Machine Translation for home and business users
Hubert Lehmann · 1995
Abstract: Based on the long-standing experience with the project Logic-Programm-ing based Machine Translation (LMT), IBM and the publisher von Rheinbaben & Busch have developed Personal Translator®, a machine translation system which is geared toward the needs of home and business users. From the point of view of technology, the challenge has been to make most of the functionality available to general users which was originally developed in a research environment and with professional users in mind. It will be explained how the market of MT for home and business users was perceived and what features were deemed necessary for such a system. The technology of LMT which in its core parts originates from M. McCord (IBM Research) will be outlined. It will then be shown how general users can be enabled to tailor a system such as Personal Translator to their needs, in particular how they can modify the vocabulary. A discussion of translation quality and its parameters will follow. Finally, an outlook will be given of what can be expected in future MT systems.