Patent Publication Number: US-2013238317-A1

Title: Vocabulary look up system and method using same

Description:
1. TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The disclosure generally relates to vocabulary learning, and particularly, to a vocabulary look up and method. 
     2. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART 
     An electronic dictionary usually receives data via a keyboard. Thus, a user of the dictionary must have his/her hands free to type using the keyboard when he/she wants to look up a word, which may be not convenient and results in low efficiency. 
     Therefore, it is desirable to provide a testing system and method which can overcome the above-mentioned problems. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of one embodiment of a vocabulary look up system. 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart of a first embodiment of a vocabulary look up method. 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a second embodiment of a vocabulary look up method. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean “at least one.” 
     In general, the word “module”, as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a programming language, such as, Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules may be embedded in firmware, such as in an EPROM. The modules described herein may be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or other storage device. Some non-limiting examples of non-transitory computer-readable median include CDs, DVDs, BLU-RAY, flash memory, and hard disk drives. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of one embodiment of an electronic apparatus  1  comprising a vocabulary look up system  10 . In one embodiment, the electronic apparatus  1  further includes a display  12 , a storage device  13 , at least one processor  15 , and an audio collector  14 . The display  12 , the at least one storage device  13 , and the audio collector  14  are directly or indirectly electrically connected, for exchange of data. In this embodiment, the electronic apparatus  1  may be, but is not limited to, a mobile intelligent terminal, such as a tablet computer or a cellular phone. 
     The audio collector  14  collects sound from a surrounding environment of the electronic apparatus  1 , and stores the sound as audio data in a specific section of the storage device  13 . A voiceprint is a spectrogram of a voice. Because a particular word has a substantially common voiceprint even when spoken by different people, an individual word can be distinguished from other words via a human voice pronouncing the word. Thus, the human voice in the collected audio data can be used to determine the word to be looked up. 
     The storage device  13  may be, but is not limited to, a hard disk, or a dedicated memory, such as an EPROM, HDD, or flash memory. The storage device  13  stores a lookup table including a collection of words (vocabulary information) associated with a collection of voiceprints of the pronunciation of each word. The vocabulary information is dictionary entries that help people to understand and learn the word, such as phonetic symbols of the word, explanations as to the meaning of the word, some sample sentences of the word, for example. 
     In some embodiments, the display  12  may be, but is not limited to, a thin portable display, such as a liquid crystal display, a light emitting diode display, or an organic light emitting diode display. Furthermore, the display  12  includes a touch panel to allow various touch control functions. 
     The vocabulary look up  10  includes a voiceprint acquiring module  101 , a matching module  102 , a reminding module  103 , a spelling module  104 , a comparing module  105 , a displaying module  106 , and a studying module  107 . Computerized codes of the vocabulary look up  10  can be embedded into an operation system of the electronic apparatus  1 , or stored in the storage device  13  and executed by the processor  15 . 
     The voiceprint acquiring module  101  analyzes the audio data stored in the storage device  13  to acquire voiceprints from the collected audio data. The voiceprint acquiring module  101  may cache the voiceprints in the storage device  13 . 
     The matching module  102  retrieves vocabulary information of a word associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table, and generates an instruction to verify when one or more words are associated with one acquired voiceprint in the lookup table and a failure instruction when there is a failure to retrieve any word associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. 
     The reminding module  103  displays a pop-up window on the display  12  to ask the user to spell out the word to be looked up when the instruction to verify is received from the matching module  102 . The reminding module  103  displays a pop-up dialog box to warn the user of a failure of a word to be looked up when a failure instruction is received from the matching module  102 . The pop-up window includes an accept button and a refuse button. The reminding module  103  activates the spelling module  104  when the user presses the accept button. The reminding module  103  sends a retrieve instruction to the matching module  102 , whereupon the matching module  102  retrieves the vocabulary information of any and all words associated with the acquired voiceprint when the retrieve instruction is received. 
     The spelling module  104  acquires the voiceprints of the letters which constitute the word to be looked up via the voiceprint acquiring module  101 . The spelling module  104  acquires the voiceprints of each letter from the voiceprint acquiring module  101  after a first predetermined time interval. If the spelling module  104  acquires no voiceprint after a second predetermined time interval from the last acquiring of the voiceprint, the spelling module  104  combines the acquired letters to form the word to be looked up. The second predetermined time interval is a multiple of the first time interval. In this embodiment, the second time interval is four times longer than the first time interval. 
     The comparing module  105  compares a voiceprint being acquired with a previously acquired voiceprint. The comparing module  105  sends a look up instruction to the matching module  102  when the voiceprint being acquired is the same as the previously acquired voiceprint. The matching module  102  retrieves the vocabulary information of the word associated with the acquiring voiceprint in the lookup table when the matching module  102  receives the look up instruction. 
     The displaying module  106  displays, in written form, the vocabulary information of the word to be looked up. 
     The studying module  107  copies the vocabulary information of the words which have been looked up in a directly accessible area of the storage device  13 . Therefore, the user can review the word at any time. 
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart of a first embodiment of a vocabulary look up method. Depending on the embodiment, additional steps may be added, other deleted, and the ordering of the steps may be changed. 
     In step S 101 , the voiceprint acquiring module  101  analyzes the collected audio data to acquire voiceprints from the collected audio data. 
     In step S 102 , the matching module  102  retrieves vocabulary information of one or more words associated with an acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. 
     In step S 103 , the matching module  102  sends a displaying instruction to the displaying module  106  when the matching module  102  retrieves only one word which is associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. The displaying module  106  displays vocabulary information of the single word. 
     In step S 104 , the matching module  102  sends a failure instruction to the reminding module  103  when the matching module  102  fails to retrieve any word associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. The reminding module  103  displays a pop-up dialog box on the display  12  to warn the user of a failure of word looking up when a failure instruction is received from the matching module  102 . 
     In step S 105 , the matching module  102  sends an instruction to verify to the reminding module  103  when the matching module  102  retrieves more than one word which is associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. The reminding module  103  displays a pop-up window on the display  12  to require the user to spell out the word to be looked up. 
     In step S 106 , the spelling module  104  acquires the voiceprint of the letters constituting the word to be looked up and combines the letters to form the word to be looked up. And then, implementing step S 103 , the displaying module  106  displays vocabulary information of the word spelled out by the spelling module  104 . 
     The matching module  102  retrieves the vocabulary information of all the different words associated with one acquired voiceprint when the user is incapable of spelling out the word to be looked up or when the matching module  102  does not recognize the spelling which is entered by the user. And then, implementing step S 103 , the displaying module  106  displays the vocabulary information of all the different words associated with the one acquired voiceprint. 
     The spelling module  104  controls the reminding module  103  to display a pop-up dialog box for warning the user of a failure of a word looking up when the word combined by the spelling module  104  is different from all of the words have been retrieved by the matching module  102 . 
     In step S 107 , the studying module  107  copies the vocabulary information of the word to be looked up in a directly accessible area of the storage device  13 . 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a second embodiment of a vocabulary look up method. Depending on the embodiment, additional steps may be added, other deleted, and the ordering of the steps may be changed. 
     In step S 201 , the voiceprint acquiring module  101  analyzes collected audio data to acquire a voiceprint and caches the voiceprint in the storage device  13 . 
     In step S 202 , the comparing module  105  compares the voiceprint being acquired with a previously acquired voiceprint. Step S 201  is implemented when the acquiring voiceprint is different with the previous acquired voiceprint. 
     In step S 203 , the matching module  102  retrieves vocabulary information of one or more words associated with the acquiring voiceprint in the lookup table when the acquiring voiceprint is the same as the previous acquired voiceprint. 
     In step S 204 , the matching module  102  sends a displaying instruction to the displaying module  106  when the matching module  102  is able to retrieve only one word which is associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. The displaying module  106  displays vocabulary information of the single word. 
     In step S 205 , the matching module  102  sends a failure instruction to the reminding module  103  when the matching module  102  fails to retrieve any word which is associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. The reminding module  103  displays a pop-up dialog box to warn the user of a failure of a word looking up when a failure instruction is received from the matching module  102 . 
     In step S 206 , the matching module  102  sends an instruction to verify to the reminding module  103  when the matching module  102  is able to retrieve more than one word which is associated with the acquired voiceprint in the lookup table. The reminding module  103  displays a pop-up window to require the user to spell out the word to be looked up. 
     In step S 207 , the spelling module  104  acquires voiceprints of the letters constituting the word to be looked up and combines the letters to form the word to be looked up. And then, step S 204  is implemented, the displaying module  106  displays vocabulary information of the word spelled out in written form by the spelling module  104 . 
     The matching module  102  retrieves the vocabulary information of all the different words associated with the one acquired voiceprint when the user is unable to spell out the word to be looked up. And then, implementing step S 204 , the displaying module  106  displays the vocabulary information of all the different words associated with the one acquired voiceprint. 
     The spelling module  104  controls the reminding module  103  to display a pop-up dialog box to warn the user of a failure of a word looking up when combined by the spelling module  104  is different from all of the words have been retrieved by the matching module  102 . 
     In step S 208 , the studying module  107  stores the vocabulary information of all the words which have been looked up in a directly accessible area of the storage device  13 . 
     It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being preferred or exemplary embodiments of the disclosure.