Document conversion apparatus for carrying out a natural conversion

• US 5,987,403 A
• Filed: 05/29/1997
• Issued: 11/16/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Sugimura, Ryoichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDOUARD, PATRICK NESTOR
• Application Number:
  US08/864,757
• Time in Patent Office: 901 Days
• Field of Search: 704/2-7, 707/500, 707/513, 707/536
• US Class Current: 704/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/42 Data-driven translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/55 Rule-based translation
• 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 method and document conversion apparatus for converting text of one language or dialect into text of another language or dialect without losing the tag symbols included in the text. The system includes a unit for storing the source text, a unit for storing data which shows the display properties of the source text and the location to which the properties are attached, a unit for converting the text body of the source language into the text body of the target language, a unit for storing the converted text body, a unit for storing information which shows the relations between words in the target text and words in the source text, a unit which processes the target text body and prepares data which shows the display properties of the target text and the location to which the properties are attached, a unit for preparing the target text by attaching tag symbols to the target text, and a display unit for displaying the text.

Claims

1. A document conversion apparatus for converting source data into target data comprising:

source text memory means for storing a source text;

source display data memory means for storing a source display data, wherein the source display data is a combination of source display properties included in the source text and a location in which source display properties are attached to the source text;

conversion means for converting a source text body into a target text body, the source text body being text in which source display properties are excluded, the target text also being text in which display properties are excluded;

target text memory means for storing the converted target text body;

conversion paired information memory means for storing conversion paired information, wherein the conversion paired information is a combination showing how the words in the source text correspond to the words in target text, wherein word is defined as a unit with meaning;

process means for processing the target text body and preparing a target display data by searching the source display data and the conversion paired information, wherein the target display data is data showing target display properties to be attached and a location in the target text body to which should be attached target display properties corresponding to the source display properties;

target text preparation means for preparing a target text by attaching the display properties to the target text body stored in the target text memory means, the attaching carried out by conforming to the contents of the target display data obtained from the process means; and

display means for displaying the prepared target texts.

2. The document conversion apparatus of claim 1, wherein the source display properties and target display properties include character decoration and pointers to link destination files.

3. The document conversion apparatus of claim 2, wherein the source text and the target text are both HTML documents, and the contents and the area of the source and target display properties are indicated by tag symbols.

4. The document conversion apparatus of claim 2, wherein the process means comprise:

display property attachment area search unit for checking the location of the source display properties and the word shown by the information of the source text of the conversion paired information, and searching in one-letter units to see whether the display properties are attached to any of the letters inside the source text;

distinction unit for distinguishing whether source display properties are attached to a part of the word, or display properties are attached to the entire word according to the search result; and

main preparation processing unit for checking the information of the target text in the conversion paired information, and using the distinction result to process the target text body and prepare the target display data.

5. The document conversion apparatus of claim 4, wherein the main preparation processing unit comprises:

conversion word presence detection unit for searching the conversion paired information to see whether the word corresponding to the word in the source text is present in the target text;

first preparation processing unit for carrying out the process of inserting special symbols to the target text body stored in the target text memory means while preparing the target display data for the special symbols when the conversion word presence detection unit determines that there is no corresponding word in the target text; and

second preparation processing unit for preparing the target display data for the letter within the word when the conversion word presence detection unit determines that there is a corresponding word in the target text.

6. The document conversion apparatus of claim 5, wherein the special symbol attachment process carried out by the first preparation processing unit may be a process which uses letters which do not belong to a target language as special symbols to be inserted in the start or end locations or the target text body.

7. The document conversion apparatus of claim 6, wherein the second preparation process unit comprises:

first processing unit for operating when the distinction unit determines that the display properties are attached to the entire word; and

second processing unit for operating when the distinction unit determines that the display properties are attached to a part of the word.

8. The document conversion apparatus of claim 7,

wherein the first processing unit detects the word in the target text which corresponds to the word in the source text based on the conversion paired information, and prepares the target display data which contains target display properties of the entire word, and

wherein the second preparation processing unit prepares the target display data which contains target display properties of a part of the corresponding word in the target text.

9. The document conversion apparatus of claim 8,

wherein the second preparation processing unit comprises:

letter number detection element for detecting the number of letters from the start of the word in the source text to the letter with display properties attached; and

process element for preparing the target display data which contains the display properties from the start of the corresponding word in the target text to the location away from the same number of letters as the number of letters previously detected.

10. The document conversion apparatus of claim 9, wherein the process element comprises:

comparison element for comparing the number of letters of the word in the target text to the detected number of letters of the letter number detection element;

first element for operating when, as a result of comparison, the number of letters in the word of the target text is the same or greater than the number of detected letters; and

second element for operating when the number of letters in the word of the target text is less than the number of detected letters.

11. The document conversion apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first element prepares the target display data which includes display properties attached to letters in a word of the target text, the letters excluding a detected number of letters starting from the first letter of the word.

12. The document conversion apparatus of claim 11, wherein the second element carries out the process of inserting a special symbol after the corresponding word in the target text which is stored in the target text memory means, and prepares the target display data for the special symbol.

13. The document conversion apparatus of claim 12, wherein the source text and the target text are both HTML documents, and the contents and the area of the source and target display properties are indicated by tag symbols.

14. The document conversion apparatus of claim 2, wherein the process unit further comprises:

conversion paired information overlap search unit for searching to see if there are more than two sets of conversion pair information for the same word in the source text;

selection unit for selecting the target display data prepared by using one set of the conversion paired information when there are more than two sets; and

target text preparation means for carrying out text preparation using the target display data selected by the selection unit.

15. The document conversion apparatus of claim 14, wherein the target display data to be selected by the selection unit is for the word in the target text closer to the sentence start, or for the word closer to the sentence end.

16. The document conversion apparatus of claim 15 wherein the process means comprises:

display property attachment area search unit for checking the location of the source display properties and the word shown by the information of the source text of the conversion paired information, and searching in one-letter units to see whether the display properties are attached to any of the letters inside the source text;

distinction unit for distinguishing whether source display properties are attached to a part of the word, or display properties are attached to the entire word according to the search result; and

main preparation processing unit for checking the information of the target text in the conversion paired information, and using the distinction result to process the target text body and prepare the target display data.

17. The document conversion apparatus of claim 16, wherein the main preparation processing unit comprises;

conversion word presence detection unit for searching the conversion paired information to see whether the word corresponding to the word in the source text is present in the target text;

first preparation processing unit for carrying out the process of inserting special symbols to the target text body stored in the target text memory means while preparing the target display data for the special symbols when the conversion word presence detection unit determines that there is no corresponding word in the target text; and

second preparation processing unit for preparing the target display data for the letter within the word when the conversion word presence detection unit determines that there is a corresponding word in the target text.

18. The document conversion apparatus of claim 17, wherein the special symbol attachment process carried out by the first preparation processing unit may be a process which uses letters which do not belong to a target language as special symbols to be inserted in the start or end locations of the target text body.

19. The document conversion apparatus of claim 18, wherein the second preparation process unit comprises:

first processing unit for operating when the distinction unit determines that the display properties are attached to the entire word; and

second processing unit for operating when the distinction unit determines that the display properties are attached to a part of the word.

20. The document conversion apparatus of claim 19,

wherein the first processing unit detects the word in the target text which corresponds to the word in the source text based on the conversion paired information, and prepares the target display data which contains target display properties of the entire word, and

wherein the second preparation processing unit prepares the target display data which contains target display properties of a part of the corresponding word in the target text.

21. The document conversion apparatus of claim 20

wherein the second preparation processing unit comprises:

letter number detection element for detecting the number of letters from the start of the word in the source text to the letter with display properties attached; and

process element for preparing the target display data which contains the display properties from the start of the corresponding word in the target text to the location away from the same number of letters as the number of letters previously detected.

22. The document conversion apparatus of claim 21, wherein the process element comprises:

comparison element for comparing the number of letters of the word in the target text to the detected number of letters of the letter number detection element;

first element for operating when, as a result of comparison, the number of letters in the word of the target text is the same or greater than the number of detected letters; and

second element for operating when the number of letters in the word of the target text is less than the number of detected letters.

23. The document conversion apparatus of claim 22, wherein the first element prepares the target display data containing the display properties to be attached to the letters from the start of the corresponding word in the target text to the end of the detected word.

24. The document conversion apparatus of claim 23, wherein the second element carries out the process of inserting a special symbol after the corresponding word in the target text which is stored in the target text memory means, and prepares the target display data for the special symbol.

25. A document conversion apparatus comprising:

source text acquisition means for acquiring and storing source text written in HTML received from outside;

source display data preparation means for preparing and storing a source display data by reading a source text and finding contents of display properties and locations to which the display properties are attached by searching the tag marks attached to the source text,

wherein the source display data is a pair made up of data showing the contents of the display properties and the location to which display properties are attached;

conversion means for converting a source text body into a target text body, the source text body being text in which source display properties are excluded, the target text also being text in which display properties are excluded;

target text memory means for storing the converted target text body;

conversion paired information memory means for storing conversion paired information, wherein the conversion paired information is a combination showing how the words in the source text correspond to the words in target text, wherein word is defined as a unit with meaning;

process means for processing the target text body and preparing a target display data by searching the source display data and the conversion paired information, wherein the target display data is data showing target display properties to be attached and a location in the target text body to which should be attached target display properties corresponding to the source display properties;

target text preparation means for preparing the text through inserting tag symbols into the target text stored in the target text memory means by conforming to the target display data; and

display means for displaying the prepared target text.

26. The document conversion apparatus of claim 25, wherein the source display properties and target display properties include character decoration and pointers to link destination files.

27. The document conversion apparatus or claim 26, wherein the process means comprise:

display property attachment area search unit for checking the location of the source display properties and the word shown by the information of the source text of the conversion paired information, and searching in one-letter units to see whether the display properties are attached to any of the letters inside the source text;

distinction unit for distinguishing whether source display properties are attached to a part of the word, or display properties are attached to the entire word according to the search result; and

main preparation processing unit for checking the information of the target text in the conversion paired information, and using the distinction result to process the target text body and prepare the target display data.

28. The document conversion apparatus of claim 27, wherein the main preparation processing unit comprises:

conversion word presence detection unit for searching the conversion paired information to see whether the word corresponding to the word in the source text is present in the target text;

first preparation processing unit for carrying out the process of inserting special symbols to the target text body stored in the target text memory means while preparing the target display data for the special symbols when the conversion word presence detection unit determines that there is no corresponding word in the target text; and

second preparation processing unit for preparing the target display data for the letter within the word when the conversion word presence detection unit determines that there is a corresponding word in the target text.

29. The document conversion apparatus of claim 28, wherein the special symbol attachment process carried out by the first preparation processing unit may be a process which uses letters which do not belong to a target language as special symbols to be inserted in the start or end locations of the target text body.

30. The document conversion apparatus of claim 29, wherein the second preparation process unit comprises:

first processing unit for operating when the distinction unit determines that the display properties are attached to the entire word; and

second processing unit for operating when the distinction unit determines that the display properties are attached to a part of the word.

31. The document conversion apparatus of claim 30, wherein the first processing unit detects the word in the target text which corresponds to the word in the source text based on the conversion paired information, and prepares the target display data which contains target display properties of the entire word, and

wherein the second preparation processing unit prepares the target display data which contains target display properties of a part of the corresponding word in the target text.

32. The document conversion apparatus of claim 31, wherein the second preparation processing unit comprises:

letter number detection element for detecting the number of letters from the start of the word in the source text to the letter with display properties attached; and

process element for preparing the target display data which contains the display properties from the start of the corresponding word in the target text to the location away from the same number of letters as the number of letters previously detected.

33. The document conversion apparatus of claim 32, wherein the process element comprises:

comparison element for comparing the number of letters of the word in the target text to the detected number of letters of the letter number detection element;

first element for operating when, as a result of comparison, the number of letters in the word of the target text is the same or greater than the number of detected letters; and

second element for operating when the number of letters in the word of the target text is less than the number of detected letters.