Technology-assisted Interpreting

TRanslation and Interpreting Technology Online. Proceedings of the Conference, 2021

Nowadays there is a pressing need to develop interpreting-related technologies, with practitioners and other end-users increasingly calling for tools tailored to their needs and their new interpreting scenarios. But, at the same time, interpreting as a human activity has resisted complete automation for various reasons, such as fear, unawareness, communication complexities, lack of dedicated tools, etc. Several computer-assisted interpreting tools and resources for interpreters have been developed, although they are rather modest in terms of the support they provide. In the same vein, and despite the pressing need to aiding in multilingual mediation, machine interpreting is still under development, with the exception of a few success stories. This paper will present the results of VIP, a R&D project on language technologies applied to interpreting. It is the ‘seed’ of a family of projects on interpreting technologies which are currently being developed or have just been completed at the Research Institute of Multilingual Language Technologies (IUITLM), University of Malaga.

The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research

Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of translation technology, which has achieved tremendous success in both academia and industry. Due to these rapid advances, it is clear that technology has already profoundly affected the way translation is produced. More recently, translation technology – ranging from translation-specific technologies such as MT to more general-purpose speech technologies and cloud computing – calls into question some of the assumptions about how, by whom, and to what level of quality translation should be done. Commercially viable translation today is almost entirely the computer-aided variety, given the ubiquitous use of computers in text production practices (O’Hagan, 2020).

SHS Web of Conferences

The article deals with the analysis of the potential of existing terminology support systems for simultaneous interpreting and the experience of their use in universities. Based on the study the possibilities of their use in the educational process of domestic institutions of higher education in the training of interpreters were identified. It is proposed to choose the software products InterpretBank, Interplex, Interpreter’s Help for training simultaneous interpreters. It has been found that the proposed programmes contribute to the students’ ability to create their own glossaries on specific subjects, fill them in in different ways and use them directly when interpreting. The feasibility of practising CAI tools in a specialised simultaneous interpreting laboratory has been proved.

Translation Journal, Vol 4, Issue 4, 2006

Translation software has been the subject of many authors in recent years. However, these studies lack a realistic professional approach because they are mainly focused on CAT tools, without mentioning other tools commonly used such as image editors or PDF tools. The aim of this paper is thus to overcome these shortcomings, presenting a quick overview of a wide variety of electronic tools for Windows which make the translation process easier and faster and of which translators should have a good command in order to satisfy today's market demands.

The spread of information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized the way we share in-formation. Collaborative tools have a great importance for teaching-learning activities, so as to assist in the dissemination of knowledge. In the area of education, the Brazilian Sing-Language translator or just Libras translator and interpreter is the main agent enabling the communication between teachers and Deaf students. This specialist needs to overcome different challenges, such as proficiency in the lan-guages they translate, interpretation techniques, history and deaf culture. They also must lead with to specific contents taught to the Deaf student during different disciplines. This paper presents the develop-ment of a collaborative tool called InterLib, which has as main objective the qualification of these pro-fessionals toward these specific contents through the socialization and dissemination of knowledge. Thus, in regards of the lack of specific technologies for this purpose, a mobile application was developed aim-ing at facilitating the interactivity and collaboration of the Libras interprets.

MA Thesis, 2023

This experimental study investigates the effect of using an automatic speech recognition (ASR)-enhanced computer-assisted interpreting (CAI) tool “Sight-Terp” on the performances of a group of participants in consecutive interpreting tasks. Sight-Terp, which is designed and developed by the author of this study, provides a digital note-pad, real-time speech translation, named entity recognition and highlighting, and automatic segmentation of a speech. The study employs a within-subjects repeated measures design to test participants' performances in two conditions (with and without Sight-Terp) and analyses their performances based on the criteria of accuracy and fluency. In seeking the significant difference between the accuracy ratios in two different conditions, accuracy was measured by the average of the number of accurately conveyed units of meaning (Seleskovitch, 1989). Fluency, on the other hand, was measured by calculating the total number of occurrences of disfluency markers such as false starts, frequency of filled pauses, filler words, whole-word repetitions, broken words, and incomplete phrases for each performance. Additionally, a follow-up qualitative survey is conducted to obtain participants' comparative responses and perceptions of the tool usage. The analysis and quantitative results of the study indicate that leveraging the ASR-integrated CAI tool Sight-Terp led to an enhancement in the accuracy of the participants' interpretations. However, this also resulted in a higher occurrence of disfluencies and elongated durations of interpretations. While the users experienced little difficulty while using the tool, the study outcomes also suggest potential areas of improvement and modifications that could further enhance the utility of the tool. The study aims to inform interpreting education and practice by highlighting the benefits and challenges of incorporating ASR technology in the interpreting process and offers practical suggestions for the future development of CAI tools for interpreters.

2018

Unlike other professions, the impact of information and communication technology on interpreting has been moderate so far. However, recent advances in the areas of remote, computer-assisted, and, most recently, machine interpreting, are gaining the interest of both researchers and practitioners. This volume aims at exploring key issues, approaches and challenges to the interplay of interpreting and technology, an area that is still underrepresented in the field of Interpreting Studies. The contributions to this volume cover topics in the area of computer-assisted and remote interpreting, both in the conference as well as in the court setting, and report on experimental studies.

Proceedings of EAMT 2005, Budapest, 2005

The Language Translation Interface (LTI) is a prototype developed for the Australian Defence Organisation. The aim is provide a single, simple, interface to a variety of MT tools and utilities for personnel who need to produce translations when they have no easy access to human translators. Now that the LTI has been demonstrated and trialled at several military exercises, we are gathering user requirements to further develop it as the Language Translation Tools Suite. This paper describes the functionalities of the LTI and reports on our experience with users during development, leading to future improvements.

cl.naist.jp

Man vs. Machine? Vol. I. Proceedings of XXth World Congress of the International Federation of Translators, 2014

The increasing use of language technologies has prompted an interest in their impact on cognitive processes and translation products. Potential issues related to human-machine interactions include working conditions, time and resource management, and emotional factors. Drawing on a large corpus of translation processes collected from professionals and students, we discuss the nature of translation as a cognitive and organizational activity. We argue that professional translators need to take increased ownership of language technology tools at every stage: in their development, their application, and their integration into organizational processes. This has implications for industry standards, models of translation expertise, and translation didactics.