Techniques for providing visual translation cards including contextually relevant definitions and examples

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9852131-B2
Application number	US-201514714439-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 18, 2015
Priority date	May 18, 2015
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

Computer-implemented techniques can include receiving a selected word in a source language, obtaining one or more parts of speech for the selected word, and for each of the one or more parts-of-speech, obtaining candidate translations of the selected word to a different target language, each candidate translation corresponding to a particular semantic meaning of the selected word. The techniques can include for each semantic meaning of the selected word: obtaining an image corresponding to the semantic meaning of the selected word, and compiling translation information including (i) the semantic meaning, (ii) a corresponding part-of-speech, (iii) the image, and (iv) at least one corresponding candidate translation. The techniques can also include outputting the translation information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at a server having one or more processors and from a computing device via a network, a selected word in a source language, the computing device being associated with a user;
obtaining, by the server, parts-of-speech for the selected word;
for each of the parts-of-speech for the selected word:
(i) obtaining, by the server, candidate translations of the selected word to a different target language, each candidate translation corresponding to a particular semantic meaning of a plurality of semantic meanings of the selected word; and
(ii) for each particular semantic meaning of the selected word:
(a) obtaining, by the server, an image corresponding to the particular semantic meaning of the selected word by utilizing a machine-trained database of images associated with various semantic meanings,
(b) obtaining an example sentence in the source language that includes a form of the selected word and is descriptive of a context of the corresponding image,
(c) compiling, by the server, translation information including (i) the particular semantic meaning, (ii) a corresponding part-of-speech, (iii) the image, (iv) the example sentence, and (v) at least one corresponding candidate translation, and
(d) generating, by the server, a translation card or an instruction to generate the translation card, the translation card comprising the translation information; and

outputting, by the server and to the computing device via the network, the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions, wherein receipt of the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions causes the computing device to:
render at least one of a first set of the plurality of translation cards on a display of the computing device, the first set of the plurality of translation cards including at least one translation card for a first part-of-speech of the parts-of-speech, each translation card of the first set of the plurality of translation cards corresponding to a different semantic meaning of the selected word; and
render a first selectable icon on the display, the first selectable icon being configured to, upon its selection, render at least one of a different second set of the plurality of translation cards on the display, the second set of the plurality of translation cards including at least one translation card for a second part-of-speech of the parts-of-speech.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the selected word is a single word selected by a user from a document in the source language.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising for each semantic meaning of the selected word, obtaining a relative frequency of occurrence of the semantic meaning, wherein the translation information includes a relative frequency indicator indicative of the relative frequency of occurrence.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein receipt of the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions causes the computing device to concurrently render two or more of the first set of the plurality of translation cards on the display.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein receipt of the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions further causes the computing device to:
render a second selectable icon on the display, the second selectable icon being configured to, upon its selection, render another one of the first set of the plurality of translation cards on the display.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the other one of the first set of the plurality of translation cards corresponds to a different semantic meaning of the selected word.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the other one of the first set of the plurality of translation cards corresponds to a different semantic sub-meaning of a particular semantic meaning of the translation card that was initially rendered.

8. A computing system having one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a computing device via a network, a selected word in a source language, the computing device being associated with a user;
obtaining parts-of-speech for the selected word;
for each of the parts-of-speech of the selected word:
(i) obtaining candidate translations of the selected word to a different target language, each candidate translation corresponding to a particular semantic meaning of a plurality of semantic meanings of the selected word; and
(ii) for each particular semantic meaning of the selected word:
(a) obtaining an image corresponding to the particular semantic meaning of the selected word by utilizing a machine-trained database of images associated with various semantic meanings,
(b) obtaining an example sentence in the source language that includes a form of the selected word and is descriptive of a context of the corresponding image,
(c) compiling translation information including (i) the semantic meaning, (ii) a corresponding part-of-speech, (iii) the image, (iv) the example sentence, and (v) at least one corresponding candidate translation, and
(d) generating a translation card or an instruction to generate the translation card, the translation card comprising the translation information; and

outputting, to the computing device via the network, the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions, wherein receipt of the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions causes the computing device to:
render at least one of a first set of the plurality of the translation cards on a display of the computing device, the first set of the plurality of translation cards including at least one translation card for a first part-of-speech of the parts-of-speech, each translation card of the first set of the plurality of translation cards corresponding to a different semantic meaning of the selected word, and
render a first selectable icon on the display, the first selectable icon being configured to, upon its selection, render at least one of a different second set of the plurality of translation cards on the display, the second set of the plurality of translation cards including at least one translation card for a second part-of-speech of the parts-of-speech.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the selected word is a single word selected by a user from a document in the source language.

10. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise for each semantic meaning of the selected word, obtaining a relative frequency of occurrence of the semantic meaning, wherein the translation information includes a relative frequency indicator indicative of the relative frequency of occurrence.

11. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein receipt of the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions causes the computing device to concurrently render two or more of the first set of the plurality of translation cards on the display.

12. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein receipt of the plurality of translation cards or the plurality of instructions further causes the computing device to:
render a second selectable icon on the display, the second selectable icon being configured to, upon its selection, render another one of the first set of the plurality of translation cards on the display.

13. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the other one of the first set of the plurality of translation cards corresponds to a different semantic meaning of the selected word.

Assignees

• Google Inc
• Google Llc

Inventors

• Cuthbert Alexander Jay
• Turovsky Barak

Classifications

• 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

• G06F40/40

  Processing or translation of natural language (natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30) · CPC title

• G06F40/242 Primary

  Dictionaries · CPC title

• G06F16/50

  of still image data · CPC title

• G06F17/30244

  Physics · mapped topic