In an interview prior to this year’s SpeechTEK Europe Show in London May 25 and 26, keynote speaker Alex Waibel of Carnegie Mellon and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and also director of the International Center for Advanced Communication Technologies (InterACT) shares his views on language technology solutions.

InterACT is an international centre that links seven leading research institutions, all engaged in various forms of communication technologies. "By fostering student and faculty exchange, and supporting and promoting joint projects, we aim to train students that are prepared for the multilingual and multinational and multicultural world they will face after graduation," Waibel explains. "We are helping students learn their scientific craft, while being culturally and multilingually flexible and adept. Students learn to operate in international, globally distributed teams, and are prepared for the working style and environment of tomorrow's global communities and multinational corporations."

Waibel's keynote will discuss the adoption of language technology solutions that enable users to maintain cultural diversity while making the most of the integration, communication, and collaboration that the modern world has to offer. He will present cross-lingual computer communication systems from the university lab and start-up ventures, including a computer dialogue translator on laptops for use by humanitarian missions and government services, an iPhone pocket speech translater for tourists and doctors, and a road sign translator that reads and translates road signs from other languages and scripts. The keynote will be simultaneously translated into Spanish by a computer.

"The time for speech translation for everyone has arrived and will grow," according to Waibel. "Under our start-up venture, we launched the first commercial speech translators on a telephone in 2009, all on the phone without requiring network connectivity."

That application, Jibbigo, is now available in more than 10 languages. However further improvements will be necessary to make usage smoother and more universal. "The remaining technical challenges include problems caused by environmental noise, or speaker stress and distance from the microphone," Waibel explains.

Looking ahead two years, Waibel can see important advances ahead in speech technologies. "[I see] continued improvements in performance. In translation technology, super-human performance may be possible in certain use cases. Also to be expected: better and lower-cost portability to many languages, and better adaptability to different genres and speaking styles."

Wailbel’s SpeechTEK Europe keynote address, "Bridging the Language Divide," will take place on Thursday, 26 May.

SpeechTEK Europe features more than 50 speakers from around the world, and from a wide range of business environments, including Google, Barcla's Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Nuance Communications, Loquendo, Openstream, Voxeo, Belgian Railways, Telecom Italia,  Cable & Wireless, and Westpac. Read more about the SpeechTEK Europe 2011 programme here.