On-demand language translation for television programs

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9374612-B2
Application number	US-201314062067-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2013
Priority date	Apr 14, 2006
Publication date	Jun 21, 2016
Grant date	Jun 21, 2016

Abstract

A method, a system and a machine-readable medium are provided for an on demand translation service. A translation module including at least one language pair module for translating a source language to a target language may be made available for use by a subscriber. The subscriber may be charged a fee for use of the requested on demand translation service or may be provided use of the on demand translation service for free in exchange for displaying commercial messages to the subscriber. A video signal may be received including information in the source language, which may be obtained as text from the video signal and may be translated from the source language to the target language by use of the translation module. Translated information, based on the translated text, may be added into the received video signal.

First claim

We claim as our invention:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a request from a subscriber to translate an electromagnetic signal from a source language to a target language, wherein the electromagnetic signal comprises a video portion, audio data and text information in the source language, wherein the text information is extracted by performing speech recognition on the video portion of the electromagnetic signal;
charging the subscriber a fee for a translation capability during a paid-for period, after which the translation capability expires;
generating a translated electromagnetic signal comprising translated audio data in the target language based on the audio data in the source language and a translated text in the target language based on the text information in the source language during the paid-for period, wherein generating the translated electromagnetic signal further comprises; and
embedding the translated audio data and the translated text in the video portion of the translated electromagnetic signal.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fee is based on an amount of time an on-demand translation service performing the receiving, the charging, and the generating is to be made available to the subscriber.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fee is based on a pair of the source language and the target language.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a set-top box generates the translated text, and wherein the set-top box receives the electromagnetic signal and outputs the translated audio data embedded with the translated text.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
translating of the text information from the source language to the target language is performed in a device configured to (1) receive the electromagnetic signal comprising the audio data and the text information in the source language and (2) to output the translated electromagnetic signal with the translated audio data and the translated text in the target language.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing a plurality of electromagnetic signals comprising a plurality of audio data and a plurality of text information in the source language, wherein:
generating of the translated signal further comprises:
introducing a delay between receiving the plurality of electromagnetic signals and delivering one of the plurality of electromagnetic signals by looking ahead to one of the plurality of electromagnetic signals received after the audio data currently being processed.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
generating the translated electromagnetic signal is performed in a processing device remotely located from a display device, wherein the display device is configured to receive the translated electromagnetic signal via a network.

8. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a request from a subscriber to translate an electromagnetic signal from a source language to a target language, wherein the electromagnetic signal comprises a video portion, audio data and text information in the source language, wherein the text information is extracted by performing speech recognition on the video portion of the electromagnetic signal;
charging the subscriber a fee for translation capability during a paid-for period, after which the translation capability expires;
generating a translated electromagnetic signal comprising translated audio data in the target language based on the audio data in the source language and a translated text in the target language based on the text information in the source language during the paid-for period, wherein generating the translated electromagnetic signal further comprises; and
embedding the translated audio data and the translated text in the video portion of the translated electromagnetic signal.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the electromagnetic signal includes an audio portion.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the text information is extracted by performing speech recognition on the audio portion of the electromagnetic signal.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein generating the translated electromagnetic signal further comprises:
embedding the translated audio data and the translated text in the audio portion of the translated electromagnetic signal.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the fee is based on an amount of time an on-demand translation service performing the receiving, the charging, and the generating is to be made available to the subscriber.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the fee is based on a pair of the source language and the target language.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein a set-top box generates the translated text, and wherein the set-top box receives the electromagnetic signal and outputs the translated audio data embedded with the translated text.

15. The system of claim 8 , wherein:
translating of the text information from the source language to the target language is performed in one of a laptop computer, a notebook computer and a desktop computer configured to (1) receive the electromagnetic signal comprising the audio data and the text information in the source language and (2) to output the translated electromagnetic signal with the translated audio data and the translated text in the target language.

16. The system of claim 8 , further comprising:
storing a plurality of electromagnetic signals comprising a plurality of audio data and a plurality of text information in the source language, wherein:
generating the translated electromagnetic signal further comprises:
introducing a delay between receiving the plurality of electromagnetic signals and delivering one of the plurality of electromagnetic signals by looking ahead to one of the plurality of electromagnetic signals received after the audio data currently being processed.

17. A computer-readable storage device storing instructions for controlling a computing device to process a request for resources within a compute environment, the instructions, when extracted by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a request from a subscriber to translate an electromagnetic signal from a source language to a target language, wherein the electromagnetic signal comprises a video portion, audio data and text information in the source language, wherein the text information is extracted by performing speech recognition on the video portion of the electromagnetic signal;
charging the subscriber a fee for translation capability during a paid-for period, after which the translation capability expires; and
generating a translated electromagnetic signal comprising translated audio data in the target language based on the audio data in the source language and a translated text in the target language based on the text information in the source language during the paid-for period, wherein generating the translated electromagnetic signal further comprises;
embedding the translated audio data and the translated text in the video portion of the translated electromagnetic signal.

Assignees

• At & T Ip Ii Lp

Inventors

• Bangalore Srinivas
• Gibbon David Crawford
• Gilbert Mazin
• Haffner Patrick Guy
• Liu Zhu
• Shahraray Behzad

Classifications

• H04N21/8193

  dedicated tools, e.g. video decoder software or IPMP tool · CPC title

• H04N21/440236

  by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text · CPC title

• H04N7/17336 Primary

  Handling of requests in head-ends · CPC title

• H04N21/4355 Primary

  involving reformatting operations of additional data, e.g. HTML pages on a television screen (optimising the visualization of content for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/9577; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/066; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764) · CPC title

• H04N7/0885

  for the transmission of subtitles · CPC title