Language matters have been generating a lot of interest recently, especially in the realms of web-based or automatic tools, and Google has been taking centre stage once more. First there was the launch of Google Translate, which was followed by the announcement that automatic captions (or auto-caps) would be coming to a YouTube screen near you soon.

This is a significant development for millions of people worldwide for it means that the 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute are potentially accessible to users who are deaf and hearing impaired. But there are also exciting implications for foreign languages in that all videos could eventually be enjoyed by non-native speakers.

Captions have been available in Google Video and YouTube since 2008 and there are now hundreds of thousands of captioned videos available online. But what is different about auto-caps is that automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology can now be used in conjunction with YouTube’s captioning facility to produce machine-generated automatic subtitles.

However, there are certain limitations – only 13 partner channels currently offer this system, the only compatible language is English, and the system is far from accurate. For example, when using the automatic feature, one company found itself to be selling ‘salmon’ instead of ‘SIMs’ for android phones! As with any speech recognition software, it remains to be seen whether regional accents will have a bearing on word outcome. Nevertheless, this is a huge step forward for social inclusion and increased accessibility for deaf or hearing impaired users. Google openly admit the system’s flaws and state that improvements will be seen as the technology grows over time.

In addition to auto-caps, the launch announcement showcased another new feature called auto-timing and also covered the improvements to internet searches brought about by the advent of auto-caps. Auto-timing works when text files are uploaded without the need for a time code file, and text delivery is automatically timed to the video’s audio track. Again, probably not perfect, but something which will facilitate the use of captions and hopefully make them more popular. But it is the improved search facility which has generated interest in the language world because if a video contains written material, i.e. a caption, it can appear in internet search results – and if this text has been translated into different languages, then it will receive more hits. Furthermore, users can go directly to the point at which this ‘snippet’ of text appears, instead of having to watch the video in its entirety.

This is good news for businesses, news channels or any institutions (otherwise known as ‘channel owners’) with online video content. The United Nations and the European Parliament being just two organizations who already post online multi-language videos and who will undoubtedly benefit from this improved search facility.

These developments have been welcomed by YouTube viewers worldwide and there is no disputing its benefit for deaf or hard of hearing users – it has taken 20 years to develop and is also a project of great personal significance for the main software engineer, Ken Harrenstien, as he himself is deaf.

However, machine generated captions are certainly not as accurate as human made captions and Google state that it will be a very long time before this happens. Google Translate also admit that translation quality varies for certain language pairs: Danish translations were said to have raised some eyebrows at an international meeting and when The Translation People tested the Welsh option, it proved to be quite poor. Nevertheless, in the developer’s own words – this is far better than nothing at all, and this opening up of content which was previously inaccessible to many people, is a step towards making information available on the internet accessible to all.

When watching the YouTube video of the launch, the buzz surrounding the announcement was palpable, and understandably so. This is a move which has widened the global net of social inclusion and given real meaning to the word ‘access’.

Accurate text file translation could increase visibility and accessibility of your product on the internet. If you are a channel owner wishing to translate text files or transcribe audio files – The Translation People can help. Our translation services cover over 140 languages and we only employ translators who work exclusively into their mother tongue.

Communication is big business and without it, the list of potential pitfalls is endless. Hence the invention of new ‘translating’ glasses by NEC, the Japanese electronics firm.

The new glasses comprise lens-free frames, a headset, a computer processor and a small projector. The operator wears a small computer processor around the waist which relays information to the projector, which in turn displays text or diagrams onto the wearer’s retina. Currently, the target users are call centre or sales staff who could benefit from up-to-date client information, or engineers who could do away with cumbersome manuals. However, according to NEC, this invention also has potential as a real-time translating and interpreting aid via voice-recognition software.

The benefits have been mooted as real-time information being available in a compact format at the touch of a button; increased confidentiality without having to involve a third-party translator or interpreter, and easier and freer flowing communication when the conversation takes place.

Yet some concerns have been expressed about reliability and initial costs for the device, which apparently comes as a pack of 30 headphones, sans software. According to the BBC, one such pack would cost around £50,000. Hefty manuals and piles of paperwork may be a thing of the past with the Tele Scouter, but will this be enough to justify a seemingly hefty outlay in times of economic hardship.

The buzz generated in the interpreting and translating world by NEC’s announcement has certainly been more than audible. Translators and interpreters are highly qualified individuals, adhering to and conversant with client confidentiality and codes of conduct – and many of them appear to be wary of the accuracy of such a device.

Nevertheless, it is never a bad thing when attention is drawn to the world of translating and interpreting and for such funds to be invested in technological developments is certainly a positive step for any profession. 2010 is the launch date for the Tele Scouter – we will keep our eyes peeled.

Free online translation services are readily available and may seem like a fast and cheap way of meeting your company’s translation requirements; however they should be used with caution.

The first attempts to mechanise the act of translation occurred in the 1930s, yet it wasn’t until the 1970s when research intensified and technological capabilities had evolved that fully automated translation began to develop to an extent where it was of any real value. The evolution of the World Wide Web means that free automated translation is now easily accessible for the general public and although it has its uses in very specific circumstances, its capabilities are still very limited and therefore in the wrong hands the results can be disastrous.

We are frequently approached by clients who have used, or are thinking of using free online translation tools. Some are looking for a proofreading service prior to publishing their material, others are in the unfortunate position of having had their automatically translated document published  and have received negative feedback. From experience in both of these situations it often takes longer and costs more to edit the automatically translated document than to translate the source document again from scratch. What’s more, translators are often reluctant to edit translations completed by free online translation tools as this turns out to be a notoriously time consuming process.

Really there are only a few circumstances where fully automated translation can be used successfully in isolation without the intervention of a human translator. If you are trying to gain a very general understanding of a foreign language document in your native language, or in circumstances where a rough translation containing errors and lacking style is acceptable then free online translation tools can be quite effective. Similarly if the content of the input text is sufficiently restricted in its range of vocabulary and structure then automated translation can be useful for translating into various languages quickly, however even then the resulting translations may lack style and accuracy.

Unlike the human translator the computer considers each lexical unit in isolation without taking the context into account. The meaning or value of a word can differ dramatically depending upon the surrounding lexical units and the machine is often unable to select the most appropriate translation. There may also be information that is not expressed in the language of the source text such as gender or level of formality but which is required in the target language. At present, machine translation cannot ask questions in the way a human translator can. This is why using free online translation to translate out of your native language is extremely risky as you have little or no idea as to whether the tool has correctly interpreted the content. From experience, even with the shortest of phrases you may encounter problems with fully automated translation as the computer is effectively guessing the context in which the word occurs and offering a suggested meaning based on an assumption. Recently we were asked to review translations of the two words ‘fitting room’ in the sense of a ‘changing room’ in a clothes shop into various languages. Unfortunately the online translation tool used had misinterpreted the meaning in almost all the languages and translated it as “a suitable room”!

So although free online translation tools are rapidly evolving and improving, at the moment they have limited capabilities and should really be avoided for the production of official or publishable documents. If machine translation is used then the skills of a human translator will almost certainly be called upon at some stage if a high quality translation is to be produced.