Computer-aided reading system and method with cross-language reading wizard

• US 7,315,809 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2001
• Issued: 01/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Xun, Endong
• Primary Examiner(s): {hacek over (S)}mits; Talivaldis Ivars
• Assistant Examiner(s): Serrou; Abdelali
• Application Number:
  US09/840,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20010056352A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,444 Days
• Field of Search: 704 2- 9, 707/530, 707/536, 715/830
• US Class Current: 704/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/47 Machine-assisted translation, e.g. using translation memory

Abstract

A computer-aided reading system offers assistance to a user who is reading in a non-native language, as the user needs help, without requiring the user to divert attention away from the text. In one implementation, the reading system is implemented as a reading wizard for a browser program. The reading wizard is exposed via a graphical user interface (UI) that allows the user to select a word, phrase, sentence, or other grouping of words in the non-native text. The reading wizard automatically determines whether the selected one word comprises part of a phrase; allows the user to choose whether to view a translation of a single word or a translation of a phrase that includes the single word in response to selection by the user of the single word. The multiple translations are presented in a pop-up window, in the form of a scrollable box and is scrollable, located near the selected text to minimize distraction of the user.

Claims

1. A reading system comprising:

a user interface configured to allow a user to select non-native language text already existing on a display and, in response to the selecting, view a translation of the selected text in a native language, the user interface also being configured to allow the user to choose whether the user interface should present a translation of a single selected word or a translation of a surrounding phrase that includes the single selected word in response to the user selecting the single selected word of non-native language text for translation; and

a cross-language reading wizard comprising;

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding words or phrases in the native language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.

2. The reading system of claim 1, wherein the parser comprises a morphological analyzer to morphologically process individual words to obtain a morphological root of each word.

3. The reading system of claim 1, wherein the parser comprises a part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module for tagging individual words with identifiers.

4. The reading system of claim 3, wherein the part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module comprises a statistical model.

5. The reading system of claim 1, wherein the parser comprises a phrase extension module for applying phrase extension rules to individual words.

6. The reading system of claim 1, wherein the translation generator comprises a dictionary module for translating the candidate word translations into the corresponding words or phrases.

7. The reading system of claim 6, wherein the dictionary module comprises a word dictionary.

8. The reading system of claim 6, wherein the dictionary module comprises a phrase dictionary.

9. The reading system of claim 6, wherein the dictionary module comprises an irregular morphology dictionary.

10. The reading system of claim 1, wherein the translation generator comprises a template module comprising one or more templates that can be used to translate the candidate word translations into the corresponding words or phrases.

11. The reading system of claim 1, wherein the translation generator comprises a rules module that contains multiple rules for translating non-native language words into native language words.

12. The reading system of claim 1, wherein the translation generator comprises one or more statistical models.

13. The reading system of claim 1, embodied as a browser.

14. A reading system comprising:

a user interface configured to allow a user to select English language text already existing on a display and, in response to the selecting, view multiple different Chinese language translations of the selected text in a pop-window that is scrollable to display the multiple different Chinese language translations; and

a cross-language reading wizard comprising;

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding phrases in the Chinese language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.

15. The reading system of claim 14, embodied as a browser.

16. A reading system comprising:

a user interface configured to allow a user to select non-native language text already existing on a display and, in response to the selecting, view a translation of the selected text in a native language, wherein the user interface displays text translations adjacent text the user has selected for translation, the user interface displaying the text translations in a pop-up translation window in the form of a scrollable box that is scrollable to display the text translations; and

a cross-language reading wizard comprising;

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units, the parser comprising a part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module for tagging individual words with identifiers,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding words or phrases in the native language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.

17. The reading system of claim 16, wherein the parser comprises a morphological analyzer to morphologically process individual words to obtain a morphological root of each word.

18. The reading system of claim 16, wherein the parser comprises a phrase extension module for applying phrase extension rules to individual words.

19. One or more computer readable media storing computer readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement across language reading wizard comprising:

a user interface configured to allow a user to select non-native language text already existing on a display and, in response to the selecting, view a translation of the selected text in a native language, the user interface also being configured to allow the user to choose whether the user interface should present a translation of a single selected word or a translation of a surrounding phrase that includes the single selected word in response to the user selecting the single selected word of non-native language text for translation;

a parser for parsing selected text into individual translation units, the parser comprising a part-of-speech/base noun phrase identification module for tagging individual words with identifiers,

a word translation selector for choosing candidate word translations for the translation units, and

a translation generator for translating the candidate word translations into corresponding words or phrases in the native language that can be presented to the user via the user interface.