METHODS, DEVICES, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR PROVIDING REAL-TIME LANGUAGE TRANSLATION CAPABILITIES BETWEEN COMMUNICATION TERMINALS

• US 20100185434A1
• Filed: 01/16/2009
• Published: 07/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Mobile Communications Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Salmen, Mikael, Burvall, Henning
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,430 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/3
• 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: G10L 15/005 Language recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2061 Language aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42 Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers specially adapted for wireless communication networks H04W4/00

Abstract

A language translation device includes a network transceiver configured to provide communication between first and second communication terminals, a language recognition unit, and a language translation unit. The language recognition unit is configured to receive a signal representing speech and/or text in a first human language from the first communication terminal and map the received signal to intermediate data. The language translation unit is configured to generate a translated signal representing speech and/or text in a second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the intermediate data and provide the translated signal to the second communication terminal. The speech and/or text represented by the translated signal has a meaning corresponding to that of the speech and/or text represented by the received signal. Related devices and methods of operation are also discussed.

Claims

1. A language translation device, comprising:

a network transceiver configured to provide communication between first and second communication terminals;

a language recognition unit configured to receive a signal representing speech and/or text in a first human language from the first communication terminal and map the received signal to intermediate data; and

a language translation unit configured to generate a translated signal representing speech and/or text in a second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the intermediate data and provide the translated signal to the second communication terminal, the speech and/or text represented by the translated signal having a meaning corresponding to that of the speech and/or text represented by the received signal.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the network transceiver is configured to receive an indication of one of speech and text as a desired output at the second communication terminal, and wherein the language translation unit comprises:

a text output unit configured to generate the translated signal representing text in the second human language in response to the indication of text as the desired output; and

a speech synthesizing unit configured to generate the translated signal representing speech in the second human language in response to the indication of speech as the desired output.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the network transceiver is configured to receive an indication of a sex and/or age of a user of the first communication terminal, and wherein the speech synthesizing unit is configured to generate the translated signal representing speech in the second human language in real time using a voice in accordance with the indication of the sex and/or the age of the user of the first communication terminal.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein:

the network transceiver is configured to receive, from the first communication terminal, an indication of the first human language among a plurality of available languages as a source language;

the language recognition unit is configured to map the received signal to the intermediate data responsive to the indication of the first human language as the source language;

the network transceiver is configured to receive, from the second communication terminal, an indication of the second human language among the plurality of available languages as a target language; and

the language translation unit is configured to generate the translated signal responsive to the indication of the second human language as the target language.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the language recognition unit is configured to select the first human language among a plurality of available languages as a default source language for mapping the received signal according to a first geographic location associated with the first communication terminal, and wherein the language translation unit is configured to select the second human language among the plurality of available languages as a default target language for generating the translated signal according to a second geographic location associated with the second communication terminal.

6. The device of claim 5, further comprising:

a controller configured to determine the first and/or second geographic locations according to a respective country code, positioning signal, and/or geographic location of network infrastructure associated with the first and/or second communication terminals.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the network transceiver is configured to receive a translation service request including an identification of the second communication terminal from the first communication terminal, transmit an invitation to the second communication terminal responsive to receiving the translation service request, receive an acceptance from the second communication terminal in response to the invitation, and establish the communication between the first and second communication terminals in response to receiving the acceptance.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface configured to receive speech and/or text in the first human language from a user of the first communication terminal; and

a controller configured to generate the signal representing the speech and/or text in the first human language responsive to receipt of the speech and/or text at the user interface.

9. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface configured to provide the translated signal representing the speech and/or text in the second human language to a user of the second communication terminal.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein:

the network transceiver is configured to provide communication with a third communication terminal;

the language translation unit is configured to generate a second translated signal representing speech and/or text in a third human language, which is different from the first and second human languages, in response to the intermediate data and provide the translated signal to the third communication terminal, the speech and/or text represented by the second translated signal having a meaning corresponding to that of the speech and/or text represented by the received signal.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the language recognition unit is configured to provide an indication of a preferred sampling rate, coding rate, speech coding algorithm, and/or parametric model to the first communication terminal for conversion of speech in the first human language into the speech signal, wherein the preferred sampling rate, coding rate, speech coding algorithm, and/or parametric model is different than that used by the first communication terminal when operating in a non-language translation mode, and wherein the language recognition unit is configured to receive the signal representing speech in the first human language from the first communication terminal in response to the indication.

12. A method of providing language translation between first and second communication terminals, the method comprising:

establishing communication between the first and second communication terminals;

receiving a signal representing speech and/or text in a first human language from the first communication terminal;

mapping the received signal to intermediate data in a language recognition unit;

generating a translated signal representing speech and/or text in a second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the intermediate data in a language translation unit, the speech and/or text represented by the translated signal having a meaning corresponding to that of the speech and/or text represented by the received signal; and

providing the translated signal to the second communication terminal.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving an indication of one of speech and text as a desired output at the second communication terminal,

wherein generating the translated signal in the language translation unit comprises generating the translated signal representing one of speech and text in the second human language responsive to the indication of the desired output.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the indication of the desired output comprises speech, and further comprising:

receiving, from the first communication terminal, an indication of a sex and/or an age of a user thereof,

wherein generating the translated signal in the language translation unit comprises generating the translated signal representing speech in the second human language in real time using a voice in accordance with the indication of the sex and/or the age of the user of the first communication terminal.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, from the first communication terminal, an indication of the first human language among a plurality of available languages as a source language,

wherein mapping the received signal comprises mapping the received signal to the intermediate data in the language recognition unit responsive to the indication of the first human language as the source language; and

receiving, from the second communication terminal, an indication of the second human language among the plurality of available languages as a target language,

wherein generating the translated signal comprises generating the translated signal in the language translation unit responsive to the indication of the second human language as the target language.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

selecting the first human language among a plurality of available languages as a default source language for mapping the received signal to the intermediate data in the language recognition unit according to a first geographic location associated with the first communication terminal; and

selecting the second human language among the plurality of available languages as a default target language for generating the translated signal in the language translation unit according to a second geographic location associated with the second communication terminal.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining the first and/or second geographic locations according to a respective country code, positioning signal, and/or geographic location of network infrastructure associated with the first and/or second communication terminals.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein establishing the communication between the first and second communication terminals comprises:

receiving, from the first communication terminal, a translation service request including an identification of the second communication terminal;

transmitting an invitation to the second communication terminal responsive to the translation service request;

receiving, from the second communication terminal, an acceptance in response to the invitation; and

establishing the communication between the first and second communication terminals in response to the acceptance.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

providing an indication of a preferred sampling rate, coding rate, speech coding algorithm, and/or parametric model to the first communication terminal for conversion of speech in the first human language into the speech signal, wherein the preferred sampling rate, coding rate, speech coding algorithm, and/or parametric model is different than that used by the first communication terminal when operating in a non-language translation mode,

wherein the signal representing speech in the first human language is received from the first communication terminal in response to the indication.

20. A computer program product for providing language translation between first and second communication terminals, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code that is configured to establish communication between the first and second communication terminals;

computer readable program code that is configured to map a signal received from the first communication terminal to intermediate data, the received signal representing speech and/or text in a first human language;

computer readable program code that is configured to generate a translated signal representing speech and/or text in a second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the intermediate data, the speech and/or text represented by the translated signal having a meaning corresponding to that of the speech and/or text represented by the received signal; and

computer readable program code that is configured to provide the translated signal to the second communication terminal.