Language information processing apparatus and method

• US 5,991,711 A
• Filed: 02/24/1997
• Issued: 11/23/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Seno, Kunihiro, Tsuchiya, Kentaro, Hagiwara, Nobuki, Furusawa, Hiromi
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomas, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US08/805,266
• Time in Patent Office: 1,002 Days
• Field of Search: 704/2, 704/3, 704/4, 704/5, 704/7, 704/260, 704/277, 704/258, 704/261, 704/267, 704/268, 704/270, 704/8, 379/88.05, 379/88.06
• 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

Abstract

A language information processing apparatus for translating a model phrase in a first language into a corresponding second language and outputting the translated phrase. The apparatus includes a display that displays the phrase, an input device for inputting a character or a word to be added in the first language to the phrase displayed by the display, a first voice information storage device that stores voice information in the second language corresponding to the phrase, and a second voice information storage device that prepares and stores voice information concerning the character or word in the first language with an intonation in the first language, which character or word is input by the input device. The apparatus further includes a translation instruction device for instructing the translation of the phrase containing the character or the word in the first language, which character or word has been added by the input device, and a voice information reading device that reads the voice information in the second language corresponding to the phrase from the first voice information storage device under instruction from the translation instruction device, and reads the added character or word in the first language from the second voice information storage device.

Claims

1. A language information processing apparatus comprising:

a display that displays a phrase to which a character or a word can be added;

a user interface that receives as input a character or a word to be added to the phrase displayed on the display; and

a controller that causes the phrase to be output by voice in a first language with an intonation in the first language and the character or word added to be output in a second language with an intonation in the second language as a single phrase.

2. The language information processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a first voice information memory that stores first voice information corresponding to the phrase in the first language; and

a second voice information memory that stores second voice information corresponding to the character or word to be added to the phrase, the second voice information being voice information in the second language, wherein the controller translates the phrase containing the added character or the word based on the first voice information and second voice information.

3. The language information processing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the phrase is input through the user interface in the second language.

4. The language information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display displays the phrase along with an identifier of an area in the phrase where a character or a word can be added.

5. A language information processing method comprising:

receiving a phrase in a first language;

translating the phrase into a second language;

receiving a character or word to be added to the phrase in the first language; and

outputting the phrase with the added character or word as a single output phrase wherein the phrase is output in the second language with an intonation in the second language and the character or word is output in the first language with an intonation in the first language.

6. The language information processing method of claim 5, wherein the step of translating further comprises reading first voice information from a first voice information memory corresponding to the phrase in the second language, and wherein the step of outputting the phrase further comprises outputting the first voice information read from the first voice information memory and outputting second voice information from a second voice information memory corresponding to the added character or word.

7. The language information processing method of claim 5, wherein the step of outputting the phrase includes at least one of displaying the single output phrase on a display and outputting the single output phrase as audio information.

8. The language information processing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the display displays the phrase along with an identifier of an area in the phrase where the character or a word can be added.

9. A language information processing apparatus for translating a phrase in a first language into a corresponding second language and outputting the translated phrase, the apparatus comprising:

display means for displaying the phrase,

input means for inputting a character or a word in the first language to be added to the phrase displayed by said display means,

first voice information storage means for storing voice information corresponding to the phrase in the second language,

second voice information storage means for storing voice information concerning the character or the word in the first language with an intonation in the first language, which character or word is input by said input means,

translation instruction means for instructing the translation of the phrase containing the character or the word in the first language, which character or word has been added by said input means,

voice information read means for reading the voice information in the second language corresponding to the phrase, from said first voice information storage means based on instructions from said translation instruction means, and reading the added character or word in the first language from said second voice information storage means,

voice output means for outputting as a single voice output phrase, the voice information corresponding to the phrase in the second language with the added character or word in the first language.

10. The language information processing apparatus of claim 9, wherein

voice information concerning the character or the word in the first language as stored by said second voice information storage means is prepared with an intonation voiced by a speaker whose native language is the first language.

11. The language information processing apparatus of claim 9, wherein

said display means displays the phrase by clarifying an area in which a character or a word can be added, and

the phrase is displayed by adding to the area the character or the word that has been input by said input means.

12. The language information processing apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

phrase storage means for storing a phrase in the second language corresponding to the phrase in the first language, and

phrase read means for reading the phrase in the second language corresponding to the phrase in the first language from said phrase storage means under instructions from said translation instruction means,

wherein

said display means displays other than the appended character or the appended word out of the phrase in the second language corresponding to the phrase in the first language read by said phrase read means.

13. A language information processing apparatus for translating a phrase in a first language into a corresponding second language and outputting the translated phrase, the apparatus comprising:

input means for inputting a character or a word to be added to the phrase in the first language,

voice storage means for storing voice information in the second language with an intonation in the second language according to the voice voiced by a speaker whose native language is the second language,

character voice storage means for storing voice information corresponding to the character or the word in the first language with an intonation in the first language according to the voice voiced by a speaker whose native language is the first language,

translation instruction means for instructing the translation of the phrase with the appended character or the appended word into the second language,

voice information read means for reading voice information from said voice storage means with respect to the phrase under instructions from said translation instruction means and reading voice information from said character voice storage means with respect to a portion corresponding to the appended character or the appended word,

voice output means for outputting as voice output, the voice information read from said voice storage means and said character voice storage means as a single phrase.

14. A language information processing apparatus for translating a phrase in a first language into a corresponding second language and outputting the translated phrase, the apparatus comprising:

display means for adding a special symbol to the attachable portion of a phrase to which a character or a word is attachable out of phrases in the first language and displaying the phrase,

input means for inputting the character or the word to be added to the phrase displayed by the display means, and

translation means for translating a phrase in the first language into the second language, wherein

when the character or the word is input by the input means, the display means replaces the special symbol with the character or the word concerned so as to display the replacement, and

when the phrase in the first language is translated into the second language, the display means displays the phrase thus translated, though the translation means translates the character or the word that has been input by the input means, the display means does not display the character or word thus translated.

15. The language information processing apparatus of claim 14, wherein

said display means replaces with a second symbol the character or the word that has been input by said input means and translated but not displayed.

16. The language information processing apparatus of claim 14, wherein

said display means adds the first symbol to an attachable portion of the phrase that has not been input by said input means but translated by said translation means into the second language.

17. The language information processing apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

storage means for storing the phrase in the second language by corresponding the phrase in the second language to the phrase in the first language, and

translation instruction means for instructing the translation of the phrase in the first language,

wherein

said translation means reads the phrase in the second language corresponding to the phrase in the first language from said storage means under instructions from said translation instruction means.