Abstract: A speech translation system and methods for cross-lingual communication that enable users to improve and modify content and usage of the system and easily abort or reset translation. The system includes a speech recognition module configured for accepting an utterance and adding a new word, a machine translation module, an interface configured to communicate the utterance and proposed translation, a correction module and an abort action unit that removes any hypotheses or partial hypotheses and terminates translation. The system also includes modules for storing favorites, changing language mode, automatically identifying language, providing language drills, viewing third party information relevant to conversation, among other things.

Abstract: An “Interactive Word Lattice” provides a user interface for interacting with and selecting user-modifiable paths through a lattice-based representation of alternative suggested text segments in response to a user's text segment input, such as phrases, sentences, paragraphs, entire documents, etc. More specifically, the user input is provided to a trained paraphrase generation model that returns a plurality of alternative text segments having the same or similar meaning as the original user input. An interactive graphical lattice-based representation of the alternative text segments is then presented to the user. One or more words of each alternative text segment represents a “node” of the lattice, while each connection between nodes represents a lattice “edge. Both nodes and edges are user modifiable. Each possible path through the lattice corresponds to a different alternative text segment. Users select a path through the lattice to select an alternative text to the original input.

Abstract: An electronic communication device (104) receives a first set of digital audio signals via radio frequency signaling, translates the first set of digital audio signals from speech of a first language (e.g. English) into translated speech of a second language (e.g., French), and emits the translated speech of the second language via a loudspeaker (226). The electronic communication device (104) also receives a second set of digital audio signals, which it translates from speech of the second language into translated speech of the first language. The electronic communication device (104) transmits, via radio frequency signaling, a third set of digital audio signals. The third set of digital audio signals represents the translated speech of the first language.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for translating a sentence from a source language or input language into an output language. The method includes analyzing a source sentence using linguistic descriptions of the source language, constructing a language-independent semantic structure to represent the meaning of the source sentence, and generating an output sentence to represent the meaning of the source sentence using linguistic descriptions of the output language. To improve the accuracy of translation, the analysis or synthesis stage may include ratings or statistics obtained by analyzing a corpus of parallel texts. Disambiguation is remedied automatically or through user input such as through user interface elements.

Abstract: The preferred embodiments provide an automated machine translation from one language to another. The source language may contain expressions or words that are not readily handled by the translation system. Such problematic words or word combinations may, for example, include the words not found in the dictionary of the translation system, as well as text fragments corresponding to structures with low ratings. To improve translation quality, such potentially erroneous words or questionable word combinations are identified by the translation system and displayed to a user by distinctive display styles in the display of a document in the source language and in its translation to a target language. A user is provided with a capability to correct erroneous or questionable words so as to improve the quality of translation.

Abstract: A method of using conversation state information in a conversational interaction system is disclosed. A method of inferring a change of a conversation session during continuous user interaction with an interactive content providing system includes receiving input from the user including linguistic elements intended by the user to identify an item, associating a linguistic element of the input with a first conversation session, and providing a response based on the input. The method also includes receiving additional input from the user and inferring whether or not the additional input from the user is related to the linguistic element associated with the conversation session. If related, the method provides a response based on the additional input and the linguistic element associated with the first conversation session. Otherwise, the method provides a response based on the second input without regard for the linguistic element associated with the first conversation session.

Abstract: Appropriate processing results or appropriate apparatuses can be selected with a control device that selects the most probable speech recognition result by using speech recognition scores received with speech recognition results from two or more speech recognition apparatuses; sends the selected speech recognition result to two or more translation apparatuses respectively; selects the most probable translation result by using translation scores received with translation results from the two or more translation apparatuses; sends the selected translation result to two or more speech synthesis apparatuses respectively; receives a speech synthesis processing result including a speech synthesis result and a speech synthesis score from each of the two or more speech synthesis apparatuses; selects the most probable speech synthesis result by using the scores; and sends the selected speech synthesis result to a second terminal apparatus.

Abstract: The present technology may translate a content of a web page such as content locator (e.g., a uniform resource locator (URL)) from a source language to a target language. The content locator may be associated with a content page. The translation may involve dividing the content locator into segment tokens in a first language, followed by translating, transliterating or not changing a segment token. The processed tokens are then reassembled in a second language. The translation may be provided by a translation module through a content page provided by a network browser.

Abstract: Applications can be localized by localization experts to allow them to be used by a broader customer base. The localization can be done given resource files containing localization resources. A localization resource may contain a programming component and non-programming component. The non-programming component can be sent to a machine localizer. The machine localizer may provide a plurality of localizations corresponding to a plurality of languages based on the non-programming component of the localization resource. A plurality of localized applications can be complied based on the localized non-programming components and the original programming component.

Abstract: A frame represents a concept with a set of roles and a set of linguistic rules. If a linguistic rule is satisfied, by a unit of natural language discourse (UNLD), the frame is invoked and a frame instance produced. A frame instance specifies how the UNLD, with particular values drawn from the UNLD, fulfills the roles of the frame. A frame-based search, of target content, can produce a search result comprised of records and corresponding frame instances. The values of such frame instances can be presented to the user as a role-value oriented search result. Multiple values of a role-value oriented search result, sufficiently similar in meaning, can be merged. Merged values can be represented, in a role-value oriented search result, by a single value. Selection of a value, of a role-value oriented search result, can cause the records, for which the value occurs in the corresponding instance, to be displayed to the user.

Abstract: A system, method and computer program product are provided for activating a cellular phone account utilizing automated speech recognition. In use, information about a user is received over a network utilizing automated speech recognition. Thereafter, a cellular phone account is activated based on the information received utilizing the automated speech recognition.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for machine translation of a source document in an input language to a target document in an output language, comprising generating translation options corresponding to at least portions of each sentence in the input language; and selecting a translation option for the sentence based on statistics associated with the translation options.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method is provided that includes receiving a transmitted combined video and closed caption (CC) signal. The combined signal is separated into a CC signal and a video signal. The CC signal is converted into an original CC text stream. The method also includes translating the original CC text stream from a first language into a second language to from a translated CC text stream. In more specific embodiments, the method includes inserting each translated CC text stream into the video signal. The translated CC text can appear instead of the original CC text when the video signal is displayed.

Abstract: A system and method are described for analyzing a menu. In one embodiment, a mobile device can obtain a digital version of a restaurant menu. A list of food criteria can be stored on the mobile device and tailored to a particular user of the mobile device. The restaurant menu can then be filtered using the stored list of food criteria to display a reduced version of the restaurant menu with items that conflict with the food criteria removed. In another embodiment, the digital version of the menu can be translated. For example, a destination language can be based on a language setting in the mobile device. A source language can either be entered by the user, determined automatically by comparing words in the menu itself against dictionaries in different languages, or by using geographic location of the restaurant.

Abstract: Verifying text translation in a program including obtaining a first program integrated information (PII) file and a second PII file of text in the program. An original page is generated by using the first PII file. Document object model (DOM) tree information of the original page is obtained. For each text unit in the original page: identification information corresponding to a first text unit in the first PII file is extracted; a second text unit is identified in the second PII file using the extracted identification information and a relationship between the identification information and the second text unit; and the first text unit is replaced in the DOM tree with the second text unit. A new page is generated using the text units from the second PII file.

Abstract: A multi-lingual text-to-speech system and method processes a text to be synthesized via an acoustic-prosodic model selection module and an acoustic-prosodic model mergence module, and obtains a phonetic unit transformation table. In an online phase, the acoustic-prosodic model selection module, according to the text and a phonetic unit transcription corresponding to the text, uses at least a set controllable accent weighting parameter to select a transformation combination and find a second and a first acoustic-prosodic models. The acoustic-prosodic model mergence module merges the two acoustic-prosodic models into a merged acoustic-prosodic model, according to the at least a controllable accent weighting parameter, processes all transformations in the transformation combination and generates a merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence. A speech synthesizer and the merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence are further applied to synthesize the text into an L1-accent L2 speech.

Abstract: Example embodiments of the present invention may include a method that provides transcribing spoken utterances occurring during a call and assigning each of the spoken utterances with a corresponding set of first classifications. The method may also include determining a confidence rating associated with each of the spoken utterances and the assigned set of first classifications, and performing at least one of reclassifying the spoken utterances with new classifications based on at least one additional classification operation, and adding the assigned first classifications and the corresponding plurality of spoken utterances to a training data set.

Abstract: A method and computer system for translating sentences between languages from an intermediate language-independent semantic representation is provided. On the basis of comprehensive understanding about languages and semantics, exhaustive linguistic descriptions are used to analyze sentences, to build syntactic structures and language independent semantic structures and representations, and to synthesize one or more sentences in a natural or artificial language. A computer system is also provided to analyze and synthesize various linguistic structures and to perform translation of a wide spectrum of various sentence types. As result, a generalized data structure, such as a semantic structure, is generated from a sentence of an input language and can be transformed into a natural sentence expressing its meaning correctly in an output language.

Abstract: A multi-layered speech recognition apparatus and method, the apparatus includes a client checking whether the client recognizes the speech using a characteristic of speech to be recognized and recognizing the speech or transmitting the characteristic of the speech according to a checked result; and first through N-th servers, wherein the first server checks whether the first server recognizes the speech using the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result, and wherein an n-th (2?n?N) server checks whether the n-th server recognizes the speech using the characteristic of the speech transmitted from an (n?1)-th server, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result.

Abstract: According to example configurations, a translation quality assessment application (e.g., system) receives a set of text derived from a translation of an audio signal. The translation quality assessment application aligns and compares the received set of text to reference text to identify occurrence of speech-to-text translation errors in the set of text. For each of the errors, the translation quality assessment application identifies a type associated with the error and retrieves an appropriate weighted coefficient. For example, the translation quality assessment application produces a respective weighted value for each error based on the weighted coefficients. A magnitude of each of the weighted values varies depending on a type of the error that occurred during the translation. The translation quality assessment application utilizes the weighted values to generate a metric indicating a level of quality of the set of captioned text with respect to the set of reference text.

Abstract: In support of an interactive telephony services system, a presence gateway provides presence information regarding availability of a called party to communicate using an instant communications client.

Abstract: A text processing apparatus is provided with a segment determination unit 36 and a descriptive content determination unit 33. The segment determination unit 36 determines, with respect to a homogeneous segment that is similar to segments constituting a first text which is set as an analysis target (analysis target text) and that is included in another first text, whether the content thereof is included in a second text. The descriptive content determination unit 33 determines whether each segment constituting the analysis target text should be described in a corresponding second text, based on the determination result.

Abstract: Methods, systems and program product are disclosed for determining matching level of a text lookup segment with a plurality of source texts in a translation memory in terms of context. The invention determines exact matches for the lookup segment in the plurality of source texts, and determines, in the case that at least one exact match is determined, that a respective exact match is an in-context exact match for the lookup segment in the case that a context of the lookup segment matches that of the respective exact match. Degree of context matching required can be predetermined, and results prioritized. The invention also includes methods, systems and program products for storing a translation pair of source text and target text in a translation memory including context, and the translation memory so formed. The invention ensures that content is translated the same as previously translated content and reduces translator intervention.

Abstract: Methods and systems for fast translation memory search include, in response to an input query string, identifying a plurality of hypothesis strings stored in a translation memory as candidates to match the query string. One or more candidates are eliminated, using a processor, where string lengths between the candidates and the query string are at least a cutoff value representing a string edit distance. One or more candidates are eliminated where differences in word frequency distributions between the candidates and the query string are at least the cutoff value. One or more candidates are eliminated by employing a dynamic programming matrix where string edit distances between the candidates and the query string are at least the cutoff value. A number of remaining candidates are outputted as matches to the query string.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a system for enhancing user interaction with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) destinations, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising: data encoding a database, the database comprising a list of telephone numbers associated with one or more destinations implementing an IVR; instructions executable by the processor for automatically communicating with at least one user; and instructions executable by the processor to pull at least one menu from the database and display the menu to the at least one user, wherein the menu is associated with a telephone number dialed by the at least one user, and wherein the menu comprises at least one icon.

Abstract: A language translation device includes a network transceiver configured to provide communication between first and second communication terminals, a language recognition unit, and a language translation unit. The language recognition unit is configured to receive a signal representing speech and/or text in a first human language from the first communication terminal and map the received signal to intermediate data. The language translation unit is configured to generate a translated signal representing speech and/or text in a second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the intermediate data and provide the translated signal to the second communication terminal. The speech and/or text represented by the translated signal has a meaning corresponding to that of the speech and/or text represented by the received signal. Related devices and methods of operation are also discussed.

Abstract: A method, a system, and computer readable medium comprising instructions for analyzing data of a speech application are provided. The method comprises defining a set of data collection objects for a call flow in a speech application, collecting data using the set of data collection objects during execution of the speech application, and analyzing the data using a benchmarking and bootstrapping engine, storing the data in a repository, and presenting the data for analysis.

Abstract: A recognition dictionary creation device identifies the language of a reading of an inputted text which is a target to be registered and adds a reading with phonemes in the language identified thereby to the target text to be registered, and also converts the reading of the target text to be registered from the phonemes in the language identified thereby to phonemes in a language to be recognized which is handled in voice recognition to create a recognition dictionary in which the converted reading of the target text to be registered is registered.

Abstract: A text content summary is created from speech content. A focus more signal is issued by a user while receiving the speech content. The focus more signal is associated with a time window, and the time window is associated with a part of the speech content. It is determined whether to use the part of the speech content associated with the time window to generate a text content summary based on a number of the focus more signals that are associated with the time window. The user may express relative significance to different portions of speech content, so as to generate a personal text content summary.

Abstract: A method and a processing device for managing an interactive speech recognition system is provided. Whether a voice input relates to expected input, at least partially, of any one of a group of menus different from a current menu is determined. If the voice input relates to the expected input, at least partially, of any one of the group of menus different from the current menu, skipping to the one of the group of menus is performed. The group of menus is different from the current menu include menus at multiple hierarchical levels.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to applying appropriate pluralization rules to text strings and to generating pluralization rules for multiple different languages. In an embodiment, a computer system identifies a user interface (UI) text string that includes a numerical amount for which an appropriate pluralization form is to be determined. The string is represented by a resource identifier (ID). The computer system receives an indication indicating which language the text string is to be displayed in and determines an appropriate resource ID from a set of pre-generated resource IDs based on the numerical amount and the determined language. The pre-generated resource IDs include various language-specific pluralization forms for localization of the text string. The computer system also returns the localized text string at the determined appropriate resource ID to the UI for display. In this manner, the localized text string is presented with the numerical amount and proper pluralization in the indicated language.

Abstract: A method for rendering text onto moving image content. The method comprises receiving a request to translate dialog associated with moving image content, transmitting an interface, transmitting a time-stamped transcription, and receiving a translation of the dialog.

Abstract: In conventional network-type speech translation systems, devices or models for recognizing or synthesizing speech cannot be changed in accordance with speakers' attributes, and therefore, accuracy is reduced or inappropriate output occurs in each process of speech recognition, translation, and speech synthesis. Accuracy of each processing of speech translation, translation, or speech synthesis is improved and appropriate output is performed in a network-type speech translation system by, based on speaker attributes, appropriately changing the server to perform speech recognition or the speech recognition model, appropriately changing the translation server to perform translation or the translation model, or appropriately changing the speech synthesis server or speech synthesis model.

Abstract: A vehicle communication system is provided and may include at least one communication device that audibly communicates information within the vehicle. A controller may receive a character string from an external device and may determine if the character string represents an emoticon. The controller may translate the character string into a face description if the character string represents an emoticon and may audibly communicate the face description via the at least one communication device.

Abstract: A universal pattern processing system receives input data and produces output patterns that are best associated with said data. The system uses input means receiving and processing input data, a universal pattern decoder means transforming models using the input data and associating output patterns with original models that are changed least during transforming, and output means outputting best associated patterns chosen by a pattern decoder means.

Abstract: Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for creating a bootstrap call router for other languages by using selected N-best translations. Techniques include using N-best translations from a machine translation system so as to increase a possibility that desired keywords in a target language are covered in the machine translation output. A 1-best translation is added to a new text corpus. This is followed by selecting a subset that provides a varied set of translations for a given source transcribed utterance for better translation coverage. Additional translations are added to the new text corpus based on a measure of possible translations having words not yet seen for the selected transcribed utterances, and also based on possible translation having words that are not associated with very many or semantic tags in the new text corpus. Candidate translations can be selected from a window of N-best translations calculated based on machine translation accuracy.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes a teleconferencing system that may use a virtual participant processor to translate language content of the teleconference into each participant's spoken language without additional user inputs. The virtual participant processor may connect to the teleconference as do the other participants. The virtual participant processor may intercept all text or audio data that was previously exchanged between the participants may now be intercepted by the virtual participant processor. Upon obtaining a partial or complete language recognition result or making a language preference determination, the virtual participant processor may call a translation engine appropriate for each of the participants. The virtual participant processor may send the resulting translation to a teleconference management processor. The teleconference management processor may deliver the respective translated text or audio data to the appropriate participant.

Abstract: An architecture is discussed that provides the capability to subselect the most relevant data from an out-domain corpus to use either in isolation or in combination conjunction with in-domain data. The architecture is a domain adaptation for machine translation that selects the most relevant sentences from a larger general-domain corpus of parallel translated sentences. The methods for selecting the data include monolingual cross-entropy measure, monolingual cross-entropy difference, bilingual cross entropy, and bilingual cross-entropy difference. A translation model is trained on both the in-domain data and an out-domain subset, and the models can be interpolated together to boost performance on in-domain translation tasks.

Abstract: A method of processing a call in a voice-command platform includes a step of transferring the call from the voice-command platform to a second voice-command platform. The method continues with the step of transmitting, either directly or indirectly, grammar information from the voice command platform to the second voice-command platform for use by a voice command application executing in the second voice-command platform in processing the call. The grammar information could be logic defining application-level grammar or system-level grammar. Alternatively, the grammar information could be a network address (e.g., URI or URL) where the grammar is stored in a file, e.g., a VXML document. The features of this invention enhance the user experience by preserving and using grammars used initially in the first voice command platform in other, downstream, voice command platforms.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for constructing a verb phrase translation pattern using a bilingual parallel corpus. Each of the apparatus or method recognizes a predicate and an argument using a syntax analysis result and a word alignment result of a source sentence from a plurality of bilingual parallel corpus, extracts a translation pattern candidate and an occurrence frequency using the recognized predicate and argument, and then generates a basic verb phrase translation pattern by verifying the translation pattern candidate, and generalizes the generated basic verb phrase translation pattern to generate a general verb phrase pattern so as to be applied to various language pairs and minimize an error in the verb phrase translation pattern and determine an appropriate generalization level using a co-occurrence frequency of a predicate and an argument of the verb phrase translation pattern and a translation probability of the predicate.

Abstract: A technique for translating a portion of a website includes receiving a language set of a user indicating a primary language of the user is received. A content feed to be displayed to the user is received and parsed to identify a text portion of a user generated content. The original language of the text portion is determined and compared with the one or more languages in the language set. When the original language of the text portion does not match the languages in the language set: (i) the text portion, the original language, and the primary language are provided to a translation engine, (ii) a translated version of the text portion is received from the translation engine, (iii) the translated version of the text portion is inserted into the content feed to obtain a modified content feed, and (iv) the modified content feed is displayed to the user.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for machine translation of a source document in an input language to a target document in an output language, comprising generating translation options corresponding to at least portions of each sentence in the input language; and selecting a translation option for the sentence based on statistics associated with the translation options.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for translating digital content from a source language to a target language. A message is displayed to a user. The message contains digital content to be translated from the source language to the target language, as well as the context of the digital content in the source language and/or a reference to a context in which the digital content occurs. A proposed translation of the digital content into the target language is received from the user. The proposed translation is submitted to a translation server.

Abstract: In an embodiment, a method of providing an on demand translation service is provided. A subscriber may be charged a reduced fee or no fee for use of the on demand translation service in exchange for displaying commercial messages to the subscriber, the commercial messages being selected based on subscriber information. A multimedia signal including information in a source language may be received. The information may be obtained as text in the source language from the multimedia signal. The text may be translated from the source language to a target language. Translated information, based on the translated text, may be transmitted to a processing device for presentation to the subscriber. The received multimedia signal may be sent to a multimedia device for viewing.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for user selectable content linking in internet applications. The usability of downloaded content may be modified for specific users by allowing a user to select the content in which and how their content data is linked. Particular text may be selected, and when content is downloaded from an origin service including the particular text, the text may be automatically linked to a service or database. The service or database is independent of the origin service and may be provided by a third party.

Abstract: Portable, real time voice translation systems, and associated methods of use, are provided. The systems include a translation system for use on a single unit, portable computing device and operable for accessing a multilanguage database, selecting a source language from a plurality of source languages and a destination language from a plurality of destination languages, inputting a source phrase, transmitting the source phrase to a speech recognition module, a translation engine, and a template look-up engine for finding the phrase template associated with the destination phrase from among the multiple languages. The spoken translation is then output in the selected destination language. The translation system has a total time between the input of the source phrase and output of the destination phrase that is no slower than 0.010 seconds, and a communications interface operable for communicating with a second computer system.

Abstract: A language converter and transmitting system includes a processor adapted for converting the first language into a plurality of secondary languages. An audio input is operationally coupled to the processor. An audio output of a media source may be operationally coupled to the audio input. A wireless transmitter is operationally coupled to the processor for transmitting each of the secondary languages. Each of the secondary languages is transmitted on one of a plurality of frequencies. Each of a plurality of receiving devices includes a receiver for receiving signals from the wireless transmitter. A tuner for selecting one of the plurality of frequencies is operationally coupled to the receiver. A sound emitter for emitting an audible sound is operationally coupled to the tuner. The tuner may be used to select one of said plurality of frequencies such that one of the plurality of secondary languages is emitted through the sound emitter.

Abstract: An input signal that includes linguistic content in a first language may be received by a computing device. The linguistic content may include text or speech. Based on an acoustic feature comparison between a plurality of first-language speech sounds and a plurality of second-language speech sounds, the computing device may associate the linguistic content in the first language with one or more phonemes from a second language. The computing device may also determine a phonemic representation of the linguistic content in the first language based on use of the one or more phonemes from the second language. The phonemic representation may be indicative of a pronunciation of the linguistic content in the first language according to speech sounds of the second language.

Abstract: A translation system receives a test pair that includes a source test phrase in a first language and a target test phrase in a second language. The test pair can be evaluated by comparing its components with phrases in primary pairs. The test source phrase can be compared to a primary source phrase that is the phrase most commonly translated by the machine translation system into the test target phrase. The test target phrase can be compared to a primary target phrase that is the phrase into which the target source phrase is most often translated. If one and/or both comparisons are sufficiently dissimilar, the machine translation system can be modified by deleting the test pair, by flagging it for human review, or in other ways.

Abstract: The portable translation apparatus provides a plurality of cases, each with a unique device code. Any case can be in communication with any other case at any time, including multiple cases at once. Directional controls allow a user to push the first directional control, then a language choice followed by a push of a second directional control, followed by a second language choice. This procedure can be repeated for simultaneous communication with many cases at once. Pushing both directional controls simultaneously uses the internal cell phone technology to communicate with the remote data base, which updates the case with any needed updates and also allows cell phone communication with the case. Transceivers in both the case and the earpiece provide for earpiece use, and the case microphone can be used along with or instead of the earpiece. The computer port provides for direct computer communication.