OREANDA-NEWS. SYSTRAN and Petit Fute's Ready2go! project, an innovative mobile application for tourists from all over the world, has been rewarded at the 3rd edition of Digital Innovation Challenge supervised by the General Commission for Investment (CGI), and backed by the European Defense Agency (DGE) and Bpifrance.

The Digital Innovation Challenge rewards projects based on new technologies, innovative uses, disruptive business models, etc. In this 3rd edition, 79 projects were reviewed, 34 audited and 18 rewarded. The ceremony took place on June 16th in the presence of Axelle Lemaire, French Secretary of State for the Digital Economy.

The initial goal of the Ready2Go! project is to develop an innovative mobile application for the 85 million tourists visiting France every year, the most popular tourist destination in the world. The application will then broaden its scope to other tourists, starting with French users travelling abroad.

"We are very proud that this project has been recognized for its innovation and we are looking forward to offering tourists a unique user experience. With this application we will be able to, for example, suggest tourist attractions according to users' habits thanks to behavioral data analysis algorithms based on machine learning." explains Dominique Auzias, founder of Petit Fute.

 Jean Senellart, CEO of SYSTRAN adds: "The language barrier is an important factor affecting the travel experience. It can lead to frustration, fear or insecurity for travelers. We are pleased to apply our technology towards improving a traveler's experience abroad by offering the first mobile travel guide and translator. Our translation tools, fully integrated into the travel guide and adapted to the field of tourism, contain a translator for menus and road signs, useful phrases for travelling with ease in numerous situations and voice translation built on customized conversational translation models."

Ready2go! is currently under development and the free version will be available in a few months' time:

  • The free online version will be available for download in Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store;
  • An offline mode available for the paid version will soon follow. It will allow users to have access to the language tools, all of the content of the Petit Fute guides as well as map data without needing an Internet connection;
  • In addition to the classic features of a travel guide (finding a restaurant, practical info for tourist attractions, booking a hotel, etc.), Ready2go! will also offer linguistic tools grouped according to areas of interest, thus bringing an element of ease and additional security to travelers;
  • With Ready2go!, travelers will have the tools and information needed to discover new cities and better communicate in the local language, thus enhancing their travel experience.

About SYSTRAN

To help organizations enhance multilingual communication and increase productivity, SYSTRAN delivers real-time language solutions for internal collaboration, search, eDiscovery, content management, online customer support and e-Commerce. 

With the ability to facilitate communication in 140+ language combinations, SYSTRAN is the leading choice of global companies, Defense and Security organizations, and Language Service Providers. SYSTRAN has also been the technological choice of Samsung for its embedded translation application, S-Translator, available on the Galaxy S and Note series, and of Sonico for the latest version of its mobile application, iTranslate.

Since its early beginnings, SYSTRAN has been pioneering advances in Machine Translation and Natural Language Processing and today the R&D department is working on the next generation based on Deep Learning technology

About PETIT FUTE

Over the past 40 years, Petit Fute has made a name for itself as a major player in the tourism sector and a pioneer of digital communication in the B2B and B2C markets, all the while expanding more and more into international markets.
From its conception in 1976 in Nancy to the BODs (Books on Demand), an important innovation being released this year, Petit Fute has never lost sight of its initial values. Among the company's simple but basic principles include: a long-term commitment to the service of the company; the ongoing desire to innovate; and the trust and recognition given to everyone who has participated in the shared adventure of Petit Fute.

With 729 titles in its catalogue, 400,000 contributors worldwide, 750 professional freelance journalists on the ground, 2.5 million points of interest, Petit Fute has the largest number of destinations in its catalogue with more than 100 exclusive destinations currently available in print or digital version (over 280,000 copies downloaded in 2015).