TechFest is an annual event where developers from Microsoft Research facilities across the world meet to discuss innovative projects in progress and The Translating! Telephone hails from the Speech Group at Microsoft Research Asia (MSR Asia). However, researches have stressed that this project is still in its development stage and it could be a decade before it becomes ready for commercial use. Nevertheless, it has been mooted as a solution to language barriers in business and social environments where gist translations are preferable to no translation at all – not as a substitute for professional translators.

Microsoft’s research website explains how the tool combines three key technologies: speech recognition, machine translation and text-to-speech software. It is unclear as to which languages would be supported down the line, but the demo was carried out in German and English. Users connected by a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are able to speak in their native (or chosen) language which is recognised by automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, transformed via automated translation and synthesised using text-to-speech.

Touted as a step towards unified communications, it certainly boasts some impressive features. Firstly, the inputted source language is almost simultaneously translated and output via audio format in the other user’s target language. Secondly, all speech is transcribed for verification, archiving and retrieval purposes and what is more, underneath this transcription is a back translation feature which appears as a table at the bottom of the screen – thus enabling users to check if the translation process is performing correctly. Finally, the transcription benefits from being ‘storable, browsable, searchable’ and cut-and-paste-able! As it is an intelligent piece of software, it is said that the translation quality will increase as the system learns the user’s voice.

It may well be a decade before The Translating! Telephone is market ready but with the combination of voice-generating software, automatic translation and a user-friendly interface, it looks set to become a staple of international offices in the not to distant future.

Microsoft unveils telephone capable of real-time translation is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

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.

Voice-generating technology hitting all the right notes is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

A similar project has been established for online translation: Google Translate. Again, anyone can add to the word lists of any language pair, and over a couple of years contributors from the entire globe have compiled what would have taken decades for the editorial team of a printed dictionary.

All this sounds great: we might as well throw away our encyclopaedias and dictionaries and make all librarians and translators redundant. However, there is one serious problem with crowdsourcing: reliability. The very advantage of compiling large amounts of information in a short time has turned out to be a disadvantage; this information is only as reliable as the people who submit it. Often the editors of Wikipedia and Google Translate are only able to correct false information because this has been pointed out to them by users of the sites. Google Translate has recently provided a good example of this, where “USA is to blame”, became “USA is not to blame” when translated into Russian, while “Russia is to blame” was translated as “Russia is to blame”. This could have been done as a prank, or perhaps for political reasons. Another similar situation arose when the medical term “cardiomyopathy” was translated into an obscene word in Hungarian. This was no doubt also done as a prank, but it could have caused serious embarrassment had it been inserted into a medical document.

Just these two examples clearly illustrate that whilst crowdsourcing allows information to be compiled and translated much quicker than usual, it is a good idea to exercise caution when using the power of the crowd to translate important documentation.

Crowdsourcing: friend or foe? is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

The role of interpreters in high profile organisations such as the United Nations and in matters of international diplomacy is better recognised. The 2005 film “The Interpreter” brought the profession to Hollywood and offered a glimpse into the demanding nature of the job. Of course, not all interpreters are employed to relay information in political negotiations; the majority are found dealing with immigration, health or legal matters for private individuals or representing companies as they conduct business with overseas markets. However, the subject knowledge or language skills of these ‘behind-the-scenes’ interpreters is not be underestimated. Whether in the European Parliament, or in a doctor’s surgery in the UK, it is essential for a good interpreter to not only have an accurate understanding of the situation, but also the ability to relay crucial information without bias.

The Translation People work with a reliable network of professional interpreters and can provide interpreting services in all major language combinations, including community languages spoken in the UK. Whether you are hosting an international conference or an informal meeting, our interpreters can ensure that language barriers do not prevent your message from being understood.

Interpreters out of the picture is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

In Chile it is English language classes which are on offer, whilst in Scotland the language du jour is French. On 15 February, the Santiago Times reported on the increased demand of language classes for pre-school children. As a result, many bilingual kindergartens for children between the ages of three and four have sprung up across the country. Such is the demand that long waiting lists are commonplace and the Instituto Norteamericano (ICHN) – one of the forerunners in the field of bilingual education for children – has had to open a January summer school to cope with the high number of applicants. Parents hope that learning English at this early age will boost their child’s chances of entering one of the many bilingual primary schools.

Over in Europe meanwhile, Piccolingo has received similar acclaim. This European Commission incentive is aimed at ‘raising parents’ awareness of the benefits of early language learning and providing practical information and support.’ Parents have been embracing the scheme wholeheartedly and one particular success story has been making national headlines in the UK. Piccolingo launched an international Facebook competition in December 2009 whereby parents submitted their innovative ideas for teaching foreign languages to young children. The winner was Lingobaby, a company founded by Fiona Moffat – a modern languages teacher in Scotland. Wanting to introduce her son to foreign languages at an early age and faced with a distinct lack of appropriate services, she set up Lingobaby which offers children from birth to 5 years old the opportunity to experience foreign languages. The rest is history: the first Children’s Language Centre in Scotland was launched in 2008 offering free play sessions with bilingual toys, games, songs, stories and sensory activities through the medium of French. There is also lingo homeplay which offers multilingual toys, CDs and musical instruments in French German, Italian, Spanish and Polish languages. (The link between language and music was also highlighted in an article published by the Independent on Sunday, when it was reported that playing a musical instrument could ‘help youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice.’)

For governmental schemes, a bilingual education scheme in Spain is underway and is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, regional governments and the British Council. Around 700 state schools are involved and a curriculum in English and Spanish is provided to children aged between 3 and 16. Lessons take place in English and Spanish on alternate days and the programme has proved to be immensely popular nationwide since its inception with both stakeholders and participants alike.

For academic institutions, research into childhood multilingualism also abound. One example is the University of London, Birkbeck, who are holding a conference in March 2010 entitled ‘Bringing up bilingual and multilingual children.’ The Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication are to host the event which will cover such themes as the best way for children to learn languages with the least amount of stress; early years learning and language development; and multilingual schooling. Experts in the fields of bilingual education, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and speech and language therapies will be in attendance, along with parents and grandparents who have experience of raising children multilingually.

Early learning linguistic schemes are proving popular worldwide and with all the exciting developments in multilingualism, it would appear that foreign language teaching to children is certainly doing its part to break down global language barriers.

Sources: BBC; www.teachingenglish.org; www.bbk.ac.uk

Early learning: the rise of multilingual and bilingual foreign language schemes for children is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

The FoodGuide App has been developed for the iPhone by ditter.projektagentur GmbH. According to prMac.com it boasts a translation facility in English, German and Spanish; detailed consumer reports; information about European foods and photographs. Nine months in the making, it quickly became a best seller and was voted the best App in Apple’s Lifestyle category. Over 1,500 products are listed in five languages – including their scientific names. Once downloaded, no Internet connection is required, enabling food enthusiasts worldwide to enjoy reviews, translations and images whilst on the move.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this month, Google showcased their new prototype of image to text translation called Google Goggles in a demonstration which displayed how a menu written in German could be instantly translated into English. According to the new Google Translate Blog, the technology works through a connection from a smartphone’s camera to an optical character recognition (OCR) engine, which accesses Google Translate and in turn, provides a translation of the text contained in the image. Currently only German and English languages are supported, but the aim is to make this service available in all of the 52 languages offered by Google Translate.

Not exactly a mistranslation, but rather a case of non-translation came to light when the Arizona Daily Sun reported on linguistic events at the Navajo Nation Reservation: an area covering over 27,000 square miles in the states of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The Navajo language does not have a strong written history, but is spoken in the home by over half of the 250,000 population. However, when many Navajo families became stranded due to heavy snow at the beginning of February and 39,000 freeze-dried food packages were delivered, the food labels and preparation instructions were entirely in English! As no translations were provided, many of the elders who do not understand written English refused to eat the meals. In such extreme weather conditions, the decision not to provide a simple translation could have been fatal.

Spanish-American food relations have also taken a bit of a battering with the news that elBulli (the world-renowned Catalan restaurant famous for its celebrity chef – Ferran Adrià – and molecular gastronomy) was to close its doors permanently and become a foundation for professional chefs. The international press soon picked up on this story and news of the closure quickly spread in food circles worldwide. However, Mr Adrià subsequently gave an interview to Spanish newspaper El País stating that the New York Times who originally broke the story had ‘misunderstood’ him and that the restaurant would at some point in the future be serving meals to the public. There is still a lot of mystery surrounding this misinterpretation and whether it stemmed from language-related issues. It was, nevertheless, a story which shook the food world.

The fusion of language and cuisine has certainly come to the fore internationally in recent months and diners, critics and linguists alike are wondering what will be on the menu for 2010!

What’s on the menu in the world of culinary translation? is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

Google already has the technology in place to allow for speech-to-text translation, with both the Nexus One phone and also the Google Maps application where audio input is converted into text. However, these automatic real-time translation developments are significant because, as reported in The Times (7 February 2010), the new software will be ‘capable of understanding a caller’s voice and translating it into a synthetic equivalent in a foreign language.’ Speech will be analysed in ‘packages’ and the phone will be intelligently trained to recognize the speaker’s voice. Exciting though these developments are, there is always the caveat emptor which comes hand in hand with automatic translation tools, in that mistranslations could arise due to the lack of human post-editing. Professional translators and interpreters study for many years to perfect their skills and the pitfalls of automatic machine translation could be heightened if the phone is unfamiliar with a speaker’s accent, or if the audio input becomes distorted by background noise for example.

Living in the digital world is no guarantee that people in the street will be willing to provide their voices for this intelligent translation technology software. Nevertheless, the ability of such a device to gain basic information in emergency situations has not gone unnoticed. Another Google language product is the GPS navigation system with voice guidance for phones with Android – and if combined with real-time two-way translation software, such a device could prove to be extremely useful for military, medical and humanitarian personnel.

Meanwhile, at the Mobile World Congress 2010, Toshiba will be demonstrating its TG02 smartphone with Voice Translation app. The technology news website Ixplora.com reports that speech recognition, machine translation and speech synthesis technology translates the speaker’s input language in real-time, producing a synthesized audio output in the chosen foreign language – all without the need for an Internet connection.

The World Mobile Congress is being held until 18 February in Barcelona where it will be seen whether the showcased technologies meet the approval of technophiles worldwide.

Real-time speech-to-speech translation on the menu for Google is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

Canada’s commitment to linguistic diversity was highlighted by the protocol signed in 2005 between the Organizing Committee and the Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. It was the first such partnership in the history of the Winter Olympics and has been mooted as one of the deciding factors in Canada’s successful bid to host the event. Along with the cultural, economic and educational initiatives, The Assembly of First Nations stated that the protocol will ‘increase opportunities to showcase art, language, traditions, history and culture’.

Another language first can be seen with APTN (the Aboriginal People’s Television Network) – the first network to broadcast live coverage of the Games in Aboriginal languages. For the opening and closing ceremonies, audio coverage is provided in various aboriginal languages, with subtitles in French and English. APTN are providing 250 hours of multi-language commentary in ten different languages and the inclusion of First Nation, Inuit and Métis languages in this schedule ‘will be a landmark in the global television industry, in the advancement of Aboriginal cultures and in the promotion and preservation of Aboriginal languages in Canada’ said ATPN’s CEO.

There is also the collaboration between APTN and MBC (the Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation) who will be broadcasting through the medium of Cree for the first time. The La Ronge Northerner reported that in addition to on-air Cree language services, control room translation will be provided and furthermore, due to the dialectic complexity of the Cree language, preparation for this event included the creation of a glossary in collaboration with FNUC (the First Nations University of Canada).

However, it’s not all good news on the language front as criticisms regarding the lack of French usage at the opening ceremony have already been noted. According to the National Post, James Moore (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages) has aired his concerns about the way in which the English language was favoured over French in the opening ceremony and he has also expressed disappointment that expectations for ‘an entirely bilingual event’ have not been met. French was used in the following instances, but insufficiently so: in the VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee) Chairman’s opening speech; in the official declaration of the opening of the games, which was made in French first and followed by an English translation; in the official oath taken by the speed-skating referee; and when French Canadian singer Garou performed in French. Mr Moore hopes that the use of French will be increased in time for the closing ceremony.

It appears that off-piste language news is certainly a talking point of the 2010 Winter Olympics!

The Winter Olympics 2010 – on track for linguistic success? is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

Two such organisations involved in this task are Survival International (an organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide) and VOGA (Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese). Both recently reported on their endeavours to preserve the Bo language and the death of its last known speaker – Boa Sr (its sole native speaker for close to 40 years). The language is thought to have originated in Africa almost 65,000 years ago. But since January 2010, Bo has become a dead language and its loss has not only been felt by linguists – anthropologists are also mourning the death of the last Bo speaker, as her death signifies the loss of a cultural identity and vital historical knowledge. Survival International’s Director stated that “With the death of Boa Sr and the extinction of the Bo language, a unique part of human society is now just a memory. Boa’s loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman Islands.’

Following Boa Sr’s death, the BBC ran an in-depth report by K. David Harrison – a ‘scientist exploring the world’s vanishing languages’. He is the author of The Last Speakers: The Quest to Uncover the World’s most Endangered Languages and featured in The Linguists – a documentary charting the journey to document dying languages and which received worldwide acclaim when it premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Harrison equates the survival of language with the survival of species which he claims exhibit ‘parallel extinctions.’ He believes that 80% of animal species are unknown to science and 80% of languages are yet to be documented and as such, highlights the important relationship between language and the environment in which we live. This can be seen further with VOGA, who has been involved in publishing a book covering the Ethno-linguistic-ornithological aspects of the birds of Andaman, and UNESCO also recognizes the importance of native languages to medical and geographical fields.

Harrison is also a strong advocate of the role that new technologies play in raising awareness of the plight of endangered languages. Following the screening of The Linguists at various festivals worldwide, it was released on the Babelgum website in 2009: ‘The Internet, used strategically, has enormous capacity to help get the word out, and to help sustain and support small languages.’

International organisations and institutions also share this viewpoint. The European Union is funding a project to protect and preserve languages. The ELDA (European language diversity for all) program has received nearly 3 million Euros in funding and boasts a ‘vitality barometer’ to measure languages which are becoming extinct. It will focus on 14 Finno-Ugric languages such as Meänkieli in Sweden and the language spoken by Estonian migrant workers in Germany.

In January 2010, the Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program reported on the launch of their Chitimacha language version of Rosetta Stone® software – aimed at ‘reversing the tide of global language extinction’ and the program rights of which have been exclusively released to the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana.

In Canada, The UBC Museum of Anthropology has just opened a new gallery which houses the exhibit ‘Border Zones’. It includes a multimedia installation focussing on the Gitxsanimaax language which has an estimated 400 speakers. Artist John Wynne worked with a linguist to gather examples of the language and has created an audio-visual ‘soundscape’ which will ultimately be returned to the community in which the language is spoken. (CBC News).

The individuals and organizations fighting for the survival of these languages will ensure that a multitude of voices will live on for many future generations. In the words of K. David Harrison ‘Linguistic survivors hold the fates of languages in their minds and mouths. Let’s listen while we still can.’

Endangered languages and their fight for survival in the modern world is a post from: The Translation People - Blog

Most Scandinavian children start learning English in their third year at school, usually around the age of nine, and continue until they leave school at sixteen or seventeen. Those who go onto secondary education and perhaps higher education (university), will learn or use English well into their twenties.

The “global village” has made communication among the world’s countries more important than ever. With rising political, financial and cultural interaction it is imperative that people are able to understand each other, and English has become the language of international communication. The three Scandinavian languages are spoken by a relatively small number of people – fewer than twenty million in Denmark, Norway and Sweden combined – and learning a foreign language is therefore seen as a vital means of staying in touch with the outside world.

The practice of teaching English to children of a relatively young age could be seen as something done out of necessity as “so few speak our language, and so many do not”, but one could also take the view that it is the basis for getting to know and understand the world and its people.

Televised media in Scandinavia is usually aired in the original language in which it was produced, English language films, soap operas, dramas and documentaries proliferate Scandinavian media. It seems almost impossible to avoid English when living in Denmark, Sweden or Norway; as English is heard everywhere it reinforces those classroom lessons and helps perfect Scandinavian’s grasp of English. In contrast if you were to tune into a mainstream foreign language film in the UK, more often than not you would discover an English voiceover which further limits the UK’s access to foreign languages.

However, even though we have established that Scandinavians are highly proficient English speakers, fluency is only really ever achieved by immersing yourself in the language and living in a country where English is the predominant language. However, this is not always practical or desirable for a lot of people.

The Translation People are aware that a number of companies target their Scandinavian customers in English. From all the facts above, this seems like a sensible option, however even those people who are completely fluent in a second language can miss linguistic nuances and could even be offended if they misunderstand certain text. Here at The Translation People we would always recommend translating your written document into the language of your target option, to ensure that nothing gets lost in linguistic misunderstanding.

Why do Scandinavians speak such a high standard of English? is a post from: The Translation People - Blog