Machine Translation.(Questionnaire 2 and questionnaire 3)

There are other research topics apart from Speaker Recognition and Computational Semantics. One that I think is really interesting is Machine Translation. This term has its origin in the 17th century when René Descartes (French philosopher, mathematician…) proposed a universal language. He wanted that the same ideas in different languages had the same symbol.

In these times, Machine Translation or MT is a field of computational linguistics that investigate how to translate text or speech from one natural language to another using computer software. It has to be said that the invention is extremely useful in areas where formal language is used such as legal or administrative documents. Nevertheless, when it is a colloquial or familiar text, the machine normally makes lots of mistakes because it translates the text word by word. We can see an example in the following picture.

Many computer scientists, linguists… have tried to improve this machine with more or less success. We could mention Hans Uszkoreit who I have talked about in a previous article. He worked in a machine translation project while he was staying at Austin. Moreover, there have being carried out several projects all over the world. For example, one in the National Centre for Language Technology in Ireland or the Norwegian-English Machine Translation in Norway.

References:

• Machine translation (2009, June, 12) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved: 17:00, June 20, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_translation
• Logon Norwegian-English Machine Translation (2007, November, 30). Retrieved: 18:34, June 20, 2009, from http://www.emmtee.net/
• NCLT Research Groups (2009, April, 15) In National Centre for Language Technology. Retrieved: 9:50, June 19, 2009, from http://www.nclt.dcu.ie/

Computational Semantics and Speaker Recognition. (Q2)

Nowadays, computer scientists are concerned about many topics. However, there are some issues which are more discussed. Computational Semantics has a great importance and there have been done lots of projects in this field. But what does Computational Semantics mean? Well, first of all, it has to be said that to understand it you have to know terms like semantics, linguistics, natural language … Wikipedia defines it like this:

“Computational Semantics is the study of how to automate the process of constructing and reasoning with meaning representations of natural language expressions. It consequently plays an important role in natural language processing and computational linguistics.”

In other words, the aim of this multidisciplinary field is to find techniques to write automatically semantic representations for expressions of human language. Indeed, we will be able to perform inference thanks to these representations.

Another important research topic is Speaker Recognition, this happens when the computer tries to recognize who is speaking. Mainly, it uses the features of speech that everybody has different like anatomy (size of the mouth, shape of the throat…) and learned behavioural patterns (speaking style, voice pitch…). It is similar to Speech Recognition. Nevertheless, it has nothing to do with that. Speech Recognition is the fact of recognizing what is being said.

Finally, I would like to say that one particularly project sticks in my mind with regard to speaker recognition. The name of the project is Secure Access Front-End and scientists are trying to improve the services access security without increasing the service complexity.

References:                                                                                                

• Computational Semantics (2009, March, 9) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved: 9:00, June, 19, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_semantics
• Computational Semantics Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos. In The University of Edinburgh School of Informatics. Retrieved: 10:15, June, 19, from http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/
• Speaker Recognition (2009, June, 12) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved: 23:10, June, 19, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_recognition
• Projects (2009, June, 9) In Language Technology World. Retrieved: 23:20, June 19, from http://www.lt-world.org/

List of research topics mentioned in major sites on Human Language Technologies. (Questionnaire 2)

After having surfed among a wide range of sites on Human Language Technologies, these are the research topics that I have selectionated:

1. Language Checking.

2. Computational Semantics.

3. Machine Translation.

4. Computer Aided Language Learning.

5. Semántica, pragmática y discurso.

6. Resolución de la ambigüedad léxica.

7. Multimodality.

8. Natural Language Parsing.

9. Speech Retrieval.

10. Spoken Dialogue Systems.

11. Speaker Recognition.

References:

• Projects (2009, June, 9) In Language Technology World. Retrieved: 9:30, June 19, 2009, from http://www.lt-world.org/
• NCLT Research Groups (2009, April, 15) In National Centre for Language Technology. Retrieved: 9:50, June 19, 2009, from http://www.nclt.dcu.ie/
• Objetivos. In Sociedad Española para el Procesamiento del Lenguage Natural. Retrieved 10:07, June 19, 2009, from http://www.sepln.org/
• Main Conference Program (2006-2007) In ACL 2007. Retrieved 10:20, June 19, 2009 from http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/acl2007/

                          

 

Hans Uszkoreit (Q1)

Hans Uszkoreit was born in Rostock (Germany) in 1950. He studied Linguistics and Computer Science at the Technical University of Berlin. While he was studying there, he worked as an editor and writer for the magazine Zitty. It has to be said that this magazine was co-founded by him. Then, he was given a Fulbright Grant and continued his studies at the University of Texas at Austin. The Fulbright Grant was created by J. William Fulbright (senator of Arkansas in the period of the Second World War) and the reason for creating this educational help was to make inhabitants from Europe and the United States understand one another better. It was also a good way to encourage tolerance and understanding between countries.

Returning to Hans Uszkoreit’s stay at Austin, not only did he study but he also worked in a machine translation project at the Linguistics Research Center. Finally, in 1984 he received the Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Texas. Since then, he has been doing several things. Indeed, he is member of a wide range of associations (European Academy of Sciences, European Network of Language and Speech …)

Nowadays, the scholar is a Professor of Computational Linguistics at Saarland University. Apart from serving as Scientific Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) where he heads the DFKI Language Technology Lab. Moreover, he has written a lot of publications and he has also written poems in English and in German. In conclusion, Hans Uszkoreit is an excellent professor and researcher, so people should take him into account when talking about linguistics and computer science.
References:

• Hans Uszkoreit (2009, May, 25) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved : 8:00, June 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Uszkoreit
• Hans Uszkoreit Short Curriculum Vitae. In Hans Uszkoreit Personal Homepage. Retrieved 9:08, June 10, 2009, from http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/~hansu/bio.html
• Hans Uszkoreit (2009) In Videolectures. Retrieved 10:00, June 10, 2009, from http://videolectures.net/hans_uszkoreit/

Yorick Wilks (Q1)

If you are involved in the world of computer science, you should know about Yorick Wilks.  He is a computer scientist who was born in the United Kingdom in the year 1939. He is married and has four children. Firstly, he went to the Torquay Boys’ Grammar School, which is a prestigious single sex school situated in Devon. Then, the scholar went to the University of Cambridge where he received his M.A. and his PhD in the year 1968.

          

But why is Yorick Wilks so important in this field? Well, the answer is quite easy. First of all, he has done a lot of projects in relation to the understanding of natural language content by computers. Moreover, he has written several publications throughout his life and his career is extraordinary.  Nowadays, he is a professor at the University Of Sheffield, where he directs the Institute for Language, Speech and Hearing.

Finally, it has to be said that there is an excellent file about him in Wikipedia where one can read about his biography or his main publications, apart from other things. Do not hesitate to visit it.

References:

•  Yorick Wilks (2009 May 20) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:55, 20 May, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorick_Wilks
• Yorick Wilks (2009) In The University Of Sheffield. Retrieved 11:30, 20 May, 2009, from http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/researchassociates.cfm?id=31
• Yorick Wilks (2009 May 19). In The University Of Sheffield. Retrieved 12:00, 20 May,2009, from http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~yorick/cv.html
• Internet Companions (2008 February 22). In Youtube. Retrieved 22:31, 20 May, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wYnY53KfbA

Research Centres for Human Language Technologies.(Q1)

There are lots of research centres for Human Language Technologies all over the world. For instance, I am going to explain the meaning of Human Language Technology. It is also called Language Technology or Natural Language Processing. Mainly, it is a field of computer science and its aim is the interaction between machines and people.

With regard to the research centres, they do a great job with their projects. I would like to mention some of them that have called my attention. To begin with, there is one in South Africa which is called Meraka Institute. This African Institute claims that Human Language Technology can help all the people, from illiterate farmers to scientists. They are carrying out a project that involves a lot of researchers who study how to develop this technology to benefit the people of southern Africa.

HLT Group- Meraka Institute.

Another important research centre is the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. They work for improving language technology with the help of novel computational techniques. Basically, they are investigating in three different areas: Information and Knowledge Management, Document Production and Natural Communication.

Finally, this last research centre is carrying out many projects at the moment such as DILIA (The Intelligent Library Assistant) or ConQA (Controlled Semantic- based Question Answering) apart from its commercial activities like the indexing of German and English texts using a software package.

References:

• Human Language Technologies (HLT) (2007) In Meraka Institute. Retrieved: 12:00, April, 14, from http://www.meraka.org.za/index.htm
• DFKI-LT-About (2009) In German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved: 13:38, April, 14, from http://www.dfki.de/lt/index.php
• Language technology (2008, April, 1) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:34, April, 14, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Language_Technology

 

Web 2.0

Basically, the Web 2.0 is a new style of using the Internet. Before now, the Internet was like a big library that had a lot of information. However, nowadays it is seen as a new means of communication. It is a place where people can share information. Moreover, the web is based in communities of users where they share information with the help of blogs, wikis and social-networking sites.

In times of the web 1.0 the user only downloaded  finished webs. But now apart from doing that ,they also do personal contents. For that reason we can say that with web 2.0 the user is more active. There are several causes that can explain this involvement of the user with the web: the increasingly number of users, the broadband…So the web 2.0 is not a technology, is an attitude from the users.

 

WordPress is one of the blogs that people use for

sharing information.

 The  man who established this term was Tim O’ Reilly in the year 1993. He wanted the people to know that the content was not text, it was a way of interact between the users. Nevertheless,It was not after the O’ Reilly Media web 2.0 conference in 2004 that the concept became notable. According to Tim O’ Reilly:

                                                 “ Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform”

  References:

•  Web 2.0.(2009 February 7) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:00 , February 7,2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
• ¿Qué es la web 2.0?(2007 , August 03) In youtube. Retrieved 16:25, February 7,2009,from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJOhQ3z5Q0
• ¿Qué es la web 2.0?(2005, october 27)In maestrosdelweb. Retrieved 16:45, February 7, 2009, from http://www.maestrosdelweb.com/editorial/web2/

 

 

Hypertext

Mainly, when we talk about hypertext we talk about a text that lead us to another text which is linked to the first one. We are transported from one page to another by hyperlinks. Not only do these links show us another text but they can also show us a video, song, web page…related with the subject.

Hypertext has renewed the way the user has to read an article, has improved  the way of getting information and has finished with the limitations of written text. Nowadays, with hypertext we do not have to read the whole article, we just read what its useful for us and click on an hyperlink to continue reading about what we are interested. The user read the information in a non-lineal way and each user can read the information in the way he want. For example, while I am writing this article, I am searching the data which is going to help me surfing from web to web but maybe another person may do it in a different order.

 

 This is the way we read with hypertext.All the web is connected.

There are two men extremely connected with hypertext who are  Ted Nelson and Vannevar Bush.Vannevar Bush wrote an article that established the basis of the hypertext in his article”As We May Think” and Ted Nelson coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia.

Finally, People has to do an effort and try to get used to hypertext. It is not like written text, you have to be more attentive to ideas in order to be able to catch the specific information you want.

 References:

• Hypertext(2009 February,4)In wikipedia , The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:20,  February 6, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext
• ¿Qué es el hipertexto?In UCM Retrieved  21:35 February 6, 2009 from http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/hipertul/deermer.html
• Hipertexto: Qué es y cómo utilizarlo para escribir  en medios electrónicos.(2009 February,1)In Eduteka.Retrieved 21:42, February 6,2009 from http://www.eduteka.org/Hipertexto1.php

RSS

The Internet is developing in a very fast way. There are appearing new instruments that help us to use it more easily and faster. One of these instruments is RSS. This instrument is a format based in XML and allows you to get up-to-date  informationwithout having to go to all the blogs you normally go. It has to be said that there exist three types of format RSS( Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication) and his initials acquire a different meaning depending which one you are using.

RSS SYMBOL

RSS has changed the way we use Internet. Before now, we had to go to every single blog to see if there was new information.It was frustrating when there were no changes and we have gone there for nothing. However, nowadays the news come to us.The RSS has helped us to earn time and not wasting it .

But how does RSS work?If you want to use RSS, you will have to follow these steps.Firstly, you need a RSS reader like Google reader(there are more RSS readers but this is a good one). Then, you create an account in Google reader and go to your favourite blogs. Finally, when you are in the blogs you only have to copy the feedsand add them to Google reader. You will only have to go to Google reader to see if there have been changes in your favourite blogs.

This method is very useful and more and more people are starting to use it. Try to get used  to the symbol of the photograph because you are going to see  it many times.

References:

• RSS.(2009 January,31) In wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.Retrieved 12:07, February 3, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)
• Guía fácil del RSS.(2006 March, 26) In Geocities. Retrieved 13:54, February 3, 2009 from http://es.geocities.com/rss_guia_facil/index.html
• ¿ Qué es el RSS y comó es útil?(2009 January, 19)In Youtube. Retrieved 14:42, February 3,2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lL_Nv7oObY
• Video: RSS in Plain English .(2007 April, 23) In commoncraft.Retrieved 14:50, February 3,2009 from http://www.commoncraft.com/store-item/rss_plain_english

Who is Kevin Kelly?

When it refers about cultural change, Kevin Kelly is your man. He was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1952 and has worked as a writer, photographer and conservationist. Nowadays, he lives in California, has married and has three children. Despite only going one year to university and then gave it up, his articles have appeared in such important newspapers as the New york times, Esquire, The Economist.. 

Kevin Kelly in his house of San Francisco.

Kevin Kelly has done lots of things during his life: founded Walking Journal, director of the Point foundation, editor of Whole Earth Review…However, in my opinion, the striking anecdote is that his book(Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World)was read before the start of filming The Matrix by the principal actors of  the film.

But why am I talking about Kevin Kelly apart from being an excellent expert in digital culture?. The reason is that he has done a speech predicting the following 5,000 days of the Internet, and describes very well what is going to happen. Mainly, he explains that all the electronical  devises  will change into one machine. Not only does he explain that but also that there will be an increasingly contribution of users and that it will appear the semantic web. Finally, he says that the web will be better and it will be a renewed one.

Kevin Kelly during his speech predicting the next  5,000 days of the Internet.

References:

• Kevin Kelly (editor).  (2009, January 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12: 08, January 17, 2009,  from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kelly_(editor)
• Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web.(July 29, 2008 ) In youtube. Retrieved 13:09,January 17,2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDYCf4ONh5M
• Transcription about Kevin Kelly’s speech.(2008, November 12)In wiki. Retrieved 14:23, January 17,2009 from http://wiki.littera.deusto.es/en/index.php/Ist0809/KevinKelly5000days
• Kevin Kelly: author, editor, publisher.In ted. Retrieved 14:56, January 17, 2009 from http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/kevin_kelly.html