Translation system information extraction

Abstract

A speech translation system and methods are disclosed 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, 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 information extraction based on keywords in the received or translated speech.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 13 / 008,346, filed on Jan. 18, 2011, allowed, which is a continuation in part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 689,042 filed on Jan.18, 2010; which is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 424,311 filed on Apr. 15, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,204,739, issued Jun. 19, 2012, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 045,079 filed on Apr. 15, 2008; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 092,581 filed on Aug. 28, 2008; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 093,898 filed on Sep. 3, 2008, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention is directed generally to speech-to-speech translation systems for cross-lingual communication and, more particularly, to a method and system for field maintenance ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The speech translation system described in this patent has been enhanced by adding various additional functionalities. These modules provide the user with the ability to add phrases, store favorites, automatically identify language, and create and utilize language drills. The system also allows for changing or adapting the language mode based on the user's needs or the current environment. Additionally, the system can connect to or integrate with external devices for speech translation, provide continuous translation of incoming audio, and extract information for targeted advertising or hotel information. These modules can be used alone or in combination with each other to provide a more comprehensive and effective speech translation system.

Problems solved by technology

They are limited, however, in that they operate with a limited vocabulary which is defined by the developers of the system in advance, and is determined by the application domain, and the location where it is envisioned the system will be used.

In field situations, however, actual words and language usage deviate from the anticipated scenario of the laboratory.

The user may attempt a paraphrase, but if a critical word or concept (such as a person or a city name) cannot be entered or communicated, the absence of the word or expression may lead to communication break-down.

Despite the need for user modifiable speech-to-speech translation systems, an actual solution has so far not been proposed.

While adding a word to the system may seem to be easy, making such modifications proves to be extraordinarily difficult.

Such modifications require expertise and experience with the components of a speech translation system, and as a result, to the inventor's understanding, such modifications have so far been done only in the laboratory by experts, requiring human expertise, time and cost.

Finally, and most importantly, even if a name or word can be translated properly to the output languages by user intervention, without learning it, the system would fail again when the user speaks the same word the next time around.

Unfortunately, learning a new word cannot be addressed just by simply typing in a new word in a word list, but it requires changes at about 20 different points and at all levels of a speech translation system.

For actual field use, however, it is unacceptable to require every modification to be done at the lab, since it takes too much time, effort and cost.

As such, it is impractical to send speech translation systems back to the developer every time errors occur, vocabulary items are missing.

Similarly, field situations dictate, that a user must be able to deal with errors quickly and effectively, and that effective communication is supported through the device, however, imperfect its performance.

Errors are problematic only, if they cannot be aborted quickly, corrected quickly and system performance improve (learn) from the correction.

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