Method, apparatus and system for location assisted translation

• US 9,323,854 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2008
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Massuh, Lucas A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Desir, Pierre-Louis
• Assistant Examiner(s): KOVACEK, DAVID M
• Application Number:
  US12/317,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20100161311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,685 Days
• Field of Search: 704 1- 10, 340988-996, 701 1- 2, 701200-266, 701/300
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/00 Handling natural language data speech analysis or synthesis, speech recognition G10L
• 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 method, apparatus and system may enhance translation results from translation applications running on mobile devices. Specifically, according to one embodiment, location data may be automatically identified by a location awareness or location detection scheme (e.g., Global Positioning System or GPS, WiFi and/or 3G) on the device or coupled to the device. The location data may be utilized by the enhanced translation scheme according to an embodiment of the invention to pin point the specific physical geographical location of the device. Thereafter, if an enhanced local language dictionary exists that includes any local dialect details, the enhanced local language dictionary may be downloaded to the device. When the user desires to translate a word and/or phrase, the device may look up the meaning in the downloaded enhanced local language dictionary, thus ensuring that the translation is specific to that geographic location. When the user moves locations, the device may download additional “local” language dictionaries, such that the user may accurately translate words even when moving amongst regions with significantly varying meaning for the same words.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a mobile device running location awareness protocols to leverage location information, location data for the mobile device that identifies a current location of the mobile device;

comparing, by the mobile device, the location data to a list of reverse geographical codes that correlates location data to physical geographical locations;

retrieving, by the mobile device, a physical geographical location from the list of reverse geographical codes based on the location data, the physical geographical location corresponding to the current location of the mobile device;

receiving, by the mobile device, a request to translate a first word from a local dialect of a standard language spoken in the physical geographical location of the mobile device to a language to be translated to, wherein the first word from the local dialect of the standard language comprises several possible meanings in the language to be translated to;

retrieving, by the mobile device, multiple local translated words corresponding to the first word received for translation from an enhanced local language dictionary including local dialect information for the physical geographical location, wherein the local dialect information associates the first word from the local dialect of the standard language with the several possible meanings based on the current location of the mobile device, wherein the several possible meanings are different from a meaning associated with the first word in the standard language, and wherein each of the multiple local translated words having a separate one of the several possible meanings in the language the first word is translated to; and

providing, by the mobile device, the retrieved multiple local translated words to a user of the mobile device for contextual-based selection of one of the multiple local translated words having an appropriate meaning.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the location data comprises latitude and longitude data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the list of reverse geographical codes includes a plurality of latitude and longitude data, each of the plurality of latitude and longitude data corresponding to a specific physical geographical location.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the location data further comprises accessing a location detection system to determine the location data for the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the list of reverse geographical codes is stored in a data repository.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising accessing a translation utility to access the enhanced local language dictionary.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the translation utility may be at least one of located on the mobile device and be coupled to the mobile device.

8. A method comprising:

identifying, by a mobile device running location awareness protocols to leverage location information, location data for the device, the location data corresponding to the current location of the mobile device;

checking, by the mobile device, the identified location data for the device against a data repository of reverse geographical codes to identify a specific physical location of the mobile device corresponding to the current location of the mobile device, the reverse geographical codes correlate location data to physical geographical locations;

receiving, by the mobile device, a request to translate a first word from a local dialect of a standard language spoken in the specific physical geographical location of the mobile device to a language to be translated to, wherein the first word from the local dialect of the standard language comprises several possible meanings in the language to be translated to;

retrieving, by the mobile device, multiple local translated words corresponding to the first word received for translation from an enhanced local language dictionary including local dialect information for the specific physical geographical location, wherein the local dialect information associates the first word from the local dialect of the standard language with the several possible meanings based on the current location of the mobile device, wherein the several possible meanings are different from a meaning associated with the first word in the standard language, and wherein each of the multiple local translated words having a separate one of the several possible meanings in the language the first word is translated to; and

providing, by the mobile device, the retrieved multiple local translated words to a user of the mobile device for contextual-based selection of one of the multiple local translated words having an appropriate meaning.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein identifying location data for the mobile device comprises providing the location data for the mobile device using a location detection system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the location detection system is at least one of a global positioning system, a WiFi system and a 3G system.

11. A system, comprising:

a location identification module to determine location data for a mobile device that identifies a current location of the mobile device by running location awareness protocols to leverage location information; and

a translation module coupled to the location identification module to;

(i) compare the determined location data to a list of reverse geographical codes that correlate location data to physical geographical locations,

(ii) retrieve a physical geographical location from the list of reverse geographical codes corresponding to the current location of the mobile device,

(iii) receive a request to translate a first word from a local dialect of a standard language spoken in the physical geographical location of the mobile device to a language to be translated to, wherein the first word from the local dialect of the standard language comprises several possible meanings in the language to be translated to,

(iv) retrieve multiple local translated words corresponding to the first word received for translation from an enhanced local language dictionary including local dialect information for the physical geographical location, wherein the local dialect information associates a first word from the local dialect of the standard language with several possible meanings based on the current location of the mobile device, wherein the several possible meanings are different from a meaning associated with the first word in the standard language, and wherein each of the multiple local translated words having a separate one of the several possible meanings in the language the first word is translated to, and

(v) provide the retrieved multiple local translated words to a user of the mobile device for contextual-based selection of one of the multiple local translated words having an appropriate meaning.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the location identification module is a location detection system and the data comprises latitude and longitude data.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the translation module to compare the determined location data comprises to compare the determined location data to a plurality of latitude and longitude data in the list of reverse geographical codes, each of the plurality of latitude and longitude data corresponding to a specific physical geographical location.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a data repository coupled to at least one of the location identification module and the translation module, the data repository including the list of reverse geographical codes.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the translation module is at least one of locally coupled to the mobile device and remotely coupled to the mobile device.

16. A non-transitory machine-accessible medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

determine location data for the machine that identifies a current location of the machine by running location awareness protocols to leverage location information;

compare the location data to a list of reverse geographical codes, the list of reverse geographical codes correlates location data to physical geographical locations;

retrieve a physical geographical location from the list of reverse geographical codes based on the location data, the physical geographical location corresponding to the current location of the machine;

receive a request to translate a first word from a local dialect of a standard language spoken in the physical geographical location of the machine to a language to be translated to, wherein the first word from the local dialect of the standard language comprises several possible meanings in the language to be translated to;

retrieve multiple local translated words corresponding to the first word received for translation from an enhanced local language dictionary including local dialect information for the physical geographical location, wherein the local dialect information associates the first word from the local dialect of the standard language with the several possible meanings based on the current location of the machine, wherein the several possible meanings are different from a meaning associated with the first word in the standard language, and wherein each of the multiple local translated words having a separate one of the several possible meanings in the language the first word is translated to; and

provide the retrieved multiple local translated words to a user of the machine for contextual-based selection of one of the multiple local translated words having an appropriate meaning.

17. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the machine, further cause the machine to identify the location data comprising latitude and longitude data.

18. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 17, wherein the list of reverse geographical codes includes a plurality of latitude and longitude data, each of the plurality of latitude and longitude data corresponding to a specific physical geographical location.

19. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the machine, further cause the machine to determine the location data by accessing a location detection system to determine the location data for the machine.

20. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 16, wherein the list of reverse geographical codes is stored in a data repository.

21. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 20, wherein the instructions, when executed by the machine, further cause the machine to access a translation utility to access the enhanced local language dictionary.

22. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 21, wherein the translation utility may be at least one of located on the machine or be coupled to the machine.