Google Translate e Microsoft Translator - Valutazione di due applicazioni per la traduzione automatica del parlato e analisi di una tecnologia in evoluzione.

This work focuses on Machine Translation (MT) and Speech-to-Speech Translation, two emerging technologies that allow users to automatically translate written and spoken texts. The first part of this work provides a theoretical framework for the evaluation of Google Translate and Microsoft Translator, which is at the core of this study. Chapter one focuses on Machine Translation, providing a definition of this technology and glimpses of its history. In this chapter we will also learn how MT works, who uses it, for what purpose, what its pros and cons are, and how machine translation quality can be defined and assessed. Chapter two deals with Speech-to-Speech Translation by focusing on its history, characteristics and operation, potential uses and limits deriving from the intrinsic difficulty of translating spoken language. After describing the future prospects for SST, the final part of this chapter focuses on the quality assessment of Speech-to-Speech Translation applications. The last part of this dissertation describes the evaluation test carried out on Google Translate and Microsoft Translator, two mobile translation apps also providing a Speech-to-Speech Translation service. Chapter three illustrates the objectives, the research questions, the participants, the methodology and the elaboration of the questionnaires used to collect data. The collected data and the results of the evaluation of the automatic speech recognition subsystem and the language translation subsystem are presented in chapter four and finally analysed and compared in chapter five, which provides a general description of the performance of the evaluated apps and possible explanations for each set of results. In the final part of this work suggestions are made for future research and reflections on the usability and usefulness of the evaluated translation apps are provided.

Sviluppo di funzionalità di Image Targeting con apps basate su realtà aumentata

Dopo una breve introduzione sulla realtà aumentata (definizione, storia e stato dell’arte) viene effettuata un'analisi delle librerie esistenti per l’implementazione su dispositivi mobile. Considerando compatibilità con i recenti SO, frequenza degli aggiornamenti, costi per le licenze e funzionalità offerte viene scelta la libreria Vuforia, originariamente sviluppata da Qualcomm e poi acquistata da PTC inc. Si conviene poi che le apps basate su realtà aumentata creano il contenuto “aumentato” in due maniere: o tramite riconoscimento di una specifica immagine oppure tramite localizzazione GPS. Di questi due metodi descritti, il primo risulta molto più affidabile e per questo viene sviluppata una app che crea un contenuto in 3D (aumentato) riconoscendo una immagine: funzionalità di Image Targeting. Il progetto considera le seguenti varianti: l’immagine da riconoscere, chiamata “target”, può essere in un database locale oppure cloud mentre il contenuto in 3D aumentato può essere sia statico che animato. Durante la fase di implementazione vengono fornite anche alcuni nozioni di base di Computer Graphic per il rendering del modello 3D. La tesi si conclude con una panoramica di apps presenti sullo store che funzionano secondo questo principio di Image Targeting, i possibili utilizzi in ambito educativo/ludico ed i costi di realizzazione.

Fighting child marriage in developing countries: design and development of a mobile application

Child marriage is still a great issue in developing countries and even if the interventions to prevent it are having results, they are not enough to eliminate the problem. Among the strategies that seem to work most to fight child marriage, there is the empowerment of girls with information combined with education of parents and community. As smartphones are more accessible year after year in developing countries, this thesis wants to investigate if a mobile app could be effective in fighting child marriage and which characteristics such an app should have. The research was organized in four phases and used design and creation and case study methodologies. Firstly, the literature was analyzed and an initial design was proposed. Secondly, expert interviews were performed to gain feedback on the proposed design, and afterwards prototype was built. Thirdly, a case study in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was performed to test the prototype, gaining insights and improvements through group interviews with 26 girls aged 15-19. Finally, a first version of the app was developed and a second phase of the case study was run in the DRC to understand if the girls were able to use the app. This phase included 14 girls of which 6 had participated in the prototype testing and used questionnaires as a data generation method. The app was built following the Principles for Digital Development. Even if this app is built based on the case study in DRC is modular and easily adaptable to other contexts as it is not content-specific. It was shown that is worth continuing to study this topic and it was defined a conceptual framework for designing learning apps for developing countries, in particular, to fight child, early, and forced marriage.