Language converter with enhanced search capability
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsYen-Fu Chen, John Dunsmoir, Hari Shankar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A weighted search program is disclosed. The weighted search program may be integrated into a translation program, or the weighted search program may be used independently with an available search engine. When integrated with the translation program, setting and weighting may be combined in a single search. In one embodiment, the weighting would be used in conjunction with a Pin Yin translation program so that a user could set some terms, and allocate a search weight to the remaining terms. The invention may be applied independently in Internet searching so that a user can apply weights to multiple elements of a search term.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a computer connected to the Internet;
- a translation program residing in a memory of the computer;
- and
- a weighted search program residing in the memory of the computer;
- wherein the translation program converts hybrid and unaccented Pin Yin words to Simplified Chinese characters, Traditional Chinese characters, and accented Pin Yin words;
- and
- wherein the weighted search program enables a user to select a plurality of characters to be searched and apply a weight to each of the plurality of characters to be searched, so that a search is performed in accordance with the weight applied to each of the plurality of characters.
A method comprising:
- using a web based computer program, entering a plurality of search terms in a web page;
- and
- using a weighted search program adapted for integration with the web based computer program, and applying a weight to each of the plurality of search terms, so that a search is performed in accordance with the weight applied to each of the plurality of characters.
A computer program product comprising:
- means for causing a computer connected to the Internet, responsive to a user input at a web page, to apply a weight to each of a plurality of search terms in the user input, so that a search is performed over the Internet and in accordance with the weight applied to each of the plurality of characters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.