The present application is related to and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to a Korean Patent Application filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Sep. 1, 2011 and assigned Serial No. 10-2011-0088443, the entire disclosure of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention generally relates generally to computing devices, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for translation using a translation trees structure in a portable terminal.
In the globalized world, it may be advantageous to use diverse languages to communicate. In response to this, people of various groups are learning foreign languages. In many cases however, considerable time and effort may be required to acquire knowledge of foreign languages, and the necessary training may differ depending on the life environment or the working environment of the individual. In this regard, a system for automatically translating a native language to a foreign language or vice versa has been developed, such that the individual may use various foreign languages like his/her native language without having to learn the foreign language.
However, a conventional automatic translation system may be limited because of ambiguity of the language. Specifically, one word, such as a homonym, may have different meanings; thus, the conventional translation system may not accurately reflect the homonym and thus translate into the uniform meaning registered in advance.
In addition, while new words not yet registered to the dictionary are created over time, a database updated with the new words may not be built up, thus, falling behind ever-changing use of a particular language.
Further, since the word class and the meaning of the translated language are not displayed, a user unfamiliar with the corresponding foreign language cannot make sure whether the foreign language is correctly translated.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary aspect of the present invention to provide translation apparatus and method using a translation tree structure in a portable terminal for marking word class and meaning of homonyms together with a translated sentence in the tree structure so that a user unfamiliar with a foreign language can identify whether or not the translation is accurate.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a translation apparatus and method using a translation tree structure in a portable terminal for providing convenience to a user by translating words stored to a user database and a common database according to priority.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is to provide translation apparatus and method using a translation tree structure in a portable terminal for receiving a translation revision function by requesting a recipient who uses the translated foreign language to revise the translation.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses embodiments of the invention.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Throughout the drawings, like reference numerals will be understood to refer to like parts, components and structures.
The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of embodiments of the present invention is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.
By the term “substantially” it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.
The present invention may be implemented in an electronic device including a portable terminal such as, for example, a smart phone and a mobile telecommunication terminal. Hereunder, a portable terminal is used as an example for the electronic device. 4
The controller 101 controls operations of the portable terminal. The controller 101 can include the translation engine 102, the user DB 103, the common DB 104, and the synonym/semantic DB 105.
The translation engine 102 requests data used for the translation by the translation engine, the user DB 103, and the common DB 104, and translates an input sentence comprising one or more words using the requested data. For example, the translation engine 102 translates first input language words into one or more second language words using a DB pre-stored in a first portable terminal. When the first input language words are not pre-stored in the DB of the first portable terminal, the translation engine 102 translates the first input language words into the second language words using a translation engine DB. In certain embodiments, the translation engine translates using the DB stored in the user DB 103 first, and using the DB pre-stored to the common DB 104 when the user DB 103 does not store the second language. When both of the user DB 103 and the common DB 104 do not store the first language, the translation engine 102 translates using the DB stored therein.
The user DB 103 stores a translation DB inputted by a user in person. For example, when the translation using the common DB 104 or the DB stored in the translation engine 102 is not desired by the user or mistranslated with incorrect meaning, the user can input and store the translation manually. The stored translation DB is saved in the user DB 103. When the user manually performs the translation, the data stored in the user DB 103 is used according to the priority of DBs in the system.
The common DB 104 is downloaded from the DB stored on a server and then stored by the user. For example, the data stored in the user DB 103 is transmitted to the server in which the server, receives, updates, and stores data for various users in real time. The data updated in real time can be downloaded to multiple users, and the downloaded data may be stored in the common DB 104. As stated earlier, the data stored in the common DB 104 is given the second priority after the user DB 103, and the common DB 104 transmits the data to the translation engine 102.
The synonym/semantic DB 105 includes a dictionary DB that stores synonyms or meanings of the first language and/or second language words. For example, the synonym/semantic DB 105 marks the homonyms of the sentence of the first input language words with the word class and the meaning of the first language words according to the tree structure, and subsequently sends them to the output part 108.
The selector 106 selects any one of translations displayed in the translation tree structure according to the user's input. For example, the selector 106 selects one of words of the second language words displayed in the translation tree structure. When the second language word is selected, the selector 106 selects either the selected second language word or the unselected second language word.
Through the input part 107, the user may input a sentence. For example, a user using the first language inputs the first language words, and inputs the second language word not pre-stored to the translation engine DB among the second languages word displayed.
The output part 108 outputs the sentence inputted by the user and the translated sentence or message received from the communication module 109. For example, the output part 108 displays the translated second language words in the translation tree structure, and displays the second language words translated using the translation engine DB according to the translation tree structure.
The communication module 109 transmits the translation data selected by the user and receives translation data from a sender. For example, the communication module 109 transmits the selected second language words to the server and the second portable terminal using the second language, transmits the selected second language words and the unselected second language word displayed in the translation tree structure to the second portable terminal, receives the word selection, and transmits the revision request result to the first portable terminal.
The storage part 110 can include a program storage part for storing an executable program for controlling the portable terminal, and a data storage part for storing data generated by the program's execution.
As constructed, the controller 101 can perform the functions of the terminal. The components are separately provided to distinguish their functions. Accordingly, in the actual implementation, the controller 101 can process all or part of the functions of the terminal.
Thus, the user not conversant in English can receive the feedback information and thus determine whether the translation is consistent with his/her intention. Yet, when the translation into a third-world language, such as Chinese, Japanese, or French is required, the user can receive the feedback on the word class and the synonyms of the input word.
Specifically, when “” is inputted, the inputted sentence is translated into English words using the DB pre-stored in the portable terminal. As a result, several sentences “I am immigrant employee”, “I am Lee Min employee”, and “I am Lee Min temple” are translated. That is, the related art translates the sentence “” uniformly to “I am immigrant employee”. However, when the user intends to use the proper noun “Lee Min”, not “immigrant”, by the noun “”, the translation is incorrect. By contrast, using the pre-stored DB, the number of cases of the synonym of each word is displayed in the tree structure and thus the user can select the sentence including his/her intended proper noun “Lee Min”.
Likewise, the word “l” can be translated to different meanings including the noun “employee” and the noun “temple”. That is, while the user wants to translate to the noun “employee”, the mistranslation including the noun “temple” can be uniformly produced. By contrast, the user's intended “employee” can be selected by displaying “employee” and “temple” after “Lee MM” in the tree structure. While the tree structure is displayed only after “Lee Min” in
The user DB collects and stores the data inputted by the user, and has the first priority in the translation. That is, the user DB stores data not registered in the existing DB, such as words frequently translated or new words. The first priority is given to enhance the user's convenience. The common DB is the pre-stored user DB in the server. The server receives, stores, and updates the user DBs from multiple users in real time. Meanwhile, the updated data is downloaded to the multiple users and stored to the common DB. The common DB has the second priority after the user DB in the translation.
When the translation uses the pre-stored DB, the translated second language is displayed in the translation tree structure in step 404. The translation tree structure marks the homonyms of the sentence of the first language input, together with their word class and meaning in the tree structure as explained above with regard to
However, when determining that the first language words inputted are not pre-stored to the user DB or the common DB in step 402, the method translates the first language words inputted into the second language using the translation engine DB in step 407. That is, when the first language words are not pre-stored in the user DB having the first priority and the common DB having the second priority, the first language is translated into the second language using the translation engine DB stored in the translation engine.
Next, the second language is displayed in the translation tree structure in step 408. When the displayed tree structure does not include the user's second language to translate, the method determines whether the user inputs the second language manually in step 409. When the user manually inputs the second language, the method stores the inputted second language words to the user DB and transmits it to the server and the second portable terminal in step 410. When the user does not directly input the second language words in step 409, the method selects any one of the most similar meaning in the displayed second language in step 405. That is, while there is no sentence or combination of words correctly translated in the displayed second language words, there is no big difference in terms of the meaning when the sentence, or the word mostly similarly translated is selected. After step 406, the translation selection using the pre-stored DB is finished.
Herein, the second portable terminal refers to the portable terminal receiving the translation. The present invention provides the automatic translation system and the translation revision function to be explained. In certain embodiments, the transmission of the selected word to the second portable terminal which communicates with the first portable terminal in step 406 can be omitted.
The method described above in relation with
When the revision is requested in step 501, the method transmits the selected second language word and the unselected second language word to the second portable terminal in step 502. That is, all of the words displayed in the translation tree structure are transmitted to the other user together with the selected second language so that the other user can select the desired word or combination of words. Next, the second portable terminal using the second language receives a message in step 503 and obtains the selected sentence. That is, the recipient reads the selected sentence and determines whether the sentence is awkward or accurate in step 504.
When determining that the second language initially selected is awkward in step 504, the user selects the sentence or the word having a more accurate meaning based on the translation tree structure transmitted with the selected second language in step 505. Next, the method transmits the revised second language to the user of the first portable terminal which transmitted the second language in step 506. Although the repeated operation is omitted in
When the revision is not requested or the selected second language is sufficiently accurate, further processing at steps 501 and 504 are not performed and the translation revision function is finished.
The method described above in relation with
According to certain embodiments, all of the homonyms are displayed in the translation tree structure. When the word “immigrant” is used, the meaning of the immigrant employee desired by the user is completed. While the definite intention of the user can be confirmed in the embodiments of the present invention, it may be difficult to select the accurate sentence even in the translation tree structure, for example, when the meaning of the word or the sentence having various meanings differs. In this case, when the user selects “I am Lee Min employee” but is not sure about the translated sentence, the user can request the revision to the user of the second portable terminal 602.
Upon receiving the revision request, when the user of the second portable terminal 602 determines based on the context that the noun ‘immigrant’, not the proper noun ‘Lee Min’, is intended, he/she looks at the candidate translations displayed in the translation tree structure in the second portable terminal 602. Next, the user selects “I am immigrant employee” among the candidate translations and identifies again whether or not the user of the first portable terminal 601 intends to state “I am immigrant employee”.
Advantageously, although the revision is not requested, when the awkward expression is determined based on the context, the user can select any one of the candidate translations and feed the selected translation back to the other user at any time.
Also, the whole interpretation of the sentence in the previous conversation can be inputted with the modified word. For example, when “textbox” is input as “#=textbox”, ‘statement frame’ is deleted and ‘textbox’ is inputted instead in not only the past sentence but also the current sentence of the chatting window. That is, “Please revise a statement frame” can be revised to “Please revise a textbox” in all of the current and past sentences.
As above, the word registered by the user is stored to the user DB and the stored data is transmitted to the server. The server receives the transmitted data and automatically updates the data. Thus, the data updated in the server is downloaded to the multiple users and used as the highest priority in the translation.
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
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