SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COLLABORATIVE LANGUAGE TRANSLATION

• US 20130144594A1
• Filed: 12/06/2011
• Published: 06/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: BANGALORE, Srinivas, Kuksenok, Kateryna
• Granted Patent: US 9,323,746 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/47 Machine-assisted translation, e.g. using translation memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/51 Translation evaluation
• 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

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for presenting a machine translation and alternative translations to a user, where a selection of any particular alternative translation results in the re-ranking of the remaining alternatives. The system then presents these re-ranked alternatives to the user, who can continue proofing the machine translation using the re-ranked alternatives or by typing an improved translation. This process continues until the user indicates that the current portion of the translation is complete, at which point the system moves to the next portion.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a source text;

generating, via a processor, a machine translation of the source text and a list of alternative translation possibilities;

ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities, to yield a ranked list of translation alternatives in a first order;

presenting to a user the machine translation and the ranked list of translation alternatives in the first order, wherein the user is participating in a collaborative translation of the source text with at least one other entity;

receiving an input from the user associated with the ranked list of translation alternatives; and

re-ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities based at least in part on the input, to yield a re-ranked list of translation alternatives in a second order.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting to the user the machine translation, the input, and the re-ranked list of translation alternatives in the second order.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities is based on the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the user is determined from at least one of historical trends, crowdsourcing, and previous usage associated with the source text.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of alternative translation possibilities comprises alternative portions associated with machine translation portions.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the machine translation portions comprise at least one of a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a line of machine code, and a cluster of machine code lines.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the input from the user comprises one of a selection from the ranked list of translation alternatives and a non-predetermined translation alternative from the user.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory storage device having stored therein instructions for controlling the processor to perform steps comprising;

receiving a source text;

generating a machine translation of the source text and a list of alternative translation possibilities;

ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities, to yield a ranked list of translation alternatives in a first order;

presenting to a user the machine translation and the ranked list of translation alternatives in the first order, wherein the user is participating in a collaborative translation of the source text with at least one other entity;

receiving an input from the user associated with the ranked list of translation alternatives; and

re-ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities based at least in part on the input, to yield a re-ranked list of translation alternatives in a second order.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the non-transitory storage device has stored therein further instructions, the further instructions comprising presenting to the user the machine translation, the input, and the re-ranked list of translation alternatives in the second order.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities is based on the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the user.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the user is determined from at least one of historical trends, crowdsourcing, and previous usage associated with the source text.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the list of alternative translation possibilities comprises alternative portions associated with machine translation portions.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the machine translation portions comprise at least one of a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a line of machine code, and a cluster of machine code lines.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the input from the user comprises one of a selection from the ranked list of translation alternatives and a non-predetermined translation alternative from the user.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

receiving a source text;

generating a machine translation of the source text and a list of alternative translation possibilities;

ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities, to yield a ranked list of translation alternatives in a first order;

presenting to a user the machine translation and the ranked list of translation alternatives in the first order, wherein the user is participating in a collaborative translation of the source text with at least one other entity;

receiving an input from the user associated with the ranked list of translation alternatives; and

re-ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities based at least in part on the input, to yield a re-ranked list of translation alternatives in a second order.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage device has stored therein further instructions, the further instructions comprising presenting to the user the machine translation, the input, and the re-ranked list of translation alternatives in the second order.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein ranking the list of alternative translation possibilities is based on the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the user.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the user is determined from at least one of historical trends, crowdsourcing, and previous usage associated with the source text.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the list of alternative translation possibilities comprises alternative portions associated with machine translation portions.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the machine translation portions comprise at least one of a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a line of machine code, and a cluster of machine code lines.