Success of DCU Automatic Twitter Translation Service

Following its success during the World Cup 2014, Brazilator, the Automatic Twitter Translation Service system, which was developed by DCU Researchers in collaboration with Microsoft, is now the Twitter default system used for automatic translations for users.

‘Brazilator’ was first used during the world cup campaign to translate tweets in Spanish, Portuguese and Croatian into English (and vice-versa) but will now be used to translate all types of tweets and nine more languages including Irish have been added since the system was first used in June 2014.

Dr. Lamia Tounsi, Centre for Global Intelligent Content (CNGL) at Dublin City University, said: “Twitter is by default using our systems to translate. When you ask for automatic translation on Twitter it uses our system to do so”.

Dr. Tounsi also commented that the service evaluated machine translation system helps to identify the most effective translation types for Twitter content. In addition, it also gathers information about user behavior across languages and culture, providing greater insights into social media usage across the world.

Funded by Science Foundation Ireland and industry partners, CNGL is co-led by DCU and Trinity College Dublin.  Its 130 researchers are developing technologies to adapt digital content and services to the needs of global users.