Products & Technology
The company’s most visible NLP product to date is Embla, a voice-based
assistant app for smartphones that answers a wide range of questions in natural language. Embla has been
nominated for awards such as UT-sprotinn 2019 at UTmessan and a place on The P&P Startup List 2020. Embla is
built on Greynir, Miðeind’s core technology stack. Greynir
includes a tokenizer and a fast deep constituency parser, guided by a wide-coverage context-free
grammar for Icelandic.
Miðeind has developed Yfirlestur, a spelling and grammar checker for Icelandic text
that uses the deep parser, among other methods, to provide much more detailed linguistic advice than has been
possible to date.
Miðeind has also developed Vélþýðing, machine translation to and from Icelandic
based on state-of-the-art deep neural network technology.
In addition to this, Miðeind has developed a very popular web-based version of a popular crossword game for Icelandic with its good share of hardcore
followers.
In order to accomplish all this, Miðeind uses the most powerful supercomputer
used for language technology in Iceland. It is built on HPE servers and powered by the latest generation of
nVidia Graphic Processor Units, nVidia A100.
Our Team
Miðeind employs several experts in various NLP-related fields. Its founder and owner, Vilhjálmur
Þorsteinsson, is a veteran software designer and entrepreneur in the IT industry.
The team members have experience in fields such as computational linguistics/language technology, computer
science, linguistics, mathematics, translation studies, philosophy, religion studies, music, and history.
Job openings can be found at mideind.is/storf.html. Please note that the site is in Icelandic, but English and Icelandic versions of the job openings are listed at the bottom of the page.
Collaboration & Academic Contribution
Miðeind is a member of SÍM, a consortium of Icelandic
universities, institutions and companies charged with implementing a 5-year NLP plan for the Icelandic
language, supported by government funding. The project is expected to end in 2023.
Miðeind has also collaborated with many companies and institutions outside of SÍM, such as OpenAI,
Íslandsbanki,
Reykjavík City, Digital
Iceland, the media company Kjarninn, and the translation centre under the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation.
The company has received several research and development
grants
in the
area of language technology resources and tools.
Miðeind is dedicated to building and disseminating LT/NLP knowledge for Icelandic. With that in mind, Miðeind
has participated in giving
talks and teaching courses,
writing
articles and posters
and so on. Miðeind has also employed
students for summer postings.
In addition to direct collaboration, our work has been referenced and adapted in various articles and tools.