We cannot deny the fact that machines are helping us in hundreds of ways. We have chatbots to answer all the queries we have in our mind, we have electric vehicles to reduce the usage of natural resources, we have drones and other transportation methods to deliver our packages, and how many more technologies should I name? In today’s article, we are going to talk about one of the best technologies that have ever been invented. Read on to find out!

Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world.

Italo Calvino

What is machine translation?

To understand machine translation, you need to have some concept of artificial intelligence. AI is a field of data science, that can work, think, perform, and talk like a normal human being. Heard about Siri, Alexa, or Google assistant? They are the best example of Artificial intelligence.

Definition of Machine Translation:

Now, back to the main course! A process of converting one human language into another human language with the help of some tools that are made of artificial intelligence is called Machine translation. Lots of companies like Shebatek are using machine translation technology to make something more efficient and error-free out it.

As well all know that different people from different parts of the world speak a different language. Some of you are from the United States with fluent English, some of you are from other countries and may not speak English in their region. This is where machine translation technology is helping. Now, studies, business meetings, or other business-related work doesn’t need a human translator, because they have an efficient translator in their pocket.

Benefits of Machine translation:

The invention of technology has always been a blessing to mankind. Every technological advancement in the world has proven to be more beneficial for humans than anything else. Because of these inventions, different diseases are now curable, the transportation system has never been better, the environment is recovering, communication is alive, electric cars, robots, software, transcription technology, Optical Character Recognition, and much more to name. In this section, we are going to talk about some important benefits of machine translation. Read on!

1. Consumes less time

Imagine you just received a French document of 10 pages. As few people speak French, how are you going to translate the whole document into English (or another language). Hire a translator? Nah, that is way old-fashioned. Search for a machine translation software? Yeah, that is a good choice.

Time is everything, and in this world of rapid changes, we cannot afford to rely on someone whose fastest delivery of results is in 10 days. This is why machine translation technology is a game-changer around here. An efficient machine translation software can translate that 10-page document of French, into English (or another language) in a matter of minutes. This why is, machine translation tools are worthy.

2. Impeccable translated content

Take the same example of a French document. Suppose you assigned your document to someone good at English and French, will he/she deliver error-free content? No, that is not possible. Your translator will not be able to deliver impeccable content within the required time.

Your translator will take days to translate that content and come up with a document that is full of mistakes. On the other hand, your machine translation software will provide you with mistake-free content within minutes. So, machine translation consumes less time as well as delivers the best content.

3. Cheaper than a translator

As you know, that a translator can be a bomb to your budget. Take that French document example once again. You hired an efficient translator to translate your French document, how much you are going to pay him for that? A lot more than machine translation software.

On the other hand, even a free machine translation tool can translate that document for free. Or maybe, you just have to buy translation software once, and you can assign it as many documents as you want to translate.

Types of machine translation

I received so many questions on this, and that is why I added this section as well. According to my research, I found four types of machine translation:

Rule-based MT

This was the first-ever type of machine translation and it is still famous in the IT industry. This type of machine translation considers some rules and two dictionaries (one for source language, and one of second language) to determine the best way to translate source language to second language.

Statistical machine translation

This type of MT does not use any rules, standards, or dictionaries to translate. It just automatically maps two languages together and translates one language (sources language) to another (second language).

Hybrid engines

Back in 1990, when no one could imagine the invention of vehicles running on electricity. Different automobile companies tried to introduce such technology, but they failed because of a lack of advancement, awareness, and finance. As we have seen some improvements today because tesla and other automobile companies have launched their electric vehicles that have tons of benefits. This is just a start, and we have so much to expect in the future.

Neural machine translation:

I am sure that you guys have heard something about this upcoming technology. According to the developers of machine translation technology, it is not good enough to translate something from one language to another just like a human brain would do it, or read it. Working on this thought, researchers claim to be developing a system that can translate one language to another language, just like a human mind would do it. This technology is all about making machine translation more efficient. Because machine translation cannot convert the human language to another because of its flexibility or ambiguity.

Frequently asked questions:

I have received so many questions on machine translation, read on to find the answers:

What are the limitations of machine translation?

As this technology is still in its working phases, that is why it still has some limitations. For example, it will be a bit difficult for the tool to translate some words that have dual meanings. Your source language can have grammatical mistakes and poor vocabulary. This is why sometimes; machine translation will not deliver the expected results. But don’t worry, even if it has some mistakes, that will not be some bigger ones, you can edit it.

Can you write down some important applications of machine translation?

Yes sure, the list of its applications is given below:

  • Different IT companies like Shebatek use it.
  • Business departments
  • Military forces
  • Investigation agencies
  • Business meetings
  • Studies

What is the working of machine translation?

The working of MT is quite simple. There are two languages involved in the process. One of them is the source language (the language that the user wants to translate), and the second language (the translated language). The Machine translation process reads every sentence of the source language, remembers the rules and regulations of the second language, and starts translating.