Document searching method for multilingual documents and storage medium therefore

• US 6,356,894 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2001
• Issued: 03/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
• Inventors: Nosohara, Makifumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kindred, Alford W.
• Application Number:
  US09/788,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20010016860A1
• Time in Patent Office: 384 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-5, 707/100-104, 707/500, 704/2, 704/5-9, 704/7-10, 379/88-- 8
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3337 Translation of the query language, e.g. Chinese to English
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The present invention provides a system which enables searching documents at one time, even if they may be written in plural languages, according to key words written in the searcher'"'"'s language. The system also enables translation of the search results into the searcher'"'"'s language prior to being displayed. In the document searching system for multilingual documents of the present invention, the translation control means translates the key words written by the searcher'"'"'s language is provided. Another translation control means for the search results that translates the whole text of the selected documents is provided independently. As for the key word translation means, a simple translation system is applied because the objects of the translation are words such as nouns, verbs and so forth. On the other hand, for the search result translation means, a high-level translation system may be applied because the objects of the translation are common sentences and the appropriate translation is deduced from the context of the document. Therefore, in the processing steps of the free key word translation means, where the search formula may be changed, added, modified or deleted frequently to improve the exactness of the search result, the processing speed in these steps is not decreased so that the whole system response may speed up.

Claims

1. A document searching method for multilingual documents comprising the steps of:

inputting a search command including a search key word a spoken language designated by a searcher;

translating the key word designated by the searcher into a different spoken foreign language used in the documents to be searched;

generating a search formula from the key words translated in said step of translating;

searching documents according to the search formula;

storing selected documents as a search result; and

translating the selected documents stored in said step of storing, wherein said step of translating the selected documents includes translating into the language designated in said step of inputting.

2. A document searching method for multilingual documents as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

displaying a result of said step of translating the selected documents.

3. A document searching method for multilingual documents as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

transmitting a result of said step of translating the selected documents to a client computer.

4. A storage medium for storing a program for searching for multilingual documents, comprising:

program code for inputting a search command including a search key word in a spoken language designated by a searcher;

program code for translating a key word input by the searcher into different spoken foreign language used in documents to be searched;

program code for generating a search formula from the translated key words;

program code for searching documents according to the search formula;

program code for storing the selected documents; and

program code for translating the selected documents into the spoken language designated in the input of the search.

5. A storage medium as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:

program code for displaying the result of the translation.

6. A storage medium as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:

program code for transmitting the result of the translation to a client computer.