RantWoman is still digesting demos at the Microsoft #ability Summit.
In particular, RantWoman is interested in the translator demoed for Powerpoint and Skype. RantWoman wants to think wow gee whiz. Really.
RantWoman wants to think this, but questions also leap to mind.
The demo mentioned that school principals are trying this capability to communicate with parents who speak several languages. RantWoman would be VERY interested to learn: is this being done in contexts where there is careful evaluation of whether actual functional communication occurs?
RantWoman further notes that many users might find to useful to have
--an automated transcription window as well as the automated translation one. RantWoman also wonders about parallel audio tracks generated in this program. Following a spoken passage and a written version at the same time is used sometimes by people trying to learn a new language.
RantWoman also notes the design feature of being able to read a caption in a specific window, but with some audiences it is not reasonable to assume the people needing the interpretation even read in their own languages. RantWoman also guesses that the Star Trek level of automated voice translation is a ways off.
Another language specialist question: is there a way to load the translator with a corpus of terms in the source and target languages. RantWoman thinks quality of output matters and being able to professionally translate a glossary would vastly improve RantWoman's comfort level about this whole application of machine translation.
And for extra grins, if this tool is going to get demo'ed in an audience full of blind people. OF COURSE people should expect questions such as will it work with Braille displays? Will screen readers be able to find the caption window? RantWoman gives the demo team credit for an enthusiastic "We love impossible questions" at least.
Oh, and one more tirade in case RantWoman is going to get completely enthusiastic about replacing humans with machine translation:
bilingualism is good for brains
bilingualism is good for brains
bilingualism is good for brains
bilingualism is good for brains
Oh, and one definitely wants to measure that the machine option really is better than humans.
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