Multilingual agent for use in computer systems

• US 6,615,168 B1
• Filed: 07/26/1996
• Issued: 09/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Torrance, Mark C., Adams, Gary R., Resnik, Philip Stuart, Kuhns, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): YOUNG, JOHN L
• Application Number:
  US08/687,886
• Time in Patent Office: 2,594 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9, 704/5, 704/2, 704/4, 704/7, 704/6, 704/3, 707/536, 707/5
• US Class Current: 704/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3337 Translation of the query language, e.g. Chinese to English
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/263 Language identification
• 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

A multilingual agent of the present invention assists clients and users of clients in locating, accessing, and understanding documents on servers and also assists servers and providers of servers in making documents on the servers available to clients and users of clients, regardless of the languages in which the documents are written. A networked computer system in which the preferred embodiment of the present invention operates includes a client, a server, and a multilingual agent connected to one another via a network. The multilingual agent includes a document analyzer, a language identifier, a language converter, and a link modifier. In the operation of one aspect of the multilingual agent of the present invention, when the client retrieves a document from the server, the multilingual agent determines whether the document is written in a language that is unfamiliar to the user of the client. If so, the multilingual agent “gists” the document and then provides the client with the “gisted” document. Lastly, the client displays the gisted document to the user of the client. In order to gist the document, the document analyzer breaks the document into pieces, the language identifier identifies a source language in which each piece of the document is written, the language converter converts words or phrases in each piece of the document into equivalent words or phrases in a target language in the gisted document, and the link modifier modifies hypertext links in each piece of the document.

Claims

1. A method executed in a computer system for providing multilingual assistance, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving text;

wherein the text includes links pointing to other text,

breaking the text into pieces, wherein the pieces comprise at least one piece;

modifying the links in the at least one piece of the text;

wherein each link includes an address of the text to which the link points;

for each link in the at least one piece of the text,

inserting an address of a multilingual agent in the link in place of the address of the text to which the link points;

inserting the address of the text to which the link points as a parameter to be passed to the multilingual agent;

identifying a source language in which the at least one piece of the text is written; and

converting words or phrases in the at least one piece of the text into equivalent words or phrases in a target language.

2. A computer program product for providing multilingual assistance, the computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code configured to receive text;

wherein the text includes links pointing to other text,

computer readable program code configured to break the text into pieces, wherein the pieces comprise at least one piece;

computer readable program code configured to modify the links in the at least one piece of the text;

wherein each link includes an address of the text to which the link points;

computer readable program code configured to, for each link in the at least one piece of the text,

insert an address of a multilingual agent in the link in place of the address of the text to which the link points;

insert the address of the text to which the link points as a parameter to be passed to the multilingual agent;

computer readable program code configured to identify a source language in which the at least one piece of the text is written;

computer readable program code configured to convert words or phrases in the at least one piece of the text into equivalent words or phrases in a target language; and

a computer readable medium in which the computer readable program codes are stored.

3. A system for providing multilingual assistance, the system comprising:

a computer configured to control the operation of the system;

a secondary storage device connected to said computer;

a multilingual agent stored in said secondary storage device and executed by said computer;

said multilingual agent being configured to receive text,

wherein the text includes links pointing to other text;

a document analyzer configured to break the text into pieces, wherein the pieces comprise at least one piece;

a link modifier configured to modify the links in the at least one piece of the text;

wherein each link includes an address of the text to which the link points;

for each link in the at least one piece of the text,

insert an address of said multilingual agent in the link in place of the address of the text to which the link points;

insert the address of the text to which the link points as a parameter to be passed to said multilingual agent;

a language identifier configured to identify a source language in which the at least one piece of the text is written; and

a language converter configured to convert words or phrases in the at least one piece of the text into equivalent words or phrases in a target language.