No more Liesesster Square?

While we can all have a chortle at the way tourists pronounce place names in Britain the boot is on the foot when we want to visit Moscow or Tokyo and have to revert to a phonics lesson to stutter out the name of the place we want to visit.
This dilemma, and the mickey-taking of tourists as well, could soon be a thing of the past if Google decides to push ahead with one of its new inventions.
It has patented a piece of technology which would sit on Google maps and tell us how to pronounce places names.
Of course there already is a bit of tech which does something similar with its smartphone translation tool which immediately deciphers foreign text and now its real time conversation translator – the upgrade for Google translate which allows users to speak into their handset and get an instant, spoken translation.
But this goes one step further – it allows locals to record their own pronunciation of a place name and upload it as a sound file. Google would then mash them all together and come up with the most common pronunciation. This can then be put onto Google maps.
This means users do not have to rely on an American pronunciation of Leicester Square, Worcester or Greenwich which is usually the cause of some hilarity.
One wonders how it would cope with Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch or some of the more difficult Japanese place names?
Google says that although it has registered the patent it doesn’t mean that it will go ahead and produce the technology but it certainly seems like something that would be useful for travellers.
Certainly more useful than one of its more obscure patent applications which is for an automatic air freshener that emits fragrance when it senses that the wearer is engaged in physical activity. How to win friends and influence people?