ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of technologies that have been used to deliver, support, enhance, or extend the reach of, human interpreting and a brief overview of the main developments in machine interpreting. In relation to human interpreting, the focus is on distance interpreting (technology-mediated interpreting), i.e. modalities of interpreting whereby interpreters are physically separated from some or all of their clients and use communication technologies such as tele- and video-conferencing to deliver their services. In addition, still in relation to human interpreting, the chapter outlines various types of technology-supported interpreting, showing how digital technologies have also begun to change the way in which onsite interpreting is performed (e.g. through simconsec interpreting). With regard to machine interpreting the chapter outlines the major milestones in the evolution of speech-to-text and speech-to-speech translation and current limitations. In addition to introducing and explaining the technologies themselves, the chapter explores how they have been adopted by the community of interpreters and their clients, what the main challenges are in this process, which approaches research has taken to illuminate different aspects of technology interfacing with interpreting, and which areas warrant further research.
