Almost by default, then, sci-tech translation is largely left to the language specialists.
Kankuro's performance of "Hokaibo," a traditional comedy about a delinquent, lascivious monk and his pursuit of a shopkeeper's daughter, was loaded with classical terms, but instead of offering the audience high-tech translations on rented headsets, actors and stagehands went into the audience during intermission and explained words and themes and answered questions.
So Stepes is not a typical startup, but rather a new venture by an old (in tech terms) translation software company drawing on some up-to-the-minute app interface trends to tackle a specific problem.
As few sci-tech translators can afford the luxury of narrow specialisation, scientists considering translation as a career should also be prepared to extend their subject knowledge to include other fields.
8 Sign language is getting translation tech too It's not just words that can be translated: sign language is a good candidate too.
The machine translation tech used to provide the multi-lingual versions of client products would be based on tech Amazon uses across its own products, the report claims.
10 Translation tech can be about more than words Also taking off is visual recognition and search: the ability for a device to recognise what you're pointing its camera at and do something useful.
As tech magic goes, translation is hard to beat.
In December 2015, Facebook finally completed the shift, and now exclusively uses its own translation tech.
But if Facebook's translation tech can show us just how similar we are to people from other countries, it could promote tolerance between all humans.
The tech behind the translation involves advanced machine learning, which also means that it'll get smarter with time and increased use; the more time it hears a word in conversation, the better it'll become at translating it accurately.
