System and method for collaborative language translation

• US 9,563,625 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2016
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bangalore, Srinivas, Kuksenok, Kateryna
• Primary Examiner(s): COLUCCI, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US15/075,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20160203128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 323 Days
• Field of Search: 704/2, 704/4, 704/5, 704/9, 704/3, 707/760, 715/259, 715/816, 715/261, 709/229, 706/56, 455/566, 345/169, 345/168
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/47 Machine-assisted translation, e.g. using translation memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/51 Translation evaluation
• 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

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for presenting a machine translation and alternative translations to a user, where a selection of any particular alternative translation results in the re-ranking of the remaining alternatives. The system then presents these re-ranked alternatives to the user, who can continue proofing the machine translation using the re-ranked alternatives or by typing an improved translation. This process continues until the user indicates that the current portion of the translation is complete, at which point the system moves to the next portion.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

presenting, by a system comprising a processor and to equipment of a first user, a ranked list of translation possibilities in a first order, and a list of alternative translation possibilities, wherein the ranked list of translation possibilities and the list of alternative translation possibilities comprise machine translations of a source text in an original language distinct from the machine translations, wherein the ranked list of translation possibilities and the list of alternative translation possibilities are contemporaneously presented to equipment of a second user, allowing the first user and the second user to participate in a collaborative translation of the source text;

detecting, by the system, an input from the equipment of the first user, the input identifying a translation possibility from the list of alternative translation possibilities;

re-ranking, by the system, the ranked list of translation possibilities in the first order based on the input, to yield a re-ranked list of translation possibilities in a second order;

providing, by the system, the re-ranked list of translation possibilities to the equipment of the first user; and

facilitating a transfer, by the system, of the re-ranked list of translation possibilities to the equipment of the second user for display, wherein the re-ranked list of translation possibilities is presented contemporaneously to both the equipment of the first user and the equipment of the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the system and to the equipment of the first user, the machine translation, the input, and the re-ranked list of translation possibilities in the second order.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a ranking of the list of alternative translation possibilities is based on a likelihood of each translation alternative of the ranked list of translation possibilities being selected by the equipment of the first user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the equipment of the first user is determined from one of historical trends, crowdsourcing, previous usage associated with the source text, or a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of alternative translation possibilities comprises alternative portions associated with machine translation portions.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the machine translation portions comprise one of a line of machine code and a cluster of machine code lines.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the input from the equipment of the first user comprises one of a selection from the ranked list of translation possibilities and a non-predetermined translation alternative from the equipment of the first user.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor facilitate performance of operations comprising;

presenting, to equipment of a first user, a ranked first list of alternative translation possibilities in a first order, and a second list of alternative translation possibilities of a source text, wherein the ranked first list of alternative translation possibilities and the second list of alternative translation possibilities comprise machine translations of the source text in a language distinct from an original language of the source text, wherein the ranked first list of alternative translation possibilities and the second list of alternative translation possibilities are contemporaneously presented to equipment of a second user allowing the first user and the second user to participate in a collaborative translation of the source text;

detecting an input from the equipment of the first user, the input identifying a translation possibility from the second list of alternative translation possibilities;

re-ranking the ranked first list of alternative translation possibilities in the first order based on the input, to yield a re-ranked first list of alternatives translation possibilities in a second order;

presenting the re-ranked first list of alternative translation possibilities to the equipment of the first user; and

facilitating transfer of the re-ranked first list of translation alternatives to the equipment of the second user for display, wherein the re-ranked first list of alternative translation possibilities is presented to simultaneously both the equipment of the first user and the equipment of the second user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise presenting to the equipment of the first user the machine translation, the input, and the re-ranked list of translation possibilities in the second order.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein a ranking of the list of alternative translation possibilities is based on a likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the equipment of the first user.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the equipment of the first user is determined from one of historical trends, crowdsourcing, previous usage associated with the source text, and combinations thereof.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the list of alternative translation possibilities comprises alternative portions associated with machine translation portions.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the machine translation portions comprise one of a line of machine code and a cluster of machine code lines.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the input from the equipment of the first user comprises one of a selection from the ranked list of translation alternatives and a non-predetermined translation alternative from the first user.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

presenting, to equipment of a first user, a machine translation, a ranked list of translation possibilities in a first order, and a list of alternative translation possibilities, of a source text, wherein the ranked list of translation possibilities and the list of alternative translation possibilities comprise machine translations of the source text in a language distinct from an original language of the source text, wherein the ranked list of translation possibilities and the list of alternative translation possibilities are contemporaneously presented to equipment of a second user allowing the first user and the second user to participate in a collaborative translation of the source text from the original language to an other distinct language;

determining an input from the equipment of the first user, the input identifying a translation possibility from the list of alternative translation possibilities;

re-ranking the ranked list of translation possibilities in the first order based on the input, to yield a re-ranked list of translation possibilities in a second order;

presenting the re-ranked list of translation possibilities to the equipment of the first user; and

transmitting the re-ranked list of translation possibilities to the equipment of the second user for display to the equipment of the second user, wherein the re-ranked list of translation possibilities is presented contemporaneously to both the equipment of the first user and the equipment of the second user.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise presenting to the equipment of the first user the machine translation, the input, and the re-ranked list of translation possibilities in the second order.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein ranking the list of translation possibilities is based on a likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the equipment of the first user.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the likelihood of each translation alternative being selected by the equipment of the first user is determined from one of historical trends, crowdsourcing, previous usage associated with the source text or a combination thereof.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the list of alternative translation possibilities comprises alternative portions associated with machine translation portions.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the machine translation portions comprise one of a line of machine code and a cluster of machine code lines.