JP2007079978A - Translation system and translation method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a user terminal display a translation result without character garbling even when the user terminal does not have character data related to a language of a translation destination. <P>SOLUTION: In this translation system, a translation server translates original sentence data, and thereafter, generates an individual character image imaged in each character (step S8). The translation result is generated from each of the individual character image (step S9), and is transmitted to a cellphone 100 (step S10). Thereby, even when the cellphone 100 does not have a character code to the language of the translation destination, the individual character image is developed and displayed to display a translation sentence. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for transmitting a translation result in response to a translation request from a user device such as a mobile terminal.

In recent years, with the internationalization of society, a translation system that sends a translation request from a user terminal such as a mobile phone to a translation server on a network and obtains a translation result has been in the spotlight.
This translation system has an advantage that a translation result can be obtained if a user terminal such as a mobile phone owned by the user is used and the user terminal is within the communication area.
However, in order to display the translated document on the display unit of the user terminal, it is necessary to store in advance in the user terminal a character code corresponding to the translated language. Since the user terminal has a limited storage area, the character code that can be stored also has a limit. For this reason, it becomes impossible to store character codes corresponding to a plurality of languages in the user terminal, and even if the translation result is sent from the translation server to the user terminal, the translation result cannot be displayed. is there.

  In order to solve this problem, Patent Document 1 describes a technique related to an e-mail translation processing server. In this technology, when a server translates an e-mail, the original text (or original text and translated text) is converted into general image data, attached to the e-mail as an attached file, and the e-mail is transmitted. Thus, the original sentence and the translated sentence are displayed on the terminal on the user side. If this technique is used, a translated sentence can be displayed even in a user terminal that does not store a character code.

JP 2003-209580 A

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, since the user terminal uses a general-purpose electronic mail system for a personal computer as a communication medium, there is a limit to the data amount of a file that can be attached to one mail. The translation result may not be sent by email. In particular, since the entire document is converted into image data, the amount of data is relatively large, mail transmission time is relatively increased, and communication costs increase.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described prior art, and a translation system capable of displaying a translation result on a user terminal even when the user terminal does not include character data relating to a language to be translated, and The purpose is to provide a translation method.

In order to achieve the above object, a translation system employed by the present invention includes a user device and a translation server connected to the terminal device via a network, and the translation server is connected to the user terminal. Each of the document translated by the translation means, a data transmission / reception means for exchanging data, a translation means for translating the language of the document data received from the user terminal via the data transmission / reception means, into another language, Character image creating means for creating individual character images to be character images respectively corresponding to characters, arrangement information generating means for generating arrangement information indicating the arrangement relation of individual character images created by the character image creating means, The individual character image created by the character image creation means and the placement information created by the placement information creation means are used as the translation result as the user. Translation result transmitting means for transmitting to the terminal, wherein the user device transmits document data to be translated to the translation server, and receives the translation result, and the data transmitting / receiving means. Display means for displaying each individual character image of the translation result received in accordance with the arrangement information.

  By configuring in this way, even a user terminal that does not store a character code corresponding to the translated language can be displayed using the imaged individual character image, and the individual character image is Since they are made independent of each other, the degree of freedom of the display format in the display means can be increased.

  In the translation system, the translation unit includes a conversion unit that recognizes the document data as characters and converts the document data into text data. When the received document data is image data, the conversion unit converts the document data into character data. It is preferable to recognize and convert to text data, and the translation means translates the text data converted by the conversion means as the document data.

  In the translation system, when the document data to be transmitted is image data, the user device includes conversion means for recognizing the document data and converting it to text data, and the translation means is converted by the conversion means. It is preferable that the text data thus translated is translated as the document data.

  When the user device does not include the conversion unit, the translation server includes the conversion unit, whereby the received document data is recognized and converted into text data, and the translation unit is converted by the conversion unit. It is preferable that the text data thus translated is translated as the document data.

  In the translation system, the translation server receives typeface instruction information indicating the typeface of the individual character image from the user terminal, and the character image creating unit generates an individual character image of the typeface corresponding to the typeface instruction information. It is preferable.

  In the translation system, the translation server receives information related to terminal specifications from the user terminal, and the character image creation means applies an individual character image as either a vector image or a raster image based on the information related to the terminal specifications. It is preferable to generate by a method.

  In the translation system, it is preferable that the typeface designation information is information for designating a typeface in units of one character.

  In the translation system, the user terminal includes an operation unit operated by a user, and a modification information generation unit that generates modification information instructing modification of characters according to an operation of the operation unit, and the display unit Preferably, the individual character image is modified and displayed based on the modification information generated by the modification information generating means.

According to the translation system of the present invention, the user terminal receives character information as an individual character image corresponding to the number of characters, so that the user terminal itself can perform various functions even if the character code corresponding to the translated language is not stored. Can display various languages. In addition, the cost can be greatly reduced compared to the communication cost when receiving information from the translation server as an entire document as an image file. Since this translation system can receive characters up to the reception capacity limit on the user terminal side, it is possible to “pour characters” like text code data, and to change the size of characters and character string wrapping settings for each display device. Appropriate screen layout can be configured. There are various effects such as.
Furthermore, since the translation server can change the font of the individual character image created by the instruction of the user terminal, the user uses the user terminal as if the character code corresponding to the translated language is stored. You can get the value you want.

<A. Embodiment>
A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a translation system 1 according to the present embodiment. The system 1 includes a mobile phone 100 serving as a user terminal connected via a network 400, a translation server 200, and a database 300.
The mobile phone 100 is connected to the network 400 via each base station 150 (only one is shown). In this case, the network 400 includes two networks, a wireless communication network and the Internet, but is illustrated as the network 400.
The mobile phone 100 is provided with a keypad 102 and a display unit 103 in its housing 101. In addition to the normal call function and mail function, the mobile phone 100 includes a web function for connecting to the web via the network 400, Furthermore, a function for operating an imaging function by the camera is incorporated. In addition, a basic character code (for example, JIS code) is stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown) of the mobile phone 100, and the stored character code is read from the character code of the display information to display the display unit. Character display is performed at 103.

  The translation server 200 has a function of receiving a translation request from the mobile phone 100, translating the transmitted document data, and transmitting the translation result to the mobile phone 100. The database 300 stores character codes and character image data for various languages.

<A-1. Translation server configuration>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of the translation server 200. The translation server 200 includes a data transmission / reception unit 210, an original text data determination unit 220, an OCR processing unit 230, a translation unit 240, a character image generation unit 250, a translation result generation unit 260, and a control unit 270 that controls them. The control unit 270 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory) (not shown), and has a function of controlling various processing operations.

The data transmission / reception unit 210 exchanges data with an external device (not shown) connected to the network 400 such as the mobile phone 100.
The original text data determination unit 220 determines whether the original text data transmitted from the mobile phone 100 is text data or image data (image data). In the case of text data, a character code string corresponding to the original text character is attached. Therefore, translation may be performed based on this character code string at the time of translation, but in the case of image data, it is converted into text data once. It must be translated later. Therefore, the original text data determination unit 220 determines the original text data.

  When the original text data is image data, the OCR processing unit 230 performs character recognition by performing OCR (Optical Character Reader) processing on the image data, and determines a character code for each character of the original text data.

  The translation unit 240 translates the original text data into a specified language. Although not shown, the translation unit 240 is provided with a dictionary unit corresponding to a number of languages. An intermediate language is formed on the basis of the character code of the original text data converted into text data, and then translated into a designated language. To do. Since this translation technique is not a gist in this case, the description thereof will be omitted.

  The character image generation unit 250 generates a character image for each character with respect to the document data of the translated word. Specifically, based on the character code corresponding to each character of the translated document data, the image data is read from the database 300, and the image data for each character is sequentially read and generated as an individual character image according to the character string of the document data. .

  The translation result generation unit 260 generates a translation result by associating the individual character images read out by the character image generation unit 250 for each arrangement relationship of the character strings. Specifically, the arrangement information such as the name of the translation result and the order of the individual character images is stored with the data sentence of the individual character image at the head. This arrangement information is the order in which characters are arranged in a sentence, line breaks, and the like.

<A-2. Operation of translation system>
Next, the operation of the translation system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.
In this system 1, processing is executed after establishing a connection between the mobile phone 100 and the translation server 200. The establishment of this connection requires authentication and setting in each device, but in this embodiment, the details are omitted.

Since the mobile phone 100 establishes a connection with the translation server 200 based on a predetermined operation by the user, a display for this translation is displayed on the display unit 103. Prompts for operation instructions. The user proceeds with the operation according to the operation instruction.
First, the user inputs original text data to be translated (step S1). At this time, even if the user operates the keypad 102 of the mobile phone 100 and inputs it as text data, or copies the contents of the mail and inputs it as text data, the imaging function is activated and input as image data. May be.
Next, in the mobile phone 100, the input of instruction information is received by the user operating the keypad 102 (step S2). This instruction information is an instruction language or the like as a target language into which the original text is translated.
Furthermore, the mobile phone 100 transmits the original text data and the instruction information to the translation server 200 (step S3).

The control unit 270 of the translation server 200 receives the original text data from the mobile phone 100 via the data transmission / reception unit 210 (step S4), and the translation server 200 starts its operation.
The control unit 270 determines whether or not the original text data is image data in the original text data determination section 220 (step S5). When the original text data is image data (step S5; YES), the control section 270 transfers the original text data to the OCR processing section 230, and performs character recognition in the OCR processing section 230 (step S6). By this process, the original text data composed of image data is converted into original text data converted into text data. That is, it changes to the original text data by the character code.

  The control unit 270 transfers the original text data that was originally text data (step S5; NO) or the original text data converted into text data by the OCR processing unit 230 to the translation unit 240 and translates it into the instruction language included in the instruction information. (Step S7). This translation result becomes text data.

  The control unit 270 transfers the translation result to the character image generation unit 250, and the character image generation unit 250 generates a character image for each character with respect to the document data translated into the instruction language (step S8). Based on the result character code from the translation unit 240, the image data is read from the database 300, and the image data for each character is sequentially read and generated as an individual character image in accordance with the character string of the document data.

The control unit 270 transfers each individual character image from the character image generation unit 250 to the translation result generation unit 260, and the translation result generation unit 260 generates a translation result (step S9).
In this case, the translation result generation unit 260 generates a translation result by associating each individual character image read by the character image generation unit 250 for each arrangement relationship of the character strings. When an individual character image is considered as packet data, the name of the translation result, the arrangement information such as the order of the individual character image are stored in the header, and the image data is stored in the payload.
Next, the control unit 270 transmits the translation result to the mobile phone 100 via the data transmission / reception unit 210 (step S10). At this time, the translation result is transmitted in a packet format.

The mobile phone 100 receives the translation result (step S11). At this time, by transmitting the translation result in a packet format, the translation result is appropriately generated from the order of the name written in the header and the individual character image. The translation result can be received within the range of the storage capacity of the mobile phone 100.
Next, the mobile phone 100 receives an input of a display instruction from the user (step S12). For example, a character enlargement / reduction display instruction is input by operating the keypad 102. Based on the input display instruction, the character image of the translation result is decorated (change in character size) (step S13), and the translation result is displayed on the display unit 103 (step S14).

Here, a specific example of the translation system 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.
The original text X requested to be translated from the mobile phone 100 to the translation server 200 is “Today is a good weather. I want to go for a walk”, and the explanation is given by taking the case where the user requests translation into Chinese as an example. To do. The translation unit 240 obtains the translated sentence X1. FIG. 5 shows a state when the translated sentence X1 is printed on a sheet. However, in the displayed document, each character is not displayed as text data, but image data that is imaged independently for each character is arranged and displayed as a sentence. This translated sentence X1 consists of a combination of 16 character images.

  Next, FIGS. 6A and 6B show a state in which the translated sentence X1 is displayed on the display unit 103 of the mobile phone 100. FIG. It is also possible to change the display unit by changing the size of the character according to the display instruction in step S12.

  Thus, in this embodiment, an individual character image is generated in the character string of the translated document data, and a translation result is generated by a combination of the individual character images. Thereby, even if it is the mobile phone 100 which has not memorize | stored the character code with respect to the language of a translation result, a translation result can be correctly displayed on this display part 103. FIG.

  Further, since the translation result is an independent individual character image for each character, transmission from the translation server 200 to the mobile phone 100 can be performed for each individual character image. As a result, it is possible to transmit data up to the limit of the reception capacity of the mobile phone 100 without being restricted by the communication capacity as compared with the case where the entire document is converted into image data and transmitted by e-mail.

In addition, since it is possible to sequentially insert characters into the display unit 103, a layout configuration such as wrapping in the display unit 103 can be automatically performed.
Furthermore, even if the original text data is image data obtained from imaging by the mobile phone 100 or the like, the text data is converted into text data by the processing in steps S5 and S6, and therefore, for example, the original text data is processed with respect to a document that the user has seen around It is possible to easily respond to the supply of wanting to know the translated text immediately, and the usability can be improved.

<B. Modification>
As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to each embodiment mentioned above, A various aspect is possible.
In the above embodiment, the connection between the mobile phone 100 and the translation server 200 is established prior to the translation process. However, it may be performed immediately before the transmission of the original text data in step S3.

  Also, if the type information indicating the typeface of the character displayed on the display unit 103 of the mobile phone 100 is included in advance in the instruction information in step S2, it is indicated by the typeface indication information when generating the individual character image in step S8. If the typeface image is generated, the display on the display unit 103 can be displayed in a typeface corresponding to the user's request. In addition, because it is possible to specify the typeface for each character, for example, if a word in the original text is set to a typeface that is different from other typefaces in the translation result, focus on the word you want to know in the translation result. Can be made.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the translation result is transmitted as an individual character image corresponding to one character as one packet is exemplified. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and an individual character image that can be accommodated within the capacity of one packet. Of course, it is also possible to transmit in a batch.

  In the embodiment, the user terminal is described as the mobile phone 100. However, the user terminal may be used for a mobile computer, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), or the like.

  In the above embodiment, only one mobile phone 100 and one translation server 200 are shown in FIG. 1, but the translation system 1 may include a plurality of mobile phones 100 as a matter of course.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the translation system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the translation server used for invention embodiment. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the translation system according to the embodiment of the invention. It is a figure which shows the specific example by embodiment. It is a figure which shows the specific example by embodiment with FIG. It is a figure which shows the specific example by embodiment with FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Translation system, 100 ... Mobile phone (user terminal), 200 ... Translation server, 210 ... Data transmission / reception part, 220 ... Original text data determination part, 230 ... OCR processing part, 240 ... Translation part, 250 ... Character image generation part, 270 ... control unit, 300 ... database, 400 ... network.

Claims (8)

A user device and a translation server connected to the terminal device via a network;
The translation server is
Data transmission / reception means for exchanging data with the user terminal;
Translation means for translating the language of the document data received from the user terminal via the data transmission / reception means to another language;
A character image creating means for creating individual character images to be character images corresponding to the respective characters of the document translated by the translation means;
Arrangement information generating means for generating arrangement information indicating the arrangement relationship of the individual character images created by the character image creating means;
A translation result transmission unit that transmits the individual character image created by the character image creation unit and the arrangement information generated by the arrangement information generation unit to the user terminal as a translation result;
The user equipment is
A data transmission / reception means for transmitting the document data to be translated to the translation server and receiving the translation result;
A translation system comprising: display means for displaying each individual character image of the translation result received by the data transmission / reception means according to the arrangement information. The translation system according to claim 1,
The translating means comprises conversion means for recognizing the text data and converting it into text data,
When the received document data is image data, the conversion means recognizes the document data as characters and converts it into text data, and the translation means translates the text data converted by the conversion means as the document data. A translation system characterized by The translation system according to claim 1,
The user device comprises conversion means for recognizing the document data and converting it into text data. When the document data to be transmitted is image data, the conversion means recognizes the document data as text data. Converted,
The translation system, wherein the translation means translates the text data converted by the conversion means as the document data. The translation system according to claim 1,
The translation server receives typeface instruction information indicating the typeface of the individual character image from the user terminal, and the character image creating means generates an individual character image of the typeface corresponding to the typeface instruction information. Translation system. The translation system according to claim 4, wherein
The translation system characterized in that the typeface designation information is information that designates a typeface in units of one character. The translation system according to claim 1,
The user terminal includes operating means operated by a user;
Modification information generating means for generating modification information instructing character modification according to the operation of the operation means,
The translation system characterized in that the display unit modifies and displays the individual character image based on the modification information generated by the modification information generation unit. The translation system according to claim 1,
The translation server receives information on terminal specifications from the user terminal, and the character image creation means creates an image image as a vector image or a raster image based on the information on the terminal specifications. Translation system. A translation method comprising a user device and a translation server connected to the terminal device via a network,
A data transmission step in which the user terminal transmits document data to be translated to the translation server;
A data receiving step in which the translation server receives the document data transmitted from the user terminal;
A translation step of translating the language of the document data received in the data reception step into another language;
A character image creating step for creating individual character images to be character images corresponding to the respective characters of the document translated by the translation step;
An arrangement information generation step for generating arrangement information indicating an arrangement relationship of the individual character images created by the character image creation step;
A translation result transmission step of transmitting the individual character image created in the character image creation step and the arrangement information generated in the arrangement information generation step to the user terminal as a translation result;
A data receiving step in which the user device receives the translation result;
And a display step of displaying each individual character image of the translation result received in the data receiving step according to the arrangement information.

Images