The University of Brighton has launched a new web site dedicated to computer systems that can speak and understand human language.
UK Euromap is a non-profit-making site devoted to the development and marketing of Human Language Technologies (HLT) - programmes that can understand, create or process speech and writing.
The site is being hosted by the university's Information Technology Research Institute (ITRI), one of the UK's leading research centres for HLT.
Examples of HLT are starting to appear in every sphere of commercial life, from call centres to "intelligent" search engines that help users to find what they want from the internet.
HLT systems are being developed that can recognise ordinary speech over the phone, with applications in banking, brokering and travel booking. The travel market alone is huge and it is estimated one in four Europeans will book holidays online this year.
A key field is the online translation of text from one language to another. With half of all web users coming from non-English speaking areas, translation technology is now a major growth industry, estimated to reach a value of £197 million by 2005.
With more than 40 languages throughout Europe, online translation is of particular interest to the European Union, which is funding the Euromap project in 13 EU countries to the tune of £2.5 million.
The site quotes Rose Lockwood, director of research for Berlitz GlobalNET, who said: "As the world's largest multilingual economic area, the EU will depend on language technology applications to knit together the integrated economy."
The UK Euromap site is dedicated to news and views from this fast-growing sectors.
It includes features on key UK developers of HLT and case studies on bringing products to market. A current news item reports on a product that reads out emails over a mobile phone.
HLT is made more complex by the fact human language is so subtle and complex. Each speaker can produce and understand a potential hundred million trillion sentences and matching this ability is one of the biggest challenges in computing.
HLT software is already being developed that can write a company's annual report after analysing source documents, or write labels and leaflets for the pharmaceutical industry.
The site's webmaster Amy Neale said: "The research in this area is highly relevant to many sectors of British industry but the technology is expanding so quickly, you need to stay on top of developments.
"Euromap aims to put entrepreneurs in touch with the innovators to act as a catalyst for bringing new products to market. Everyone knows the story of the translation engine that comes out with pure gobbledegook. However, when solutions are tailored for specific applications like ticket booking, the results can be superb."
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