Language Difficulties in the Internet? Gone Again briefly ...

Communications technology has reduced barriers is the distance, but there was one last obstacle: language. So far only a growing business that anyone can be a multilingual interface. However, IBM researchers might be able to break down the 'wall' is.

"n.Fluent" IBM's

This multinational company now employs 100 staff on internal project called "n.Fluent", a play that could be interpreted 'memperfasih', ie an application for instant translation on various platforms.

"We have a website interface where another site's URL can be inserted and then the application automatically translates these sites," said head of translation technology in the laboratory of IBM's TJ Watson in New York, Salim Roukos, told CNN.

"We also have an application that you can pautkan web page so that when you visit is the pulldown menu to change the language. Ability to translate highly preferred sites of our customers, because once the site is translated, then all his links are also translated so you can browse the site foreign language with English.

Currently the software is still in development and could only use the IBM, but the intent of this project will be marketed. They also developed a version for chat and phone browser.

"n.Fluent" began in 2006 as one of 10 innovations sponsored by the leadership of Samuel J Palmisano of IBM. The company has decided that the language barrier is an important issue, both for global businesses and for companies that have foreign clients. So IBM is committed to solve this problem.

"The core technology is still in development, but sophisticated enough to be able to translate the various languages with a sharp," said Roukos.

IBM is not the only game that technological limitations were trying to break the language in cyberspace, because Google is now also developing applications that not only translate the site, but also a search on the internet.

Currently, Google only search for words in English on the internet and also requires input in English too, but the company hopes to be showing the site of any language on Internet users.

"Imagine if there are features in Internet searches that can translate a search query into the language and look to all the sites in the world," said Google's vice president, Marissa Mayer in The Daily Telegraph recently. "Then this translator feature the language you use to control the search results list, and even translate your site into the list."

Outside the virtual world, NEC is also developing tools Tele Scouter, with the hope that the conversation could go more smoothly. The tool presented November 2009 and, in the form of a headset and goggles, which can translate the conversation on vocals and displays a small display in the retina. This tool is still experimental models, but the NEC could be used later convinced the engineers to translate the manual.

Busy-busy adding the vocabulary

Expressions and jargon is a difficult problem for the translator software, then "n.Fluent" designed to learn from mistakes and add new terms in the IBM. Way, the project is open to all staff of IBM's 400,000 worldwide, and all the busy-busy contributing their knowledge to provide input on this project. Incentives sweetener to participate in this project expressed in the form of gifts and charitable funds, so more and bigger staffs participated the charity. This application interface has a small window in which staff can correct terms.

"Many IBM employees can be more than one language, so we can ask them for help to translate and improve the quality of this application," according to David Lubensky, IBM specialists to aspects of 'real time' the translator system.

IBM believes that this technology could help for the preparation of technical manuals. Translation sharp and fast for online guidance materials can reduce the number of callers at the customer service center, and it can save costs. And also "n.Fluent" can help multinational companies or those with overseas clients so that all documents be sent directly tailored language.

"So far we are pretty good for Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese," said Roukos, "It's more difficult for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, but we're working on it. It's not just the sentence structure, but how far the language is explicit . Chinese more contextual assumptions, and the sequence of words can also be changed. "

Although the development of 'keroyokan' is very effective for "n.Fluent" IBM's, but how many people work in isolation is also still needs to be addressed.

"There are two challenges," said Lubensky, "First, difficult to find a community that can survive a long and enthusiastic ... Second is to guarantee the quality of its contents. How useful feedback that? How many mistakes, and what impact?"

Any party that managed to capture market share, whether IBM, Google, or others who are also trying to bridge differences in language, translators must have a sophisticated application could make a big impact, and business people have to get ready. It seems the world will shrink again.