The consortium under the leadership of Alna Software, the leader of customised software solutions in Lithuania, has teamed up with Vytautas Magnus University  (VMU) in order to implement the project of designing free machine translation system (MTS) for translation of web pages from English into Lithuanian.

The total value of the project is 5,5 million Lithuanian Litas. The value of the design works of the MTS conducted by Alna Software is LTL 2,8 million. The preparation of linguistic resources and application works will be performed by company Neolitas, according to the contract signed couple of weeks ago.

“We aim not only to make a user-friendly tool, but also to ensure the quality of translation. To this end we will collaborate with Prompt, one of the largest providers of machine translation tools in the world. The product we chose is best tailored to the linguistic particularities of our language” – told Arturas Gruodis, Alna Software director.

To use the machine translation service, one will have to download and install a free web browser plug-in. Upon installation of the plug-in, a web-page that we see on the screen will be translated and shown to us upon a single mouse click.  

The new tool will automatically translate any chosen English language text or page. According to VMU representative Vaidas Repecka, it is not a coincidence that English language was chosen, since over 70% of information resources are presented in English.

When preparing the machine translation design project, a survey has been conducted, which shows a great need for such a tool. The tool will provide the possibility for everyone to receive comprehensive information in Lithuanian, and will become an easy self-education vehicle.

Machine translation tools for the first time were used after the World War II. The scientists who wrote scientific works and did the research of exceptional importance were the first to take advantage of machine translation. Later, these tools have been adapted to translate from the most popular languages in the world: English, Spanish, French, Russian and German.  Lithuanians will be the first in the Baltic States to use such translation tool. Our neighbors from Poland, Belarus and Ukraine do not have such a tool yet.

The design of MTS is a part of the project titled Internet Information Translation Tool. This project is co-financed by the Republic of Lithuania and the European Regional Development Fund in accordance with measure 3.3 Development of Information Technologies Services and Infrastructure  set forth in the Single Programming Document of Lithuania 2004-2005.