7 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

2. Traditional Translation
In traditional translation, the translator who is given a translation job reads over it , looks
up unknown words in a dictionary , translates the text paragraph by paragraph either
writing down the translation or dictating it to a stenographer who takes it down in short
hand and types it later.
This is a cumbersome process where heavy, often dusty dictionaries have to be handled .
In the editing and proof reading stage, if there are any mistakes to be corrected or changes
to be made, untidy marks are made on the written translation or if the translation is typed ,
it has to be retyped or unsightly white marks made.
The storage and retrieval of these translated texts is also difficult and unreliable. The
fragile typed or handwritten texts will be stored in cupboards where they are prone to
damage and destruction of various types. They have to be catalogued and retrieved
through a cumbersome manual process.
If the translation has to be further disseminated to other institutes or countries, again the
slow and sometimes rather unreliable postal system has to be depended upon.
Nowadays translators use the more convenient method of reading the text in the source
language and using the computer to obtain the target language text.
Traditional translation may prove an expensive process as translators normally charge
rather high fees. In addition translators may not always be available in the required
language.
3. Electronic Translation or (E-Translation)
E-translation seems the ideal solution to several of the problems of traditional translation.
Here the translation job is read over and the foreign language text can be input in one of
several ways.
3.1 Input
The text could be keyed in, it could be scanned and fed in or it could be input using Voice
Recognition Software
3.1.1 OCR Scanning Software
This is used to obtain a softcopy of a document , that can if required be later fed into the
E-translation software.
The document is scanned page by page As a page is scanned and read over by the OCR
software, the mistakes and unrecoganised words are highlighted and if the software is a
good one, suggestions are made for corrections of these words.
The user can pick one of the words suggested or make his own corrections and then save
the page. This softcopy of the document can now be input into the E-Translation software.
It is evident that in order to judge the accuracy of the scanned text, one needs to know the
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