Category Archives: Completed Projects

CATcymru

Completed Projects Terminology No Comments

The CATcymru demonstrator project was financed through A4B from the European Union ERDF fund and the Welsh Government and was operational between 2009 and 2011. Its purpose was to showcase and promote the use of translation technology within the translation industry in Wales and transfer knowledge of cutting edge research and development in the field from academia to industry. It demonstrated how the use of appropriate tools could improve the quality and speed of  translation processes.

What is CAT?

Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tools are the range of computing resources which can facilitate translation.  This includes:

  • Translation memory software
  • Terminology and vocabulary resources
  • Automatic pretranslation
  • Language proofing tools
  • File format validation tools
  • Accounting and workflow management tools
  • Prepare clear online demonstrators
  • Arrange workshops for businesses and individual translators
  • Create a National Terminology Portal on the web

What did the project achieve?

  • Produced a report “Improved Translation Tools for the Translation Industry in Wales” (see below)
  • Prepared online demonstrators of the technologies
  • Held workshops for businesses and individual translators on subjects including:
    • Translation Technology
    • Language Codes and Locales
    • Splitting Translation Memories
    • Improving Results and Cutting Costs
    • Translating and Bilingual Drafting
    • Creating Company Glossaries
    • Language Registers
  • Held a Conference on Translation Technology and the Digital Economy
  • Presentations at the National Eisteddfod (2010) and Association of Welsh Translators’ annual conference
  • Created guidelines for managing multilingual websites
  • Established the Welsh National Terminology Portal website
CATcymru_FinalReport_HE06fsp_Revised_EN

 

(Scroll through document for English)

RheoliGwefannauDwyieithog_ManagingMultilingualWebsites_CY_EN

SALT Cymru

Completed Projects Speech Technology No Comments

SALT Cymru took the form of two consecutive projects, the first a Feasibility Study and the second a network for companies and institutions interested in language technologies.

The SALT Cymru Network was financed through A4B from the European Union ERDF fund and the Welsh Government and was operational between 2009 and 2011. During this time it worked with a large numer of software companies and businesses in the Creative Industries sector as well as other bodies interested in furthering the Welsh economy through improving their use of these new technologies. This led to the establishment of the Welsh National Language Technologies Portal where tools and resources may be found to help companies and developers who want to inlcude the Welsh language in their products and services. A Wales Language Capability Cluster has also been established on LinkedIn so that everyone who’s interested in language technologies, policy, strategy and associated matters can keep in contact with each other.

What is SALT?

SALT (Speech and Language Technologies) include:

  • Speech technology
    (speech recognition, speaker recognition, text-to-speech techniques,
    speech coding and enhancement, multilingual speech processing)
  • Written language input
    (optical character recognition, handwriting recognition)
  • Language analysis, understanding and generation
    (grammar, semantics, parsing, discourse and dialogue)
  • Document processing
    (text and term extraction, interpretation, summarization)
  • Machine translation
    (including computer-aided translation, multilingual information retrieval)
  • Multimodality
    (gesture and facial movement recognition, visualisation of text data)
  • Language resources
    (written and spoken corpora, lexica, terminology)
  • Evaluation
    (of all of the above)

What did the project achieve?

  • Established the first ever network in the field of Speech and Language Technologies for Wales to bring stakeholders together.
  • Laid the groundwork for further research in the field of Speech and Language Technologies for Wales.
  • Online presentations and demonstrations of SALT technologies for Welsh industry.
  • Seminars held for businesses on various aspects of SALT.
  • One to one sessions held to introduce businesses to SALT and discuss funding options.
  • Conference on Terminology and other Language Resources for Welsh Industry held  including a presentation by IBM’s head of terminology, Kara Warburton.
  • Presentations in the 2010 National Eisteddfod and at the Welsh Association of Translator’s annual conference.
  • Guidelines for numerical forms in Welsh-language software produced.

SALT Cymru is now incorporated within the Language Capability Cluster.

SALT-Cymru-_HE-06-KEP-1002_-Project-Closure-Report

 

welsh-numerical-forms

GALLU Project: further speech recognition development

Completed Projects Speech Recognition No Comments

The aim of the GALLU project was to further develop the speech recognition resources available for the Welsh language.  The project was funded by a grant from the Welsh Government and S4C.  The project built on the foundations laid by the Basic Speech Recognition Project of 2008-9. The following aims were acheied during the project:

  • design and develop a collection of prompts that contain all of the phonemes of the Welsh language
  • collect, through crowdsourching, recordings of these prompts being pronounced by a large number of varied people in order to create a new Welsh speech corpus. 
  • use elements of the corpus to train open code speech recognition software (Julius) and HTK to control the movement of a toy robot on a Raspberry Pi.
  • prepare the corpus for future developments with Welsh dictation systems including creating a typology of language registers with appropriate metadata on a trained corpus which has been tagged with the register characteristics.
  • create a plug-in which detects and confirms the default language of the browser in order to Welshify the crowdsourcing pages and other webpages. 

Participation

Although the project has formally ended, we continue to collect voices through the Paldaruo app for future use. Welsh speakers of any background or proficiency are invited to participate by downloading the app and reading aloud the displayed prompts so that speech recognition software can be trained to understand Welsh.

paldaruo

iTunes  Google Play

TILT Cymru : Training in Languages and Translation

Completed Projects Education and Training No Comments

The TILT Cymru Project ran until June 2015 and was part of the Work Based Learning programme, funded by the EU’s Convergence European Social Fund, through the Welsh Government. Its purpose was to improve the modern language and Translation skills of SMEs in Wales.

The modern languages included click on the subject to view the course specification

Training in other languages (e.g. Catalan, Italian) was also  provided. Participants did not need any previous qualifications to attend training, as they were all available at beginners level. Welsh was also available at intermediate and higher levels, including confidence boosting courses for fairly fluent speakers.

These courses were tailored to the needs of SMEs who needed to communicate with their customers, or businesses who wanted to export into foreign markets. Each course was a 10 credit module, accredited by Bangor University. A Bangor University certificate was awarded to every participant who successfully completed a course.

The translation course was intended for graduates who have a degree or equivalent experience, and included modules from the Bangor University MA course in Translation Studies. 2 modules worth 30 credits each were offered. If both modules were successfully completed, a Bangor University Post-graduate Certificate in Translation Studies and Translation Technology was awarded. This course was suitable for those already working as self-employed translators or in private companies. It was also suitable for languages officers in companies, or workers who need to develop their translation skills as part of their professional development.

The two translations modules were :-
a)Creating a Translation Portfolio Module LWC 4702
b)Translation in Practice Module LWC 4701

All these courses were designed to fit in with the work schedules of busy companies, with an emphasis on face to face sessions at times that were convenient to the company, as well as support and further resources offered by distance learning methods.

Also please check out the following case studies :-

1) Cymorth Llaw – Introductory Welsh, Introductory Welsh Plus, Welsh: Confidence building

2) Anheddau – Introductory Welsh, Introductory Welsh Plus, Welsh: Confidence building

3)Beacon Climbing Centre – Introductory Welsh , Introductory Welsh Plus

4)Celticos Ltd – Introductory German, Introductory German plus

5)Ian Parri – Translation in Practice, Creating a Translation Portfolio (Welsh Medium Only Case Study)

6)Catrin Roberts – Translation in Practice, Creating a Translation Portfolio (Welsh Medium Only Case Study)

7)Kathryn Sharp – Translation in Practice, Creating a Translation Portfolio (Welsh Medium Only Case Study)

8)Gwenlli Haf Evans – Translation in Practice, Creating a Translation Portfolio (Welsh Medium Only Case Study)

esf

Basic Speech Recognition for Welsh Project

Completed Projects Speech Recognition No Comments

The Basic Speech Recognition for Welsh Project was a small pilot project funded by the Welsh language Board. The project developed a speech-controlled calculator to highlight the potential for Welsh-language speech recognition. The resulting software was a laboratory prototype, rather than a product that was ready for the market. The research was incorporated into the GALLU and Seilwaith Cyfathrebu Cymraeg projects.