Smart Phone Translation Technology To Be Used by US Military
This summer National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) performed a final round of complete tests for 3 of their new two-way, real-time, voice-translation devices. These speech translation systems were developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to improve communications between the U.S. military and non-English speakers in foreign countries.
Mobile Video Conferencing – Sign Language Technology
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) in the US are testing technology that could allow people with hearing difficulties to communicate using sign language over compressed video calls on their mobile phones.
While video conferencing is offered by several current smartphones, such as the iPhone 4 through the Facetime function, the bandwidth and data required makes it very much a premium feature, with several US mobile networks having already barred video conferencing from all but the priciest tariffs.
4 Key Rules in achieving your goals…
… Especially when learning a new language!
Every new life experience brings new skills. New skills enrich our lives and make us stronger and more competitive, inspiring for self-development and professional growth. That would be so true in ideal world! In real life we are too busy with every-day routine, slowing our way into the future… Learning a new language can be just the thing to get control over your own life! And here is how: Read more
Do Mystery Product Names Really Sell?
There is a certain attraction in foreign words and made-up names. Psychologists discover that people associate positive ideas with words that they do not understand. Especially in the United States where an average American citizen speaks 0.18 foreign languages. (by Dr. Julianne Malveaux).
So for 4 out of 5 Americans A “Grande Mocha Frapuccino” is a fascinating foreign name calling for higher price than your regular next-door Shake with Shaved Ice Chocolate and Coffee would. Starbucks figured it out, hooking caffeine addicts to their exotic-sounding “venti” and “grande”. Read more
Life With Books: Turning Pages Into Digits
According to GIZMODO, there is a new tool on the market allowing you to digitize your entire library!
The BookLiberator Project is kit of open source hardware and software, designed to help you digitize your personal library without damaging your collection. It won’t spare you from having to turn each page, but it is some seriously clever design. Read more
Why does a Translator need to be a Linguist?
What makes a professional linguist?
For starters, linguists:
- Are bilingual (or multi-lingual) speakers; not just capable in another language but fluent
- Have advanced knowledge of the technical aspects of language, possess an understanding of sociolinguistics, which is the understanding of speakers’ backgrounds (socioeconomic group, degree of education, age, etc.) based on how they speak.
- Maintain specialization in a certain area such as legal translations, medical, IT/Telco, automotive, etc.
- Have experience doing professional translations
So, it is one thing to be bilingual or ‘fluent’ in the language, but to understand the underlying message and intent of the words is something much deeper altogether.
When it comes to translating, it’s the little things that count.
Too many companies, not anticipating the sometimes subtle differences between countries and continents, send their products abroad without sufficient prior research. Later, they wonder why the sales results don’t match expectations.
Here’s a collection of real-life mistakes and some examples of machine translation, a technology that isn’t quite capable of all that’s often claimed for it. Read more
Why One Can’t Trust Online Translation Tools
In the past several years there appeared a lot of online translation tools that offer from simple phrases to the whole website translation into multiple languages. One of them is Google Translate, which, in comparison to other language translation tool, claims to use a “statistical translation system for the language pairs” instead of the rule-based approach that “requires a lot of work to define grammar and vocabularies.”
What the company actually means with their technology is that they “feed the computer billions of words of text, both monolingual text in the target language, and aligned text consisting of examples of human translations between the languages. We then apply statistical learning techniques to build a translation model.”
Top 10 Languages to translate your Website into!
When you’re looking to expand your market share and present your products to the broader international audience you have to do your homework in regards to your target audience. Knowing what are the fastest growing regions in the world will help you to position your website correctly and tap into the right markets.
Transl8 is going to the E3 Expo in June 15-17!
Transl8 is going to the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in LA!