Method and apparatus for further translating result of translation

Abstract: There are provided method and apparatus which can mutually translate information among a plurality of languages. The kind of first language (source language) which is supplied and the kind of second language (target language) which is generated are independently designated. The information of the source language is supplied. The supplied information of the source language is translated into the information of the target language. The information of the target language as a result of the translation is displayed on the display screen. The displayed information of the target language is designated. The designated information of the target language is again translated into the information of the source language. When a plurality of information of the target languages as a result of the translation exist, all of them are displayed. When the user wants to further translate the result of the translation into a third language, all of the kinds of candidate languages are displayed as a third language and the user selects a desired one of the kinds of displayed on the screen, thereby designating the kind of third language.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The invention relates to a translating apparatus for translating between different languages. Related Background Art As translating methods which are executed in the conventional translating apparatuses, translating methods called a direct type, a transfer type, and a pivot type are known. In the direct type, for a word of a source language to be translated, a word of a target language having the same meaning as that of the source language word is stored in a memory in a form of a dictionary. Upon translation, with respect to each word of a source language sentence to be translated, the word which coincides with such a word is searched from the headers of the dictionary. The translation word in the target language is extracted from the content corresponding to the coincident header. After that, processes such as replacement of the word order, inflection (change in word form), and the like are executed as necessary to the translation words obtained as mentioned above in accordance with the grammar of the target language, thereby completing a translation sentence. On the other hand, in the transfer type, a method whereby the words of different languages are directly made corresponding as in the direct type is not used but a sentence of the source language is grammatically analyzed, the result of the analysis (grammatical construction expression) is converted into the grammatical construction expression of the target language, and further, a sentence of the target language is generated from the grammatical construction expression. In the pivot type, an intermediate expression which is independent of the language characteristics is used in place of the grammatical construction expression of the transfer type and a sentence of the target language is generated from the intermediate expression in which the source language sentence has been converted. As such a translating apparatus, not only an apparatus in which the source language and the target language have been predetermined but also an apparatus which can mutually translate between two languages and an apparatus in which a source language and a target language can be arbitrarily selected among multi languages of three or more languages are put into practical use. In the translating process, the sentence of the source language and the sentence of the target language do not always correspond to each other in a one-to-one correspondence relation. Therefore, a point regarding whether the determined translation word or translation sentence is correct or not or a point regarding which one of a plurality of candidates of the translation words or translation sentences should be selected becomes a problem. In such a situation, particularly, in the case where the user of the apparatus is strong in the source language rather than the target language, it is one of the effective methods that the result of the translation is again translated into the source language and a judgment is performed from the result of the retranslation. In the apparatus which can cope with multi languages, there is a case where the user wants to further translate the generated translation words or translation sentences into those of another language. In such an apparatus which can cope with multi languages, when both of the source language and the target language are not the mother language of the user, there is also a case where the user desires to know the meaning by further translating the result of the translation into the mother language of the user. In the conventional translating apparatus, however, in the case where the user wants to further translate a certain result of the translation, the same words or sentences as those of the translation result must be newly inputted as a source language sentence of the translating apparatus and the operating procedure is troublesome. Furthermore, in document US-A-4 604 698, there is disclosed an electronic translator, which can provide a retranslated word immediately without any additional operation. In this translator, first a certain word of a source language is input. Then, a first search in the dictionary of a target language is performed and a word of the target language is displayed. After an interval of 0.5 seconds, the translated word of the target language is translated back (retranslated) to the source language. Then, a key can be depressed so that a further search in the dictionary of the target language for the certain word of the source language is carried out. Similar to the first search, a further searched word is retranslated to the source language. Moreover, document GB-A-2 131 583 discloses an electronic translator, which enables a bi-directional translation between an original word and an equivalent word merely by inputting the original word and without inputting the equivalent word. In this electronic translator, first an original word of a first language is input. Then, the original word of the first language is translated to a word of a selected second language. After that a third language (which may also be the first language) can be selected, and the translated word of the second language is translated to the selected third language. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of further translating the result of a translation in an apparatus and a translating apparatus which can designate the result of one translating process to a target of another translating process by a simple operation. According to the present invention this object is accomplished by a method of further translating the result of a translation in an apparatus as defined in claims 1 and 4 and by a translating apparatus as defined in claims 9 and 10. Other objects and advantages besides those discussed above shall be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description of preferred embodiments of the invention which follows. In the description, reference is made to accompanying drawings, which form a part thereof, and which illustrate examples of the invention. Such examples, however, are not exhaustive of the various embodiments of the invention and, therefore, reference is made to the claims which follow the description for determining the scope of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a fundamental construction of an embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an external view of the embodiment of the invention; Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a circuit construction of the embodiment of the invention; Figs. 4A and 4B are explanatory diagrams showing contents of dictionaries of the embodiment of the invention; Figs. 5A to 5F are explanatory diagrams showing contents of the key operations and display examples in the embodiment of the invention; Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing a control procedure which is executed by a CPU in the embodiment of the invention; Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an operating procedure of the user and a display example of a display unit in the second embodiment of the invention; Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing an execution control procedure of a CPU in the second embodiment of the invention; and Figs. 9A to 9C, 10A, and 10B are explanatory diagrams showing display examples in other embodiments of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the invention will be described hereinbelow with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a fundamental construction of a translating apparatus of an embodiment of the invention. In Fig. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a translation unit which can translate among a plurality of languages. Reference numeral 200 denotes a memory unit to store language information translated by the translation unit and its kind information. Reference numeral 300 denotes an input unit for reading out the language information and its kind information from the memory unit in accordance with an instruction from the outside and for supplying to the translation unit as a language of the translation and its kind information. Fig. 2 shows an external view of the apparatus of the embodiment of the invention. It is now assumed that the translating apparatus according to the embodiment translates words among a plurality of different languages. In Fig. 2, various kinds of keys and a display 4 are provided on the upper surface of the apparatus main body. Alphabet (character) keys 2 are used to input words of a source language in the translation. Power on/off keys 3a are used to turn on/off a power source. A clear key 3b is used to instruct the erasure of display data. A first mode key 3c is used to indicate the kind of input source language. In the embodiment, by depressing the first mode key 3c, a plurality of predetermined languages are switched in accordance with a predetermined order, thereby designating the kind of language. A second mode key 3d is used to switch and indicate the kind of target language. A jump key 3e is used to shift an operating mode to a mode in which a word of the target language can be designated as an input of the next translation. By depressing the jump key 3e, a cursor is moved to the head position of the translation word displayed. Cursor keys 3f are used to move the cursor. A DIC key 3g is used to instruct so as to handle the word designated by the cursor as a header to search the translation word. An enter key 5 is used to instruct the execution of the translation for the words supplied by the alphabet keys 2. A control circuit for controlling the operation of each section constructing the apparatus and for executing a translating process and the power source are provided in the apparatus main body. Fig. 3 shows a circuit construction of the control circuit. In Fig. 3, a central processing unit (CPU) 6 executes the operation control of the whole apparatus and also performs the translation for the source language supplied from a keyboard 9. A control program which is executed by the CPU 6 in order to control the operation of the whole apparatus, dictionary information which is used for translation, and the other various kinds of message information are previously stored in a read only memory (ROM) 7. The above control program and the dictionary information are respectively stored into special allocation areas 7a and 7b in the ROM 7. A random access memory (RAM) 8 temporarily stores arithmetic operation data regarding arithmetic operations of the CPU 6. The RAM 8 has therein areas 8a to 8d in correspondence to the kind of storage data. The area 8a is a work area for data which is used upon arithmetic operation of the control program and for display data. The area 8b is a retreatment area of data which is used for a stack of the CPU 6. The area 8c is a mode area to store codes indicative of the kinds of a source language and a target language. The area 8d is a designated word area to temporarily store the supplied word to be translated or the word designated by the user as a target for retranslaton from the translated word information. The RAM 8 operates as memory means in the invention. The foregoing various kinds of keys are provided on the keyboard 9 and are used for the user to input language information to be translated and operation instruction information to the CPU 6. The display 4 visually displays the input information such as language information supplied as a source language from the keyboard 9 or the like and the output information such as language information or the like after the translation which is generated from the CPU 6. The display 4 is driven by a display driver 10 on the basis of an instruction of the CPU 6. Figs. 4A and 4B show parts of the contents of dictionaries which are used in the embodiment. Fig. 4A shows an example of the storage of words of an English dictionary. Fig. 4B shows an example of the storage of words of German dictionary. In Fig. 4A, a data length indicative of the number of data stored in an information memory area is stored in an area 200 in the information memory area of one word. A character code train (header words) indicative of words are stored into an area 201. Meaning information in which the meaning which the header word has is expressed by a code allocated to each meaning is stored into an area 202. The German dictionary shown in Fig. 4B also has a similar construction. It is now assumed that the information codes which are used as meaning information are common to those of the English dictionary. The translating process which is executed by the construction as mentioned above will now be described with reference to Fig. 6. Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing a control procedure which is executed by the CPU 6. The user sets a translating mode from English to German by designating English by the first mode key 3c and by designating German by the second mode key 3d. The instruction input of the translating mode by the first and second mode keys 3c and 3d is detected by the CPU 6. The instruction content of the input is stored into the mode area 8c in the RAM 8 by the processes in steps S1 and S2. The set translating mode is displayed on the display screen of the display 4 as shown in Fig. 5A. The user subsequently inputs an English word, for instance, "interest" by using the alphabet keys 2 and instructs the completion of the input of English by the enter key 5 to the CPU 6. The CPU 6 stores the English word input by the alphabet keys 2 into the designated word area 8d in the RAM 8 and also displays the English word on the display screen as shown in Fig. 5A (loop process in steps S3 to S4). In response to the depression of the enter key 5 (step S4), the CPU 6 selects the dictionary corresponding to the set mode, namely, the English dictionary and extracts the meaning code of the input information "interest" from the English dictionary and stores into the work area 8a in the RAM 8. The CPU 6 subsequently selects the German dictionary as a target and sequentially reads out the meaning codes in accordance with the order from the first word in the dictionary and discriminates the coincidence with the meaning code of "interest" of the source language (loop process in steps S5 → S6 → S7 → S5). By repetitively executing the above processes, all of the German words having the same meaning code as that of the source language are extracted and are stored into the work area 8a in the RAM 8 and are displayed on the display screen (step S6 → S10). After the translation was finished once, when another English word is input, an executing procedure of the CPU 6 advances to a processing routine (step S11 → steps S4 to S10). The translating process similar to that mentioned above is executed. In the case where the user wants to reversely convert into English by using the words which have been converted from English to German by the translation, the user depresses the jump key 3e, thereby allowing the CPU 6 to display the cursor at the first word position of German displayed on the screen (refer to Fig. 5C). After that, the user depresses the cursor keys 3f to thereby move the cursor to the display position of the word to be translated, for instance, "Beteiligung" (loop processes in steps S14 to S15; refer to Fig. 5D). Subsequently, the user depresses the DIC key 3g. In response to the depression of the DIC key 3g, the CPU 6 replaces the information codes indicative of the source language and target language stored in the memory area 8c in the RAM 8 (step S17). Subsequently, the word at the present cursor position, namely, "Beteiligung" is read out of the work area 8a in the RAM 8 and is set and stored into an input word memory area in the work area 8a as a word of the source language (step S18). When the processes in steps S17 and S18 are executed, the CPU 6 functions as an input unit. After that, as shown in Fig. 5E, the CPU 6 updates the content on the display screen to the content of the input mode screen upon translation. In a manner similar to the word information supplied from the keyboard 9, the CPU 6 executes the translation in accordance with the foregoing translation processing procedure (steps S4 to S10) in response to the depression of the enter key 5 by the user. The English words after the translation are displayed on the screen as shown in Fig. 5F. At this time, the CPU 6 functions as a translation unit. As described above, according to the embodiment, in the case where the user wants to again translate the translated word to the word of the original language, by designating such a word on the display screen by the cursor, the word is inputted as a source language word. The kind of language can be also designated. Consequently, there is no need to newly input the same word by the alphabet keys as in the conventional apparatus. The inputting operations of the user are simplified and an erroneous input doesn't occur. The second embodiment will now be described. The second embodiment relates to an example in which the target language in the second translation after completion of the first translating process is selected from a plurality of languages. Fig. 8 shows an execution processing procedure of the CPU 6 in the second embodiment. The control procedure in Fig. 8 shows a processing procedure in place of the processes in steps S16 to S18 of the control procedure of Fig. 6. Fig. 7 shows a key operating order of the user and a display example of the display 4. After completion of the first translation from the English word into the German word, the user designates the translated German word "Beteiligung" as an input target on the display screen by using the cursor. When the user depresses the DIC key 3g, the CPU 6 transfers the German word designated by the cursor into the designated word area 8d in the RAM 8 (step S19 → S20 in Fig. 8). The CPU 6 subsequently changes the memory content of the first mode in the mode area to the present memory content of the second mode in order to set the present target language, namely German, as the source language of the translation (step S21). Subsequently, the CPU 6 displays the kinds of languages which can be translated, namely in the embodiment German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish, from which the source language is excluded as candidates of the target language on the display screen together with the source language as shown in Fig. 7 (step S22 → S23). Each time the operation of the right cursor key 3f (to shift the cursor to the right on the screen) of the user is detected, the CPU 6 moves the black/white inversion display of the characters from the head position as shown in Fig. 7. When the depression of the enter key 5 is detected, the CPU/6 stores the information code indicative of the language which has been inversely displayed at that time, namely, French in the example of Fig. 7 into the mode area 8c in the RAM 8 as a target language. (steps S24 to S27). After that, the CPU 6 executes the translating process in the designated translating mode in accordance with the control procedure of Fig. 6 and displays the translated word onto the display screen. The following modifications other than the above embodiments can be mentioned. 1) In the first embodiment, upon retranslation, by automatically exchanging the information code indicative of the kind of source language (English) and the information code indicative of the kind of target language (German), the instruction of the translating mode is omitted. The translating mode, however, can be also instructed and inputted by designating the kind of language by using the first and second mode keys 3c and 3d in a manner similar to the first translation. In such a case, in order to indicate the input mode of the kind of translation, when the DIC key 3g is depressed, as shown in Fig. 9A, the kinds (ENG, GER) of the present translating mode, i.e., the present source language and the target language are inversely displayed. Subsequently, by depressing the first mode key 3c, (GER) is set as a source language as shown in Fig. 9B and the inversion of the display is released. By depressing the second mode key 3d, as shown in Fig. 9C, (ENG) is set as a target language and the inversion display is cancelled.It is also possible to display the input mode by another display mark or a message in place of the inversion display mentioned above. 2) In the second embodiment, when the mode of the source language of the translation is designated, the present translating mode is inversely displayed as shown in Fig. 10A in response to the depression of the DIC key 3g in a manner similar to the above. Subsequently, by depressing the first mode key 3c, the source language is designated and, after that, in a manner similar to the second embodiment, the languages to be selected are sequentially inverted by shifting the cursor, thereby selecting a desired language as shown in Fig. 10B. In the above example, the kinds of languages which can be used as targets are displayed in a lump. It is also possible, however, to switch and display the kinds of candidate languages one by one and to specify the target language when a desired language kind is displayed. In such a case, priorities can be also given to the display contents. In the apparatus for mutually translating between two special languages, when one of the source language and the target language is determined, the other is also automatically decided. Therefore, the translating mode can be also set with respect to only either one of the source language and the target language. A combination of both of the source language and the target language can be also used as targets to be selected instead of independently setting them. Although the above embodiments have been described with regard to the translation of words, the invention can be also applied to the case of translating sentences by designating a certain output sentence and using it as an input sentence for the next translation. As described above, according to the invention, the result of one translating process is designated as a target for the next translating process and the translation can be executed. Therefore, in the case where the user wants to translate the result of a certain translation into the original language or further another language, there is an effect such that the inputting operation is simplified. There are provided method and apparatus which can mutually translate information among a plurality of languages. The kind of first language (source language) which is supplied and the kind of second language (target language) which is generated are independently designated. The information of the source language is supplied. The supplied information of the source language is translated into the information of the target language. The information of the target language as a result of the translation is displayed on the display screen. The displayed information of the target language is designated. The designated information of the target language is again translated into the information of the source language. When a plurality of information of the target languages as a result of the translation exist, all of them are displayed. When the user wants to further translate the result of the translation into a third language, all of the kinds of candidate languages are displayed as a third language and the user selects a desired one of the kinds of displayed on the screen, thereby designating the kind of third language.

Claims: A method of further translating the result of a translation in an apparatus which can mutually translate information among a plurality of languages, comprising the steps of: designating (S1, S2) the kinds of a first language which is supplied and a second language which is generated; supplying (S3, S4) the information of the first language; translating (S5, S6, S7, S8, S9) the supplied information of the first language into the information of the second language; and displaying (S10) and generating the information of the second language as a result of the translation; characterized by the steps of: designating (S12-S18) displayed information of the second language; and again translating (S5-S9) the designated information of the second language into the information of the first language. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the kind of first language which is supplied and the kind of second language which is generated are independently designated. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that in the case where a plurality of information of the second language as a result of the translation exist, all of them are displayed. A method of further translating the result of a translation in an apparatus which can mutually translate information among a plurality of languages, comprising the steps of: designating (S1, S2) the kinds of a first language which is supplied and a second language which is generated; supplying (S3, S4) the information of the first language; translating (S5-S9) the supplied information of the first language into the information of the second language; and displaying (S10) and generating the information of the second language as a result of the translation; characterized by the steps of: designating (S12-S18) displayed information of the second language; designating (S20-S27) the kind of a third language as a target to translate the designated information of the second language; and again translating (S5-S9) the designated information of the second language into the information of the third language. A method according to claim 4, characterized in tha t the kind of first language which is supplied and the kind of second language which is generated are independently designated. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that when a plurality of information of the second language as a result of the translation exist, all of them are displayed. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that the designation of the kind of third language is executed by displaying candidates of the third language and by selecting a desired kind on the display. A method according to claim 7, characterized in that said plurality of languages from which the second language is excluded are displayed as candidates of the third language. A translating apparatus which can mutually translate information among a plurality of languages, comprising: first designating means (3c, 3d) for designating the kinds of a first language which is supplied and a second language which is generated; input means (2, 5) for supplying the information of a source language; translating means (6, 7b, 8a) for translating the information of the source language supplied by the input means (2, 5) into the information of the second language by using said source language information as information of the first language; and display means (4) for displaying the information of the second language translated by the translating means (6, 7b, 8a); characterized by second designating means (3e, 3f, 3g) for designating information of the second language on the display means (4); and control means (6) for exchanging the kinds of first and second languages which are designated by the first designating means (3c, 3d) and for allowing the information of the second language designated by the second designating means (3e, 3f, 3g) to be supplied to the translating means (6, 7b, 8a). A translating apparatus which can mutually translate information among a plurality of languages, comprising: first designating means (3c, 3d) for designating the kinds of a first language which is supplied and a second language which is generated; input means (2, 5) for supplying the information of a source language; translating means (6, 7b, 8a) for translating the information of the source language supplied to the input means (2, 5) into the information of the second language by using said source language information as information of the first language; and display means (4) for displaying the information of the second language translated by the translating means (6, 7b, 8a); characterized by second designating means (3e, 3f, 3g) for designating information of the second language on the display means (4); third designating means (3f, 5) for designating the kind of a third language as a target to translate the designated information of the second language; and control means (6) for changing the kind of first language which is designated by the first designating means (3c, 3d) into the original second language and for changing the kind of second language into the third language and for allowing the information of the second language designated by the second designating means (3e, 3f, 3g) to be supplied to the translating means (6, 7b, 8a).

Inventors: FUSHIMOTO HIDEO, FUSHIMOTO, HIDEO
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1991
Main classification: G06F17
IPC codes: G06F17