Patent Application
20150169550
1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for translation suggestion.
2. Description Of Related Art
Auto-completion of text is utilized in many data processing environments. Translation of text from a source language to target language is also utilized in data processing environments. Systems that utilize translation, however, often do not include auto-completion abilities.
Methods, apparatus, and products for translation suggestion are disclosed in this specification. Such translation may include receiving, by a translation engine from a user, text representing one or more words in a source language; translating, by the translation engine, the one or more words to a target language; identifying, by the translation engine in dependence upon the translated words, a common phrase in the target language for suggestion to the user; and suggesting, by the translation engine, the common phrase to the user. The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular descriptions of exemplary embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers generally represent like parts of exemplary embodiments of the invention.
Exemplary methods, apparatus, and products for translation suggestion in accordance with the present invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawings, beginning with
Stored in RAM (168) is a translation engine (126), a module of computer program instructions that, when executed, cause the computer (152) of
The translation engine (126) may then translate the one or more words to a target language (130). The translation engine may translate from a source language to a target language in a variety of ways including through the use of a corpus or dictionary data structure.
The translation engine (126) may then identify, in dependence upon the translated words (130), a common phrase (134) in the target language for suggestion to the user and suggest the common phrase (134) to the user. In some embodiments, the translation engine may identify a common phrase (134) in the target language by utilizing the translated words (130) as an index into a corpus (132) of common phrases in the target language.
In some embodiments the translation as well as the identification of common phrases may occur dynamically for each increment of received text. The term ‘increment of received text’ here refers to text received in a variety of ways: from keyboard keystrokes, from a speech-to-text engine, from virtual keyboard keystrokes or touch gestures encoded into text and the like. Prior art search engines utilize a ‘search as you type’ feature in which each keystroke results in a search function being executed and results are provided immediately. In this way, prior to completion of typing a full search query, it may be possible to provide a desired result to the final, full query. In a similar manner, the translation engine of the example of
Also stored in RAM (168) is an operating system (154). Operating systems useful in computers configured for translation suggestion according to embodiments of the present invention include UNIX™, Linux™, Microsoft XP™, AIX™, IBM's i5/OS™, and others as will occur to those of skill in the art. The operating system (154) and the translation engine (126) in the example of
The computer (152) of
The example computer (152) of
The exemplary computer (152) of
The arrangement of computers and other devices making up the exemplary system illustrated in
For further explanation,
The method of
The method of
The method of
Suggesting (216) the common phrase, in either case, may include displaying the common phrase in a graphical user interface (‘GUI’) presented to the user. As mentioned above, suggesting (208) a common phrase in the target language may be dynamic, for each increment of received text. That is, for each translation of text (which may occur dynamically for each increment of received text), the translation engine may identify and suggest a common phrase.
For further explanation,
The GUI (300) also presents a user an input field for receiving text. In the example of
The example GUI (300) depicts a snapshot of the translation engine after performing only a single translation, identification of a common phrase, and suggestion of the common phrase. Readers of skill in the art will recognize, however, that the translation engine may perform those steps for each increment of text (each letter in this example).
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
Aspects of the present invention are described above with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
It will be understood from the foregoing description that modifications and changes may be made in various embodiments of the present invention without departing from its true spirit. The descriptions in this specification are for purposes of illustration only and are not to be construed in a limiting sense. The scope of the present invention is limited only by the language of the following claims.
