In modern computer-aided translation workflows, Machine Translation (MT) systems are used to produce a draft that is then checked and edited where needed by human translators. In this scenario, a Quality Estimation (QE) tool can be used to score MT outputs, and a threshold on the QE scores can be applied to decide whether an MT output can be used as-is or requires human post-edition. While this could reduce cost and turnaround times, it could harm translation quality, as QE models are not 100% accurate. In the framework of the APE-QUEST project (Automated Post-Editing and Quality Estimation), we set up a case-study on the trade-off between speed, cost and quality, investigating the benefits of QE models in a real-world scenario, where we rely on end-user acceptability as quality metric. Using data in the public administration domain for English-Dutch and English-French, we experimented with two use cases: assimilation and dissemination. Results shed some light on how QE scores can be explored to establish thresholds that suit each use case and target language, and demonstrate the potential benefits of adding QE to a translation workflow.

The APE-QUEST project (2018–2020) sets up a quality gate and crowdsourcing workflow for the eTranslation system of EC’s Connecting Europe Facility to improve translation quality in specific domains. It packages these services as a translation portal for machine-to-machine and machine-to-human scenarios.

The MICE project (2018-2020) will deliver a middleware layer for improving the output quality of the eTranslation system of EC’s Connecting Europe Facility through additional services, such as domain adaptation and named entity recognition. It will also deliver a user portal, allowing for human post-editing.

Intellectual Property professionals frequently need to carry out patent searches for a variety of reasons. During a typical search, they will retrieve approximately 30% of their results in a foreign language. The machine translation (MT) options currently available to patent searchers for these foreign-language patents vary in their quality, consistency, and general level of service. In this article, we introduce IPTranslator; an MT web service designed to cater for the needs of patent searchers. At the core of IPTranslator is a set of MT systems developed specifically for translating patent text. We describe the challenges faced in adapting MT technology to such a complex domain, and how the systems were evaluated to ensure that the quality was fit for purpose. Finally, we present the framework through which the IPTranslator service is delivered to users, and the value-adding features which address many of the issues with existing solutions.