Mobile device having human language translation capability with positional feedback

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9535906-B2
Application number	US-201514742491-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 17, 2015
Priority date	Jul 31, 2008
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A mobile electronic device has a touch sensitive screen and an accelerometer. A translator is to translate a word or phrase that is in a first human language and that is entered via a first virtual keyboard displayed on the touch sensitive screen, into a second human language. A translator is to cause the touch sensitive screen to display the translated word or phrase and a second virtual keyboard having characters in the second human language, in response to the accelerometer detecting a change in the physical orientation of the device or movement of the device. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A mobile electronic device comprising:
a touch sensitive screen;
a detection component for detecting a change in physical orientation of the mobile electronic device; and
a translator application operable in multiple physical orientations of the mobile electronic device, the translator application translating between natural languages and the translator application triggered by detecting a change in the physical orientation of the mobile electronic device,
wherein in response to the detection component detecting a change in the physical orientation of the mobile electronic device from a first orientation to a second orientation, the translator application:
causing a translation of a word or phrase from a first language entered via a first virtual keyboard, having characters or symbols from the first language, on the touch sensitive screen into a second language to obtain a first translation, and
causing a display of the first translation and a second virtual keyboard with characters or symbols from the second language on the touch sensitive screen,

wherein in response to the detection component detecting a change in the physical orientation of the mobile electronic device from the second orientation back to the first orientation, the translator application:
causing a translation of a word or phrase entered via the second virtual keyboard from the second language on the touch sensitive screen into the first language to obtain a second translation, and
causing a display of the second translation and the first virtual keyboard,
wherein the first language is a default language or is selected by a first user, and
wherein the second language is selected by the first user, selected by a second user, or determined by the mobile electronic device.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the second virtual keyboard replaces the first virtual keyboard.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the touch sensitive screen is rectangular.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the translator application is operable to cause the touch sensitive screen to display the first translation and the second virtual keyboard when the mobile electronic device is rotated from a vertical orientation to a horizontal orientation,
wherein the touch sensitive screen is operable to display right side up the word or phrase in the first language in a portrait view while the mobile electronic device is in the vertical orientation, and is operable to display right side up the first translation in a landscape view when the mobile electronic device is in the horizontal orientation.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile electronic device being in the first orientation is rotated by about ninety degrees in the plane of the touch sensitive screen to obtain the second orientation, and
wherein the touch sensitive screen is to display right side up the word or phrase in the first language when the mobile electronic device is in the first orientation, and to display right side up the word or phrase in the second language when the mobile electronic device is in the second orientation.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile electronic device in the first orientation is rotated by about one hundred and eighty degrees in the plane of the touch sensitive screen to obtain the second orientation, and
wherein the touch sensitive screen is operable to display right side up the word or phrase in the first language while the mobile electronic device is in the first orientation, and operable to display right side up the first translation when the mobile electronic device is in the second orientation.

7. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a location detector to determine a geographic location of the mobile electronic device, wherein the translator application causes the touch sensitive screen to display a graphic that prompts a user of the mobile electronic device to select any one of a plurality of languages to which the entered word or phrase of the first language can be translated by the translator, the plurality of languages being offered by the translator based on the determined geographic location of the mobile electronic device.

8. The device of claim 7 , wherein the translator application causes the graphic to be displayed when the detection component detects the change in the physical orientation of the mobile electronic device from the first orientation to the second orientation.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile electronic device is further operable to prevent access to other applications once the translator application has been launched until a pass-code is received from a user.

10. A mobile electronic device comprising:
a touch sensitive screen;
a detection component for detecting a change in physical orientation of the mobile electronic device; and
a translator application capable of translating a word or phrase from a first language entered via a first virtual keyboard on the touch sensitive screen into a second language,
wherein in response to the detection component detecting a change in the physical orientation of the mobile electronic device from a first orientation to a second orientation, the translator application:
causing a translation of a word or phrase from a first language entered via the first virtual keyboard into a second language to obtain a first translation, and
causing a display of the first translation in the second language and a second virtual keyboard having characters or symbols from the second language on the touch sensitive screen,
wherein in response to the detection component detecting a change in the physical orientation of the mobile electronic device from the second orientation back to the first orientation, the translator application:
causing a translation of a word or phrase entered via the second virtual keyboard from the second language on the touch sensitive screen into the first language to obtain a second translation, and
causing a display of the second translation and the first virtual keyboard,
wherein the first language is a default language or is selected by the first user, and
wherein the second language is selected by a first user, selected by a second user, or determined by the mobile electronic device.

11. The device of claim 10 , wherein the second virtual keyboard replaces the first virtual keyboard.

12. The device of claim 10 , wherein the touch sensitive screen is rectangular.

13. The device of claim 12 , wherein the translator application is operable to cause the touch sensitive screen to display the first translation and the second virtual keyboard when the mobile electronic device is rotated from a vertical orientation to a horizontal orientation,
wherein the touch sensitive screen is operable to display right side up the word or phrase in the first language in a portrait view while the mobile electronic device is in the vertical orientation, and is operable to display right side up the first translation in a landscape view when the mobile electronic device is in the horizontal orientation.

14. The device of claim 10 , wherein the mobile electronic device being in the first orientation is rotated by about ninety degrees in the plane of the touch sensitive screen to obtain the second orientation, and
wherein the touch sensitive screen is to display right side up the word or phrase in the first language when the mobile electronic device is in the first orientation, and to display right side up the word or phrase in the second language when the mobile electronic device is in the second orientation.

15. The device of claim 10 , wherein th

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Lee Michael M
• Gregg Justin
• Seguin Chad G

Classifications

• G06F1/1626 Primary

  with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs] · CPC title

• G06F40/58 Primary

  Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation · CPC title

• G06F1/1643

  the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads (details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615) · CPC title

• G06F3/0489

  using dedicated keyboard keys or combinations thereof · CPC title

• G06F3/04886

  by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus · CPC title