SMART Translator
Computer-assisted translation

for Electronic
Publishing,
IETMs,
eLearning,
Factory
Automation,
Military
Logistics
and
Supply Chain
Management,
Port Security

 
See a sample translation.

Click "show me"  to see a sample translation for an electronic  catalog.

 

What is the SMART Translator?

The SMART Translators are a series of computer programs that translate Technical English into other languages. 

The SMART Translators use the computer science of  Artificial Intelligence to translate technical documentation inside publishing systems.  The computer-assisted translations are full-sentence, stylistically, grammatically and semantically accurate. The computer does 95% of the work in 5% of the time.

The translations are automatically simplified in the target language. Some post-editing is needed to add style for  publication quality. (In most case less than 5%.)

A key advantage in the use of Controlled English is that the same source text can be reused for other target languages.

The use of Controlled English removes English ambiguity, jargon, awkward expressions and idioms. The results are better technical quality and lower-cost translation.

Computer-assisted Translations

How the program works.

The SMART Translators are "plug-ins" to FrameMaker, Microsoft WORD, Arbortext Editor and  JustSystems XMetaL Author.

Each SMART Translator has dictionaries that match to a Controlled English.  This feature ensures high accuracy.

The user selects the paragraph to translate. The English text is sent to the SMART Translator for a translation. The returned translation is 95% correct. All typographical  tags and XML structures are retained. A human translator uses a reference window to add the final style and edit.

The process is repeated for the document. The accuracy and consistency  is  guaranteed by through the dictionaries.

The XML, RTF and FrameMaker versions can translate a complete document in one pass, or translate by text selection.

See our Translator "plug-in" for FrameMaker and sample translation.

See the SMART Translator screen. 

FREE Cost Estimate Use the  QuickQuote to request costs. Give languages needed.
 Click the button to return to the previous page.
Reduce the high cost of translation
 

 

What are the cost savings?
In the age of globalization, the demand for translation grows and time to complete the task is short. Traditional hand translation is slow.

The SMART Translator can  average cost savings of 15% to 30% depending on the languages.

The cost to write in  Controlled English is a penny a word. (The translation industry calculates fees per word) There are extra savings because the SMART Translator preserves the complicated markup in XML, SGML, HTML and other formats.

What you can not translate!

Because computers can not think, the science of  Machine Translation (MT) has a  history of  slow progress.  Most computers can not translate poor-quality English. There are limits, but the use of  CE removes ambiguity, jargon, awkward expressions and idioms.

Do not use the SMART Translator for Shakespeare The computer  approach is not suitable for prose, novels, letters, some, email, IM, or any poetry.

Web Page Translations and IETMs
The SMART Translator can translate web pages for customer support pages. However, theses pages must be written in Controlled English.  Most Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) can also be translated by computer. Controlled English enforces consistency in brand management.
Intelligence Applications
We offer custom translation software for "gisting" and intelligence applications.  Ideal for litigation eDiscovery, business intelligence, multilingual customer support, CRM, Litigation Support and customer correspondence.  By Request.
Text Miner Text Mining for Terminology
The success of all computer-aided translations is the intelligence in the dictionaries. Traditionally, the creation of translation dictionaries was expensive and took many years. Today, the SMART Text Miner can extract the English terminology in days, not years.
Translations for Web Sites
Visit the Plain English page to see how the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles used our Plain English tools to improve their Spanish translations for 10 million users.

SMART Translation APIs
Systems Integrators, if you are looking for translation tools for your Supply Chain Management or other applications, request information about our Application Program Interfaces (APIs).  Our team develops custom translation systems.

Our source code is written in Sun C/C++ and Microsoft Visual C/C++, designed for  interfaces written in Java and Windows.

Translation Terminology Management
A version of the  SMART Lexicon Manager manages the translation terminology for the SMART Translator dictionaries. You can link your Controlled English dictionaries to translator dictionaries. The SMART Lexicon Manager uses a simple click-and-point interface to let you add new terms in seconds. We have filters to import Trados files.
IATE

From

To

TERMINOLOGY TOOL

The Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament allows you to interactively search their Interactive Terminology for Europe (IATE) database. Here is a useful link.

You can quickly find the Controlled English term in the 23 EU languages with citations and domains.
Try a search 'aileron' in Portuguese. The results are excellent.
Epic Editor specs. Click "Technical Specs"  to Download a SMART Translator specification sheet - (English) We welcome pre-sales questions.
 
 Updated: 02/27/2012  © 2012 Smart Communications, Inc., New York