Computer -aided reading system and method with cross-language reading wizard

• US 20010056352A1
• Filed: 04/23/2001
• Published: 12/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Xun, Endong
• Granted Patent: US 7,315,809 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/277
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/47 Machine-assisted translation, e.g. using translation memory

Abstract

A computer-aided reading system offers assistance to a user who is reading in a non-native language, as the user needs help, without requiring the user to divert attention away from the text. In one implementation, the reading system is implemented as a reading wizard for a browser program. The reading wizard is exposed via a graphical user interface (UI) that allows the user to select a word, phrase, sentence, or other grouping of words in the non-native text, and view a translation of the selected text in the user'"'"'s own native language. The translation is presented in a window or pop-up box located near the selected text to minimize distraction.

Claims

1. A reading system comprising:

a user interface configured to allow a user to select text in a non-native language and view a translation of the selected text in a native language; and

a cross-language reading wizard comprising;

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding words or phrases in the native language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.

2. The reading system of

claim 1

, wherein the parser comprises a morphological analyzer to morphologically process individual words to obtain a morphological root of each word.

3. The reading system of

claim 1

, wherein the parser comprises a part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module for tagging individual words with identifiers.

4. The reading system of

claim 3

, wherein the part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module comprises a statistical model.

5. The reading system of

claim 1

, wherein the parser comprises a phrase extension module for applying phrase extension rules to individual words.

6. The reading system of

claim 1

, wherein the translation generator comprises a dictionary module for translating the candidate word translations into the corresponding words or phrases.

7. The reading system of

claim 6

, wherein the dictionary module comprises a word dictionary.

8. The reading system of

claim 6

, wherein the dictionary module comprises a phrase dictionary.

9. The reading system of

claim 6

, wherein the dictionary module comprises an irregular morphology dictionary.

10. The reading system of

claim 1

, wherein the translation generator comprises a template module comprising one or more templates that can be used to translate the candidate word translations into the corresponding words or phrases.

11. The reading system of

claim 1

, wherein the translation generator comprises a rules module that contains multiple rules for translating non-native language words into native language words.

12. The reading system of

claim 1

, wherein the translation generator comprises one or more statistical models.

13. The reading system of

claim 1

, embodied as a browser.

14. A reading system comprising:

a user interface configured to allow a user to select English language text and view a Chinese language translation of the selected text; and

a cross-language reading wizard comprising;

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding phrases in the Chinese language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.

15. The reading system of

claim 14

, embodied as a browser.

16. A reading system comprising:

a user interface configured to allow a user to select text in a non-native language and view a translation of the selected text in a native language, the user interface comprising a pop-up window in which native language text can be viewed by the user; and

a cross-language reading wizard configured to;

receive non-native text that has been selected by the user, and

automatically translate the non-native text into the native language text.

17. The reading system of

claim 16

, wherein the pop-up window is displayed adjacent text that has been selected by the user.

18. The reading system of

claim 16

, wherein the pop-up window is scrollable to display multiple translations and is displayed adjacent text that has been selected by the user.

19. The reading system of

claim 16

, embodied as a browser.

20. A computer-aided reading method comprising:

presenting non-native language text to a user via a user interface;

receiving text selected by the user;

processing the text selected by the user to provide text that has been translated from the non-native-language into a native language; and

presenting the translated text to the user via the user interface.

21. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 20

, wherein said processing comprises:

parsing the text into translation units; and

obtaining a morphological root for one or more translation units.

22. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 20

, wherein said processing comprises:

parsing the text into translation units; and

characterizing translation units using part-of-speech tagging and base noun phrase identification.

23. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 20

, wherein said processing comprises:

parsing the text into translation units;

characterizing translation units using part-of-speech tagging and base noun phrase identification; and

applying rules-based phrase extension and pattern matching to the characterized translation units to provide a tree list.

24. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 23

, wherein said processing further comprises generating, based on the tree list, candidate word translations in the native language.

25. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 24

, wherein said processing further comprises translating the candidate word translations to corresponding words and/or phrases in the native language.

26. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a processor, direct a computer to perform the method of

claim 20

.

27. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 20

, wherein the recited acts are performed by a browser.

28. A reading system comprising:

one or more computer readable media; and

code embodied on the media configured to implement a browser, the browser being configured to;

present English language text to a user via a user interface;

receive text selected by the user;

process the text selected by the user to provide text that has been translated from English into a Chinese language; and

present the translated text to the user via the user interface.

29. The reading system of

claim 28

, wherein the browser is configured to present multiple translations of the same English language text to the user.

30. The reading system of

claim 28

, wherein the browser is configured to present the translated text in a translation window adjacent English language text selected by the user.

31. The reading system of

claim 28

, wherein the browser is configured to present multiple translations of the same English text in a translation window adjacent English language text selected by the user, the translation window having a drop-down feature to expose at least some of the multiple translations.

32. A computer-aided reading method comprising:

presenting English language text to a user via a user interface;

receiving text selected by the user;

processing the text selected by the user to provide text that has been translated from the English language into a Chinese language; and

presenting the translated text to the user via the user interface.

33. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 32

, wherein said processing comprises:

parsing the text into translation units; and

obtaining a morphological root for one or more translation units.

34. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 32

, wherein said processing comprises:

parsing the text into translation units; and

characterizing translation units using part-of-speech tagging and base noun phrase identification.

35. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 32

, wherein said processing comprises:

parsing the text into translation units;

characterizing translation units using part-of-speech tagging and base noun phrase identification; and

applying rules-based phrase extension and pattern matching to the characterized translation units to provide a tree list.

36. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 35

, wherein said processing further comprises generating, based on the tree list, candidate word translations in the Chinese language.

37. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 36

, wherein said processing further comprises translating the candidate word translations to corresponding words and/or phrases in the Chinese language.

38. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a processor, direct a computer to perform the method of

claim 32

.

39. A computer-aided reading method comprising:

enabling a user to select at least one word presented by a user interface in a non-native language;

automatically determining whether a corresponding phrase is associated with the selected one word; and

presenting one or more translations of at least the selected word in a native language or, if there is a corresponding phrase associated with the selected word, presenting at least one translation of the corresponding phrase in a native language.

40. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 39

, wherein said presenting comprises presenting the translation in a translation window adjacent the corresponding selected at least one word.

41. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 40

, wherein said translation window is scrollable to present multiple different translations.

42. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 39

, wherein said presenting comprises presenting multiple most likely translations.

43. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 42

, wherein said presenting further comprises sorting the most likely translations by context.

44. The computer-aided reading method of

claim 39

further comprising:

receiving user input that indicates that the user desires for only a selected word comprising part of a phrase to be translated, and

presenting one or more translations of only the selected word.

45. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a processor, direct a computer to perform the method of

claim 39

.

46. A reading system comprising:

one or more computer readable media; and

code embodied on the media configured to implement a browser, the browser being configured to;

enable a user to select at least one English language word presented by a user interface;

automatically determine whether a corresponding phrase is associated with the selected at least one English language word; and

present one or more translations of the selected at least one English language word in a Chinese language or, if there is a corresponding phrase associated with the selected at least one English language word, presenting at least one translation of the corresponding phrase in the Chinese language.

47. A cross-language user interface comprising:

a first area configured to display text in a non-native language; and

a second area configured to display translated portions of at least some of the text in a native language.

48. The cross-language user interface of

claim 47

, wherein the second area is disposed adjacent at least some text that has been selected by a user for translation.

49. The cross-language user interface of

claim 47

, wherein the non-native language comprises English language, and the native language comprises Chinese language.

50. The cross-language user interface of

claim 47

, wherein the second area comprises a pop-up window.

51. The cross-language user interface of

claim 50

, wherein the pop-up window comprises a drop-down feature to display additional translations.

52. The cross-language user interface of

claim 47

, wherein the second area displays multiple different translations of the same text.

53. A cross-language user interface comprising:

a first area within which text can be displayed for selection by a user, the text being displayed in a first language; and

a second area adjacent text selected by the user, the second area being configured to display text that has been translated into a second different language, the translated text corresponding to text that has been selected by the user.

54. The cross-language user interface of

claim 53

, wherein the first language comprises English and the second language comprises Chinese.

55. The cross-language user interface of

claim 53

, wherein the second area comprises a pop-up window.

56. The cross-language user interface of

claim 53

, wherein the second area comprises a pop-up window having a drop down feature to display multiple translations.

57. The cross-language user interface of

claim 53

, wherein the second area displays multiple different translations of the same text.

58. A reading system comprising:

a cross-language reading wizard comprising;

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units, the parser comprising a part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module for tagging individual words with identifiers,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding words or phrases in the native language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.

59. The reading system of

claim 58

, wherein the parser comprises a morphological analyzer to morphologically process individual words to obtain a morphological root of each word.

60. The reading system of

claim 58

, wherein the parser comprises a phrase extension module for applying phrase extension rules to individual words.

61. One or more computer readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a cross-language reading wizard comprising:

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units, the parser comprising a part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module for tagging individual words with identifiers,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding words or phrases in the native language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.

62. One or more computer readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

present non-native language text to a user via a user interface;

receive text selected by the user;

process the text selected by;

parsing the text into translation units,

characterizing translation units using part-of-speech tagging and base noun phrase identification,

applying rules-based phrase extension and pattern matching to the characterized translation units to provide a tree list,

generating, based on the tree list, candidate word translations in the native language, and

translating the candidate word translations to corresponding words and/or phrases in the native language to provide text that has been translated from the non-native-language into a native language; and

present translated text to the user via the user interface.