Training a Dragon

1. Training a Dragon Using Speech-to-Text to Boost Productivity Andrew Levine, C.T. (French-English)

2. What is speech-to-text (S2T)? • Dictating words into a computer with a microphone instead of (or in addition to) using a keyboard • To be useful to translators, it must work in different text entry environments (e.g. your favorite CAT tool) • Must be fast and accurate in order for it to be worth the time and money invested • “Speaker-dependent” S2T is needed for accuracy

3. What is speech-to-text (S2T)? Speech recognition computer software was first researched in the 1950s. An IBM product that could recognize 16 words and all ten digits was exhibited at the 1962 and 1964 World’s Fairs.

4. What is speech-to-text (S2T)? • In 1983, Popular Science promised readers that the “listening typewriter” was on its way. Voice controls at this time were starting to be used for directory assistance, as they are today. • By the end of the decade, people with disabilities that kept them from using keyboards could access the digital world.

5. Translating with Dragon

6. What did we just see? • 124 words entered accurately in 102 seconds, including time for 2 corrections. • Including time for review, this implies 1500 words of these claims would need only 40 minutes for complete translation. • Speed gains will be limited by pauses for research, breaks, etc. • Some other parts (abbreviations in parentheses) would be added in the quality checks

7. Real self-testing results • Not including quality checks, just raw input Telecom patents

8. Real self-testing results • Total translation in one hour including quality checks Telecom patents

9. Time for a live demonstration Today’s Boston Globe: October 29, 2011

10. Dragon’s matching capabilities • Payne vs. Paine vs. pain • “Roger Payne”: Dragon knows that when a common English given name is entered, there is a higher probability that the next word will be a surname • “Thomas Paine”: In this case, the name of a famous historical figure is already stored in the dictionary • “chronic pain”: If it doesn’t already know this exact phrase is a common one, it will pick the ordinary noun because an adjective is preceding it

11. Dragon’s matching capabilities • mayor vs. Mayer vs. may or • “mayor”: This may be a title preceding a name, or a common noun that goes where a common noun should • “Mayer”: Same rules for surnames • “may or…”: Dragon knows where in a sentence a verb is the most likely candidate. A slight pause between the two words “may” and “or” helps clarify.

12. Parts of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 1. 2. 3. 4. • Microphone icon: Tells you whether the microphone is listening. • Dialogue box: Indicates a (possibly) relevant status message. • Profile: Lets you select your personal voice profile, language, and device. • Tools: Options and features you can turn on or off.

13. Dragon's Results Box feature • “cap”: Capitalize the first letter of the next word. • “numeral one”: Enter the digit “1”, not the word “one.” • “comma”: Enter a comma (punctuation).

14. Hatching Your Dragon What to expect when creating a new profile

15. Languages available Dragon NaturallySpeaking (for PC) • English • French • German • Italian • Spanish • Dutch Dragon Dictate (for Mac) • English • French • German • Italian

16. Helping the profile learn • Choosing the right accent • Sample text provided by the software • Option to scan e-mails and target translation folder • Corrections, corrections, corrections!

17. Helping the profile learn: Corrections

18. Benefits and Costs • Faster for most people (once it’s been trained) • Less physical stress on hands from typing • Each version has improved on accuracy of previous one • Helps your earnings, not your clients’ • Cost of software: $199 • Minutes or hours needed to learn voice • Time occasionally lost to odd bugs

19. Where Dragon is best • Best rule: If you can think faster than you type, Dragon has the most chance of saving you time • Long, grammatically correct sentences: Entered quickly and with enough context for accurate matches • In a field with technical jargon that you often reuse • Words like “polyurethane” or “radiography”, etc. • If you often experience carpal-tunnel syndrome or simply aren’t used to typing for more than a few minutes at time in comfort

20. Where Dragon can stumble • Best rule: If you are used to methodically translating (you tend to type one or two words, then pause) • If you fancy yourself an expert typist (more than 100 WPM) • If the source text is more full of sentence fragments (bullet points, cells in an Excel table, etc.) than complete sentences

21. Where Dragon can stumble • If you are not confident of your ability to speak in a fluid sequence of words • Dragon CAN handle many accented forms of English. It learns your voice. But if you pronounce particular words in your own unique way, you might get frustrated with the results. Like “echo system”…

22. Frontiers in Voice and Translation • Asian languages, especially Chinese text entry • Sharing S2T vocabularies on multi-translator projects • Leveraging translation memory “subsegments” to help the S2T engine choose between different sound-alikes.

23. Best choices for customer service • Fast answers to simple questions: Official Twitter account for Nuance @DragonTweets • More detailed questions: www.knowbrainer.com

24. Thank you! Slides available at: http://acknof.wordpress.com @andrewlevine andrew@levinetranslator.com