JP3059398B2 - Automatic interpreter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic interpreting apparatus for translating a character string composed of an input utterance voice sentence in a source language into a character string in a target language, and then speech-synthesizing the translated character string.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art
When a sentence is generated by a language translation, a dialogue system, or the like, processing is generally performed in units of a sentence (for example, Tsuyoshi Morimoto, “Toward Realization of Automatic Translation Telephone”, Information Processing, V
ol. 35, No. 1, January 1994). However, when an input is given in chronological order as in an automatic interpreter or the like, in the processing for each sentence, the processing cannot be started until the utterance is completed, and the transmission of the utterance is delayed. As a result, there were the following problems. (1) Unity between utterances is broken. (2) The processing time increases. The reason that the user uses the automatic interpreting apparatus is that it is possible to achieve his or her own purpose with the same burden as performing a normal conversation. Accordingly, it is very important to solve the above-mentioned problem that places a great burden on the user other than the intended purpose for constructing a practical automatic interpreting apparatus.

To solve the above problems, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 263499/1992 discloses an automatic translator and an automatic interpreter (hereinafter referred to as a conventional one) which can be translated in a shorter time than a conventional example, and can be translated into a natural sentence so that the entire sentence makes sense. Examples) are disclosed. However, in the conventional example, if the translated content of the already translated phrase or clause is incorrect,
There has been a problem that translation consistency cannot be maintained, for example, when the word order is significantly different from the word order suitable for the target language.

[0004] An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to search for an appropriate example with respect to errors in translation, differences in utterance intention, etc., and translate the sentence while maintaining consistency as a whole sentence. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic interpreting device capable of synthesizing voice.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic interpreting apparatus for translating a character string comprising an input utterance voice sentence in a source language into a character string in a target language, and then translating the character string. In an automatic interpreter for synthesizing a character string, a speech recognition means for converting the speech into a character string in the source language and outputting the speech by recognizing the speech based on an input speech signal of the speech in the source language. And a first storage unit for storing a plurality of divided patterns in the source language utterance voice sentence in advance, and a character string composed of the source language utterance voice output from the voice recognition unit is stored in the storage unit. Source text dividing means for dividing the character string by referring to the plurality of divided patterns, and translating the character string divided by the original text dividing means into a character string of a translation result of a target language for each divided unit. Partial translation Means, all the translation means for translating the input character string comprising the uttered speech sentence of the source language into the character string of the translation result of the target language, and the character string of the translation result by the partial translation means And a translation generating means for comparing and comparing the character strings of the translation results obtained by the all translation means to determine and output a character string of the translation result of the target language so as to omit redundant expressions; and When the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the target language is compared with the character string of the translation result of the target language determined by the utterance content adjusting means in the previous stage, and there is a difference in the word order or the utterance intention, The character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generating means so that the corresponding bilingual example can be searched with reference to a plurality of predetermined bilingual examples and the consistency of the entire sentence can be maintained. Adjust the utterance of One confirmed the speech contents adjusting means for outputting, characterized by comprising a speech synthesis means for converting the audio signal strings in the target language translation result output from the speech content adjusting means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic interpreting apparatus, wherein the utterance content adjusting means includes a character string of a translation result of a target language output from the translation generating means; Adjust the utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation means so that the semantic distance from the retrieved corresponding translation example is minimized and the word order and utterance intention are consistent. It is characterized by doing.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an automatic interpreting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The automatic interpreting apparatus of this embodiment translates a voice signal of a character string composed of an input utterance voice sentence of a source language into a character string of a target language, and then voice-synthesizes the translated character string to convert it into a voice signal. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, a microphone 10 for converting (a) an input utterance voice of a source language into a voice signal;
(B) Speech recognition unit 1 which performs speech recognition of the uttered voice based on the input speech signal of the uttered voice of the source language, converts the uttered voice into a character string of the source language, and outputs the character string to the source sentence dividing means.
(C) a divided pattern storage unit 11 for storing a plurality of divided patterns in the utterance voice sentence in the source language in advance, and (d)
An original sentence dividing unit 2 that divides a character string composed of an uttered voice sentence in the source language output from the speech recognition unit 1 with reference to a plurality of division patterns stored in the storage unit.
And (e) the character string divided by the original sentence division unit 2
A partial translator 3 for translating into a character string of a translation result of the target language for each of the divided units; and (f) a translation of the translation result of the target language without dividing the character string composed of the utterance voice sentence of the source language. (G) comparing the character string of the translation result by the partial translation unit 3 with the character string of the translation result by the full translation unit 4 to omit redundant expressions; And (h) an output result storage unit 12 for storing the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 and determining the character string of the translation result of the target language. ,
(I) A translation example storage unit 13 that stores a plurality of translation examples.
(J) an output result storage unit 14 for storing a character string of the translation result of the target language determined by the utterance content adjustment unit 6 and output to the speech synthesis unit 7, and (k) an output result from the translation generation unit 5. A character string of the translation result of the target language, and a character string of the translation result of the target language, which are determined by the utterance content adjustment unit 6 in the previous stage, output to the speech synthesis unit 7 and stored in the output result storage unit 14 When there is a difference in word order or utterance intention, a plurality of parallel translation examples in the parallel translation example storage unit 14 are searched for a corresponding parallel translation example, and consistency is maintained as the entire sentence. An utterance content adjustment unit 6 that adjusts and determines and outputs the utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 so that
(L) a speech synthesis unit 7 that converts a character string of a translation result of the target language output from the utterance content adjustment unit 6 into a speech signal and outputs the speech signal, and (m) a speech signal output from the speech synthesis unit 7. And a speaker 8 that converts the sound into sound and outputs the sound. Here, the utterance content adjustment unit 6 minimizes the semantic distance between the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 and the corresponding bilingual example searched for, and in the word order and the utterance intention. The utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 is adjusted so as to ensure consistency.

In the present embodiment, an example of a translation from English to Japanese in a dialog having a clear purpose, such as "dialogue when making a hotel reservation", is a gradual process when simultaneous interpretation is performed. Here is a simple sentence generation method. In other words, the input utterance is converted from English to Japanese in units such as phrases and clauses, using a delimiter expression such as a conjunction as a trigger, and the Japanese expression of the partial conversion result is sequentially determined while the entire sentence is determined. Here is a translation method to generate a natural Japanese sentence that makes sense.

FIG. 2 shows the processing time of the processing in units of a sentence and the stepwise processing in the automatic interpretation. In order to maintain the cohesiveness of the utterance and shorten the processing time, it is necessary to shorten the time until the output starts and the time until the output ends. As shown in FIG. 2, in the processing for each sentence, “time until output start = speech time + translation processing time”. Also, in many current translation apparatuses, the processing time is becoming faster, and “speech time≫translation processing time” is satisfied.
Therefore, shortening the translation processing time does not contribute much to shortening the time until output starts. On the other hand, if the gradual processing is performed, by performing the translation processing and the output before the utterance of the input ends, it is possible to greatly reduce the time until the output starts and the time until the output ends. .

In order to progressively generate a Japanese dialogue sentence from an English sentence, the ability to generate a “grammatically qualified sentence” which has been the target of the conventional written word generation is not sufficient. In written language, it is called "ineligible sentence", but in Japanese dialogue, "repetition"
There is "inversion" and the like. In the present embodiment, it is considered that the generation capability is enhanced by using these. Hereinafter, “repetition” and “inversion” will be briefly described.

In human speech, repetition may be used to add new information to an already mentioned phrase or to correct an incorrect expression. For example, "Tell me a phone number and a phone number you can contact."
By repeating the "phone number", new information ("contact you") can be added to the phrase ("phone number") already mentioned.

In a Japanese sentence, it is said that the main verb of a clause (or sentence) must appear at the end of the sentence. However, in actual dialogues, the word order is frequently inverted. Here, in order to treat this phenomenon in the same framework as the above-mentioned repetition, it is considered that the word order is not caused by inversion, but is caused by repetition and omission of a sentence. For example, the sentence "It is 4000 yen, if you register next month" is first generated as a sentence with the condition "It is 4000 yen" omitted, and then to clarify the condition of this sentence It is considered that this sentence was generated by repeating the condition at the end of the sentence.

In order to incorporate the characteristics of the above-mentioned Japanese dialogue sentence into the generation and to avoid a decrease in the intelligibility of the generated sentence, in the present embodiment, the translation is generated by the following method. (A) In order to ensure the intelligibility of the sentence, the word order of the dependency must always be from the source to the destination. (B) When the word order of the dependency is reversed, the sentence is self-repaired by repeating the part. (C) To reduce output time, redundant expressions in repetition are omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic interpreter using the above-described translation generating method. In FIG. 1, an uttered voice in a source language is input to a microphone 10, converted into a voice signal, and input to a voice recognition unit 1. The speech recognition unit 1 calculates the likelihood by executing phoneme matching based on the input speech signal of the uttered speech in the source language with reference to, for example, a phoneme context-dependent phoneme hidden Markov model (phoneme HMM), By selecting the maximum likelihood speech recognition result and performing speech recognition on the uttered speech, the speech is converted into a character string in the source language and output to the source sentence division unit 2. On the other hand, the division pattern storage unit 11 previously stores a plurality of division patterns in the utterance voice sentence in the source language, as shown in Table 1, for example.

[0016]

[Table 1] English sentence patterns in English-Japanese translation and Japanese sentence patterns as translation results節 Types of clauses English pattern Japanese pattern ───────────────────────────── Sentence By the way ／ X By the way ／ X ' Beginning of sentence no / X No / X 'Parallel clause X / but Y X' / But Y 'Dependent clause X / if Y Y' // X 'Dependent clause if X / [CN-PRON] Y Y' / X 'Quotation section X think [V-PRON] / Y X' thinks Y 'Relative section X / where Y Y' [continuous] / X '───────────────── ────────────

Here, / indicates a division point. Also, [CN
[-PRON] means that the part of speech of the word before [CN-PRON] is a common noun and the part of speech of the word after [CN-PRON] is a pronoun, and [V-PRON] means [V-PRON].
[N] means that the part of speech of the word before is a verb, and the part of speech of the word after it is a pronoun. Further, [continuous] means that the inflected form of the preceding word is a continuous form.

In the present embodiment, the unit for dividing the English sentence, which is the source language expression, is defined as (1) a semantic unit, between English and Japanese (that is, between the source language and the target language). ) Sections are used because they are easy to respond to and (2) relatively clear markers (such as conjunctions) for dividing appear in English sentences. As a pattern for dividing an English sentence into sections, a pattern used in an example-based translation device was used. Table 1 shows typical English sentence patterns. This English sentence pattern has a surface expression (“bu
t "," if ", etc.) and a part-of-speech sequence ([CN-PRO
N] etc.) as a key to divide the sentence into clauses. Table 1
In, the number of the level indicates the strength of the coupling degree of the division,
X and Y indicate English expressions, and X 'and Y' indicate English expressions X and Y
Shows the corresponding Japanese translation.

Then, the original sentence dividing unit 2 refers to the plurality of divided patterns stored in the storage means and converts the character string composed of the uttered speech sentence of the original language output from the speech recognizing unit 1 into the character string. Is divided into appropriate units. Further, the partial translating unit 3 translates the character string divided by the original sentence dividing unit 2 into a character string of a translation result of the target language sequentially for each divided unit. Translation into a character string of the translation result of the target language is performed without dividing the character string composed of the spoken voice sentence of the language. Next, the translation generation unit 5
The character string of the translation result by the partial translation unit 3 is compared with the character string of the translation result by the full translation unit 4, and if necessary, it is repeated so as to omit redundant expressions, and in an appropriate word order. And determine and output the character string of the translation result of the target language. Then, the output storage unit 12 stores the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5.

Next, the utterance content adjusting unit 6 determines the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generating unit 5 and determines the character string in the previous stage by the utterance content adjusting unit 6 and outputs it to the speech synthesis unit 7. By comparing the character strings of the translation result of the target language stored in the output result storage unit 14 and referring to a plurality of bilingual translation examples in the bilingual translation example storage unit 14 when there is a difference in word order or utterance intention. Search for the corresponding translation example,
The utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 is adjusted, fixed, and output so that the consistency of the entire sentence can be maintained. Here, the utterance content adjustment unit 6 minimizes the semantic distance between the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 and the corresponding bilingual example searched for, and in the word order and the utterance intention. The utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 is adjusted so as to ensure consistency.

Further, the speech synthesizing section 7 is composed of a known speech synthesizing apparatus including, for example, a pulse generator, a noise generator, a variable amplification amplifier, and a filter. The character string resulting from the translation of the language is converted into an audio signal, output to the speaker 8, converted into audio, and output.

The partial translation unit 3 and the full translation unit 4 can be configured by using a known interactive sentence translation system using a bilingual example, for example. In this system, ("I wou
ldlike to ~ "→" I want to do it "),
Examples are prepared in relatively small units, such as (“for...” → “to...”), And by combining them, one sentence can be converted.

When the input sentence S is CL ₁ ,..., CL _{i ,.}
When the sentence is divided into (1 ≦ i ≦ j) sections, a sentence is translated and generated by the following method. However, CL _j, as shown in FIG. 3, a right end section of the currently input, CL _i is CL _j
Is the beginning clause of the largest clause containing. The result of translating the English CL into the target language is trans (CL).

The partial translation unit 3, the total translation unit 4, and the translation generation unit 5
Is repeated until the end of the utterance. The partial translation unit 3 obtains a partial translation result trans (CL) and outputs it to the translation generation unit 5, while the full translation unit 4 obtains a full translation result trans (CL _i ,..., CL _j ). 5 is output. Then, the translation generation unit 5 executes the translation generation processing shown in FIG. 5 as follows.

First, in step S1, the translation result t
trans (CL _j ) is the translation result trans (CL _i ,...,
CL _j ), and in the case of being equal, ie, i = j, in step S11, the translation result trans (CL _i ,..., CL _j ) is output as the translation result, and the translation generation processing is performed. finish. On the other hand, step S1
If i ≠ j, the translation result tr is obtained in step S2.
ans (CL _i ,..., CL _j−1 ) · trans (CL _j )
Is determined to be equal to the translation result (CL _i ,..., CL _j ). If so, in step S12, the translation result trans (CL _j ) is output as the translation result and the translation is performed. The generation processing ends. On the other hand, if the word order is different in step S2, in step S3, the translation result trans (CL _j ) · trans
(CL _i ,..., CL _j-1 ) is the translation result trans (C
L _i, ..., whether CL _j) equal or not. If equal, that is, when the word order is reversed, in step S13, the translation results trans (CL _i, ..., as a translation result CL _j), repeating the The common part (redundant expression) is omitted and output, and the translation generation process ends. On the other hand, if they are not equal in step S3, the translation result trans (C
L _i ,..., CL _j ) are output as translation results, and the translation generation processing ends.

Next, a translation example in the translation example storage unit 13 will be described. The correspondence between the source language expression and the target language expression is not always one-to-one. The source language expression has a key part for translating, and a translation is determined by a word that embodies this part. Thus, the relationship between the example of the key part of the translation of the source language expression and the corresponding target language expression is obtained from the actual language expression, and stored in the bilingual example storage unit 13 as conversion knowledge as in the following equation. . Translation example storage unit 1
Table 2 shows an example of the translation example stored in No. 3.

[Equation 1] Source language expression → Object language expression 1 (E ₁₁ , E ₁₂ ,...), Object language expression 2 (E ₂₁ , E ₂₂ ,...), ………… Object language expression n (E _n1 , _En2 , ...).

[0027]

[Table 2] Example of translation example ─────────────────────────────────── [Translation example 1] X as only as Y → Y 'only X' (open, evening) [Bilingual translation example 2] X as only as Y → X ', but only Y' is X'd (open, morning) [Bilingual translation example 3] X Is not it? → X ', isn't it? (Okay) [Translation example 4] X is Y? → X ', but Y'? ([Reserved] available, [Reserved] full) → (default (available-usually, not (have))) ………… ………… ────────────── ─────────────────────

The above expression (1) in the bilingual translation example indicates that there are n possible target language expressions. When the example is _Eij , the translation is the target language expression i. E _ij is a set of words and phrases. In the conversion processing of the present embodiment, in the normal translation, an example that best matches the phrase of the input expression is obtained by a semantic distance calculation, and the target language expression of the example that best matches is selected as a bilingual translation. If the example most semantically similar to the phrase of the input expression is E _ij , the target language expression i is selected as a bilingual translation of the source language expression. In this way, the example is a condition for translating the source language expression.

Next, the calculation of the semantic distance will be described. As a method of obtaining the semantic closeness between a phrase of an input sentence and an example, the automatic interpreting apparatus employs the calculation of the semantic distance of Sumida et al. In this method, first, the semantic distance dist (i, e) between the word i of the input sentence and the word e of the example is determined by the positional relationship between the semantic concepts in the concept hierarchy of the thesaurus (conforming to the thesaurus). calculate. The semantic distance ranges from 0 to 1, and the closer to 0, the more similar the word i and the example e are semantically. The value of the semantic distance changes depending on how the thesaurus is provided, and the semantic distance based on the thesaurus currently used in the present embodiment is shown below.

Dist (meeting secretariat, secretariat) = 0.00, dist (here, me) = 0.44, dist (meeting secretariat, Suzuki) = 1.00.

The expressions and examples of the input sentence for the key part of the translation of the source language expression are I and E, respectively. The semantic distance between the expression I and the example E is calculated based on the semantic distance between the words constituting the expression I and the example E.
Assume that the expression I and the example E are configured as a set of t words as follows.

[0031]

[Number 3] _{I = (i 1, ...,} i t). E = (e ₁ ,..., _Et ).

At this time, the semantic distance between the expression I and the example E is calculated as follows.

[0033]

(Equation 4)

Here, w _k indicates the weight of the k-th element in translation, and ranges from 0 to 1 as a range. Then
The parallel translation determination process using the pattern level conversion knowledge will be described. In the present embodiment, the conversion knowledge is classified into three levels of strings, patterns, and grammars according to the expression form of the linguistic expression, and the translation processing is performed by using the conversion knowledge at these levels depending on the nature of the input sentence. The best use of the framework based on the example in the translation of the present embodiment is the translation determination processing using the pattern-level conversion knowledge. The conversion knowledge at the pattern level expresses a linguistic expression by a symbol such as X (hereinafter, referred to as a variable part) that does not express a grammatical attribute and a surface word. The variable part is a key part of translation, and an example of the variable part is described as a translation condition. For example, the following conversion knowledge indicates that various English expressions correspond to "X is Y".

[0035]

X is Y → X 'be Y' ((I, Suzuki), (here, secretariat), ...), X 'may be paid by Y' ((cost, cash), ...), X 'will be done by Y' ((lecture, like),…), ……… ………

X ′ represents a target language expression corresponding to the source language expression X, and (I, Suzuki) represents an example of X = “I” and Y = “Suzuki”. In the case of "I am Suzuki", the target linguistic expression for "X is Y" is "X 'be Y'".
Let I be a set of words in the input sentence that embody the variable parts X and Y. For example, when the input sentence is "this is the meeting secretariat", I is (here, the meeting secretariat).

Here, assuming that the value of the weight w _k is uniformly 0.5, the semantic distance between the expression I and the example (I, Suzuki) is as follows.

Dist ((here, meeting secretariat), (me, Suzuki)) = dist (here, me) · w ₁ + dist (meeting secretariat, Suzuki) · w ₂ = 0.44 × 0.5 + 1. 00 × 0.5 = 0.72

It is assumed that the distance between the expression I and each example is as follows, and the example having the minimum meaningful distance from I is (here, the secretariat).

[0039]

Dist ((here, meeting secretariat), (me, Suzuki)) = 0.72 dist ((here, meeting secretariat), (here, secretariat)) = 0.25 dist ( (Here, meeting secretariat), (cost, cash)) = 0.89 d ((here, meeting secretariat), (lecture, like)) = 1.00

(Here, the secretariat) "X '
be Y ′ ”is selected as the maximum likelihood target language expression,
"This is the secretariat of the meeting"
s theconference office. "In general, adding an example makes the translation condition more detailed and leads to an improvement in the accuracy of the conversion process.

Further, the use of the example in the speech adjustment processing will be described. In a translation process based on an ordinary example, the example searched by the best match by the semantic distance calculation is used to determine a bilingual translation, whereas in the utterance adjustment process of the present invention, a vocabulary sequence ( It is characterized in that examples are searched based on the consistency in word order and utterance intention with CLi), and the searched examples having a closer semantic distance are used.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the utterance content adjustment processing executed by the utterance content adjustment unit 6 of FIG. In FIG.

Trans (CLi) = X ₁ X ₂ X ₃ ... X _n , trans (CLij) = Y ₁ Y ₂ Y ₃ Y ₄ ... Y _m (n ≦
m), first, at step S21, for any k, 1 <k ≦ n, X _k = Y _k (where X _k is the translation result tr
ans (CLi) is the k-th constituent vocabulary,
k is the k-th constituent vocabulary in the translation result trans (CLij). ), That is, whether the translation result trans (CLij) is an extended set of the translation result trans (CLi) determined in the previous step,
(In other words, whether another set is added or not) is determined. If the set is an expanded set, in step S22, the translation result trans (CLij) -the translation result trans (CLi) is subjected to speech synthesis. After outputting to the unit 7 and determining the translation result trans (CLij) and storing it in the output result storage unit 14, the process returns to step S21.
Execute the next translation result. On the other hand, if the set is not an extended set, the similar example {Ej: 1 <Order (Ej) <T} in the clause CLj is searched in the bilingual example storage unit 13 in step S23.

Next, in step S24, a similar example {Eij: 1 <Order (Ej) <T} in the clause CLij.
Is searched in the bilingual example storage unit 13. And step S
25, a translation candidate {t using {Ej}, {Eij}
It is determined whether any _k satisfies 1 <k ≦ n, X _k = Y _k among those higher than tran (CLij)｝. If YES, the maximum likelihood translation candidate is determined in step S26 The translation result tr is given to trans (CLij).
ans (CLij) -outputs the translation result (CLi) to the speech synthesis unit 7 and outputs the translation result trans (CLi).
j) is determined and added to the output result storage unit 14 and stored. Then, the process returns to step S21 to execute the processing of the next translation result. On the other hand, if NO in step S25, the rephrasing process is executed in step S27. That is, after the output of the interjection of “No” or “but”, the translation result trans (CLij) and the translation result trans are output.
The phrase obtained by removing the common part from the head of (CLi) is output to the speech synthesis unit 12, the translation result (CLi) is determined, and the translation result (CLi) is additionally stored in the output result storage unit 14. Then, the process returns to step S21 to execute the processing of the next translation result.

Here, Order (E) indicates the order of all the examples applicable to the node CLi of the semantic distance between the node CLi and the example E. For example, in an example E, when Order (E) is 1, it indicates that the example best matches the clause CLi. Here, the threshold value T represents a threshold value for example search in the speech content processing.

[0045]

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, the utterance content adjusting unit 6 in this embodiment will be described.
An example of the utterance content adjustment processing executed according to the embodiment will be described.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the processing contents of the first embodiment. “That restaurant is open as only
As in the evening. ”, the input from“ What restaurant is
open. . . In response to the input up to, he said, "The restaurant is open." . .
as only as in the evenin
g. At the point when "is input, the translation is a normal bilingual translation example: [Branch translation example 1] X as only as Y → Y 'only X' (ope
n, evening) and the partial translation result of "Open only at night." is obtained, but since "Open" is already output, the output result comparison unit It is detected in step S22, and as a result, the utterance content adjustment processing of the utterance content adjustment unit 6 is started.

In the above translation example, letters 1 and below, X, Y, etc. represent matching with an arbitrary expression, and the modification with 'represents the translation expression. That is, if X is “open”, X ′ corresponds to “open”. “X is Y
For a language pattern such as “X, etc., an expression such as X that is a key for translation is expressed in parentheses. For example,“ X is Y → X ′
Is Y '(room, available) ”,“ room is availab
le ”and similar expressions (eg Twin room is available)
This indicates that the pattern is applicable to and a usage example thereof.

In the utterance content recovery process in the utterance content adjustment process, translation can be continued for already-uttered X 'in the bilingual example to which the translation pattern "X as onlyas Y" can be applied. Yes, [parallel translation example 2] X as only as Y → X ', but Y'
X '(open, morning) is searched for a translation example, and as a translation result, "but
Open only at night "is output. this is,
This corresponds to step S26 in FIG.

<Embodiment 2> Next, an utterance such as "Is there any problem?" Should be translated as "Is everything all right?"
If the utterance is unpredictable in the context processing, the dialog management processing, or the like, a result of “Everything is all right” may be output. In such a case as well, [parallel translation example 3] is X? → X ', isn't it? (Oka
The utterance adjustment processing by translating into the additional question sentence is performed using the translation example of y).

<Example 3> Also, in response to an input having a plurality of utterance intentions such as "Twin room is available but cannot be used today", the translation as a whole sentence is "We have twin". rooms, but they are not availabl
e today. "
"Twin rooms are available."
If "room is available ..." is output, [Translation example 4] If X is Y? → X ', but Y'? ([Reservations] available, [Reservations] full) → (defaul
t (available-usually, not (have))), the whole sentence becomes “Twin room
is available ... usually, but, we do not have twin r
ooms available today. "

When the translation is specified by default in the application of a specific example, '→ (default'
Described by For example, ([hotel related] available, [reserved] full) → (default (available-usual
ly, not (have))), a source language expression similar to “the room is available but it is full tonight” is available-
“A room is avai” using the vocabulary of usually, not (have)
lable usually, but wedo not have ... ".

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation unit 5 is determined by the speech content adjustment unit 6 at the previous stage, and the speech synthesis is performed. By comparing with the character string of the translation result of the target language, which is output to the unit 7 and stored in the output result storage unit 14,
When there is a difference in the word order or utterance intention, a plurality of translation examples in the translation example storage unit 14 are referred to, a corresponding translation example is searched, and translation is performed so that consistency can be maintained as the entire sentence. An utterance content adjustment unit 6 that adjusts and determines and outputs the utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the generation unit 5, and the utterance content adjustment unit 6 is output from the translation generation unit 5. In order to minimize the semantic distance between the character string of the translation result of the target language and the corresponding bilingual example searched for, and to ensure consistency in word order and utterance intention, the target language output from the translation generator 5 is output. Adjust the utterance content of the translated character string. Therefore, an appropriate example can be searched for a translation error, a difference in utterance intention, and the like, and can be translated and synthesized in speech while maintaining the consistency of the entire sentence.

In the above embodiment, the translation from English to Japanese has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The translation from Japanese to English and the translation between two different languages are also possible. Can be applied to

In the above embodiment, the speech recognition unit 1, the original sentence division unit 2, the partial translation unit 3, and the full translation unit 4
The translation generation unit 5, the utterance content adjustment unit 6, and the speech synthesis unit 7 are constituted by, for example, a digital computer.

In the above embodiment, the unit for dividing the original English sentence is a clause. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the unit for dividing the source language sentence may be a word, a phrase, a clause, or the like. Any unit and a combination thereof may be used.

[0056]

As described above in detail, according to the automatic interpreting apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, after the character string composed of the input utterance voice sentence of the source language is translated into the character string of the target language. In an automatic interpreting apparatus that synthesizes a translated character string by speech, based on the input speech signal of the source language, the speech is recognized and converted to a source language character string and output. Voice recognition means, a first storage means for pre-storing a plurality of divided patterns in the utterance speech sentence in the source language, and a character string composed of the utterance speech sentence in the source language output from the speech recognition means. An original sentence dividing unit that divides the character string by referring to a plurality of division patterns stored in the unit, and converts the character string divided by the original sentence dividing unit into a character of a translation result of a target language for each divided unit. Translate column And Cormorant partial translation means, and the total translation means for performing without dividing a string of utterance sentence of the source language to be the input, translated into a string of the target language of the translation result,
By comparing the character string of the translation result by the partial translation means with the character string of the translation result by the full translation means, determine and output the character string of the translation result of the target language so as to omit redundant expressions. Comparing the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation means with the character string of the translation result of the target language determined by the speech content adjusting means in the previous stage, When there is a difference in the word order or utterance intention, the translation generation unit outputs the translated bilingual examples by referring to a plurality of predetermined bilingual examples and searching for the corresponding bilingual examples. Utterance content adjusting means for adjusting and confirming the utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language to be output, and converting the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the utterance content adjustment means into an audio signal Out To comprise a speech synthesis unit. Therefore, it is possible to search for an appropriate example with respect to the difference in the translation error, the intention of the utterance, and the like, translate the sentence while maintaining the consistency of the entire sentence, and perform speech synthesis.

Also, in the automatic interpreting apparatus according to the second aspect, in the automatic interpreting apparatus according to the first aspect, the utterance content adjusting means includes a character string of a translation result of a target language output from the translation generating means. In order to minimize the semantic distance to the corresponding bilingual example searched for and to ensure consistency in word order and utterance intention, the utterance content of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generation means is adjust. Therefore, an appropriate example can be searched for a translation error, a difference in utterance intention, and the like, and can be translated and synthesized in speech while maintaining the consistency of the entire sentence.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic interpreting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a difference in processing time between a sentence unit processing method and a progressive processing method.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating processing of a clause in a translation generation unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a process in an utterance content adjustment unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a translation generation process executed by the translation generation unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an utterance content adjustment process executed by the utterance content adjustment unit in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Voice recognition part, 2 ... Original sentence division part, 3 ... Partial translation part, 4 ... Full translation part, 5 ... Translation generation part, 6 ... Speech content adjustment part, 7 ... Voice synthesis part, 8 ... Speaker, 10 ... Microphone , 11: division pattern storage unit, 12, 14: output result storage unit, 13: bilingual example storage unit.

Continuation of the front page (56) References Hideki Mima, Kurase Kose, Hitoshi Iida, "Progressive Translation Processing for Realizing a Simultaneous Interpretation System", Information Processing Society of Japan 54th (early 1997) National Convention Proceedings (2), p. 11-p. 12 (Mar. 12, 1997) Satoru Asai, Shigeki Matsubara, Katsuhiko Toyama, Yasuyoshi Inagaki, "A Chart-Based Conversion Method in a Progressive English-Japanese Spoken Language Translation System", Vol. 97, no. 109, p. 29-p. 34 (1997.11) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/20-17/28 G10L 13/00-15/00 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automatic interpreter for translating a character string composed of an input utterance voice sentence of a source language into a character string of a target language, and then synthesizing the translated character string by speech, comprising: A voice recognition unit that converts the uttered voice into a character string in the source language and outputs the character string by voice recognition based on the voice signal of the voice, and a plurality of divided patterns in the uttered voice sentence in the source language which are stored in advance. (1) an original sentence segmentation unit that divides a character string composed of an uttered speech sentence of a source language output from the speech recognition unit with reference to a plurality of division patterns stored in the storage unit; Means, a partial translation means for translating the character string divided by the original sentence dividing means into a character string of a translation result of the target language for each divided unit, and letter , Without translating the target language into a character string of the translation result of the target language, and comparing the character string of the translation result by the partial translation means with the character string of the translation result by the full translation means A translation generating means for determining and outputting a character string of a translation result of the target language so as to omit redundant expressions; a character string of a translation result of the target language output from the translation generating means; Then, when comparing the character strings of the translation result of the target language determined by the utterance content adjusting means, and there is a difference in the word order or utterance intention, refer to a plurality of predetermined parallel translation examples, and find a corresponding parallel translation example. Utterance content adjusting means for adjusting and confirming and uttering the utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generating means so as to search and maintain consistency as a whole sentence; The contents of the above utterance Automatic interpretation apparatus comprising the speech synthesizing means for converting the audio signal strings in the target language of the translation result that is output from the integer unit. 2. The utterance content adjusting unit minimizes the semantic distance between the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generating unit and the searched corresponding bilingual example, and determines the word order and utterance. 2. The automatic interpreting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the utterance content of the character string of the translation result of the target language output from the translation generating means is adjusted so that the intention is consistent.