SMART - Shaping Multilingual Access through Respeaking Technology

当今时代的特点是，新闻和电视节目等多媒体和多语言直播内容激增。这些内容并不是所有人都可以访问的。在许多国家，法律要求提供同一语言的现场字幕，以使聋人和听力困难的观众能够获得信息、文化和娱乐。在英国和其他国家（例如加拿大、西班牙、瑞士），语内重调是制作这些字幕的最成熟的技术：它依赖于人类-一种机器交互作用，通过这种交互作用，重发音者收听现场节目或事件的原始声音，同时将其口述给语音识别软件，该软件将每个句子变成字幕显示在屏幕上。迄今为止，重发音一直用于产生语内字幕，即同一语言。鉴于目前多语言内容的繁荣，SMART项目旨在研究是否可以使用重新调整字幕来制作跨语言字幕，即以不同的语言制作。这需要在一项已经具有挑战性的任务中增加翻译，包括听、说、添加口头标点、控制韵律以最大限度地减少语音识别错误，以及考虑空间限制以产生有意义的字幕。自动翻译本身无法提供足够质量的不同语言的实时字幕。因此，语际再峰值（IRSP）代表了一种创新的技术，建立在其单语前身，以实现这一目标。这种技术虽然很有前途，但尚未经过系统的测试。因此，需要经验数据来评估其可行性。为此，SMART计划实现三个主要目标：1.通过分析IRSP面临的挑战，研究IRSP的可行性。参与者在IRSP任务期间的表现将被详细研究，以告知克服这些挑战的最佳策略。两个关于学生的试点项目在这方面取得了可喜的成果。我们将需要在专业人士的样本中进一步探讨这些问题;2。使用现有的、最近开发的测量工具（NTR模型）来测量由此产生的实况字幕的质量，这可以是为IRSP建立质量基准的第一步;识别已经在语言行业工作的专业人士所需的关键能力（例如口译，字幕），以支持及时有效地获得IRSP技能。IRSP有潜力为几乎任何现场活动提供跨语言字幕，例如讲座，会议，戏剧表演，商务会议，电视直播采访或涉及不同语言的节目。IRSP还可以改进预先录制节目的传统字幕方法，提高生产率。通过这样做，IRSP将使这些活动和节目对每个人都无障碍，不受任何感官或语言障碍的影响。SMART研究结果将为定制培训课程的设计提供信息，以使语言专业人员具备最佳技能，以确保高质量的实时跨语言字幕。在项目期间，我们将在暑期学校测试这些材料;在项目结束后，我们将继续提供培训，为语言专业人员提供新的职业道路，并使他们提供的服务多样化。公众参与活动和信息丰富的视频将提高更广泛的公众和任何其他有兴趣提供或受益于这项服务的利益相关者对IRSP的认识。英国率先发展了语内再配音（今天用于85%的直播电视节目的字幕）。SMART将提供英国成为IRSP世界领导者所需的数据。IRSP是一个激进的演变在repeaking方法和一个聪明的举动，以满足当前的通信需求，同时有助于“无障碍”进入不同领域的公共和私人生活的所有社会成员。

Our day and age is characterised by a proliferation of live multimedia and multilingual content, such as news and TV programmes. Such content is not accessible to everyone. In many countries, live subtitles in the same language are required by law to enable deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences to enjoy access to information, culture and entertainment. In the UK and other countries (e.g. Canada, Spain, Switzerland), intralingual respeaking is the most well-established technique to produce these subtitles: it relies on human-machine interaction whereby a respeaker listens to the original sound of a live programme or event and simultaneously dictates it to a speech recognition software that turns the each sentence into subtitles displayed on screen.Respeaking so far has been used to produce intralingual subtitles, i.e. in the same language. Given the current multilingual content boom, the SMART project aims to investigate whether respeaking can be used to produce interlingual subtitles, i.e. in a different language. This entails adding translation to an already challenging task which includes listening, speaking, adding oral punctuation, controlling prosody to minimise speech recognition errors, and accounting for space constraints to produce meaningful subtitles. Automatic translation alone is unable to provide live subtitles in a different language of sufficient quality. Interlingual respeaking (IRSP) represents therefore an innovative technique that builds on its monolingual predecessor to achieve this goal. This technique, however promising, has not been systematically tested yet. Therefore there is a need for empirical data to assess its viability. To this end, SMART sets out to achieve three main goals:1. Investigate the feasibility of IRSP by analysing its challenges. Participants' performance during IRSP tasks will be studied in detail to inform optimal strategies to overcome these challenges. Two pilot projects on students have yielded promising results in this respect. We will need to explore these further in a sample of professionals;2. Measure the quality of the live subtitles thus produced using an existing, recently-developed measurement tool (NTR model) which could represent a first step towards establishing a quality benchmark for IRSP;3. Identify the key competencies needed by professionals already working in the language industry (e.g. interpreting, subtitling) to support timely and efficient acquisition of IRSP skills.IRSP has the potential to provide interlingual subtitles of virtually any live events, such as lectures, conferences, theatre shows, business meetings, live TV interviews or programmes involving speakers of different languages. IRSP could also enhance traditional subtitling methods for pre-recorded programmes, improving productivity. By doing so, IRSP would make such events and programmes accessible to everyone, irrespective of any sensory or language barriers.SMART research findings will inform the design of bespoke training courses to equip language professionals with optimal skills to ensure high-quality live interlingual subtitling. We will test these materials in a Summer School during the project; after its end, we will continue to offer training that will provide language professionals with a new career path and the possibility to diversify the services they offer. A public engagement event and informative video will raise awareness of IRSP among the wider public and any other stakeholders interested in providing or benefiting from this service.The UK pioneered the development of intralingual respeaking (today used to subtitle 85% of live TV programmes). SMART will provide the data needed for the UK to become a world leader in IRSP. IRSP is a radical evolution in respeaking methodology and a smart move towards meeting current communication needs, whilst contributing to 'barrier-free' access to different domains of public and private life for all members of society.