AppTek, a leader in human language technology (HLT), today announced its hybrid machine translation (HMT) system, a full integration of statistical and rule-based methodologies, was ranked first among machine translation (MT) systems tested during an independent comparative study. Similar to findings from recent National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) testing, this evaluation was extrinsic, task-based and relied on a multiple choice test. The specific findings and testing criteria can be requested at: info@apptek.com.

“AppTek is the only human language technology provider to successfully develop a single system to enable fully-automatic, high quality machine translation,” said Steve Cook, Chief Technology Officer at AppTek. “This test not only validates that our hybrid approach to machine translation provides significant advances to automated translation of large volumes of speech and text data, but it demonstrates our unique ability to be highly accurate in the process and provide greater information fidelity. By providing the optimal features of both statistical and rule-based approaches, the amount of time that a user must spend editing and polishing the translated output can be reduced significantly.”

AppTek’s HMT solution provides a full integration of both MT methodologies, rather than simply adding rules to the statistical system or a minor statistical module to the rule-based engine. Using the company’s statistical MT platform and augmenting it with its rich rule-based MT engine, AppTek’s HMT solution is pushing the state-of-the-art in MT design to the next level. The three key translation quality parameters of MT systems - fluency, informativeness, and adequacy – are now supported in one comprehensive system with greater performance, quality and accuracy.

For more information on AppTek’s HMT system, please visit: www.apptek.com.

For more information on AppTek’s ranking NIST’s 2009 Open Machine Translation Evaluation, please visit: http://www.nist.gov.

ABOUT APPTEK

AppTek, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a developer of human language technology products with a complete suite for text and speech (voice) processing and recognition. The company also leads major research and development efforts to further the advancement in the field of developing better methods and technologies in the field of HLT. AppTek's product offerings include machine translation (MT) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) for a growing list of more than 23 languages; multilingual information retrieval with query and topic search capabilities; name-finding applications; and integrated suites providing ASR and MT in media monitoring of broadcast and telephony speech as well as handheld and wearable speech-to-speech translation devices. The company has language professionals and computer scientists in offices around the world. For more information visit: www.apptek.com.