SYSTRAN Translation Software
- History
SYSTRAN, launched in 1968, produces
and promotes the cutting edge Translation
Software (MT) technology, and offers a complete range
of automatic translation software products and services over millions
of users.
SYSTRAN develops and distributes the world's most
scalable translation software designed for governments, large corporations,
small to medium sized companies, individual users, larger internet
applications and online portals. SYSTRAN's powerful technology
can translate more than 36 language combinations and integrates
with the most popular business applications. SYSTRAN has been the
pioneer in developing natural language translation technology and
applications for more than 30 years, developing products for the
U.S. intelligence community, Department of Defense, the European
Union and Fortune 500 companies.
One most note able achievements occurred in late1997 when a joint
venture was formed between SYSTRAN and AltaVista and the result
was BABELFISH, the world's first-ever online translation service.
BABELFISH offered the first free real time translation service
to millions of users. BABELFISH's emerged as a leader in the global
internet community and millions world wide were exposed to the
benefits of automatic translation.
In the 21st Century SYSTRAN is still considered the leader in
the industry and continues to deliver the latest in state-of-the-art
natural language translation technology.
| Consider
these Facts: |
 SYSTRAN's
technology translates more than 4
million web pages per day |
| Over 300,000
sites translate their content with our technology |
| Over 300,000
customers subscribe to our SYSTRANET service |
| Over 100,000
companies subscribe
to our SYSTRANLinks service |
| The Department of Defense,
Government agencies, Fortune 500 companies and multinational
groups use SYSTRAN's technology to perform millions of
translations daily. |
Development
of Machine Translation
In the beginning the idea of decoding natural languages through mathematical
techniques seemed overwhelming but soon became a reality after World War II.
During the 1950's, research on performing Automatic Translations, known today
as Translation Software or Machine Translation ("MT"), took form
in the sense of literal translation, or commonly referred to as as word-for-word
translations. It was evident that the technology would have to be further developed
to use more complex instructions to have the software recognize the linguistic
rules of each language.
SYSTRAN –leading
the way with MT
Peter Toma, Ph.D., a linguist researcher
for MT, began his work in 1957 at the California Institute of
Technology. A few years later, Dr. Toma became involved in the
initial work of developing Russian->English MT at Georgetown
University, the largest MT project in the US of that time. In
1968, Dr. Toma established a company in San Diego, California,
USA, with a product called SYSTRAN, an acronym for System Translation.
Soon after, the company was contracted to develop Russian->English
MT for the US Air Force. The first SYSTRAN MT system was tested
in early 1969 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio,
USA. Since 1970, the system has continued to provide translations
for the US Air Force's Foreign Technology Division.
SYSTRAN: Then and
Now
The concept of deciphering natural languages through mathematical techniques
came into being after World War II. Explorations and study on Automatic Translation,
known today as Translation Software was set in motion. During the 1950's, nearly
all of the early efforts at developing MT systems utilized closet-sized computers
for word-for-word transformation, devoid of the use of any linguistic set of
laws.
The growth was not rapid, trouble-free and nor was it inexpensive. In actuality,
these efforts led to pitiful translations, consequently resulting in a definitive
stop to government-sponsored research. Regardless of the huge confrontations,
research was carried on.
Today the power of the desktop computers and increased computer
capacities and speed are delivering a quite impressive translation
quality that even the experts are agreeing is the wave of the future.
Systran Time Line
| 1968 |
Systran opens in in San Diego, California
and was hired to develop a full Russian to English translation
system by the US Air Force (USAF). |
| 1968 |
The very first SYSTRAN system was tested
in early 1969 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton,
Ohio. This system continues to offer translations to the
USAF's Foreign Technology Division to this day. |
| 1974-1975 |
NASA employs SYSTRAN's Translation Technology
for the joint US-USSR Apollo-Soyuz space venture. |
| 1975 |
Commission of the European Communities
(CEC) hires SYSTRAN to develop numerous European language
pairs. Today SYSTRAN's Translation Software systems are totally
integrated into the CEC's document workflow setting. |
| 1989 |
SYSTRAN is original MT developer to introduce the idea
of Customer Specific Dictionaries; user-defined dictionaries
that include customer words and terminology into the translation
procedure, increasing the quality and customizing translations
for users. |
| 1995 |
Systran Professional for Windows is launched
offering a cost effective means of translation for companies. |
| 1996 |
SYSTRAN accepts a contract in the region of $10 million
from US NAIC (National Air Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base) for the expansion of quite a few Eastern
European language systems, as well as the first-ever Serbo-Croatian
into English system. |
| 1996 |
SEIKO Instruments incorporates SYSTRAN's
technology into their electronic hand-held translators. |
| 1997 |
BableFish, ,the earliest
online translation service, powered by SYSTRAN's translation
technology, launches on the internet. Automatic Translation
becomes available to millions for free. |
| 1998 |
Electronic Art authorizes
SYSTRAN’s translation technology for online gaming
products. |
| 2000 |
OracleMoblie.com ,
an Oracle Corporation subsidiary, chooses SYSTRAN's translation
technology for its wireless portal services. |
| 2001 |
Autodesk instigate
the first-ever multilingual online translation of technical
support documentation by means of a SYSTRAN customized translation
solution.
|
| 2002 |
Price Waterhouse Coopers and SYSTRAN Combine to add Multilingual
Technologies to XBRL Financial Reporting Format. Providing
XML Support with Translation Software for the first time. |
| 2003 |
SYSTRAN technology powers Atomica's
multilingual fact-finder and partners with the French web
portals Voila and Wanadoo. |
| 2004 |
Systran Professional Premium 5.0 wins European 1st Prize.
This prestigious honor is awarded for groundbreaking products
that represent the best of European innovation in information
society technology. |
| 2007 |
Version 6.0 is released with a major redesign of the desktop
product line. Among the features are a built-in dictionary
lookup, an intuitive translation toolbar, new linguistic
options, and a new interface, all of which result in significantly
improved translation quality and increased user productivity. |
| 2009 |
Systran releases Enterprise 7.0 and introduces a new hybrid
translation engine with both statisitical and rule based
Technology. |
| 2009 |
Systran wins first place in an English to French translation
test at the fourth annual Workshop on Statistical Machine
Translation in Athens, Greece. |
| 2009 |
Systran's Innovative Hybrid Machine Translation Technology to Assist in DARPA Project to Produce Language Translation Technologies. Joining Raytheon BBN Technologies on the U.S. government's GALE (Global Autonomous Language Exploitation) project to develop and apply software technologies to transcribe, translate and distill large volumes of speech and text in multiple languages. |
| 2010 |
Systran Training Server is released. The software contains self learning capabilities allowing translation software to learn from existing data to build it's own terminlogy dictionaries. |
To Learn more about the latest developments check out our Blog.
SYSTRAN continuously strives to push boundaries and surpass its existing standard
in information and translation technologies, as it readies itself to transform
the new economy into the new multilingual medium.
|
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