US 9,542,389 B2Granted

Language translation in an environment associated with a virtual application

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsDimitri Kanevsky, Clifford Alan Pickover, Bhuvana Ramabhadran, Irina Rish

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Abstract

Methods and apparatus for language translation in a computing environment associated with a virtual application are presented. For example, a method for providing language translation includes determining languages of a user and a correspondent; determining one or more sequences of translators; determining a selected sequence of selected translators from the one or more sequences of the translators; requesting a change in virtual locations, within the computing environment associated with the virtual application, of one or more selected translator virtual representations of the selected translators to a virtual meeting location within the computing environment associated with the virtual application; and changing virtual locations of the one or more selected translator virtual representations to the virtual meeting location. One or more of determining languages, determining one or more sequences, determining a selected sequence, requesting a change in virtual locations, and changing virtual locations occur on a processor device.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

enabling a user and a correspondent to communicate at a virtual meeting location within a computing environment associated with a virtual application;
receiving a request by the user for language translation services in the computing environment associated with the virtual application;
in response to said request for language translation services;
(i) determining a language of the user and a language of the correspondent;
(ii) determining a translator sequence, which comprises a sequence of one or more translators configured to provide translation between the languages of the user and the correspondent;
and (iii) rendering virtual representations of the one or more translators of the determined translator sequence, wherein the virtual representations of the one or more translators comprise avatars;
receiving a request by the user for changing virtual locations of one or more of the virtual representations of the translators of the determined sequence to the virtual meeting location within the computing environment;
and
in response to said request for changing virtual locations, changing the virtual locations of the one or more virtual representations of the one or more translators of the determined translator sequence to the virtual meeting location, wherein changing the virtual locations comprises teleporting one or more of the avatars to the virtual meeting location;
wherein determining said translator sequence comprises:
obtaining one or more user-specified constraints from the user;
determining a figure of merit measure for each of a plurality of different translator sequences, wherein the figure of merit measure is determined as a function of the one or more user-specified constraints, wherein the function comprises one or more weights related to the one or more user-specified constraints indicating a relative importance of the user-specified constraints specified in the function for determining the figure of merit measure;
and
selecting at least one of the plurality of translator sequences determined to have a greatest figure of merit measure;
wherein the method is implemented by executing program code by a processor device.

12 more elements

Apparatus comprising:

a memory;
and
a processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
enable a user and a correspondent to communicate at a virtual meeting location within a computing environment associated with a virtual application;
receive a request by the user for language translation services in the computing environment associated with the virtual application;
in response to said request for language translation services;
(i) determine a language of the user and a language of the correspondent;
(ii) determine a translator sequence, which comprises a sequence of one or more translators configured to provide translation between the languages of the user and the correspondent;
and (iii) render virtual representations of the one or more translators of the determined translator sequence, wherein the virtual representations of the one or more translators comprise avatars;
receive a request by the user for changing virtual locations of one or more of the virtual representations of the translators of the determined translator sequence to the virtual meeting location within the computing environment;
and
in response to said request for changing virtual locations, change the virtual locations of the one or more virtual representations of the one or more translators of the determined translator sequence to the virtual meeting location, wherein changing the virtual locations comprises teleporting one or more of the avatars to the virtual meeting location;
wherein in determining said translator sequence, the processor is configured to:
obtain one or more user-specified constraints from the user;
determine a figure of merit measure for each of a plurality of different translator sequences, wherein the figure of merit measure is determined as a function of the one or more user-specified constraints, wherein the function comprises one or more weights related to the one or more user-specified constraints indicating a relative importance of the user-specified constraints specified in the function for determining the figure of merit measure;
and
select at least one of the plurality of translator sequences determined to have a greatest figure of merit measure.

14 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly embodying computer readable program code which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement a method comprising:

enabling a user and a correspondent to communicate at a virtual meeting location within a computing environment associated with a virtual application;
receiving a request by the user for language translation services in the computing environment associated with the virtual application;
in response to said request for language translation services;
(i) determining a language of the user and a language of the correspondent;
(ii) determining a translator sequence, which comprises a sequence of one or more translators configured to provide translation between the languages of the user and the correspondent;
and (iii) rendering virtual representations of the one or more translators of the determined translator sequence, wherein the virtual representations of the one or more translators comprise avatars;
receiving a request by the user for changing virtual locations of one or more of the virtual representations of the translators of the determined sequence to the virtual meeting location within the computing environment;
and
in response to said request for changing virtual locations, changing the virtual locations of the one or more virtual representations of the one or more translators of the determined translator sequence to the virtual meeting location, wherein changing the virtual locations comprises teleporting one or more of the avatars to the virtual meeting location;
wherein determining said translator sequence comprises:
obtaining one or more user-specified constraints from the user;
determining a figure of merit measure for each of a plurality of different translator sequences, wherein the figure of merit measure is determined as a function of the one or more user-specified constraints, wherein the function comprises one or more weights related to the one or more user-specified constraints indicating a relative importance of the user-specified constraints specified in the function for determining the figure of merit measure;
and
selecting at least one of the plurality of translator sequences determined to have a greatest figure of merit measure.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/063,470Filed 25 Oct 2013 · continuation
Priority: 30 Sep 2009
Published: US 2014/0052435 A120 Feb 2014
Granted: 10 Jan 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

G06F 40/58
Processing or translation of natural language: use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for…
G06Q 20/102
Specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems: bill distribution or payments
G06F
Computing and data processing
G06Q
Information and communication technology [ict] specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial

Family

Application12/570,665Parent of this continuation · filed 30 Sep 2009
US 2014/0052435 A1Pre-grant publication · published 20 Feb 2014
US 8,655,644 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2011/0077934 A1Published application
US 9,542,389 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.