SALT Cymru

...de la Daily Post:

A new project is being launched by Bangor University's Language Technologies Unit to provide businesses with opportunities in the multilingual global market.

The aim of the Speech and Language Technologies Wales – SALT Cymru – project is to form a specialist interest group that will partner researchers from Welsh higher education with small and medium sized businesses, public organisations and individuals in Wales.

SALT provides techniques for the computer processing of text, speech and knowledge, based on human language…

… The university's Language Technologies Unit, which develops language resources for the Welsh language, Celtic languages, and multilingual situations, is heading the SALT Cymru project.

The unit has already developed a number of software products such as spell checkers, grammar checkers and simple automatic translation, websites that speak Welsh through synthetic voices, and dictionaries.

Anyone interested in opportunities presented by the SALT Cymru can register at www.saltcymru.org to be kept in regular contact with the project.

Delyth Prys, leader of the Language Technologies Unit, said: “The project will answer existing questions as well as raising new ones. It will present the state of play for SALT in Wales and internationally, and analyse the needs in Wales with special reference to SMEs and their potential markets.

“We live in an information society and the world-wide web is increasingly multilingual. This gives rise to new challenges and opportunities. We believe that SALT surmounts language barriers for e-commerce, education and international co-operation.”