Reimagining the Wheels – Translation by SpeakLike

In this Reimagining the Wheels article, I will spotlight on a cool translation service that I’ve come across call SpeakLike. Here is how the company explains its own technologies (emphasis added),

SpeakLike’s Human Assisted Language brings human understanding to translation this way: You send your text, a human translator checks and corrects the machine-translated text in real-time, then the people you are talking with see it in their own languages, quickly and correctly.

Because SpeakLike seamlessly integrates automated and human translation, you’re able to chat right away, without needing to set up costly, time-consuming conference calls as you do using traditional interpreting services. And SpeakLike finally gives you a real alternative to ‘free’ machine-based translation, which is highly inaccurate and often results in costly mistakes.

With innovative technology backed by the human touch of SpeakLike, you’ll be part of a world where people who speak different languages speak one language: SpeakLike.

I first heard of SpeakLike after its CTO Graham Neumann demonstrating it at Demo Camp Calgary #10. After watching Graham’s demo video, I sensed their web-based translation technology involving human translators can be potentially promising.

So I reached out to Graham and we set up a time this past Monday and chatted extensively about their technologies and some challenges I saw. You can take a look of a brief demo video here.

The following are my brief impressions,

1. I see interesting potentials (which is why I include it in my Reimagining the Wheels series) together with some challenges as well.
2. It is nice to know that SpeakLike has paying customers already and they are happy with the services.
3. Based on a very brief chat, Graham seems to be laying the technological foundation well and making it scalable. Although I haven’t dig deep but I think Graham’s prior experience should lead to a well architected software framework.
4. At the same time, I see human resources (good communities of translators) being may be the more fundamental part to the success of SpeakLike. And I think more work needs to be done in this area.
5. In some sense (this may sound strange coming from someone who is a trained computer scientist), the cool technologies are really nice but others can copy it given time and effort. I would argue that the more durable competitive advantage will be the people in a cohesive and thriving translator communities that SpeakLike will need to work hard in building. And this may be harder to build and maintain than the community of photographers in the case of iStockphoto.

I have been fascinated with English/Chinese written and simultaneous verbal translation since the 80s. To me, correct and usable communication is the key to human exchanges and smooth business transactions. And to translate something well is definitely part “science” and part “art”.

Over the years, I have seen some poorly written English business emails by educated Chinese workers in mainland China. So I think there is a potential market in China (if the price is right and the service is good). The potential is there but the challenge is to tap into these needs and approach it with understanding of the Chinese market.

As I wrote in this August 2006 blog entry, I saw machine translation being provided by the likes of Babel Fish and Google Translate as being inadequate. In fact, if I were less generous, I might argue that these “translations” actually do a disservice unless the users are heavily discounting the validity of the machine translated text like me.

Unfortunately, I doubt that many people are as careful as I am and many may give too much trust to these machine translated text. I heard that SpeakLike uses machine translator as a starting point. While I understand the desire for lower cost, at the same time, I worry about the potentially inaccurate or poor quality results being used as a starting point for SpeakLike human translator. The best chef in the world can’t cook good food from spoiled ingredients. It is hard to judge without more data. It will definitely be fun to dig deeper.

Finally, to be fair with SpeakLike, they are still a very young company and I don’t think the challenges they have are unsolvable. Given time, I look forward to improved and better translation results.

Here is a YouTube video of CEO Sandy explaining SpeakLike at DEMO 2008.

Here is a YouTube video of CTO Graham talking about SpeakLike at DEMO 2008.

ParkPlus by Calgary Parking Authority – Reimagining the Wheels

Dec 4, 2008 Update: See Privacy Investigation Report concerning Calgary ParkPlus

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ParkPlus System

In this Reimagining the Wheels article, I will talk about the ParkPlus System, a Calgary Parking Authority (CPA) created state-of-the-art parking system. ParkPlus is much more advanced than the good old parking meters, the newer pay and display system, or even this type of hybrid meter. Regular readers may remember I have previously promised to blog more about ParkPlus here. Well, I’ve finally kept my promise. (big smile)

To provide a deeper insight into ParkPlus, I’ve also taken time to interview CPA’s general manager Mr. Dale Fraser and Calgary Alderman Mr. Dale Hodges, two of the participants in the creation of the ParkPlus system.

The Business of Parking

You may not realize this but Calgary Parking Authority is a completely self-funded operation. In 2007, after expenses, CPA actually *paid* a total of $17.9 million to the City of Calgary (an $1.9 million increase from $16 million in 2006).

Now, observant readers will notice that old style parking meters sometimes got vandalized or money stolen. To give you a rough idea of the monetary impact, CPA’s meter repairs, parts, and overtime costs have totaled more than several hundred thousand dollars since 2006. I will mention how ParkPlus addresses these challenges in “The Technologies” section.

The ParkPlus system can also reduce parking enforcement cost ($6.3 million in 2007) by making parking enforcement more efficient. And ParkPlus has the potential to increase revenue from parking operations and enforcement by increasing tickets purchased (because it is more convenient for people to pay by credit cards or cell phones) and issuing more parking tickets to violators (with photos as proofs). (note: As a driver that doesn’t enjoy being ticketed, I am torn to call “issuing more parking tickets” a “benefit“!)

Reimagining the Wheels – Printelligence by Preo Software

Preo Printelligence

Few weeks ago I ran into a friend and former MBA classmate that I haven’t seen for a few years. Randy ended up telling me a little about Preo Software, a web-based print management system software company that he is now involved with. From our brief chat and a quick look at their website, looks like they are doing something cool in helping companies being green and cutting their print costs. Here is an excerpt from their overview (emphasis added),

Printelligence™ by Preo Software complements this newfound interest by enabling green initiatives, cost control and cost recovery at the end-user’s desktop. Printelligence™ measures the true cost of print for every organizational unit (including end-users), on every device, and provides deep insight into organizational and individual behavior, by measuring the usage of print features and capabilities, such as color, duplexing and N-up imposition.

The system turns all this measurement into actionable knowledge, through a unique adaptive rules engine that implements the organization’s print management policies at the point of print decision-making – every time an end-user prints a document. If a job “breaks” the rules, the system presents advice and alternatives to the end-user. Unique to Printelligence™ is its ability to adapt its responses to individual behavior over time, so messaging stays fresh and appropriate.

Printing, in a supposedly paperless society, is getting so out of hands these days. So it is fitting to see a good solution is possible. Now, I admit I am a bit biased in this case as I know Randy personally. (big smile) But I think it is fair to say the fact (see Preo’s home page) that their software has been recognized by Gartner as Best Software Solution in its 2007 Print & Imaging Summit is certainly an indication of how good their software must have been. So it is nice to have Preo Software’s Printelligence featured in the Reimagining the Wheels series.

Reimagining the Wheels – U-Scan Self-Checkout System

self-checkout machine

With the labour shortage in Alberta and other provinces and the desire to cut cost by grocery chains like Safeway and Loblaw, these chains are installing more self-checkout systems. And there is even a Wikipedia entry dedicated to self-checkout and here is the explanation in the benefit section,

“The benefit to the customer is in the reduced checkout time because stores are often able to efficiently run two to six self checkout units where it normally would have had one cashier. Some customers appreciate the ability to not have to deal with anyone, giving an illusion of privacy and anonymity, when in fact the self checkout attendant can track the progress of customers on all machines via a separate terminal known as a RAP (Remote Attendant Post).

The benefit to the retailer in providing self checkout machines is in reduced staffing requirements since one attendant is all that is required to run 4 to 6 checkout lanes at one time.”

Now, let me jump right into the purpose of creating the Reimagining the Wheels series by sharing with you some of my observations that may improve the current U-Scan self-checkout systems.

Cashier at Remote Attendant Post (RAP)

1. Install a webcam overlooking the scale (with sufficient resolution) to provide a photo snapshot or video feed to the RAP (Remote Attendant Post).
2. With a photo of the item (e.g. a vegetable that users couldn’t find a code for) on the scanner/scale, the experienced cashier at the RAP (Remote Attendant Post) can even help enter the correct item code for the customers at the RAP. Thus reducing the trips to the customer checkout post and increasing the efficiency.
3. With photos or video feed of the items, the attendant at the RAP will be able to keep an eye on all checkouts and reducing the number of mis-identified items (pure unintentional mistakes) and cases of frauds (intentional mistakes).
4. I find the pictorial selection menu poorly designed and sometime frustrating to use to pick the correct fruit or vegetables. One way to start solving this problem is by keeping track of the statistics of the precise time customers spent to find the correct “code/picture” for an item. Items that take particularly long implies the menu system is deficient and confusing to the customers and are good candidates to be looked at and improved upon.
5. Note that for every items, we have the data of exactly what the customer bought as it should be the items the customers finally selected (OK reliable) or one that an attendant helped customer picked (more reliable).
6. In conclusion, there is a wealth of information already floating in the system. The trick is to capture them and analyze them. By adding photos capture (with a webcam) and time stamps of the various actions by the users. These data can be extremely valuable in the right hands to fine tune the system to provide better users’ experiences at the Self-checkout systems.

I hope you had some fun reading my first Reimaging the Wheels posting. Feel free to share your feedback, ideas and experiences here. Many thanks.

P.S. During my research, I found this 2004 news item that Optimal Robotics (original maker of U-Scan) sold the U-Scan business to FuJitsu for over US$35 millions.

P.P.S. For verification purpose, the key ideas presented in this posting are time stamped here.

Reimagining the Wheels – Series Introduction

Series Introduction

I am launching a new series here in my blog that I want to be viewed eventually as a trusted brand for insights (or even a Lovemark), so I need a good name. After some thinking, I finally decided to name it “Reimagining the Wheels” where the series will focus on how I see existing inventions, ideas, or systems can be improved or enhanced by reimagining a little. I will write mostly based on my personal insights and ideas but, from time to time, I will also feature other people’s insights or ideas that I think have improved on the existing state of the art. In fact, I will start the series with one of my idea and also one by someone else.

By the way, I have no easy way of telling, but if any my musing happens to be the first instance of such discussion of the enhancing idea, my plan is to let others use these ideas freely. In fact, I consider my musing here similar in purpose to the basic idea behind the once famous IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin. I view this series (those of my own ideas) as a form of defensive publication. (smile)

Now, while it may be comforting to trust, without questioning, what is usually implied by the phrase “not reinventing the wheels“, but tradition wisdom can sometimes be less than accurate too.

Please allow me to include a pictorial illustration of how the simple wheels have been reimagined and improved over the ages. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I in researching and gathering them. Have fun.

(Note: The above first image is mine, all the other images in this post are from the Creative Commons section of Flickr. Thanks a lot to the photographers for posting their photos there for others to use freely. I’ve linked back to their originals locations to give credit.)