Methods and systems for language translation

• US 20040167770A1
• Filed: 06/16/2003
• Published: 08/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gao, Jiangfeng, Zhuo, Ming
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation

Abstract

A translation service is disclosed, the service being provided to a wireless mobile device through a selective downloading of information from a server. The downloaded information includes a translation architecture having a language independent translation engine and at least one language dependent translation database. The language dependent translation database includes translation templates and a translation dictionary. A specialized database for a selected city or cities in the world can also be downloaded. Translation between languages is realized by applying the language dependent translation database, and optionally the city specific translation database, to the translation engine. The translation engine implements a user-driven term replacement scheme for simplifying the translation process.

Claims

1. A method of providing a language translation service to a user of a client computing device, the method comprising:

receiving from the user an input that corresponds to a language selection;

transmitting a request from the client computing device to a server; and

transferring a language dependent database from the server to the client, wherein the language dependent database corresponds to the language selection.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the user an input that corresponds to a specialized database selection;

transmitting a specialized database request from the client computing device to a server; and

transferring a specialized database from the server to the client, wherein the specialized database corresponds to the specialized database selection.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein transferring a specialized database comprises transferring a specialized database having translation information that pertains to a particular destination.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein transferring a specialized database comprises transferring a specialized database having translation information that pertains to a particular city.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising operating the client computing device to utilize a language independent translation engine in association with the language dependent database and the specialized database to perform language translation.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising operating the client computing device to utilize a language independent translation engine in association with the language dependent database to perform language translation.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising transferring the language independent translation engine from the server to the client.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein transferring the language independent translation engine comprises transferring the language translation engine with the language dependent database.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

providing the user with access to a collection of sample sentences that are contained within the language dependent database and are in a language that is familiar to the user; and

receiving from the user a selection input that corresponds to a sample sentence for which the user desires a translation.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein providing the user with access to a collection of sample sentences comprises providing the user with access to a categorized collection of sample sentences.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein utilizing a language independent translation engine in association with the language dependent database comprises translating the sample sentence by utilizing the language independent translation engine to apply to the sample sentence a translation dictionary contained within the language dependent database.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

providing the user with access to a collection of sample sentences that are contained within the language dependent database and are in a language that is familiar to the user;

receiving from the user a selection input that identifies a sample sentence that is similar but not identical to a target sentence for which the user desires a translation; and

receiving from the user a manipulation input;

modifying the sample sentence in accordance with the manipulation input to make the sample sentence a closer approximation of the target sentence.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the user with access to a collection of sample sentences comprises providing the user with access to a categorized collection of sample sentences.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein utilizing a language independent translation engine in association with the language dependent database comprises translating the sample sentence by utilizing the language independent translation engine to apply to the sample sentence a translation dictionary contained within the language dependent database.

15. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving from the user a target input that represents text for which the user desires a translation;

searching a collection of sample texts that are contained within the language dependent database; and

identifying a sample text that is at least substantially similar to the target input.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein utilizing a language independent translation engine in association with the language dependent database comprises translating the sample text by utilizing the language independent translation engine to apply to the sample text a translation dictionary contained within the language dependent database.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying a sample text comprises:

identifying a plurality of sample texts that are approximations of the target text;

presenting the plurality of sample texts to the user; and

receiving from the user a selection input that identifies one of the plurality of sample texts.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein utilizing a language independent translation engine and the language dependent database comprises translating said one of the plurality of sample texts by utilizing the language independent translation engine to apply a translation dictionary contained within the language dependent database.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving from the user a manipulation input;

modifying said one of the plurality of sample texts in accordance with the manipulation input to make it a closer approximation of the target sentence.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein utilizing a language independent translation engine and the language dependent database comprises translating said closer approximation by utilizing the language independent translation engine to apply to the closer approximation a translation dictionary contained within the language dependent database.

21. A method of operating a server to provide a language translation service, the method comprising:

storing a first language dependent database that corresponds to a first pair of languages;

storing a second language dependent database that corresponds to a second pair of languages that is different than the first pair;

receiving from a client a request for translation; and

responding to the request by transferring at least a copy of one of the first and second language dependent databases to the client.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising storing at least one specialized database that is a supplement to one of the first and second language dependent databases.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising responding to the request by transferring a specialized database to the client.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

storing a language independent translation engine; and

responding to the request by transferring the language independent translation engine to the client.

25. An apparatus for implementing a language translation service, comprising:

an input mechanism adapted to receive a user input;

a processor coupled to the input mechanism and adapted to receive an input signal that corresponds to the user input;

a memory coupled to the processor;

a language dependent database stored in the memory, the language dependent database containing a translation dictionary and a plurality of sample sentences; and

a language independent translation engine stored in the memory, the processor being adapted to select a sample sentence based on the user input, and being further adapted to utilize the language independent translation engine to apply the translation dictionary to the sample sentence to produce a translation that is output to the user.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the processor is further adapted to modify the sample sentence based on an additional input signal that corresponds to an additional user input.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising a specialized database stored in the memory, the processor being further adapted to utilize the language independent translation engine to apply the specialized translation database to the sample sentence to produce a translation that is output to the user.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the specialized translation database is a destination-specific database.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the specialized translation database is a city-specific database.