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Simultaneous translation by computer is getting closer

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Ambrose Li
Ambrose Li  Identity Verified
カナダ
Local time: 17:03
英語
+ ...
I love that cartoon Jan 4, 2013

which basically says “will international relations get worse if this technology succeeds? Wil the earth be annihilated?”

Other problems aside, I find this paragraph the most amusing:

“One big difficulty when translating conversations is determining who is speaking at any moment. Mr Powell’s system does this not by attempting to recognise voices directly, but rather by running all the speech it hears through two translation engines simultaneously: English to Spanish,
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which basically says “will international relations get worse if this technology succeeds? Wil the earth be annihilated?”

Other problems aside, I find this paragraph the most amusing:

“One big difficulty when translating conversations is determining who is speaking at any moment. Mr Powell’s system does this not by attempting to recognise voices directly, but rather by running all the speech it hears through two translation engines simultaneously: English to Spanish, and Spanish to English. Since only one of the outputs is likely to make any sense, the system can thus decide who is speaking. That done, it displays the translation in the other person’s goggles.”

This means this technology will not work in places where speakers routinely mix words or even sentences from more than one language.
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Giuseppina Gatta, MA (Hons)
Giuseppina Gatta, MA (Hons)
英語 から イタリア語
+ ...
Yes, I believe that... Jan 4, 2013

... but I don't believe to the existence of "slowly speaking Spanish speakers"!

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
英国
Local time: 22:03
2008に入会
イタリア語 から 英語
Closer..... Jan 4, 2013

Simultaneous translation by computer is getting closer, in the same sense in which the earth is getting closer to the sun.

[Edited at 2013-01-04 21:17 GMT]


 
felicij
felicij  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:03
ドイツ語 から スロヴェニア語
+ ...
And the computer Jan 4, 2013

will be able to recognize accents, dialects and slangs. I haven't yet met a person that speaks perfect literary language...
And what about a stutterer?

Like Tom said, we will not live to see it substitute a real person.


 
Miroslav Jeftic
Miroslav Jeftic  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:03
2009に入会
英語 から セルビア語
+ ...
:) Jan 5, 2013

Let's see first a computer getting the usual, text translation right

 
Meta Arkadia
Meta Arkadia
Local time: 04:03
英語 から インドネシア語
+ ...
First things first Jan 6, 2013

Miroslav Jeftic wrote:
Let's see first a computer getting the usual, text translation right

No, I think the approach is right. Spoken language first. Linguistically, written language doesn't count. I even think that "converting" written text to spoken text before the translation followed by the reverse process would yield better results for documents. Can I patent this?

Cheers,

Hans (who strongly believes in MT)


 
Siegfried Armbruster
Siegfried Armbruster  Identity Verified
ドイツ
Local time: 23:03
英語 から ドイツ語
+ ...
追悼
I am tired of this story that did not really change in the last 20 years Jan 7, 2013

Let them sort out the small problems first, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FFRoYhTJQQ


 
Ambrose Li
Ambrose Li  Identity Verified
カナダ
Local time: 17:03
英語
+ ...
First things first Jan 7, 2013

Meta Arkadia wrote:

No, I think the approach is right. Spoken language first. Linguistically, written language doesn't count. I even think that "converting" written text to spoken text before the translation followed by the reverse process would yield better results for documents. Can I patent this?


Why would that be the case? Computationally, spoken speech is much harder than written language, so if we got the harder problem solved, of course the easier problem should be already solved, shouldn’t it?

And spoken speech might not be a problem for German or English, but just imagine the number of homophones you will (not can) run into when you deal with spoken Chinese.


 
ATIL KAYHAN
ATIL KAYHAN  Identity Verified
トルコ
Local time: 00:03
2007に入会
トルコ語 から 英語
+ ...
At the same time, Jan 7, 2013

Chaos by computer is getting closer.

 
Nigel Greenwood (X)
Nigel Greenwood (X)  Identity Verified
スペイン
Local time: 23:03
スペイン語 から 英語
+ ...
I'd love to see that... Jan 10, 2013

however, I coincide with some of my colleagues (the majority) in that computer technology cannot recognise all the small -but important- deviations in spoken language that are used by everyone. I mean the use of coined expressions, which do not even exist in dictionaries. I work as a simultaneous/consecutive interpreter for aviation related training courses. I can assure you, that with all the "small" yet significant expressions used in this field, no computer will be able to do the job.
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however, I coincide with some of my colleagues (the majority) in that computer technology cannot recognise all the small -but important- deviations in spoken language that are used by everyone. I mean the use of coined expressions, which do not even exist in dictionaries. I work as a simultaneous/consecutive interpreter for aviation related training courses. I can assure you, that with all the "small" yet significant expressions used in this field, no computer will be able to do the job.

Regards to all,

Nigel.
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Gudrun Wolfrath
Gudrun Wolfrath  Identity Verified
ドイツ
Local time: 23:03
英語 から ドイツ語
+ ...
Love that video, Siegfried. Jan 10, 2013

Thank you so much.
Gudrun


 
Kaspars Melkis
Kaspars Melkis  Identity Verified
英国
Local time: 22:03
英語 から ラトヴィア語
+ ...
no worries Jan 10, 2013

In ironic twist, Twitter uses humans in its "computation engine".

They pay peanuts, but it can work for Twitter as there is nothing critical going on. We are not talking about international commerce or law here.


 
Jacek Podkanski
Jacek Podkanski  Identity Verified
英国
Local time: 22:03
英語 から ポーランド語
+ ...
First things first Jan 10, 2013

Meta Arkadia wrote:

Miroslav Jeftic wrote:
Let's see first a computer getting the usual, text translation right

No, I think the approach is right. Spoken language first. Linguistically, written language doesn't count. I even think that "converting" written text to spoken text before the translation followed by the reverse process would yield better results for documents. Can I patent this?

Cheers,

Hans (who strongly believes in MT)


You can't patent this. I have realised it's the only way back in the nineties. I have seen a presentation on Google Tech Talks showing same idea. Translating phonemes instead of text simplifies grammar parsing a lot.


 
Meta Arkadia
Meta Arkadia
Local time: 04:03
英語 から インドネシア語
+ ...
Der Kurz Jan 10, 2013

Jacek Podkanski wrote:
I have realised it's the only way back in the nineties.

I got the idea when translating Kurzweil's The Age of Virtual Machines into Dutch in 2000. I mentioned it a couple of times on translator forums, but it was always met strong unbelief. Your response is the first positive one. On the concept, that is.

It's increasingly frustrating to talk about MT with colleagues anyway. Their denial of MT is probably ostrich policy. MT is going to stay, and it will get better. Fast. The only way to survive as a translator is to be a darned good writer. And then you'll still lose.

Cheers,

Hans


 
George Hopkins
George Hopkins
Local time: 23:03
スウェーデン語 から 英語
Serious problems Jan 11, 2013

Try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcsMDgfyV6I


 
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