Walyou

Google’s Translate Community Site Relies on You to Improve Interpretations

Posted: 25 Jul 2014 01:57 PM PDT

Ever thought that a particular translation made using Google’s software didn’t sound just right? Now you have a chance to contribute to better translations by using the newly launched Translate Community site.

At the moment, Google Translate is capable of interpreting 80 languages, but many of these have a few dialects. To ensure good translations that involve dialects, and to furthermore expand the number of languages, the search giant decided to launch Translate Community, a site that enables all Google users to make a contribution to better translations.

Sveta Kelman, Program Manager, Google Translate, mentioned in a recent blog post that “We plan to incorporate your corrections and over time learn your language a little better.”

There are four different ways the visitors of the Translate Community site can improve the service. First of all, they have the option of translating words or phrases into their own language, provided that there’s no current equivalent. Secondly, they can match a word to its translation. Furthermore, they can rate the quality of a translation. Not at last, users can compare the contributions of others and choose the better translation. All these aspects are meant to make Google Translate a great service, curated by regular people (who hopefully know a thing or two about linguistics, though).

Correcting current translations, adding new dialects and languages, and fine-tuning the overall experience should make Google Translate an even better service. Apparently, Google has great plans for its translation service, as evidenced by the acquisition of Quest Visual, the makers of Word Lens, earlier this year.

The next thing Mountain View should do is to work on Voice Search so that all the dialects are discerned. That would truly be something, as a language can sound totally different when spoken in various parts of the same country. It would really be a pity to use this great feature (that enables people who can’t type out of various reasons to perform searches on Google) only in a limited number of languages. On top of that, getting results when pronouncing with a different diction would be great, especially if the service were a bit more accurate. The addition of voice translation could make Google’s service even better, especially since there are no true alternatives to it.

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Nanoprinted Monet Masterpiece Bears an Unsettling Resemblance to the Original

Posted: 25 Jul 2014 01:26 PM PDT

In the near future, forged paintings may be created using metal nanodisks, as exemplified by researchers at Singapore’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering.

The researchers responsible for the nanoprinted reproduction of Monet’s “Impression. Sunrise” definitely made this experiment in good faith, but chances are they might inspire criminal minds to use a similar method to make forged paintings. To be frank, the technology used in this reproduction is not easy to stumble upon, but with the right connections and money, anything is possible. Back to the nanoprinted Monet painting made by the Singaporean researchers, though, their reproduction is scarily similar to the real one.

Joel K.W. Yang, an assistant professor at Singapore’s University of Technology and Design, and one of the researchers behind this project, explained that “Each color pixel on this image was mapped to the closest color from a palette that we created using arrays of metal nanodisks, and the code spits out a series of geometries corresponding to this color. In principle we can create as many as we want as the sizes of the disks that determine the colors can be tuned continuously.”

Of course, since it’s a nanoprinted painting that we’re talking about, the resulting reproduction is minuscule. More precisely, it measures approximately 300 microns across, and was printed at a resolution of 30,000 dots per inch. Compared to regular consumer desktop printers, that’s a ridiculously high pixel density.

Just to give you an idea about how tiny the painting is, Yang said that “A single drop of dye from a typical printer, would already be about the size of the entire print made with our technology.”

Yang and his fellow researchers want to expand the capabilities of this technology, so for the time being, it will definitely not leave the lab. Using metal is better than ink, as it doesn’t fade away. On top of that, metal nanodisks permit much higher resolutions. To be frank, the colors of the nanoprinted reproduction are a bit off, but if tweaked a bit, the results could be even more satisfying. Yang is also considering that other people could have new ideas that could be implemented with the help of this nanotechnology: “I’m hoping also that others would see this as an enabler for applications that we haven’t even thought possible.”

I’m really curious to see where all these painting reproductions created with innovative technologies are headed.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the scanned and 3D printed painting reproductions, and the interactive videogame painting that’s controlled by a NES gamepad.