Subtitle translation engine

• US 20070189724A1
• Filed: 05/12/2005
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kang Wan, Zhi Jie Liu
• Original Assignee: Kang Wan, Zhi Jie Liu
• Inventors: Wan, Kang, Jie Liu, Zhi
• Application Number:
  US11/568,904
• Publication Number:
  US 20070189724A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/244
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied

Abstract

A subtitle translation engine (20) for translating subtitle content from a video source to another language, the engine (20) comprising: a subtitle extractor (21) for extracting subtitle content in a first language from the video source; and a translation module (22) for translating words of the extracted subtitle content in the first language to a second language with the same meaning by performing a lookup on a language dictionary; where, during playback of the video, the extracted subtitle content is output in the second language.

Claims

1. A subtitle translation engine for translating subtitle content from a video source to another language, the engine comprising:

a subtitle extractor for extracting subtitle content in a first language from the video source; and

a translation module for translating words of the extracted subtitle content in the first language to a second language with the same meaning by performing a lookup on a language dictionary;

where, during playback of the video, the extracted subtitle content is output in the second language.

2. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the video source is in Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), Super Video CD (SVCD) format, or any format where video content and subtitles are stored as separate entities.

3. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the language dictionary is one of a lookup table, and database.

4. The engine according to claim 3, wherein the language dictionary is able to be updated.

5. The engine according to claim 3, wherein the language dictionary is used for translation between more than two languages.

6. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the subtitle extractor comprises an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine to convert subtitle content in image format into text format.

7. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the translation module translates words on a word-by-word basis or on a phrase-by-phrase basis.

8. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the first language is any one of English, French, Spanish, Italian or German.

9. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the second language is any one of Chinese (traditional or simplified characters), Japanese, Korean, Thai, Russian or Arabic.

10. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the subtitle translation engine is a standalone unit, for connection with a DVD player and television screen for input and output, respectively.

11. The engine according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the subtitle translation engine is incorporated within a DVD player.

12. The engine according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the subtitle translation engine is a software program to be installed on a computer.

13. The engine according to claim 1, further comprising a picture format determination module to determine the video format of the video source.

14. A method for translating subtitle content from a video source to another language, the method comprising the steps of:

extracting subtitle content in a first language from the video source; and

translating words of the extracted subtitle content in the first language to a second language with the same meaning by performing a lookup on a language dictionary;

where, during playback of the video, the extracted subtitle content is output in the second language.

15. The method according to claim 14, comprising an initial step of detecting the video format of the video source to determine whether the video source is compatible for translation.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the video source is in Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), Super Video CD (SVCD) format, or any format where video content and subtitles are stored as separate entities.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the language dictionary is one of a lookup table, and database.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the language dictionary is able to be updated.

19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the language dictionary is used for translation between more than two languages.

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine is provided to convert subtitle content in image format into text format.

21. The method according to claim 14, wherein the words of the extracted subtitle content are translated on a word-by-word basis or on a phrase-by-phrase basis.

22. The method according to claim 14, wherein the first language is any one of English, French, Spanish, Italian or German.

23. The method according to claim 14, wherein the second language is any one of Chinese (traditional or simplified characters), Japanese, Korean, Thai, Russian or Arabic.

24. A computer program product comprised of a computer-readable medium for carrying computer-executable instructions for performing the method according to claim 14.

25. A translated subtitle stream generated by the method according to claim 14.

26. A video stream comprising an MPEG-2 video stream multiplexed with a translated subtitle stream according to claim 25.