Community interpreters interpret conversations between migrants and professionals in hospitals, public institutions or at asylum hearings. Despite the responsibility of their role, they often receive only basic training in interpreting. As part of the IT-COMMIT project, an app was developed that uses AI to generate bilingual conversations in 21 languages between two avatars, allowing users to practise conversation interpreting more effectively.
Users can actively participate in conversations in one of three realistic scenarios: witness testimony in court, appointment with a doctor and asylum hearing. In order to create conversation situations that are as realistic as possible, the app was developed for virtual reality (VR).
A user observation with 11 community interpreters showed that the conversations were largely coherent, meaningful and authentic, and therefore suitable for interpreter training. However, weaknesses in user-friendliness were identified. For these reasons, a web version of the app is currently being developed. In addition, its use in teaching will be examined.
The project, led by Anne Catherine Gieshoff , was funded in the first Founder Call.