Human communication does not limit itself to exchange of words and gestures. The subtleties, cultural nuances, and emotional intelligence make it rich. AI interpretation might be speedy and scalable but can hold system biases, lack of cultural contexts, and can be challenging with respect to high-risk communications and ethical concerns.
Accuracy issues of current AI translation services, holds back anyone who need it as a prominent tool. Wit the current development of facial tracking, gestural recognition and identification of accessibility modes, a real-time translation device can be programmed to be more precise.
EchoMi, a part of Meta AI is integrated into frequently used video calling applications will be focusing on bridging the gaps and bringing accurate real-time voice translation tools to make communication more accessible globally.
EchoMi
Industry: Live AI Translator
Role: Product Designer
‘EchoMi’ aims to heighten the user’s experience by providing a real-time tone accurate language translation tool that can be integrated into any video calling application.
AI Aware
Situational Design
Scenario 1: Successful communication (Ideal)
Human uses EchoMi to talk to a friend with language barriers
What appears on the screen:
Melanie has recently rekindled with Elena, her childhood email pen pal from Brazil she made during a school programme. The have known each other for 10 years now and despite the language barrier, had no problem becoming each other’s best friends thanks to Google Translate and Elena’s broken English. After losing contact Melanie found Elena’s social media and asked to catch up with her over a video call. Melanie wants to reconnect with Elena in the most seamless way possible, so she looked up video translating applications and found EchoMi. She integrated it into her Whatsapp and used it on the call. Melanie turned on the automatic language translation and subtitles feature which allowed her to understand Elena perfectly well.
User Goal:
Talking to an international friend for the first time
Steps the user takes and screens:
1. Downloads the application
2. Registers with email
3. Integrates it into her Whatsapp
4. Sets language preferences, commonly translated languages, and sensitivity
5. Calling her friend
6. Turning on real time voice translation
USE CASE SCENARIOS
Outcome:
The real-time voice translation helped them reconnect without any hiccups. Mid-way through the call, Melanie told Elena to download the application and helped her set it up and use it for the call. Elena told Melanie it was super helpful and that she would love to explore it a bit more.
Scenario 2: Unsuccessful communication (Manual error) Human exaggerates their emotions to get accurate results from AI
Harry is feeling a bit blue for his first day in a new country, so he decides to book an online chat with his school mental wellbeing counsellor and uses EchoMi for additional language support. To make sure his emotions are rightly translated to his therapist, he sarted slightly exaggerating them. but they quickly got out of hand and EchoMi had trouble understanding Harry’s passive-aggression for him being happy which translated wrongly and gave him further troubles with the counselling session.
User Goal:
Talking to his wellbeing counsellor to feel better
What appears on the screen:
Solution: Emotion Calibration Prompt
When the AI figures out exaggerated emotions, it displays a pop-up that asks Harry if he is in a heightened state of emotion right now. When this is agreed to the AI will then adapt to the exaggerated emotion
Scenario 3: Unsuccessful communication (Interface error)
AI misunderstands facial disability for a change in emotion
Nicole has been a frequent user of EchoMi, most commonly using it for her fully remote job for a company based in Germany. It is in fact recommended by the company for international employees. Her experience with the application has been good and she often recommends others to use it as well. Recently, while walking on a windy day, something scratched her cornea for which she had to get a temporary eye patch. After a couple of days, she returned to work and got into company meetings. During the meeting, her colleagues looked confused and when Nicole enquired about it, they said the application was labelling her to be in an angry state. She cleared up that it wasn’t the case but was left confused and embarrassed.
User Goal:
Having a meeting with office teammates
What appears on the screen:
Solution: Emotion Calibration Prompt
Users can enable a temporary ‘Physical Variation Mode’ which lets them choose which part of their body is affected and lowers the AI’s reliability on the user's expression with that part. This ensures that the AI caters to users with limitations.
