Google’s translation service, Google Translate.

“This will allow people who speak different languages to have face-to-face communication without looking at their smartphone screens,” said Kim Sang-hoon, a project leader at the ETRI.

The Zero UI will be used for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics to translate nine languages as a pilot project. 

By Shin Ji-hye(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)