Breakthrough in Computer-Aided Translation Wins ?German Future Prize 2001?

A team of German researchers has taken global communications to the next level with the development of a new simultaneous translator. Scientists at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence [DFKI] at the University of Saarbr?ken have developed the world?s first translation computer that ?understands? languages in selected topics in German, English and Japanese. The translator was developed as part of a 20-year interdisciplinary language technology project called ?Verbmobil.? The Verbmobil system recognizes spoken input, analyzes and translates it, and ?speaks? the translation. A central server makes the data service instantly accessible from anywhere via cell phone. The project is a joint initiative involving IT companies, universities, and research centers funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology and by industrial partners.

For years the Saarbr?ken team, led by Wolfgang Wahlster, former president of the World Artificial Intelligence Association in the US, has been recording millions of human voice bites and developing a translation program based on them. The biggest challenges were grammar and homonyms. For example, the word ?bank? has three meanings in German: park bench, databank, or a place to store money. The current prototype gets around these issues by restricting use to travel, conference and contract topics (e.g., a business person in New York can schedule appointments in Frankfurt or make hotel reservations in Tokyo in the respective local languages). As Wahlster admitted, ?The device can?t yet translate sweet nothings or philosophical elaborations.

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