Say It For Me!

Team Members

Name: Huiqi Wang (Angel)Major: CSE and ECONInterest: Travel, outdoor

sports

Name: Yiqing WangMajor: CSE and ARTInterest: Cooking, Swimming

Team MembersName: David MahMajor: CSEAnime, Tennis,Longboarding, Linux

Name: Aswin PranamMajor: InformaticsInterests: Basketball, Reading

Concept MappingTranslation:

Difficulties in automated translation

1. different languages2. need translations quickly3. multiple translations -> choose(how do you know what is correct)4. translate checking -> correctness (the same as i just wrote above)

People

5. ethnicity6. Pronunciation (British/American)7. Target users8. communication

How technology can fit in

9. download10. recognition

Forms of communication

1. Picture2. Video3. audio

Situations one might need another language

4. Tourism5. Language Study6. Business

Language Concepts

7. Reading8. Speaking9. Listening10. Writing

Translation Tools

11. http://lang-8.com/ (Social Community where people correct each others’ writing)

12. Crowd sourced AI (community/user translate?)13. Translate engine (google translate)14. Grammar correction

Concept Mapping Diagram

Prioritization MatrixInterest Substantial Feasibility

What makes a 'correct' translation?

Yes Yes (Translation isn’t one to one -- there are many ways to translate)

?? (Hard to deal with but not impossible)

more interactive methods to communicate in other languages

Yes Yes (The task of bringing mobile technology to this space)

Yes (The whole point of mobile technology)

Internet connection for online voice translation from the crowd

Yes Yes!!! (Related to mobile technology)

Yes (assume phone service)

Need translations fast Yes Yes (A balance of technology, speed, and correctness)

Yes (balancing act)

Automated Translation No Yes (unsolved problem in the universe)

No (Google has proven lousy)

Prioritization MatrixInterest Substantial Feasibility

Translation Tools for Business People

No Yes (Business users need perfect reliability, which is extremely hard to offer)

Yes(Same as substantial)

Tools to aid to learning foreign language

Yes Yes (Some exist already -- certain advanced translation features can be more useful)

Yes

Creating communities of translators

Yes Yes(Social Network creation is difficult for chicken/egg problem)

Yes

Top 3 Problems1. What Makes a 'Correct' Translation?

Any translating tool needs to take culture and context into account, or translations won't actually be 'correct'.

2. Few Ways to Talk Across a Language BarrierImages, Audio, and Video can be used to convey translation information and concepts. (which could only possibly work using technology)

Top 3 Problems3. Translations are needed quickly (often

in real-time)While technology can be used to transfer translations/information very quickly, designing a system to deliver good translations is a balancing act between speed and correctness. It's not worth sending translations instantly if they are lousy.

Top Problem - Overview

What Makes a 'Correct' Translation?Any translating tool needs to take culture and context into account, or translations won't actually be 'correct'.

This is significant because a translation that doesn't accurately reflect the original idea is useless (possibly harmful).

Stakeholders involve anybody who needs to communicate across a language barrier, whether for casual or formal situations.

Precedents? Lousy automated translation tools. Social translation communities (not realtime translation). Handheld Electronic Dictionaries.

What Makes This The Top ProblemWhat Makes a 'Correct' Translation?

Reliability in translations is why there isn't a true prevalent real-time translation solution.

There are a few solutions to smaller relevant problems, but the systems are either not advanced enough to be used in real-time or not reliable enough for anyone to want to use.

SignificanceWhat reliable translation can bring:

• Verification of existing translations observed in the world.

• A lack of frustration/awkwardness from bad translations

• Trustworthy communication across a language barrier

Stakeholders- Tourists- Language learners- Business people- Developers/designers- Native speakers- Foreign speakers- Translators (crowdsourcing)

Competition I - How people currently handle real-time translationElectronic Dictionaries (eg. Casio) are soldto a wide range of users who need a "pocket dictionary" for popular languages.

Using an electronic dictionary is slow and unreliable. Translations are on a word by word basis, which does not deliver true accuracy based on situational context. The choices of languages are limited, and options (languages, sound, writing pad) can be expensive.

Competition II － Automated Translation Tools

Google Translate is a machine-translation service provided by Google Inc. to translate written text from one language into another.

Google Translate is fast and supports many languages, but its word-to-word translation makes the result unreliable. Often people take [incorrect] translations for granted, which can be harmful.

Competition III - Social Translation Communities

Lang-8 is an example of a online community of translators. People translate and correct each others' writing for the sake of learning/study.

Lang-8 is irrelevant to real-time translations(this would be awesome), but their existence makes for a good proof of concept that people can offer to translate for each other.