Customizable machine translation service

• US 20080249760A1
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SDL PLC (RWS Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Language Weaver, Inc. (RWS Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Marcu, Daniel, Wong, William, Lung, Felix
• Granted Patent: US 8,831,928 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/2
• 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

Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for providing a translation service. The method comprises providing a translation interface accessible via a network. The translation interface receives specialized data associated with a domain from a member. A text string written in a source language is received from the member via the translation interface. A domain-based translation engine is selected. The domain-based translation engine may be associated with a source language, a target language, and a domain. The text string is translated into the target language using, at least in part, by the selected domain-based translation engine. The translated text string is transmitted to the member via the Internet. In some embodiments, a translation memory is generated based on the specialized data.

Claims

1. A method for providing a translation service comprising:

receiving a text string written in a source language from a member via a translation interface;

selecting a domain-based translation engine, the domain-based translation engine associated with a source language, a target language, and a domain;

translating the text string into the target language using, at least in part, the selected domain-based translation engine; and

transmitting the translated text string to the member via the network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a translation interface accessible via the network, the translation interface configured to receive the specialized data associated with the domain from another member.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the specialized data associated with the domain from the member, the specialized data associated with a variety of formats, and generating a translation memory based on the specialized data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a translation memory from the member; and

translating at least a portion of the text string using the translation memory.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the domain-based translation engine based on specialized data received from the member.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

translating a second text string received from a second member using, at least in part, specialized data received from the member; and

crediting an account associated with the member.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a payment from the member based on a subscription.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a payment from the member based on a usage fee.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing confidence level information associated with the translated text string.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein specialized data is associated with an indication of confidentiality.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the text string is performed using, at least in part, a data-driven machine translation technique.

12. A domain-based translation engine comprising:

a communications module configured to receive specialized data and an input text string written in a source language from a member via a network; and

a translation module configured to translate the input text string into a target language using, at least in part, data-driven machine translation and the specialized data.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a translation memory, wherein the translation module is configured to access the translation memory to translate the input text string.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the translation module is configured to determine whether the specialized data is sufficient to generate a domain-based translation engine.

15. A computer readable medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor for performing a method for providing a translation service, the method comprising:

receiving a text string written in a source language from a member via a translation interface;

selecting a domain-based translation engine, the domain-based translation engine associated with a source language, a target language, and a domain;

translating the text string into the target language using, at least in part, the selected domain-based translation engine; and

transmitting the translated text string to the member via the Internet.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises providing a translation interface accessible via the network, the translation interface configured to receive the specialized data associated with the domain from another member.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a translation memory from the member; and

translating at least a portion of the text string using the translation memory.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises generating a customized translation engine based on specialized data received from the member.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

translating a second text string received from a second member using, at least in part, specialized data received from the member; and

crediting an account associated with the member.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises providing confidence level information associated with the translated text string.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein specialized data is associated with an indication of confidentiality.

22. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of documents associated with a domain from a member, a first document of the plurality of documents written in a source language and a second document of the plurality of documents written in a second language;

identifying a first portion of the first document that comprises a parallel translation of a second portion of the second document; and

storing the first portion and the second portion in a domain-based translation memory.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising generating a domain-based translation engine based on the domain-based translation memory and the plurality of documents.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising translating a text string using the domain-based translation engine.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the first document is associated with a first format and the second document is associated with a second format.