[Foundation-l] PanImages: cross-lingual image search created using 'Wiktionaries'

[Brianna Laugher]

PanImages Image Search Tool Speaks Hundreds Of Languages
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/news/2007/09/12/panimages-image-search-tool-speaks-hundreds-of-languages/

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


-- 
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/