Method and system for managing a common dictionary and updating dictionary data selectively according to a type of local processing system

• US 6,345,245 B1
• Filed: 03/05/1998
• Issued: 02/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kimura, Kazuhiro, Sugiyama, Hiroshi, Tsujimoto, Shuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomas, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US09/035,269
• Time in Patent Office: 1,433 Days
• Field of Search: 704/1, 704/2, 704/3, 704/7, 704/8, 704/10, 704/246, 704/251, 704/257, 704/270, 704/277, 707/530, 707/531, 707/532, 707/535, 707/536, 707/10
• US Class Current: 704/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries

Abstract

A common dictionary management system that can reduce the work of data registration into dictionaries. Exchange data generated in any local dictionary of a natural language processing system is sent to the local dictionaries of other natural language processing systems automatically. A local dictionary management portion and a common dictionary management portion collect updated dictionary data from a plurality of local dictionaries and updating time information. The local dictionary management portion updates the common dictionary and the local dictionaries according to the collected dictionary data and the time information. The local dictionary management portion compares the information with the latest time on which dictionary data was distributed to the local user dictionaries with the updating time information of the dictionary data in the common dictionary to distribute the dictionary data of the common dictionary selected according to the result of the comparison, to the local dictionaries.

Claims

1. A method of managing a common dictionary connected to a first local processing system and second local processing system, said first local processing system including first natural language processing and a first local dictionary having first data items, said second local processing system including a second local dictionary having second data items, said common dictionary having common data items including the first and second data items of each local dictionary, comprising steps of:

collecting updated dictionary data related to the first data items in the first local dictionary;

collecting updated dictionary data related to the second data items in the second local dictionary;

updating the common dictionary according to said collected dictionary data based on the common data items;

distributing said collected dictionary data in the common dictionary to each local dictionary, wherein said distributed dictionary data is related to each data item according to the type of each local processing system.

2. A method of managing a common dictionary according to claim 1, wherein each of said processing systems includes at least one of word processing, machine translation, character recognition, abstract creation, voice recognition, and voice synthesizing.

3. A method of managing a common dictionary connected to a first local processing system and second local processing system, said first local processing system including first natural language processing and a first local dictionary having first data items, said second local processing system including a second local dictionary having second data items, said common dictionary having common data items including the first and second data items of each local dictionary, the method comprising steps of:

collecting updated dictionary data related to the first data items in the first local dictionary and related to the second data items in the second local dictionary and updating time information of said dictionary data;

storing said collected common dictionary data in said common dictionary according to said updating time information;

comparing the information of the latest time at which dictionary data was distributed to the local dictionary of each of the local processing systems with the updating time information of said dictionary data in said common dictionary; and

distributing said collected dictionary data in the common dictionary to each local dictionary, wherein said distributed dictionary data is related to each data item according to the type of each local processing system.

4. A method of managing a common dictionary according to claim 3, wherein each of said processing systems includes at least one of word processing, machine translation, character recognition, abstract creation, voice recognition, and voice synthesizing.

5. A system of managing a common dictionary connected to a first local processing system and second local processing system, said first local processing system including first natural language processing and a first local dictionary having first data items, said second local processing system including a second local dictionary having second data items, said common dictionary having common data items including the first and second data items of each local dictionary, comprising:

means for collecting updated dictionary data related to the first data items in the first local dictionary;

means for collecting updated dictionary data related to the second data items in the second local dictionary;

means for updating the common dictionary according to said dictionary data collected by said collecting means based on the common data items;

means for distributing said collected dictionary data in the common dictionary updated by said updating means to each dictionary of said local processing systems that satisfy preset conditions, wherein said distributed dictionary data is related to each data item according to the type of each local processing system.

6. A system of managing a common dictionary according to claim 5, wherein each of said processing systems includes at least one of word processing, machine translation, character recognition, abstract creation, voice recognition, and voice synthesizing.

7. A system of managing a common dictionary, the system collecting dictionary data from the local dictionaries of a first local processing system and second local processing system, said first local processing system including first natural language processing and a first local dictionary having first data items, said second local processing system including a second local dictionary having second data items, said common dictionary having common data items including the first and second data items of each local dictionary, comprising:

a common dictionary storing common dictionary data of the dictionaries of said first and second natural language processing systems;

means for collecting updated dictionary data related to the first data items in the first local dictionary;

means for collecting updated dictionary data related to the second data items in the second local dictionary;

means for updating the common dictionary according to said dictionary data collected by said collecting means based on the common data items;

means for distributing said collected dictionary data of said common dictionary updated by said updating means that satisfy preset conditions to each local dictionary, wherein said distributed dictionary data is related to each data item according to the type of each natural language processing system.

8. A system of managing a common dictionary according to claim 7, wherein each of said natural language processing systems includes at least one of word processing, machine translation, character recognition, abstract creation, voice recognition, and voice synthesizing.

9. A system of managing a common dictionary connected to a first local processing system and second local processing system, said first local processing system including first natural language processing and a first local dictionary having first data items, said second local processing system including a second local dictionary having second data items, said common dictionary having common data items including the first and second data items of each local dictionary, comprising:

means for collecting updated dictionary data related to the first data items in the first local dictionary and related to the second data items in the second local dictionary and updating time information of said dictionary data;

means for storing the updated dictionary data collected by said collecting means according to said updating time information;

means for comparing the information of the latest time at which dictionary data was distributed to the local dictionary of each of said processing systems with the updating time information of said dictionary data in said common dictionary; and

means for distributing said collected dictionary data in the common dictionary selected according to the result of said comparison and determination to each local dictionary of each of said processing systems that satisfy preset conditions, wherein said distributed dictionary data is related to each data item according to the type of each local processing system.

10. A system of managing a common dictionary according to claim 9, wherein each of said processing systems includes at least one of word processing, machine translation, character recognition, abstract creation, voice recognition, and voice synthesizing.

11. A system of managing a common dictionary, the system collecting dictionary data from a first local processing system and second local processing system, said first local processing system including first natural language processing and a first local dictionary having first data items, said second local processing system including a second local dictionary having second data items, said common dictionary having common data items including the first and second data items of each local dictionary, comprising:

a common dictionary storing dictionary data of the local dictionaries of a plurality of said natural language processing system;

means for collecting updated dictionary data related to the first data items in the first local dictionary and related to the second data items in the second local dictionary and the dictionary data updating time information in said local dictionary;

means for updating the common dictionary according to said updated dictionary data based on the common data items collected by said collecting means and the updating time information of said dictionary data; and

means for comparing the information of the latest time at which dictionary data was distributed to local dictionary of each of said natural language processing systems with the updating time information of said dictionary data in said common dictionary, result of said comparison and determination being used to select and distribute said collected dictionary data of said common dictionary to each local dictionary of said natural language processing systems that satisfy preset conditions, wherein said distributed dictionary data is related to each data item according to the type of each natural processing system.

12. A system of managing a common dictionary according to claim 11, wherein each of said natural language processing systems includes at least one of word processing, machine translation, character recognition, abstract creation, voice recognition and voice synthesizing.

13. A recording medium storing a common dictionary and common dictionary management software for managing said common dictionary, both of said common dictionary and said common dictionary management software being enabled to be read by a computer used to connect a plurality of language processing software via a communication line commonly, said each language processing software having a first local processing system and second local processing system, said first local processing system including first natural language processing and a first local dictionary having first data items, said second local processing system including a second local dictionary having second data items, said common dictionary having common data items including the first and second data items of each local dictionary, comprising:

a function for collecting updated dictionary data related to the first data items in the first local dictionary via said communication line;

a function for collecting updated dictionary data related to the second data items in the second local dictionary via said communication line;

a function for updating said common dictionary according to said collected updated dictionary data based on the common data items; and

a function for distributing said collected dictionary data of said updated common dictionary to each local dictionary of said language processing software that satisfy preset conditions via said communication line, wherein said distributed dictionary data is related to each data item according to the type of each language processing software.