The MTBot prototype is by all means not a new project from Microsoft. In fact, the project for the Windows Live Messenger machine translation bot debuted quietly in the summer of 2007. To this date the initiative remains nothing more than a prototype and, despite this, it is available to all Windows Live Messenger users for test driving. The brainchild of Helvecio Ribeiro, SDET w/ MSR Machine Translation, the Machine Translation Bot is designed to break the language barriers via Windows Live Messenger. The bot is a clear indication that machine translation technology can be seamlessly combined and integrated with instant messaging.

"The MTBot prototype project was released in May 2007 with the main goal to try to understand how useful machine translation would be in IM conversations. The bot acts as a human translator, participating in conferences and translating messages as they are sent by all parties. As with any prototype effort, do keep in mind that this is experimental and there is a possibility the bot might be offline from time to time. The usual caveats about the quality of machine translation also apply," explained Vikram Dendi, Microsoft Senior Product Manager for Incubation Business Strategy.

Obviously, the most common usage scenario for the bot is as a translator between two Windows Live Messenger users that speak two of different languages supported. So far, the bot can translate Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. But make no mistake about it. The machine translation bot is not a Microsoft project, but simply a prototype built by Ribeiro, and actually running on a machine under his desk.

"A typical usage scenario would be something like this: let's assume you have a friend in Japan that does not speak English... Well, you would add MTBot-en_us@hotmail.com to your Live messenger buddy list, wait until the bot accepts your request (by switching status to Online) and then you would start your conversation by sending the 'Hello' message... The Bot is going to wake up, and display a list of languages - enter 'ja' for Japanese. Once it gets a valid connection the Bot will tell you to invite your friend to join the conversation. That's it... From this point on, everything you type will be translated from English to Japanese, and everything your friend types will be translated from Japanese to English," Dendi stated.