Project information
Project manager
Fisnik Dalipi
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University; University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Financier
Horizon 2020 (the EU framework programme for research and innovation)
Timetable
Jan 2020–Dec 2024
Subject
Informatics (Department of Informatics, Faculty of Technology)
Web site
Lithme.eu
More about the project
In recent decades, linguists have formed notable insights on the effects of technology. However, with the exception of computational linguistics, this is usually only some time after a given technology is widely used.
In the near future, emerging technologies from augmented reality eyepieces to intelligent chatbots will change how language is used, much more dramatically than preceding technologies. The challenge to linguistics will be equally dramatic. The ‘human-machine era’ is dawning, when our senses are not just periodically supplemented by handheld devices but permanently augmented by wearable and implanted devices, adding and adapting language in real time.
The project Language In The Human-Machine Era (LITHME) will establish the scope of these emerging technologies and prepare linguistics (and its subfields) for what is to come. LITHME would also facilitate sustainable dialogue among tech developers and linguists, to increase accessibility and equality of such technologies.
The technologies in question rely on advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), deploying these in specific ways to receive and produce language. Techniques include Natural Language Processing (NLP), Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Automated Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS), Machine Translation (MT), and Computer Aided Translation (CAT). Such technologies fit onto, and into, the body via Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) devices.
Current rudimentary examples include headsets and earpieces. LITHME would focus on their likely evolution, further integrating with human bodies, and how this will influence language.
The project is part of the research in the Interaction Design Research Group.
