Twitter users inadvertently improve automated translations
Just in time for the final stages of the world cup, some smart researches involved with machine translation work and research in relation to translation, came a with a novel way to improve their service through the wisdom of the crowd.
Analysing tweets during early stages of the world cup, researchers in Dublin City University, along with Microsoft Research at the Centre for Global Intelligent Content in Dublin, developed a live tweet translation streaming service in time for the 2014 World Cup’s final stages.
Silicon Republic reported, “The 20-strong research team calls its live FIFA World Cup translation service ‘Brazilator’ and, with it, fans can follow what’s being said by supporters in 24 of the 32 original competing countries.”
‘Brazilator’ tracked tweets in Irish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Croatian, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Farsi and even included ‘sentiment analysis’ for each team to assess if the Twitterverse reacted positively or negatively to a team’s performance.
Automated translation services can have hilarious, inconvenient and downright damaging effects in corporate translation or in live interpreting for events and conferences, however, when it’s in the name of fun and sport on twitter for such a global event, it’s definitely a great way to get more people connecting.