Conversion between data representation formats

• US 6,556,973 B1
• Filed: 04/19/2000
• Issued: 04/29/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Voxi AB
• Original Assignee: Voxi AB
• Inventors: Lewin, Erland
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Doris H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NOLAN, DANIEL A
• Application Number:
  US09/551,997
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: 704/8, 704/9, 704/10, 704/231, 704/235, 704/251, 704/260, 704/277, 704/275, 707/100, 707/4, 706/45, 717/145
• US Class Current: 704/277
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/18 using natural language modelling

Abstract

A method and apparatus for conversion between data representation formats and data including sound and text information are disclosed. Data representation formats include a string of characters in the text format, a digital representation of an acoustic wave form in the sound format, a reference to a data structure containing information about a word in the word format, a tree-like representation of the grammatical structure of the phrase in the phrase format and references to functions, objects and attributes in an underlying data model in the logic format. Software for a computer or a combination of hardware and software may be used as well as word and sound processors.

Claims

1. A method for conversion between data representation formats comprising the steps of:

providing data in sound or text information;

providing said data representation formats as text, sound, words, phrases, and logic combined as conversions between text or sounds to words or vice versa, words to phrases or vice versa, and phrases to logic or vice versa, and the formats include a string of characters in the text format, a digital representation of an acoustic waveform in the sound format, a reference to a data structure containing information about a word in the words format, a tree-like representation of the grammatical structure of a phrase in said phrases format, whereby leaf nodes of the tree-like representation are references to meanings of constituent words, and conjugation information, and references to functions, objects and attributes in an underlying data model in the logic format;

converting text to words by using characters which separate words;

converting words to text by concatenating the spelling of the constituent words;

converting sounds to words by providing a continuous speech recognition system;

converting words to sounds by providing a speech synthesis system;

converting words to phrases by parsing;

converting phrases to words by traversing said tree-like representation and converting each leaf node to a word;

converting phrases to logic by resolving or binding verb phrases to functions and noun phrases to objects in said underlying data model;

converting logic to phrases by using knowledge of the grammar of the language used to create a phrase expressing the same semantics as the original logic form;

said logic being provided an utterance in a logic representation format and executing, evaluating or enumerating said utterance through said references to functions, objects and attributes in said underlying data model; and

providing computer word processing and sound processing means.

2. The method according to claim 1, including the step of:

transforming linguistic utterances by a user to semantics.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said logic format is converted into another human language.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein said logic format is converted into another human language.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein converting phrases to words consists of traversing said tree-like representation in one direction, and converting each leaf node to a word.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein resolving noun phrases to objects uses the tracking of recently mentioned objects.

11. A word and sound processor apparatus comprising:

data representation formats including text, sound, words, phrases and logic;

a string of characters in the text format;

a digital representation of an acoustic wave form in the sound format;

a reference to a data structure containing information about a word in the words format;

a tree-like representation of the grammatical structure of a phrase in said phrases format, whereby the leaf nodes of the tree-like representation are references to meanings of constituent words, and conjugation information;

references to functions, objects and attributes in an underlying data model in the logic format;

data including sound or text information receivable by said data representation formats;

means for converting text to words which uses characters which separate words;

means for converting words to text which concatenates the spelling of the constituent words;

means for converting sounds to words including a continuous speech recognition system;

means for converting words to sounds including a speech synthesis system;

means for converting words to phrases which uses parsing;

means for converting phrases to words which traverses said tree-like representation and converts each leaf node to a word;

means for converting phrases to logic which resolves or binds verb phrases to functions and noun phrases to objects in said underlying data model;

said logic being provided an utterance in a logic representation format and executing, evaluating or enumerating said utterance through said references to functions, objects and attributes in said underlying data model; and

means for converting logic to phrases, which uses knowledge of the grammar of the language used to create a phrase expressing the same semantics as the original logic format, wherein all said converting means are connected.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein language independence is provided by transforming linguistic utterances by a user to semantics.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said logic format is converted into another human language, thus having the effect of simplistic translation.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said logic format is converted into another human language, thus having the effect of simplistic translation.

15. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

16. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

17. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

18. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein converting text to words is accomplished by first using characters which separate words to extract the spelling of each word and then using the results to look up the representations of the words in searching and sorting processes.

19. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein converting a phrase structure to words consists of traversing said tree in one direction, and converting each leaf node to a word.

20. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein resolving noun phrases to objects uses the tracking of recently mentioned objects.