PanImages Image Search Tool Speaks Hundreds Of Languages http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/news/2007/09/12/panimages-image-search-tool...
quote: PanImages' powerful brains were created by scanning more than 350 machine-readable online dictionaries. Some of these were "wiktionaries," online multilingual dictionaries written by volunteers. The PanImages software scans these dictionaries and uses an algorithm to check the accuracy of the results. It then assembles the results in a matrix that allows translation in combinations that may never have been attempted — for instance, from Gujarati to Lithuanian.
The actual search engine is here: http://www.panimages.org/index.jsp?displang=eng
And the research paper detailing the algorithm and method is here: http://turing.cs.washington.edu/papers/EtzioniMTSummit07.pdf
An idea to use Wiktionary or interwiki links to improve image search for Commons has long been kicked around. Maybe we could collaborate with them to improve the Mayflower search engine for Commons? (Or else ask them to index upload.wikimedia.org and pay attention to license metadata :)) After all, we supplied them with all this useful data for free.
cheers, Brianna