PanImages

Welcome to PanImages

PanImages is a step towards an Internet that is not limited by language barriers. With PanImages, you can find pictures on Web pages that are written in hundreds of languages. Simply type in a word in your own language, and PanImages will find a list of translations into multiple languages at once. If the query has more than one word sense, PanImages presents separate lists of translations for each sense. You can choose which translations will be sent to Google Image Search and Flickr, and can experiment with the different results you get from different translations.

How to Use PanImages

1. Type in a word describing the desired image.
   
2. Click the 'Translate' button, or press the enter key.
   
3. If PanImages finds your word in multiple languages, you will be asked to select the language you were intending.
   PanImages will then present translations of your word in multiple languages. If the word has more than one sense (meaning), there is a list of translations for each sense.
   
4. Select the sense you want.
   PanImages will highlight the sense and show you translations for that sense.
   
5. Now you can see images by clicking on a translation.
   PanImages queries both Google Images and Flickr with the translation.
   

Other Options and Features

• Panimages supports word completion. When you type in a word to be translated, PanImages will display up to 20 words in the source language that complete the word you are typing. You can click on any of these words to have PanImages complete the word for you.
  
• Select an interface language at any time. Click on a language from the list of languages at the bottom of the page. PanImages will display the interface text in this language.
  
• Add a new interface language. Click on 'Add new language' below the list of interface languages. PanImages will ask you for the name of the new interface language and ask for translations of the interface text into that language. You can also suggest different translations for instructions in an existing interface language. Click on 'Add new language', but specify an existing interface language.
  
• Help us improve our translations. You can become a registered user of PanImages. This lets you add new translations and edit existing translations. We will ask for your name and email address and a list of languages that you can help with. We will not give your name or email address to anyone else.
  
• Add a new translation to any word. When PanImages displays its list of translations for a word, you can click on 'Add a translation'. Then select a language to translate into, and type the translation. Click on 'OK' to add the new translation to PanImages. Otherwise, click on 'CANCEL' to cancel. The translation is only added to the word sense that is currently selected.
  
• Edit the translations of any word. When you click on 'Edit translations' you will see three lists of translations for the currently selected sense of the word. We only show translations in the languages that you have listed when you registered with PanImages. You can change this list by clicking on 'account information'. If you mark a 'high-confidence' translation as incorrect, PanImages will no longer display it. If you mark a 'middle-confidence' translation or 'low-confidence' translation as correct PanImages will consider it to be 'high-confidence' and display it.
  
• Edit the list of meanings of any word. When you click on 'Edit meanings' you will see a list of the 'high-confidence' meanings and a list of the 'low-confidence' meanings. If you mark a 'high-confidence' meaning as incorrect, PanImages will no longer display it. If you mark a 'low-confidence' meaning as correct, it will be added to the meanings that are displayed.

How PanImages works

PanImages is an application that uses the Translation Graph created by the Turing Center of the University of Washington . The Translation Graph combines translations from over 350 machine readable dictionaries. Some dictionaries translate words into multiple languages, such as those from wiktionary.org. Other dictionaries are bilingual, such as those from freedict.org.

A node in the Translation Graph represents a word, and an edge between two nodes represents a translation from one of the source dictionaries. The graph has over 3 million word nodes with over 10 million edges. PanImages finds translations for a word by following paths in the graph and reasoning about which translations are in the same word sense.