De Dragones y el reconocimiento de voz, sus brujos y aprendices

Tot i que tan sols els utilitzen una minoria de traductors professionals, els sistemes de Reconeixement Automàtic de Parla (RAP) tenen un gran potencial si s'integren de manera efectiva en els fluxos de treball professionals. Al Centre d'Estudis de Traducció de la Universitat de Leeds s'ha elaborat recentment un qüestionari dirigit a traductors professionals que utilitzen RAH. Aquest qüestionari ha donat resultats molt interessants en relació amb, entre d'altres coses, la percepció que tenen els traductors sobre l'efecte del RAP en la qualitat de la traducció, la productivitat i el flux de treball per tal d'avaluar els avantatges i inconvenients del ús d'aquesta tecnologia. El qüestionari ha mostrat que els avantatges superen els inconvenients, avantatges que la majoria dels traductors professionals s'estan perdent per no adoptar aquesta tecnologia.Despite being used by a minority of professional translators, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems do have a lot of potential for effective integration into professional workflows. A recent survey designed in the University of Leeds Centre for Translation Studies and conducted among professional translators using ASR has led to interesting findings regarding, among others, the influence of such technologies on the quality of the translated output, the productivity of professional translators, and the fine-tuning of workflows in order to account for the advantages and disadvantages of adopting ASR. The survey showed that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages and that professional translators are essentially missing out by not engaging with such technologies more.A pesar de que tan solo los utilizan una minoría de traductores profesionales, los sistemas de Reconocimiento Automático de Habla (RAH) tienen un gran potencial si se integran de manera efectiva en los flujos de trabajo profesionales. En el Centro de Estudios de Traducción de la Universidad de Leeds se ha elaborado recientemente un cuestionario dirigido a traductores profesionales que utilizan RAH. Este cuestionario ha arrojado resultados muy interesantes en relación con, entre otros aspectos, la percepción que tienen los traductores sobre el efecto del  RAH en la calidad de la traducción, la productividad y el flujo de trabajo con el fin de evaluar las ventajas e inconvenientes del uso de esta tecnología. El cuestionario ha mostrado que las ventajas superan a los inconvenientes, ventajas que la mayoría de los traductores profesionales se están perdiendo por no adoptar esta tecnología

Of Dragons and Speech Recognition Wizards and Apprentices

Despite being used by a minority of professional translators, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems do have a lot of potential for effective integration into professional workflows. A recent survey designed in the University of Leeds Centre for Translation Studies and conducted among professional translators using ASR has led to interesting findings regarding, among others, the influence of such technologies on the quality of the translated output, the productivity of professional translators, and the fine-tuning of workflows in order to account for the advantages and disadvantages of adopting ASR. The survey showed that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages and that professional translators are essentially missing out by not engaging with such technologies more.Tot i que tan sols els utilitzen una minoria de traductors professionals, els sistemes de Reconeixement Automàtic de Parla (RAP) tenen un gran potencial si s'integren de manera efectiva en els fluxos de treball professionals. Al Centre d'Estudis de Traducció de la Universitat de Leeds s'ha elaborat recentment un qüestionari dirigit a traductors professionals que utilitzen RAH. Aquest qüestionari ha donat resultats molt interessants en relació amb, entre d'altres coses, la percepció que tenen els traductors sobre l'efecte del RAP en la qualitat de la traducció, la productivitat i el flux de treball per tal d'avaluar els avantatges i inconvenients del ús d'aquesta tecnologia. El qüestionari ha mostrat que els avantatges superen els inconvenients, avantatges que la majoria dels traductors professionals s'estan perdent per no adoptar aquesta tecnologia.A pesar de que tan solo los utilizan una minoría de traductores profesionales, los sistemas de Reconocimiento Automático de Habla (RAH) tienen un gran potencial si se integran de manera efectiva en los flujos de trabajo profesionales. En el Centro de Estudios de Traducción de la Universidad de Leeds se ha elaborado recientemente un cuestionario dirigido a traductores profesionales que utilizan RAH. Este cuestionario ha arrojado resultados muy interesantes en relación con, entre otros aspectos, la percepción que tienen los traductores sobre el efecto del RAH en la calidad de la traducción, la productividad y el flujo de trabajo con el fin de evaluar las ventajas e inconvenientes del uso de esta tecnología. El cuestionario ha mostrado que las ventajas superan a los inconvenientes, ventajas que la mayoría de los traductores profesionales se están perdiendo por no adoptar esta tecnología

UmobiTalk: Ubiquitous Mobile Speech Based Learning Language Translator for Sesotho Language

Published ThesisThe need to conserve the under-resourced languages is becoming more urgent as some of them are becoming extinct; natural language processing can be used to redress this. Currently, most initiatives around language processing technologies are focusing on western languages such as English and French, yet resources for such languages are already available. The Sesotho language is one of the under-resourced Bantu languages; it is mostly spoken in Free State province of South Africa and in Lesotho. Like other parts of South Africa, Free State has experienced high number of migrants and non-Sesotho speakers from neighboring provinces and countries; such people are faced with serious language barrier problems especially in the informal settlements where everyone tends to speak only Sesotho. Non-Sesotho speakers refers to the racial groups such as Xhosas, Zulus, Coloureds, Whites and more, in which Sesotho language is not their native language. As a solution to this, we developed a parallel corpus that has English as source and Sesotho as a target language and packaged it in UmobiTalk - Ubiquitous mobile speech based learning translator. UmobiTalk is a mobile-based tool for learning Sesotho for English speakers. The development of this tool was based on the combination of automatic speech recognition, machine translation and speech synthesis

Multimodal E-learning: An empirical study

This empirical work aims to investigate the impact of using multimodal communication metaphors on e-learning systems’ usability, overall user experience and affective state. The study proposed a triple evaluation approach to avoid the problem of conventional assessment relying only on usability measurements of efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfactions. Usability in that sense refers only to the functionality and pragmatic side of the product and neglects other aspects of the system. Learning is a cognitive and repetitive task, requiring learners’ attention as well as their interest. Therefore, when delivering content, in addition to the pragmatic functionality, an e-learning system should provide a constructive overall user experience and positive affective state. Doing so will ensure user engagement, facilitate the learning process and increase learners’ performance. The impact of using five different communication metaphors was evaluated in three dimensions using the proposed approach. Within the usability dimension, the evaluation criteria involved measuring system efficiency, effectiveness, user satisfaction and learning performance. Within the user experience dimension, the evaluation criteria involved measuring pragmatic aspects of the user experience, the hedonic aspects of user experience in terms of stimulation as well as identification and the overall system attractiveness. Within the affective state dimension a self-assessments manikin technique was used in conjunction with biofeedback measurements, and users’ valence, arousal and dominance were measured. The study found that system attractiveness and the hedonic user experience had a profound impact on users’ learning performance and attitude toward the tested system. Furthermore, they influenced users’ views and judgement of the system and its usability. The communication metaphors were not equal in their influence within the evaluation criteria. Empirically derived guidelines were produced for the use and integration of these metaphors in e-learning systems. The outcome of the study highlights the need to use the triple evaluation approach in the assessment of e-learning interfaces prior to their release for better adoption and acceptance by end users