Danish Government Receives Award for National Speech Recognition Initiative Powered By Philips SpeechMagic

Speech Technology Magazine

Danish Government Receives Award for National Speech Recognition Initiative Powered By Philips SpeechMagic
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060914005466&newsLang=en

VIENNA, Austria--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 2006--

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) (Amsterdam:PHI) announced today that the government of the Kingdom of Denmark has received the Most Innovative Solution (MIS) Award from Speech Technology Magazine for its implementation of speech technologies. The government has successfully deployed the Philips speech recognition software SpeechMagic as part of a national initiative to improve the accessibility of information to its population, including people with disabilities. The Danish government's initiative comprises three major projects including the live subtitling of TV shows, consumer speech recognition software and speech recognition-based publishing of parliamentary speeches.
"Denmark has a population of 5.4 million people. Thanks to the public-private partnership between the government and companies like Philips, speech recognition software is now available to all Danes. With this unique initiative Denmark is using state-of-the-art technology to give its people access to information and computers without barriers," said Helge Sander, the Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation. The Minister also pointed out that "many other countries with small populations, such as Sweden and Norway, have already expressed interest in following the Danish example."
"The Speech Solutions Awards recognize this year's best in speech technology innovation and implementation," says David Myron, editor-in-chief of Speech Technology Magazine. "Award recipients should be proud to be part of an elite group that is paving the way for others to follow."
By subtitling TV shows the hearing impaired, which total 10 percent of the population, can follow important political events and current affairs programs live on television. In addition, speech recognition software for home PC users will reduce barriers related to the usage of PCs, benefiting elderly people and persons with physical disabilities. The Danish parliament is also planning to use speech recognition in its Official Report publishing system to publish 85% of all reports on the Internet within two or three hours after a speech has been held.
The Danish speech recognition initiative has been realized in a close public-private partnership involving Philips Speech Recognition Systems, Prolog Development Center A/S and Max Manus A/S. The initiative has received DKK 6.000.000 (approx. EUR 780,000) in public funding.

Lost in translation?

Bangla Cinema

Lost in translation?

http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/09/14/d609141503135.htm
Bina D'Costa

ONE of the subtexts of Sofia Coppola's 2003 film Lost in Translation is to remind us in a very witty but subtle manner of the accuracy or truth being lost in the complex processes of crossing beyond one language to the other. And this is the context of my discussion today.
I love to watch movies and documentaries from all parts of the world. And it is always a delight to watch Bangladeshi productions. Just to mention a few, Abdul Jabbar Khan's Mukh o Mukhosh as the first film from Bangladesh, Shubash Dutta's Dumurer Phool, Boshundhora, Arunodoyer Agnishakhyi, Alamgir Kabir's Shurjyokonnya, Shimana Perieye, Zahir Raihan's Jibon Theke Neya, Rajen Tarafder's Palnoko, Shaik Niamat Ali and Masihuddin Shaker's Shurjyo Dighol Bari had tremendous values across genres and made lasting impressions on Bengali culture.
Nonetheless, in my young and wild days, just like my friends, I ignored mainstream Bengali movies and would laugh at the romanticism, sudden eruption of music and highly melodramatic performances in them. It was just not "cool" to watch Bangladeshi films. While at the University, I detested the Bangladeshi films which borrowed heavily from Bollywood and were full of superfluous violence, deep-rooted gender biases, chauvinistic patterns of interaction and banal plots.
Alternative filmmakers brought a breath of fresh air to Bangladeshi films. Partly due to the fact, that as an expatriate Bangladeshi, I just crave even miniscule drops of "Bangaliana" and largely due to these original and innovative film-makers, I have become quite fond of Bengali films in recent years. To name a few, Tareque and Catherine Masud's Matir Moina, 2002, Muktir Kotha, 1999, Muktir Gaan, 1995; Shameem Akhter's Itihash Konnya, 2002; Yasmin Kabir's My Migrant Soul, 2001; Tanvir Mokammel's Achin Pakhi, 1996 Morshedul Islam's Chaka, 1993; Nasiruddin Yusuf's Ekatturer Jishu, 1993 gradually made me interested in alternative Bangladeshi films and documentaries. I even started watching some popular Bengali films to remind myself of home; to make myself nostalgic about those amusing moments, making fun of the performers while watching these with friends. However, it seems to me, we are still far behind when it comes to creating international audience.
According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, subtitles are textual versions of the dialogue in films and television programmes, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialogue in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialogue in the same language -- with or without added information intended to help viewers with hearing disabilities to follow the dialogues. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle).
There are also other methods of translating films produced into a foreign language. These are dubbing and lectoring. In dubbing, voices are recorded over the original voices of the performers in a different language. It is the method in which "the foreign dialogue is adjusted to the mouth and movements of the actor in the film," (Dries 1995: 9 quoted in Shuttleworth and Cowie 1997: 45) and "its aim is seen as making the audience feel as if they were listening to actors actually speaking the target language (Agnieszka Szarkowska, Translation Journal, Volume 9, No 2, April 2005)." In lectoring, a narrator translates the dialogues while the original voices could be heard in the background. Often in the former Soviet Union states this method was used to show movies.
The most common form of translating films made in Bangladesh is through subtitles. Unfortunately, except for a handful of the movies produced and directed by new age and alternative filmmakers, Bangladeshi productions do not have high-quality subtitles. I am really surprised by it because so many Bangladeshis are either bi-lingual or multi-lingual.
Bangladesh is the homeland of a people who are unique in this world because they fought for their right to speak a language in 1952. The rich history, the beauty and evocative nature of the Bengali culture are a source of pride for the people who speak it, who think in it and who write in it. It is indeed distressing that not enough attention is paid to the translation of dialogues in the movies.
The lack of sensitivity and attention to details, when it comes to translating, are frustrating. Some of the translations are totally wrong or simply do not make any sense. Sometimes, these subtitles show no understanding of cultural contexts. It is not politically correct to say "negro" or "native" anymore unless it refers to specific historic moments. In Londoni Koyinna, locals in the rural areas (gramer manushera) were repeatedly called "these natives." While we can mention native Chittagonians or native New Yorkers, the word has specific historic and political meaning in the colonial context and therefore if used without due regard for the politics of language, it may totally mean something else.
Our indifference may also be a sad reminder of our inability to embrace multi-culturalism and think outside our homogeneous boxes and recognize that others who cannot understand the language may well and truly be interested to know more about Bangladesh and our culture. What better way than films and documentaries?
Bina D'Costa writes from Australian National University.