[VIDEO] A new online multilingual dictionary hopes to compile all words from every language in the world.

An interactive multilingual dictionary has long been a pipe dream of artificial intelligence researchers.

While automatic algorithm-based machine translation products like Google Translate can easily convert the gist of text from one language into another, they cannot explain the meaning.

Now, an extremely ambitious online dictionary hopes to solve that problem by compiling every word in every language. If funded, it could change the way machines translate between languages.

The self-proclaimed "Dictionary of the Future" is called the Kamusi Global Online Living Dictionary (GOLD), and launched this week to follow International Mother Tongue Day on February 21.

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ICE seeks automated phone translation technology

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the USA, is searching companies that are capable of supplying “automated real-time phone translation” technology. They want a technology that can translate two-way phone conversations between English-speaking ICE employees and native speakers of other languages.

“This technology should not require interaction with actual interpreters,” says ICE in a sources sought notice it published on Feb. 13. “Our preliminary market research indicates that this is an emerging technology.”

In its role as an immigration enforcer and investigator, ICE frequently comes in contact with people who speak different languages. The agency wants to make two-way conversations with such people more efficient and less costly.

ICE wants to hear from potential suppliers by Feb. 20.

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Do you speak prehistoric men language?

Linguists and archaeologists of the whole world dream about it for many years. Researchers have now created a software that can rebuild protolanguages - the ancient tongues from which our modern languages evolved.

To test this program, the research team took 637 languages always spoken in Asia and in the Pacific and were able to recreate the protolanguage from which they arose, the proto-austronesian

The scientists were able to recreate a spoken language more than 7.000 years ago. They compared then the finds of the computer with those of real linguists. 85 % of the words of the protolanguage found by the software looked like a letter or a sound near in those whom the linguists had manually identified.

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Tired of your mother-tongue? Try "Lolcat"!

A new language setting has appeared last Friday on the famous social network Twitter. And guess what ? You can now enable the Lolcat language!

For the uninitiated, the Lolcats "language," based on a popular Internet meme, is noted for its obvious spelling mistakes and excessive capitalization. For example, under the new Twitter setting, "language" becomes "LANGUUJ," "Home" becomes "HUM," and "location" becomes "LOCASHUN" on Twitter's page.

Twitter isn't the the first popular website to have humorous language options. Google offers novel "languages" for some of its pages, including "Elmer Fudd," "Bork, bork, bork!," "Leet speak," 'Klingon," and "Pirate."

As we can see, Internet offers us often new "languages"... For better or for worth ? You are the judge!

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Leeds & York selects BigHand to help modernise its document creation process

BigHand awarded as preferred supplier at Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to deliver a Trust-wide digital dictation and workflow management system. Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust elected to go to tender to procure for a digital dictation and workflow management system throughout the Trust to assist with its central admin and management of workloads.

To read the full press release, click here.
BigHand is member of the LT-Innovate Network.

Inbenta won a Gold European Seal of e-Excellence 2013

Congratulations to Inbenta, member of the LT-Innovate Network that won a European Seal of e-Excellence. The Award ceremony will be held at the Open Stage of the CeBIT the 5th March at 4.30PM. Members of LT-Innovate Network can request a free e-ticket to have access to this ICT trade fair by sending an e-mail to the organiser via http://www.seal-of-excellence.org/contact.

Inbenta is based in Barcelona, Spain which focuses on data search technologies. Inbenta has also offices in Madrid, and partnership presence in other countries around the world. The company was founded in 2005.
It provides a type of Enterprise Semantic Search Technology based on the latest developments on Natural Language Processing.

[Video] A universal translator for surgeons

Laparoscopic surgery uses minimally invasive incisions -- which means less pain and shorter recovery times for patients. But Steven Schwaitzberg chief of Surgery at the Cambridge Health Alliance at the Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital has run into two problems teaching these techniques to surgeons around the world -- language and distance. He shares how a new technology, which combines video conferencing and a real-time universal translator, could help. 

(Filmed at TEDxBeaconStreet.)

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Expolangues : Digital technologies for Languages 6-9 February

L'Etudiant, a French magazine and web platform for students presents the 31^st. Expolangues expo.

This year, Expolangues puts forward the importance of the digital technology in the language learning, as well as the constant evolution of ICTS, through numerous animations, meetings, reports or television programs.

Ms Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, support this expo, in partnership with Unesco.

Expolangues is a 30 years old French annual meeting, dedicated to promote multilingualism and languages. This event encourages the intercultural dialogue; facilitates the discovery of foreign cultures and allows discovering numerous countries through their linguistic heritage.

Paris Expo – Porte de Versailles – Pavillon 5.2

The 6 of February, professionals only 10.00 to 20.00 –

The 7, 8 and 9 of February 10.00 to 18.00

More information: www.expolangues.fr

TEMIS won the prestigious CODiE Award for the 2013 Best Semantic Technology Solution delivered by the famous Software & Information Industry Association

Luxid® Content Enrichment Platform Earns Prestigious Content Industry Recognition

Washington, D.C., New York, NY - February 4th, 2013 – TEMIS, leading provider of semantic content enrichment solutions, today announced that its flagship Luxid® Content Enrichment Platform was named a winner for the 2013 SIIA CODiE Awards for "Best Semantic Technology Solution". Winners represent the information industry's best products, technologies, and services created by or for media, publishers, and information services providers.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced TEMIS as a CODiE Award content winner. 

Based on patented and award-winning natural language processing technology, Luxid® Content Enrichment Platform is a powerful and scalable semantic content enrichment solution that recognizes and extracts relevant items of information hidden in plain text and enriches document metadata. By revealing the intimate nature of enterprise informational assets, it helps optimize their management, distribution, access and analysis.

"We are extremely proud of this CODiE award, which recognizes our strong commitment to meeting our customers' semantic content enrichment needs", said Daniel Mayer, VP Marketing, TEMIS. "And it is all the more important for us because for the first time a CODiE recognizes semantic content enrichment technologies as a separate product category addressing what is becoming a standard requirement for all information- and content-centric organizations." 

"We are especially pleased with the high-caliber of this year's CODiE Award winners. The products selected as finalists stand as a testament to the dedication finalist companies have not only to meet, but also to exceed their customer and partner expectations," noted SIIA Vice President for the Content Division, Kathy Greenler Sexton. "This was an extremely competitive year for the Content CODiE Awards."

Winners were announced during a special Awards luncheon on January 31st in New York City during the SIIA's annual flagship conference for information industry leaders, IIS 2013: Breakthrough.

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry's only peer-reviewed awards program. The first round review of all nominees is conducted by media, publishing, and information services executives with considerable industry expertise, including members of the industry, analysts, media and bloggers, bankers and investors. The judges are responsible for selecting the CODiE Awards finalists. SIIA members then vote on the finalist products and scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners. 

For more information about the SIIA CODiE Awards, visit: http://www.siia.net/codies

About the SIIA CODiE™ Awards

The SIIA CODiE™ Awards were established in 1986 by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), so that pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other's work. Since then, the CODiE Awards program has carried out the same purpose – to celebrate the software and information industry's finest products and services.