The MOLTO ('Multilingual on-line translation') project, which has received over EUR 2.3 million under the 'Information and communication technologies' Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to develop such reliable translation tool, aims to offer the european effective tools facilitating high-quality translation of texts between multiple languages is pivotal to this.

The MOLTO project partners said the languages will function as separate and varied modules in the tool. The five-strong consortium, which is being coordinated by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, will develop prototypes that cover most of the EU's 23 official languages. The MOLTO project seeks to provide the same access to knowledge on the Internet for all EU citizens.

A number of online translation tools are currently available to the public. Google Translator, a programme that is used by many people worldwide, for example, gradually improves the quality of translations through machine learning: the system uses feedback to learn from its own mistakes. The disadvantage is that explicit grammatical rules are the exception rather than the rule.

This is where MOLTO project comes in. The project partners will develop a system with precision and grammar rules in place. According to the consortium, wide coverage will follow.

The consortium wants to develop a system that can suit various application areas. The translation of patent description is one such area; Europeans and people from other countries should be able to use this innovative technology without being fluent in the language in which the patent description is written, the researchers said. Also on their to-do list is the translation of descriptions of cultural heritage and museum objects. The researchers pointed out that everyone should have access to these descriptions regardless of linguistic scope.

"The purpose of the EU grant, funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demostration activities, is to enable us to use the MOLTO technology to create a system that can be used for translation on the Internet,' Professor Ranta, director of the project, underlined. 'The plan is that producers of Web pages should be able to freely download the tool and translate texts into several languages simultaneously. Although the technology does exist already, it is quite cumbersome to use unless you are a computer scientist,' he added.

Scheduled to end in February 2013, MOLTO brings together researchers and industry partners from Bulgaria, Spain, Austria, Finland, and Sweden.