The same is true for technology usage in the translation and interpretation industry. Technology was already quite a buzzword for language professionals. Many people have been singing praises of tech such as neural machine translation, remote interpretation tools, etc. Now it is time to optimize this technology to help us share information as accurately and quickly as possible.

Providing translation and interpretation is absolutely vital during the coronavirus pandemic. In normal circumstances, it has been shown that people who don’t speak English well or at all tend to have worse health outcomes after many types of routine procedures. This effect can be even worse when the situation is critical, like when patients potentially have COVID-19. Since interpreters can’t be in the room to interpret for patients, doctors must rely on phones as an interpretation platform. This still poses some difficulties, like connectivity issues, and trouble hearing due to doctors keeping physically distant from patient. This is better than nothing, but certainly can be improved. Just as doctors have a duty to their patients to provide the best care possible, language professionals and technology developers have a duty to optimize their services to support health care workers in these times.

However, any technology that is used for health care purposes must have legally a certain level of security. This is one reason that certain platforms like Zoom can’t be used for remote medical interpretation: they need end-to-end encryption, among other requirements, to ensure patients’ privacy.  According to this Time article, many hospitals are doing their best to transition to providing remote interpretation, but they don’t have the infrastructure. We hope to see more platforms implement stricter security measures, so that health care workers can have more tools available to them.

Machine translation is another tool that, when used properly, can greatly speed up the sharing of important information and significant news about the coronavirus. It can also help researchers and doctors understand medical studies and reports on the coronavirus that have come out of other countries. This is why SDL, a major provider of language services and technology, is offering health science researchers free access to their proprietary machine translation tool. This tool offers translation of over 120 languages, so researchers will have a wealth of information from different sources available to them. Please see this article for more information!

We have outlined a few ways in which translation and interpretation technology is important, but we have just touched the tip of the iceberg. There are many ways that this technology is being used to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and to help those people who are working on the front lines of this pandemic and those who have gotten sick. We are proud to offer remote interpretation services ourselves. We believe that this technology plays a significant role in keeping people healthy and saving people’s lives, and we are grateful to everyone who develops and uses this technology.

Monterey Language Services hosted a successful two-day video conference about a legal deposition between the East and West Coasts this week in high-definition IP-based format. 

Video Conferencing has been around in its recognizable form since 1968.  Originally used by NASA for astronauts to talk to people on earth, it expanded in the 1980s, as personal computers became a common occurrence.  With the rise of the Internet in the 1990s, more efficient technologies were developed.  With the creation of free Internet services like Skype and iChat in the 21^st century, videoconferencing has become an almost daily routine for millions of people.

There is a difference between home video conferencing and professional video conferencing.  Home video conferencing of course refers to peoples’ everyday usage of free Internet services to communicate.  Professional video conferencing refers to high-definition video and high-quality audio, with both the image and voice coming through very clearly.  This is made possible by the use of dedicated, expensive equipment and infrastructure.  Therefore, you do not have to worry about losing the Internet connection, but rather focusing on closing the business deal.

Monterey Language Services provides professional video conferencing services, including technical know-how, industry-standard equipment such as Polycom, large conference rooms, and direct IP-to-IP or bridge calls with fiber optic support, all of which allow you to hold successful and professional video conferences with clients and colleagues who are located elsewhere.

Check out our webpage: http://www.montereylanguages.com/video-conferencing-services.html