The translation business has come a long way since the US Central Intelligence Agency abandoned its Russian-to-Chinese translation machines in the late 1960s. Globalink Inc, the translation services and software specialist has launched new generation technology, codenamed Barcelona, to be available over the Internet. The latest service from the Fairfax, Virginia-based firm follows the launch last year of Power Translator and Power Translator Professional (CI No 2,617). Windows and Macintosh-based versions of the Professional translate documents in French, German and Spanish both to and from American English. At the moment each must go via English, making a French-to-German analysis prone to a greater margin of error, but the company says it is working on techniques for direct translation. The software does more than literal word-for-word translation. It accepts grammatical rules, but president Jim Lewis stressed it is not intended to teach people a foreign language, rather to be used as a document translator; it will give users the gist of a piece of text. Depending on content, the firm says, it is possible to achieve up to a 90% accuracy rate. Customers are issued with dictionaries containing 250,000 words and phrases, in two languages. Business and finance dictionaries are also provided free of charge, with further industry-specific dictionaries available. To increase accuracy of translations, users must continually add to their dictionaries to tailor them to their business. The new Internet service is the result of two years’ research and development and can be accessed through Globalink’s home page. Users paste, type or attach a file to be translated, identify the source and target languages, type in their electronic mail address and press send. The document is then directed to the Barcelona server to be analysed, translated and returned, normally within 24 hours. The entire process is automatic, requiring no human interaction. Globalink will take responsibility for collecting fees and will charge rates comparable to professional translators. As part of its beta test, Globalink is offering free trials of the service at its Web home page.
