The world has been completely changed by computers, digitalization, and networks. It is very hard to teach computers to handle human speech and language –both spoken and written– in the different ways that people can be able to use it properly: to speak naturally, understand what has been said and meant, summarize a document or a conversation… So, we want to keep in touch with computers and machines using our language and voice. This all could be definited as Human Language Technology.
Also according to the Wikipedia, Human Language Technologies (or Language Technology, which is the same) consists of a mix of computational linguistics and speech technology. This kind of language is closely linked to computer science and general linguistics.
On the other hand, the Meraka Institute, the African Advanced Institute for Information and Communication Technology, HLT makes it easier for people to interact with machines. This can be beneficious for a huge range of people, such as illiterate farmers in remote villages who want to obtain relevant medical information over a cellphone,or scientists in state-of-the-art laboratories who want to focus on problem-solving with computers.
- Gianni Lazzari (2006, may). Project TC-STAR – Technology and Corpora for Speech-to-Speech Translation. Project Manager: Gianni Lazzari – IST-2002-FP6-506738 Retrieved 12:30, March 16 from http://www.tc-star.org/pubblicazioni/D17_HLT_ENG.pdf
- Language technology. (2008, April 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:31, March 18, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Language_technology&oldid=202607020
- Human Language Technologies (HLT). Meraka Institute, the African Advanced Institute for Information and Communication Technology. Retrieved 12:29, March 22, 2009, from http://www.meraka.org.za/humanLanguage.htm
