Interpreters increasingly use technology and devices to help their performance
Interpreting and Technology
Paperless and smart booths
In line with Commission-wide policies, interpreting booths are increasingly paperless. Mobile devices have been used by interpreters for years, including in the booth, thanks to them being portable and lightweight, yet powerful. They provide access to documents, installed software (including dictionaries and other reference tools) and, of course, the internet which enables online research and quick communication.
Paperless solution for interpreters
The "augmented interpreter"
A key objective of digitalisation is definitely to help interpreters focus on interpreting, not searching for information whilst in the booth.
Demanding tasks in the booth can be further alleviated by the combination of three components:
- Speech recognition would allow to process participants’ speeches into a text (or transcript) in the original language; please join the community on this topic if you are interested, click here and see the dedicated section on the speech recognition project
- This transcript would be in turn processed to identify terms, figures and “named entities” in the source language, using terminology extraction tools;
- The equivalent in the interpreter’s active language would be retrieved from glossaries or translated on the fly.
The Interpreter's Digital Toolbox
The Interpreter’s Digital Toolbox is an innovative project which will modernise the existing documentation and terminology tools provided to SCIC interpreters. It will consist of several components to gradually replace the existing tools:
1. A meeting documentation interface for interpreters and documentation managers with functions such as structured ordering, previewing, annotating, sorting and bookmarking of documents as well the possibility to upload and share new documents during meetings. In this form, it can be envisaged as a fully interoperable tool to be used by meeting participants as well. In the framework of a related but separate project, meeting documents provided to the interpreters by the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers will be automatically imported into the Toolbox.
2. Enhanced terminology search possibilities for interpreters (“front office”): Interpreters can identify terms in documents and perform searches in a metasearch engine (accessing multiple resources) on the basis of a personal user profile (customising resources and languages). In addition, interpreters will be able to query both the SCIC IATE collection and the main IATE collections through a new interface for interpreters based on the principle of Lithos. Interpreters will be able to create temporary collections, and consult and export thematic collections from IATE. IATE term recognition and extraction, as well as EURAMIS will be adapted to interpreters’ needs.
3. A glossary management interface for the terminology team (“back office”). The terminologists can create, validate and update terms proposed by interpreters and manage the SCIC collection in IATE after migration of the SCIC terminology data.
4. A collaborative space, which will allow for the exchange of terminology and meeting information.