CONVERSION OF INPUT TEXT STRINGS

• US 20140163952A1
• Filed: 08/26/2011
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jansche, Martin, Brawer, Sascha B, Sproat, Richard, Takenaka, Hiroshi, Terashima, Yui
• Granted Patent: US 10,133,737 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion
• 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 40/42 Data-driven translation
• 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

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transforming text strings. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving input string having a plurality of terms, the input string being in a first form; transforming the input string from the first form to a second form including: applying one or more rules to the input string to identify one or more terms for translation, the one or more identified terms being fewer than the plurality of terms, translating the identified one or more terms to one or more translated terms in the second form, and transliterating the remaining terms of the plurality of terms into transliterated terms in the second form; and concatenating the translated and transliterated terms to form a hybrid output string in the second form.

Claims

1. A method performed by data processing apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving input string having a plurality of terms, the input string being in a first form;

transforming the input string from the first form to a second form including;

applying one or more rules to the input string to identify one or more terms for translation, the one or more identified terms being fewer than the plurality of terms,

translating the identified one or more terms to one or more translated terms in the second form, and

transliterating the remaining terms of the plurality of terms into transliterated terms in the second form; and

concatenating the translated and transliterated terms to form a hybrid output string in the second form.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first form and the second form are a first writing system and a second writing system respectively.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first form and the second form are a first natural language and a second natural language respectively.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the input string includes a type and where applying one or more rules to the input string comprises:

identifying one or more rules having a type that matches the type of the input string; and

for rules that match the type of the input string, determining whether the input string matches a string pattern of the respective one or more matching rules.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each rule includes a number of respective rule outputs for respective output forms.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein a matching rule includes one or more terms of the rule pattern to be translated from the first form to the second form.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transliterating the remaining terms includes:

tokenizing the string into a plurality of tokens;

transliterating each token from the first form to a second form; and

concatenating the transliterated tokens in the second form to form a transliterated output string in the second form.

8. A system comprising:

one or more computers operable to interact to perform operations comprising;

receiving input string having a plurality of terms, the input string being in a first form;

transforming the input string from the first form to a second form including;

applying one or more rules to the input string to identify one or more terms for translation, the one or more identified terms being fewer than the plurality of terms,

translating the identified one or more terms to one or more translated terms in the second form, and

transliterating the remaining terms of the plurality of terms into transliterated terms in the second form; and

concatenating the translated and transliterated terms to form a hybrid output string in the second form.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first form and the second form are a first writing system and a second writing system respectively.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the first form and the second form are a first natural language and a second natural language respectively.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the input string includes a type and where applying one or more rules to the input string comprises:

identifying one or more rules having a type that matches the type of the input string; and

for rules that match the type of the input string, determining whether the input string matches a string pattern of the respective one or more matching rules.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each rule includes a number of respective rule outputs for respective output forms.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein a matching rule includes one or more terms of the rule pattern to be translated from the first form to the second form.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein transliterating the remaining terms includes:

tokenizing the string into a plurality of tokens;

transliterating each token from the first form to a second form; and

concatenating the transliterated tokens in the second form to form a transliterated output string in the second form.

15. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving input string having a plurality of terms, the input string being in a first form;

transforming the input string from the first form to a second form including;

applying one or more rules to the input string to identify one or more terms for translation, the one or more identified terms being fewer than the plurality of terms,

translating the identified one or more terms to one or more translated terms in the second form, and

transliterating the remaining terms of the plurality of terms into transliterated terms in the second form; and

concatenating the translated and transliterated terms to form a hybrid output string in the second form.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first form and the second form are a first writing system and a second writing system respectively.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first form and the second form are a first natural language and a second natural language respectively.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the input string includes a type and where applying one or more rules to the input string comprises:

identifying one or more rules having a type that matches the type of the input string; and

for rules that match the type of the input string, determining whether the input string matches a string pattern of the respective one or more matching rules.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 18, wherein each rule includes a number of respective rule outputs for respective output forms.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 18, wherein a matching rule includes one or more terms of the rule pattern to be translated from the first form to the second form.

21. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein transliterating the remaining terms includes:

tokenizing the string into a plurality of tokens;

transliterating each token from the first form to a second form; and

concatenating the transliterated tokens in the second form to form a transliterated output string in the second form.