What automatic machine translation makes up for in productivity, it certainly loses in accuracy. This may be a valid compromise when conversing with a friend over the Internet, but unacceptable in the medical sector where mistranslations could prove to be fatal.

The National Post reports that in 2009, a law came into effect in the US which required New York pharmacies to provide multilingual medicine labelling. In a city which includes an estimated 50% of citizens who speak a language other than English in the home, it was hoped that these steps would ensure an equality of care for those who do not speak English as a first language. Following this law, a study (published by Pediatrics® in April 2010) was carried out with the objective of evaluating the ‘accuracy of translated, Spanish-language medicine labels among pharmacies in a borough with a large Spanish-speaking population.’

The study covered pharmacies in the Bronx area of New York and the results provided information about how many pharmacies produced medicine labels in the Spanish language; how often machine translations were used; and the quality of the Spanish translation produced.

The results were astounding: 86% of pharmacies providing Spanish translations used machine translation with only 3% employing professional translators; 43% of the total labels evaluated contained incomplete translations and of an additional 6 labels studied, misspellings and grammatical errors resulted in a 50% error rate.

WSFA news reported on the some of the translation errors. A common problem was ‘Spanglish’ – the mixture of Spanish and English – resulting in instructions which were difficult to read and a source of patient confusion. Mistranslations were another problem, e.g. the use of the word ‘once’ which means ‘eleven’ in Spanish – a difference in meaning between English and Spanish which could cause a potential overdose. Misspelling included ‘poca’ instead of ‘boca’ (‘little’ and ‘mouth’ respectively in Spanish) and under the heading of poor translations, ‘Take 1.2 aldia give dropperfuls with juice eleven to day’ was a salient example.

There has been a call for standardisation and improvements in this area and patients have been advised to request the services of professional translators and interpreters to ensure complete understanding of the dosage instructions. But with only 3% of pharmacies employing professional translators to carry out this work, it would seem that adequate access to language services and the provision of accurate translations are not a high priority.

The survey was carried out by Iman Sharif and Julia Tse and their results concluded that the ‘quality of the translations was inconsistent and potentially hazardous’. The need for better regulations and funding in this domain was identified, which Sharif stated ‘is probably something that belongs within the health reform conversations’ (The National Post).

Medical translation is a highly qualified field and it is almost incomprehensible that machine translation is deemed an acceptable resource. Language professionals in the US and abroad will no doubt be interested to see whether these issues will be sufficiently covered in the health reform discussions currently underway, as any mistranslations here could well be the difference between life and death.

In an unprecedented collaboration between members of the Spanish gaming community and publishers of the Wii game Fragile Dreams: Ruins of the Moon, around fifty volunteers will translate the game’s script into Spanish. Due to be released in US and European markets on 16 and 19 March respectively, it is hoped that the Spanish language version will follow shortly.

With a script containing more than 35,000 words – the translation project is no mean feat. But when DSWii.es contacted Japanese publishers Rising Star Games with the idea, an advertisement for volunteer translators was posted and fifty eager recruits were enrolled. However, on accessing the translation website – fragile.blogocio.net – it appears that a grand total of 0% translation has been carried out to date. With just over a week until the European release, it would appear that initial estimates of translation timescales were highly optimistic!

In a press release, Hugo Fraga – Director of Content and Marketing at Blogocio Media SL (DSWii.es’s parent company) – stated that ‘The most important aspect of this translation is not that the game arrives in Spanish, but that this is the first time in history in which gamers will participate actively in the development process or the localisation of a title.’

Yet even though this collaboration has been hailed as the first of its kind in relation to an officially sanctioned translation carried out by fans, it was still unclear from the website as to what was on offer for the Spanish language version. Available as a free ‘digital download’ via DSWii.es and the Rising Star’s Hoshi portal, questions were being asked for verification as to if this was a language patch to integrate files onto the console itself via the SD card. Through the comments page, it appears that the translated material will be a PDF downloadable booklet which can be printed out and consulted whilst playing the game. If this is indeed the case, surely a leaflet or PDF file is far removed from the culture of video games whereby attention is focussed on the screen. And with an estimated 400 million speakers of Castilian Spanish worldwide, surely a language patch would have been the best option.

Nevertheless, the volunteer translators have been applauded for their efforts, but the company itself has received some criticism in its failure to employ professional translators and programmers to create the patch. However, as an interesting aside, some users were pleased that playing video games in English had improved their language skills!

Crowdsourcing is an increasingly popular option for companies – but it is a risky path to follow. Undoubtedly, overall costs are less if volunteers are employed, but the importance of using professional translators must not be forgotten. Fragile Dreams: Ruins of the Moon sold over 26,000 copies in Japan in its first week of release which made it the second most popular video game at the time. It remains to be seen whether the figures will translate quite so well in Spain.

Artificial voice generators generally receive a lot of bad press, but this week was an exception. Two developments in the communications market were announced to worldwide acclaim: a silent-speech device incorporating an automatic translation tool with a twist; and a bespoke voice synthesizer which was aired on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Silence was certainly speaking volumes at the CeBIT trade fair in Germany this week when scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) demonstrated a device capable of ‘lipreading’ and transforming these movements into speech. The technology in question is called Silent Sounds which according to AFP works by electromyography – ‘monitoring the muscular movements produced when we speak and converting them into electrical pulses that can then be turned into speech.’

Currently the device functions through a variety of electrodes attached to the skin but it is anticipated that within a decade, the technology will become an everyday feature of mobile phones once it can be integrated into handsets. It is said to be 99 per cent accurate at the moment, but its success with different accents or technical language remains to be seen.

However, Silent Sounds does boast another feature and that is the automatic translation application which translates the input language into an output language of the user’s choice. At the moment it is mainly European languages which are on the menu as the developers explained that support for Chinese, for example, would require more development to incorporate ‘tone’.

But this type of technology is also important for the medical world and could help improve the quality of life for people who have no longer have the ability for speech due to an operation, illness, or accident. Such was the case for American film critic Roger Ebert who lost his voice four years ago following an operation. This week he unveiled a bespoke piece of voice-generating software on the Oprah Winfrey Show which has enabled him to speak again for the first time since the surgery that robbed him of his voice.

The device was developed by Edinburgh speech synthesis company, Cereproc, and what makes this machine stand out is that the computer-generated output sounds like Mr Ebert’s voice and not an electronic reproduction. The BBC reported how this was made possible through a process of accessing recordings of Mr Ebert’s voice, breaking these down into individual sounds, completing a transcription stage and finally reassembling everything. The user types out what he/she would like to say and the computer generates a ‘human’ voice. Mr Ebert commented that ‘It still needs improvements, but at least it sounds like me.’

These innovative technologies could well become common place in the future and what may seem like science fiction today, may be everyday communication tools when the products become market ready. For example, the ongoing work with the Silent Sounds device includes developing a system which is operable in offices and budding MI5 agents, military personnel, cinema-goers wishing to communicate from inside the theatre and even commuters will surely be adding it to their wish lists.

Further development stages and lots of tweaking are undoubtedly the order of the day for these devices and the jury is still out on the degree of success with which the automatic translation application will deal with the nuances and complexities of language. However, from those who would prefer to use silent communication for security reasons to the truly life-changing experience of giving people their voice back, there is no doubt that voice-generating technology is certainly hitting all the right notes.

In recent years, police departments and emergency services in the United States have been using handheld translation machines in a drive to enhance communication with non-English speakers. In December 2009, the Cincinnati City Council was in the news for its partnership with Latino Educational Assimilation Resource Network, Inc. – a non-profit organisation providing English/Spanish bilingual material to the department to help bridge the language divide with the population’s growing number of Spanish speakers. Hand-held translation machines, bilingual dictionaries, language tapes and medical books for healthcare professionals are just some examples of the language material made available. According to the US Census Bureau, more than 18 per cent of the American population speak a language other than English in the home: there are over 30 million speakers of Spanish, 2 million of Chinese and 700,000 of Russian. Overcoming the language barrier has never been so important in today’s multicultural society.

The ‘talking translators’ as they have been dubbed, are a welcome accessory for the police, emergency workers and healthcare professionals alike. The device costs $1,200 but is priceless if it means that lives could be saved or potentially volatile situations brought about by lack of communication are diffused. It comprises a series of pre-programmed texts which when selected are output in audio format. There is also a loudspeaker function to broadcast the translated message free from distortion and within a range of 1 km. The user selects the desired text in English such as the Miranda warning to advise a person of their rights for example, and the foreign-language equivalent is relayed. Unfortunately, it does not allow for two-way communication as there is no real-time translation programme, however, there is a ‘record’ facility which enables responses to be translated at a later date.

According to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have been using a similar device called the Phraselator® since 2007 and it has become an invaluable tool for law enforcement officers as there are 224 languages spoken in the city. The impetus behind using such a translation tool stemmed from miscommunication and subsequent mismanagement of the MacArthur Park peaceful immigration procession in May 2007 which resulted in injuries to 250 protesters and journalists, and 18 police officers. Over $13 million in compensation was paid out by the LAPD as a result of the infamous incident. Taking into consideration the economic repercussions from such an event, the Phraselator®’s $2,500 price tag at that time would have seemed cheap in comparison.

The Phraselator® is manufactured by Voxtec, and was initially designed for use by US military personnel. According to the manufacturer’s website, the most current model – the Voxtec Phraselator® P2 – is the ‘most powerful one-way, handheld, speech-to-speech translation system available today’ and aids the ‘tactical and humanitarian needs’ of service personnel in war-torn societies and humanitarian fields.

There are other translation tools which are also penetrating the market such as the software developed by Florida-based company Vcom3D, and DARPA (the research and development office for the U.S. Department of Defence).

Vcom3D’s military products include the Vcommunicator® language software, which is compatible with the Apple iPod. It functions by selecting an English phrase which is then converted into the desired foreign-language equivalent and communicated via a computer-animated 3D character incorporating culture-specific gestures. It is lightweight and discreet, robust, relatively cheap in terms of large-scale distribution and requires less training as troops are already familiar with iPods.

For two-way translation systems, DARPA’s work in progress is the Spoken Language Communication and Translation System for Tactical Use (TRANSTAC). The DARPA website lists TRANSTAC’s objectives as enabling spontaneous communication in ‘real-world tactical situations’, being speaker-independent, utilizing an intuitive interface for ease-of-use, adapting easily and quickly to ambient noise and change of speaker, and being able to support new languages with a turnaround time of less than 100 days.

Language technology does not claim to be free from error and there is no disputing the importance of human translators and interpreters. But with reports of deaths of linguists in conflict zones on the increase (both in the field and also through targeted attacks because of their links with foreign troops), the innovations on the market today are rapidly becoming indispensable not only for peacekeeping operations, but for medical professionals, law enforcers and emergency personnel worldwide.

Most clients who require DTP in Western European languages would prefer The Translation People to use the fonts supplied with the English template and supply back the artwork files with “live” text, and this causes no problems for the DTP operator.

Where issues do occur, however, is when the client needs DTP in Eastern European languages or languages which are written in non-Latin scripts, e.g. Russian, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic or Hebrew. More often than not these languages are not supported by fonts matching those used in the original template, and The Translation People are on hand to suggest suitable alternatives if the client has not already done so.

In terms of final output it is important to establish whether the client requires high-resolution PDF files for printing, or the original artwork files with or without linked outline eps files, as this may influence the choice of typeface to be used. If high-resolution PDFs or artwork with linked outlined eps files are required there is generally a wider choice of typefaces available, whereas artwork files with “live” text may cause problems with font licensing: font files are protected by copyright and cannot be freely distributed.

The advantage of high-resolution PDF files or artwork with linked outlined eps files is a wider choice of typefaces, as well as greater stability once the files reach the printing stage. Incorrectly installed non-standard typefaces may cause “live” text to corrupt, but the text in outline eps files or PDF files is treated as immovable objects – or paths – and eliminates the risk of corruption.

The Translation People will always advise the client on the best solution for choice of typeface and final output, based on their requirements.

Should you have a current DTP requirement, please contact us now.