Communication support apparatus and method

• US 20030097250A1
• Filed: 11/15/2002
• Published: 05/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Chino, Tetsuro
• Granted Patent: US 7,277,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques

Abstract

An input unit inputs a drawing information based on a first language on a display by at least one of a plurality of users each locating at predetermined position relative to the display. A conversion unit converts the drawing information based on the first language to an information based on a second language. A control unit presents the information based on the second language on the display according to a location of another user of the plurality of users as a person to present the information based on the second language.

Claims

1. A communication support apparatus, comprising:

an input unit configured to input a drawing information based on a first language for presentation on a display by a first user at a first location relative to the display;

a conversion unit configured to convert the drawing information based on the first language to an information based on a second language; and

a control unit configured to present the information based on the second language on the display according to a second location of a second user relative to the display.

2. The communication support apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the drawing information is at least one of a character, a word, a text and a symbol.

3. The communication support apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said input unit inputs the drawing information handwritten by the first user and the second user.

4. The communication support apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein said control unit decides a location and an upright orientation of each of the first and second user relative to the display, a kind of the drawing information, and a language kind of each of the first and second user based on a feature of the drawing information inputted by each of the first band second user respectively.

5. The communication support apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a location information memory configured to store the location and the upright orientation in correspondence with each user identifier for the first and second user.

6. The communication support apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein said conversion unit extracts language dependence data from the drawing information based on the first language and translates the language dependence data into the second language.

7. The communication support apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein said conversion unit translates a symbol information as the language dependence data based on the first language into a word information based on the second language.

8. The communication support apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a display information memory configured to store a drawn position, an orientation, a kind and a contents of the drawing information in correspondence with a drawing information identifier when the drawing information based on the first language is inputted from said input unit.

9. The communication support apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein, if the kind of drawing information stored in said display information memory is language dependence data, said control unit stores a translation result of the language dependence data as the contents in correspondence with a translation identifier and the drawing information identifier of the language dependence data in said display information memory.

10. The communication support apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein said control unit stores a translation position near the drawing information based on the first language, the translation position not overlapping other drawing information as a position of the translation result in said display information memory.

11. The communication support apparatus according to claim 10,

wherein said control unit retrieves the upright orientation of the second user to present the translation result from said location information memory, and stores the upright orientation of the second user as the orientation of the translation result in correspondence with the translation identifier in said display information memory.

12. The communication support apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein said control unit displays the translation result on the display according to the position and the orientation of the translation result by referring to said display information memory.

13. The communication support apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein said control unit analyzes the drawing information based on the first language, detects an input format information used in the drawing information, and stores the input format information in correspondence with the first language.

14. The communication support apparatus according to claim 13,

wherein said control unit determines an output format of the information based on the second language by using the input format information corresponding to the second language.

15. The communication support apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said control unit detects the first location and the second location using at least one of a wireless tag and a magnetic tag.

16. Communication support apparatus, comprising:

an input unit configured to receive an input message based on a first language from a first user;

a translation unit configured to translate the input message into an output message based on a second language for another user; and

a presentation unit configured to present the output message allocated towards a location of the another user.

17. The communication support apparatus according to claim 16,

wherein the input message and the output message are sound signal containing at least one of a spoken language and non-verbal sound.

18. The communication support apparatus according to claim 17,

wherein said input unit inputs acoustic data uttered by the first user as the input message.

19. The communication support apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising:

a control unit configured to detect a spatial location of the first user in accordance with a feature of the input message from said input unit.

20. The communication support apparatus according to claim 19,

wherein said control unit decides a language kind of the first user in accordance with information about a glottis or an utterance style acquired from spoken language of the input message.

21. The communication support apparatus according to claim 20, further comprising:

a location information memory configured to store the spatial location and the language kind of the first user.

22. The communication support apparatus according to claim 21,

wherein said translation unit retrieves a language kind of the another user to present the input message from said location information memory, and translates the input message based on the first language into the output message based on the language kind of the another user.

23. The communication support apparatus according to claim 22,

wherein said control unit retrieves a spatial location of the another user from said location memory, and presents the output message through said presentation unit allocated towards the spatial location of the another user.

24. The communication support apparatus according to claim 16,

wherein the input message is drawing information handwritten by the first user.

25. The communication support apparatus according to claim 16,

wherein the output message is image information containing at least one of a character, a word, a text and a symbol.

26. The communication support apparatus according to claim 16,

wherein said control unit detects the location of the first user and the another user using at least one of a wireless tag and a magnetic tag.

27. A method for supporting communication, comprising:

inputting a drawing information based on a first language for presentation on a display by a first user at a first location relative to the display;

converting the drawing information based on the first language to an information based on a second language; and

presenting the information based on the second language on the display according to a second location of a second user relative to the display.

28. A method for supporting communication, comprising:

receiving an input message based on a first language from a first user;

translating the input message into an output message based on a second language for another user; and

presenting the output message allocated towards a location of another user.

29. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable program code embodied in said product for causing a computer to support communication, said computer readable program code having;

a first program code to input a drawing information based on a first language for presentation on a display by a first user at a first location relative to the display;

a second program code to convert the drawing information based on the first language to an information based on a second language; and

a third program code to present the information based on the second language on the display according to a second location of a second user relative to the display.

30. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable program code embodied in said product for causing a computer to support communication, said computer readable program code having;

a first program code to receive an input message based on a first language from a first user;

a second program code to translate the input message into an output message based on a second language for another user; and

a third program code to present the output message allocated towards a location of another user.