Patent Publication Number: US-2002007279-A1

Title: Multilingual document preparing method and multilingual document reading system

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] The invention relates to a method for preparing/reading documents of the same contents in a plurality of languages and a system for providing services of permitting documents of the same contents to be prepared/read in a plurality of languages. More specifically, the invention relates to a multilingual document preparing method and a multilingual document reading system for enabling documents prepared in one language to be displayed immediately and accurately in a plurality of other languages over various areas having different languages and interconnected by the Internet or any other globally developed communication networks.  
       [0002] With the recent expansion of the Internet and other communication networks developed globally, it has been essential to exchange information between areas with different languages and transmit the same information to a plurality of areas having different languages. To do so, it is necessary for an information transmitter beforehand to use translation technologies in order to thereby translate relevant documents into a language used in a reading side area or for the reading side to translate the documents into their own language.  
       [0003] The background art translation technologies may include, for example, machine translation, parallel-translated example sentence utilization translation, and template utilization translation. By machine translation, each of the sentences of a document is analyzed in terms of syntax and disassembled into a plurality of elements. Thus disassembled elements are then translated and assembled based on predetermined rules. By parallel-translated example-sentence utilization translation, for each of the sentences of a document, many side-by-side example sentences of translations and original texts called parallel-translated corpora are beforehand stored, which are then modified by a document implementor to thereby obtain translated sentences.  
       [0004] By template utilization translation, a document implementor inputs original texts in an original language. Then, the translation system converts noun-phrase equivalents of thus input original texts into variable symbols. The other portions are selected by the translation system as parallel-translated templates expressed in a target language. Then, the translation system translates thus variable-symbolized portions using a conventional machine translation method and combines this translation result with the selected parallel-translated templates to generate translated sentences. This template translation approach is disclosed in JP-A-03-116273.  
       [0005] JP-A-11-85753 also discloses therein a method for combining standard sentences to thereby convert original-language documents into target-language documents. By this method described in JP-A-11-85753, however, an original language is once converted into an intermediate language corresponding thereto, which is then converted into the target language. Thus, this method requires conversion twice.  
       [0006] Thus, the conventional translation technologies require aid in translation by a machine or man power when documents are translated. Specifically, it is necessary for the transmitter side to translate the documents in a plurality of languages or the reader side to translate them by means of interpretation by those other than their implementor. The recent communication networks globally developed has become to require for their operation the electronic commerce as well as immediate transmission and exchange of accurate information between different languages. Furthermore, it has been desired to employ a translation means using no man power.  
       [0007] For example, the securities business circles have globalized their stock exchange markets so that investors can stocks of the enterprises of any countries. Therefore, the materials in corporate IR (Investor Relations) activities and the disclosed documents such as important information papers or financial reports influencing the stock markets need to be fairly and immediately opened to the investors all over the world in their various languages. However, this is impossible by translation by means of man power. Machine translation has also been problematical in terms of real-time accessibility and accuracy.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008] It is an object of the invention to provide a method for effectively and rapidly preparing multilingual documents and a multilingual document reading system for permitting the reader to easily read thus prepared multilingual documents.  
       [0009] The invention does not cause the document implementor to translate each of sentences but selects sentences which have beforehand been standardized. Those standardized sentences correspond to different languages and so can be rapidly and effectively translated into any other languages.  
       [0010] This object can be achieved by a document preparing method, and a device for implementing this method, that prepares each of a plurality of standard sentences in a plurality of languages beforehand and uses a managing database in which those sentences are made to correspond to those languages, to display a user-specified ones of those sentences, so that when an instruction is received for translation into a user-specified one of the above-mentioned plurality of languages, this user-specified language is retrieved from among the plurality of languages to which the above-mentioned specified sentence corresponds to thereby display this specified sentence in it.  
       [0011] This object can be achieved also by a document preparing service providing system, and a method for providing document preparing services by use of the system, that comprises a means for registering a plurality of standard documents corresponding to a plurality of languages, a standard-document managing database for managing this plurality of standard documents, a means for, in response to an instruction from a user, providing a standard document which corresponds to one of the plurality of languages from the standard-document managing database, and a means for, in response to a translation instruction to this standard document from the user, providing another document which corresponds to a language different from the above-mentioned one language from the standard-document managing database.  
       [0012] In this system, the above-mentioned sentence may have a variable portion that can be changed by the user besides a fixed portion which is beforehand made to correspond to a plurality of languages.  
       [0013] Note here that to achieve the above-mentioned object, the system may be a program for achieving the above-mentioned functions or a storage medium that stores this program thereon.  
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0014]FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a multilingual document preparing system according to the invention;  
     [0015]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the multilingual document preparing system according to the invention;  
     [0016]FIG. 3 is a flowchart explaining the operations of the multilingual document preparing system of FIG. 3;  
     [0017]FIG. 4 is a continued flowchart explaining the operations of the multilingual document preparing system of FIG. 3;  
     [0018]FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram explaining the operations of a client in the multilingual document preparing system of FIG. 3;  
     [0019]FIG. 6 is a selecting/inputting form of standard-sentence utilization forms for the multilingual document preparing system of FIG. 3;  
     [0020]FIG. 7 is a parameter inputting form of the standard-sentence utilization forms for the multilingual document preparing system of FIG. 3;  
     [0021]FIG. 8 is a multilingual sentence managing table of the multilingual document preparing system of FIG. 3; and  
     [0022]FIG. 9 is a registered-document managing database and a registered-document variable managing database of the multilingual document preparing system of FIG. 3. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS  
     [0023] The following will describe one embodiments of the invention with reference to the drawings.  
     [0024]FIG. 1 is a functional configuration example of a multilingual document preparing system according to the invention. This multilingual document preparing system according to the invention comprises a standard document acquiring unit  101  having a selection function of selecting a standard sentence in order to acquire a sentence standardized by a document implementor  114  and a function for inputting a variable portion, if any, of a standard sentence, an layout configuring unit  102  for permitting the implementor  114  to design an layout of a document, a layout-changing unit  103  for changing an layout configured by the layout configuring unit  102 , and a layout-component managing table  123  for managing layout components such as graphs used in the layout configuration.  
     [0025] Furthermore, the multilingual document preparing system comprises an original language display unit  104  for display in an original language of the implementor a standard sentence selected by the unit  101  or a graph obtained as a layout component from the layout component managing table and a conversion language specifying unit  105  having a function permitting the implementor  114  to specify a language to be converted and a function for transferring information of thus specified conversion language and a standard sentence selected by the standard document acquiring unit  101  to a specified language converting unit  108  or an input variable portion, if any, of a standard sentence to a machine-translation unit  109 .  
     [0026] The multilingual document preparing system comprises also a multilingual standard sentence managing table  106  including a correspondence table for corresponding of multilingual standard sentences and a managing table for managing variable information, a specified-language converting unit  108  having a function for using the multilingual sentence managing table to thereby convert a standard sentence transferred from the conversion language specifying unit  105  into a specified language based on conversion-specified language information transferred from the conversion language specifying unit  105 , and a machine translation unit  109  for machine-translating a variable transferred from the conversion language specifying unit  105  into a specified language based on conversion-specified language information transferred from the conversion language specifying unit  105 .  
     [0027] The multilingual document preparing system comprises also a converted-sentence display unit  110  for displaying a standard sentence which is converted by the specified-language converting unit  108  and a variable which is machine-translated by the machine translation unit  109  according to the above-mentioned layout configuration, a document registering unit  116  having a function for permitting the implementor  114  to register an original language document and a converted document and also the accompanied information in a registered document managing table  121  and a registered document variable managing table  122 , a registered document managing table  121  for managing a document registered by the document registering unit  116  and the accompanied information, and the registered document variable managing table  122  for managing a variable portion of a document to be registered by the document registering unit  116 .  
     [0028] The multilingual document preparing system comprises also a registered-document display/changing unit  117  for permitting the implementor to display and change original language documents and converted documents registered in the registered document managing table  121  and the registered document variable managing table  122 , a reader providing unit  113  for providing a reader  115  with reader-specified language sentences and variable data, and a standard-sentence registering unit  118  having a function for permitting a standard-sentence registering person  119  to register standardized sentences and make multilingual standardized sentences to correspond to various languages.  
     [0029] Those units may be provided in a form of programs for implementing them, which programs may also be distributed, for example, over the Internet or provided on CD-ROMs or any other storage media.  
     [0030]FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of an embodiment of a multilingual document preparing system which utilizes the Internet and the WWW environment. A server group  200  of the multilingual document preparing system communicates with a document implementor terminal  210  utilized by the implementor and a reader terminal  202  utilized by the reader over the Internet  209 . Document preparing services are always provided using the server group  200 .  
     [0031] The document preparing terminal  201  and the reader terminal  202  have such browser functions that enable acquiring, displaying, and execution of application views over the Internet  209 . The server group  200  of the multilingual document preparing system comprises a document implementor WWW server group  203 , a router  204 , a reader WWW server group  205 , a document implementor application server group  206 , a document implementor variable machine translation server group  207 , a database server group  208 , and a standard sentence registering terminal  210  having the standard sentence registering unit  118  shown in FIG. 1.  
     [0032] The document implementor WWW server group  203  has a WWW screen  2031  for providing an application view, and control thereon, displayed at the terminal for permitting the document implementor to give at the document implementor terminal  201  various instructions to the standard sentence acquiring unit  101 , the layout configuration unit  102 , the layout changing unit  103 , the original language display unit  104 , the conversion language specifying unit  105 , the converted document display unit  110 , the document registering unit  116 , and the registered document display/changing unit  117  which are shown in FIG. 1, a WWW server  2033 , and a security control  2032  for checking the users.  
     [0033] The reader WWW server group  205  has a WWW screen  2051  for providing an application view, and control thereon, displayed at the terminal for permitting the reader to give at the reader terminal  202  various instructions to the reader acquiring unit  113  shown in FIG. 1 and a WWW server  2052 .  
     [0034] The database server group  208  has an layout component managing database  2080  with the layout component managing table  123  shown in FIG. 1, a standard sentence managing database  2081  with the multilingual standard sentence managing table  106  shown in FIG. 1, a registered document managing database  2082  with the registered document managing table  121  shown in FIG. 1, and a registered document variable managing database  2083  with the registered document variable managing table  122  shown in FIG. 1, and a database server  2084  with a database management control function.  
     [0035] The document implementor application server group  206  has a standard sentence acquisition control  2061  which is an application for permitting the document implementor terminal  201  to control access to the standard sentence managing database  2081  from the application view of the standard sentence acquiring unit  101  shown in FIG. 1, a layout control  2062  which is an application for providing control required to provide layout components to the application view of the original document display unit  104  shown in FIG. 1 from the layout component managing database  2080  based on the information of a layout configuration of the layout configuring unit  102  and the layout changing unit  103  and the information of layout changes, and a document display control  2063  which is an application for providing control to transfer information required to display on the application view of the converted document display unit  110  shown in FIG. 1 the information required for document display from a specified language converting control  2065  and a machine translation function  2071 .  
     [0036] The application server group  206  has also a language specification control  2064  which is an application for providing control to transfer to the specified language conversion control  2065  and the machine translation function  2071  the information of a specified language and the information of original language documents and variable from the application view of the conversion language specifying unit  105  shown in FIG. 1, the specified language conversion control  2065  which is an application for providing control to receive the information of a specified language from the above-mentioned language specification control  2064  and acquire standard sentences in the specified language from the standard sentence managing database  2081  and then transfer them to the document display control  2063 , and a document registration control  2066  which is an application for providing control access to the registered document managing database  2082  and the registered document variable managing database  2083  for original language documents or converted documents from the application view of the document registering unit  116 .  
     [0037] The document implementor variable machine translation server group  207  has a machine translation function which is an application for providing control to convert variables into a specified language transmitted from the language specification control  2064  using a conventional machine conversion/translation unit and then transfer thus converted variables to the document display control  2063 .  
     [0038] The following will describe the flow of processing by this embodiment with reference to flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4 and contents of FIGS. 1, 2,  5 ,  6 , and  7 .  
     [0039] The document implementor utilizes the document implementor terminal  201  shown in FIG. 2 to thereby connect to the document implementor WWW server  203 , thus acquiring a client application view for the units  101 - 105 ,  110 ,  116 , and  117  shown in FIG. 1.  
     [0040] In this embodiment, specifically, the application view according to this embodiment is acquired by utilizing the WWW screen.  
     [0041] First, the client application view is used to decide thereon whether a document is to be prepared newly (step S 301 ).  
     [0042] To prepare or correct that document based on an already registered document, the client application view for the unit  117  is used to acquire that registered document from the registered document managing database  2082  and the registered document variable managing database  2083  in order to display it thereon (step S 302 ).  
     [0043] Next, the client application view for the unit  101  is used to utilize the standard sentence acquisition control  2061  to thereby acquire a standard sentence utilization form required to prepare the document, thus inputting selection portions and variable portions (step S 303 ).  
     [0044]FIG. 5 shows a table inputting form  5011 , a selecting/inputting form  5012 , a parameter inputting form  5013  as a type example  501  of the standard document utilizing form. The table inputting form  5011  is a form example which lists the correspondence of standard sentence at table item portions to a plurality of languages so that the document implementor can input a numeral at a variable portion according to the item. The selecting/inputting form  5012  is a form example which employs a selection type of standard sentences so that the document implementor can input in a filling manner a word and a numeral at the variable portion. The parameter inputting form  5013  is such a form example that the document implementor can only input parameters of a word or a numeral at specified items to output sentences and graphs.  
     [0045]FIG. 6 shows a selecting/inputting form example in which the document implementor selects a standard sentence written in English and converts it into a Japanese equivalent. Specifically, the document implementor selects it from a selection item  601  in the paragraph-unit standard sentence group. In this example, he/she selects a “Property”, “plant and equipment” item  602  and then three standard sentences  603 ,  604 , and  605 . He/she has input “principally” at a variable portion of the standard sentence  604  and “partly” at a variable portion  608  of the standard sentence  605 . This standard sentence and the variable portion can be converted in terms of language with the specified language conversion control  2065  and the machine translation function  2071  respectively into a Japanese equivalent example  609 . In the Japanese example  609 , a portion  607   a  is a Japanese equivalent of “principally”  607  and a portion  608   a , a Japanese equivalent of “partly”  608 .  
     [0046]FIG. 7 shows a parameter inputting form example whereby a parameter is input using English as an original language for conversion into Japanese sentences. Specifically, the document implementor selects his/her desired target standard sentence from the selection item  701  of paragraph-unit standard sentences. In this example, he/she selects a Merger item  702  to input parameters of words or numerals at five specified items  703 ,  704 ,  705 ,  706 , and  707 . This is exemplified at  708  displayed in the original language and at  709  displayed in the converted language. In the Japanese sentence  709 , portions  703   a ,  704   a ,  705   a ,  706   a , and  707   a  are the Japanese equivalents of words or numerals input to specified items  703 ,  704 ,  705 ,  706 , and  707  respectively. Thus, a sentence relating to Merger can be prepared.  
     [0047] After he/she has input the standard sentence utilizing form, the document implementor designs a layout and displays necessary contents in the original language on the client application view for the original language display unit  104  using the layout configuring unit  102  and the layout changing unit  103  shown in FIG. 1 (step S 304 ).  
     [0048] In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the layout design/original language display  502  displays in an original language each inputting form in a document format  502  which is near an actual sentence so that the document implementor can easily check the sentence.  
     [0049] At step S 305 , the system decides whether document preparing jobs such as inputting of the standard sentence utilization form or designing of a layout have been terminated. In negative decision, the system repeats the inputting of a standard sentence utilization form (step S 303 ) or the designing o a layout (step S 304 ) until they are terminated, upon which control goes to step S 306 .  
     [0050] After he/she has completed the document preparing jobs such as standard sentence utilization form inputting and layout designing, the document implementor uses the client application view for the conversion language specifying unit  105  to specify thereon a conversion language and perform conversion (step S 306 ).  
     [0051] When performing information is transferred from the client application view for the conversion language specifying unit  105  to the language specification control  2064 , it then transfers that performing information to the specified language conversion control  2065 . The specified language conversion control  2065  converts a standard sentence written in the original language into a specified language equivalent based on a multilingual standard sentence correspondence table (step S 307 ).  
     [0052] As for a variable portion of the original language standard sentence also, when the performing information is transferred from the client application view for the conversion language specifying unit  105  to the language specification control  2065 , it then transfers that performing information to the machine translation function  2071 . The machine translation function  2071  translates the variable into the specified language (step S 308 ).  
     [0053] At step S 309 , the language specification control  2064  decides whether all of the conversion and machine translation jobs have been terminated. In negative decision, the system repeats processing of the standard sentences and the variables yet to be completed (at steps S 307  and S 308  respectively) until they are completed, upon which control goes to the next step S 401 .  
     [0054] When the language specification control  2064  has terminated its jobs, the document display control function  2063  transfers a standard sentence group of variable converted and machine-translated to the client application view for the conversion document display unit  110 . On this client application view, the document is displayed according to the layout configuration (step S 401 ).  
     [0055] For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a conversion language specification  503  specifies a language to be converted and a conversion language display  504  displays two languages.  
     [0056] As shown in FIG. 4, the document implementor confirms thus displayed conversion language and decides whether the document is to be registered (step S 402 ). If the document is to be corrected again, control returns to step S 303  to input the standard sentence utilization form or re-design the layout and if it is to be registered, control goes to step S 403 .  
     [0057] The original language document and the converted sentence are registered in the registered document managing database  2082  and the registered document variable managing database  2083  using the client application view for the document registering unit  116  and the document registration control  2066  (step S 403 ).  
     [0058] If the standard sentence has a variable portion, a variable portion at the table item is registered at the variable item of the registered document variable managing database  2083  in the case of, for example, the table inputting form  5011  shown in FIG. 5 (step S 404 ).  
     [0059] The following will describe the multilingual standard sentence managing table  106  in which standard sentences prepared and registered by the standard sentence registering person are listed and which is stored in the standard sentence managing database  2081  according to this embodiment using the multilingual standard sentence managing control unit  107 , with reference to FIG. 8.  
     [0060] A multilingual standard sentence managing table  801  shown in FIG. 8 has a multilingual standard sentence correspondence table  802  and a variable managing table  803 . The multilingual standard sentence correspondence table  802  has a category table for each category of standard sentences. For example, a category A table  804  stores therein standard sentences for introduction of the company of oneself, to each sort corresponding the standard sentences of languages  1  and  2  and other languages. A content  805  of languages  1  and  2  of a sort a 1  is a figure showing the contents of the languages  1  and  2  of the sort a 1  in the category A table  804 . The sorts a 1 , a 2 ; . . . , represent locations for storing standard sentences in the multilingual standard sentence managing table  801  and do not contain information directly related to the contents of the standard sentence. This is because multilingual sentences having the same contents are previously stored so as to correspond to each other in the same database, and hence the sort indicating information need not indicate the contents of the standard sentence.  
     [0061] The languages  1  and  2  of the sort a 1  of the content  805  respectively store Japanese standard sentences and English ones having the same meaning. In an example of the standard sentence of the content  805  of the languages  1  and  2  of the sort a 1 , the language  1  stores  %a11%  %a12%    and the language  2  stores “Our company has %a11% employees, and a capital of %12% billion Yen”, thus having a standard sentence example with variable portions. The symbol representing a variable portion in a standard sentence according to this embodiment is supposed to be %. The standard sentence example of the content  805  contains two variables a11 and a12.  
     [0062] The variable information of a11 and a12 is managed by the variable managing table  803 . Which stores an item name, attribute, a unit, etc. of the variable in this embodiment. According to this embodiment, by using such a multilingual standard sentence managing table  801 , the standard sentence utilization form  806  is prepared and displayed on the terminal screen as the parameter inputting form shown in FIG. 7 for use by the document implementor. The standard sentence utilization form shown in FIG. 8 is an example where the original language is Japanese, for inputting parameters of the sort a 1  related to the oneself-company introduction in the category A table  804 . Numerals  807  and  808  represent variable inputting portions. In the variable inputting portion  807 , the item name represents the number of employees and the unit, a person. In the variable inputting portion  808 , the item name represents a capital and the unit represents a column in which the amount is input in units of trillion (or billion), thus constituting a parameter inputting form based on the information from the variable managing table  803 . Although the standard sentence according to this embodiment is exemplified by a standard sentence containing a variable and provided to the document implementor as a parameter inputting form, it may of course be provided otherwise based on the information from the multilingual standard sentence correspondence table  802  or the variable managing table  803 .  
     [0063] The following will describe a scheme for storing documents in the registered document managing database  2082  according to this embodiment using the document control unit  111  and a scheme for storing document variables in the document variable managing database  2083  using the variable control unit  112 , with reference to FIG. 9.  
     [0064]FIG. 9 shows a procedure for storing in the registered document managing database  905  and the registered document variable managing database  906  an original language document  903 , and a converted document  904  thereof, that is prepared by the document implementor according to, for example, the standard sentence utilization form  806 . In this embodiment, the registered document managing database  905  has such items as document number, layout information, original language specification information of document implementor, and registered document, while the registered document variable managing database  906  has such items as document number, category and sort of standard sentence, and information of variable and value. The registered document managing database  905  and the registered document variable managing database  906  are related to each other by the document number.  
     [0065] To determine a document layout configuration, the document implementor layouts the standard sentence utilization form  806  into a document form  9011  for performing layout design  901 . The information of this layout design  901  can be expressed by a method utilizing tags and a style sheet like in the case of the layout and variable information example  902 , to thereby store the style sheet having the layout information at the item of the layout information in the registered document managing database  905 . The variable information can be stored as expressed in tags in the registered document variable managing database  906 . Furthermore, the original language document  903  and the converted document  904  are stored in the registered document managing database  905 .  
     [0066] By employing such an approach to store and manage necessary contents in the registered document managing database and the registered document variable managing database, the reader can be immediately provided with the information of the language translated by the document implementor and the variables and by relating them to the multilingual standard sentence managing table, even those languages other than that converted by the document implementor can be provided.  
     [0067] Thus, according to the one embodiment of the multilingual document preparing system according to the invention, the document implementor can obtain from the server group  200  of the multilingual document preparing system those sentences to be components of a document as a standard sentence utilization form to thereby prepare a document based on this standard sentence utilization form, thus reducing the time required to prepare documents. Furthermore, by using the multilingual standard sentence managing table of the server group  200  of the multilingual document preparing system, it is possible to readily convert a sentence to a standard sentence written in any other language which corresponds to the standard sentence, thus reducing the time required in translation. Moreover, by using the server group  200  of the multilingual document preparing system to manage documents corresponding to a plurality of languages, much more multifarious documents can be managed than a case where the document implementor etc. separately manages standard sentences corresponding to a plurality of languages. Moreover, the information of newly prepared standard sentences etc. can also be shared and utilized, to provide higher quality services. In addition, translation by use of common information (standard documents etc.) is also possible, thus providing a plurality of readers with translations telling more accurate contents intended by the implementor.  
     [0068] Although the above-mentioned one embodiment according to the invention has been described with reference to the system example in the form of a WWW system, the invention can be applied to any other system form as far as a functional configuration shown in FIG. 1 is provided. Furthermore, in the standard sentence utilization form example, any other sentence selecting form may be possible such as sentence preparation by use of a questionnaire type. In this case also, of course, by providing a multilingual standard sentence managing table in which standard sentences are beforehand made to correspond to other languages, any inputting form can be applied. Furthermore, by providing the multilingual standard sentence managing table and the registered document and document variable managing databases, the reader side can select a conversion language, to enable such a system that the reader side can determine a conversion language while the document implementor prepares documents with only an original language in his/her mind.