Highlight

Standardizing named entities for the Intelligence Community

Subtle discrepancies in the spellings of names within translated documents can lead to recurring flaws and missed opportunities. IC transliteration standards exist to eliminate these discrepancies, but adhering to them is time-consuming and error-prone. Highlight was created by linguistics and text analytics experts at Basis Technology in order to simplify IC-compliant workflow and report generation, greatly reducing the number of name inconsistencies from translator and intelligence analyst reports.

Highlight in Action

Features

Supports 7 languages: Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Korean, Mandarin, Pashto, Russian
IC-compliant entity standardization for people and places
Record/review edits for quality control and enhanced analytics
Word and Excel plug-ins for Microsoft Office 2007, 2010, and 2013
Accredited for Top Secret, Secret, and Unclassified Government Systems
Certificate of Networthiness

DOCEX

Highlight is a plug-in that is easy to install and works seamlessly within Word. The Highlight menu provides users the ability to quickly annotate, translate, and standardize named entities with a user interface similar to spelling correction. Users can choose to standardize a person’s name one word at a time, such as the Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin example shown here, or select from Highlight‘s entity level suggestions that also add contextual information such as that person’s country or title. For location entities, users can choose outputs based on gazetteer, latitude, longitude, NGA designation code and other attributes.

CELLEX

Highlight also has an Excel plug-in geared towards simplifying and speeding up CELLEX, DOMEX, DOCEX, HUMINT, and SIGINT. After selecting the origin language and entity type of a selected set of names, simply click on the Standardize button to produce an IC-standardized translation in a new column. Similar to its capabilities for text documents, Highlight allows users to automate or interactively process large lists of person and location names inside a spreadsheet.

Identify Named Entities

Highlight Entity TypeHighlight quickly finds names and assigns an entity type for each of the names in that document. Selecting a person’s name or a geographic location in a document gives analysts the ability to instantly view the detected language and entity type. Users can also correct an entity type if necessary.

Suggest Name Translations

Choose the speed and level of standardization that meets your needs by selecting between Highlight‘s automated or interactive options. Both give an intuitive “spelling correction” experience, generating comments that are reviewable by your colleagues. If you’re translating to a separate document, Highlight will automatically insert the translation there.

Conform to Community Naming Standards

The days of manual IC standard-checking are gone. Today, Highlight delivers comprehensive IC standards for linguists and analysts within their document workflow. Highlight also ensures that foreign names translated into English are consistent, IC-compliant, and available in a number of IC-compatible formats.

Current and Upcoming Releases

Highlight Pad

Ease integration with computer assisted translation (CAT) systems while retaining the full linguistic power of Highlight.

ROI Analytic Dashboard

Monitor how Highlight is being used across your workgroup. Measure volume, efficiency, and return-on-investment (ROI).

Custom Entity Database

Import, extend, share, and link to custom entity databases for standardization through the simplicity of an Excel spreadsheet.

More Languages

Highlight could be extended to Urdu, Kurdish, Ukrainian or other languages based on the needs and resources of the Intelligence Community.

Compatibility

Highlight is compatible with Microsoft Office on Microsoft Windows, and is available as a client-server installation for workgroups or a standalone installation for individuals. Custom integration services are also available.