Telefonica Servicios Avanzados de Informacion SA is participating in a translation project being set up by the newly-formed Hilo Traductor SA. The new company’s aim is to offer a translation service that combines the best of man and machine, in order to translate texts quickly, accurately and at low cost to the client. Speaking to Computerworld Espana, Hilo Traductor’s managing director, Thierry Taddei, said the service was based on Fairfax, Virginia-based Globalink’s automatic translation software. Taddei said no automatic translation system was perfect, so Hilo Traductor complements this technology with a team of human correctors, currently 12, who work in two shifts. The software uses a number of general and specialist dictionaries – telecommunications, finance, legal and so on, depending on the type of translation required – while dictionaries can be compiled specifically for each client. Taddei emphasised the personalised nature of the service, since the software will take a note for future reference of any corrections made and it will also provide the required style and method of presentation for each customer. Hilo Traductor will seek a maximum degree of continuity with clients, which will enable the databases to be adjusted, while less and less time will be needed by a human corrector to look over the text, although Taddei insisted that this final stage will always be needed to polish the style. The project operates as follows: a Sun Microsystems Inc server is linked to a network of 80386 personal computers, using standard programs and packages for compatibility with the client’s tools; a second server sits at Telefonica Servicios’ premises and this is linked to an X.400 message handling system, which enables communication with other networks, including Iberpac, the Spanish public packet-switched network. X.400 was chosen because of its widespread use throughout the European Commission. Unix was selected as the operating system because the Globalink software was developed for this environment. Hilo Traductor is directing its service towards multinational computer companies, lawyers, solicitors, international publishing houses, to name but a few, and currently works with English, French, German and Spanish, with Russian in the offing. Taddei hopes the company will turn over around $39m in the first four to five years of operation.
