Contents

[Language Grid Toolbox ver. 1.0 Released!]

[Japanese WordNet Service Updated]

[Monthly Maintenance for November]

[Language Grid Users] Knowledge-Base Laboratory, Hokkaido University

Language Grid Toolbox ver. 1.0 Released!

  The NICT Language Grid Project has released Language Grid Toolbox ver. 1.0, a multilingual collaboration tool based on Content Management System (CMS).
 
[Functions of Language Grid Toolbox ver. 1.0]
 
Text Translation:
It translates texts of multiple lines including line feeds. Users can specify the dictionary for the translation.
 
Multilingual BBS:
With this Bulletin Board System (BBS), messages in the user's native language are translated into multiple languages. Each user can change the display language to read the messages.
 
Language Resource Creation:
To improve translation quality, this function supports the creation of a special dictionary and parallel texts for a community. Users can import the original dictionaries from their computers to the Toolbox on a Web browser, or deploy them on a server.
 
  At the end of November, ver. 2.0 will be released, available with a Web translation function. With this function, users can translate the contents of specified Web pages into different languages as well as modify the translation.
  You can also try a variety of multilingual tools when using the Language Grid at Language Grid Playground, which is provided by Kyoto University. With the Language Grid Toolbox, each function of these multilingual tools is available as a component. Therefore, users can customize the tools to each community’s activities at non-profit organizations or schools working on international exchanges and multicultural societies.
 
[How to Get the Toolbox]
You can download the Toolbox from the Support Site and then set up your own site. You can also customize the tools using the API of each function provided by the Language Grid Toolbox.
Members of the Language Grid user organizations can try the Language Grid Toolbox on the site of NICT. To be issued an ID for the site, you will need a key. Please contact langrid[at]khn.nict.go.jp to get a key.
 
[Technical Support]
 
Technical information for Toolbox:
Visit our Support Site.
 
Users' Mailing List:
You can send questions to the Toolbox Users’ mailing list.
If you wish to be added to this mailing list, please contact asukam[at]nict.go.jp.
 
Bug Report:
If you find a bug, please let us know at langrid[at]khn.nict.go.jp.

Japanese WordNet Service Updated

  The Japanese WordNet service on the Language Grid has been updated. The service applies the latest version, Japanese WordNet 0.91. More concepts, words, and meanings are available than in the previous version.
 
   Concepts (synsets)   50,739
   Words                      88,146
   Meanings (the pair of a synset and a word)  151,831
 
Japanese WordNet Service Profile:
http://langrid.org/service_manager/language-services/profile/kyotou.langrid/WordNetJa

Monthly Maintenance for November

  The next maintenance on the Language Grid will be conducted on Monday, November 9, 18:00-21:00 JST.
If you wish to use the Language Grid during this period, please contact us in advance at operation [at] langrid.org.

Language Grid Users: Knowledge-Base Laboratory, Hokkaido University

  The Knowledge-Base Laboratory at Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at Hokkaido University conducts research on a global news analysis system. The system compares the news from Japan with that of other countries, and analyzes the differences of interest in each country considering the characteristics of each news site.
  Since the system uses machine translation when translating the news articles of other countries into Japanese, the quality of the translation can be an issue. In particular, updating delays in the system’s dictionary causes problems when translating terms related to current affairs in newspapers. For example, President Obama is written as "奧巴馬" in Chinese, but the system cannot translate the word correctly because it does not appear in its dictionary. To resolve this problem, we are now developing a Chinese-Japanese foreign word dictionary, using information from Wikipedia. We also use the composite service of the Language Grid and can now improve the quality of the machine translation with minimal effort.
  We are considering releasing the Chinese-Japanese foreign word dictionary as a service. In this way, we hope to contribute to the Language Grid, rather than just use its services.