JPS6217785B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to an electronic translator for translating words, sentences, etc. between different languages. More specifically, the present invention particularly relates to an electronic translator capable of calling up example sentences, changing parts of the called sentences, translating them, etc. The above-mentioned "example sentence" means a sentence stored in memory in advance, and the operator calls up an example sentence belonging to a desired category, partially changes the example sentence to create the desired sentence, and then translates it. It is something that can be done. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, electronic translators have been proposed that can obtain a desired translation by changing part of an example sentence. The present invention aims to provide a translator with more practical functions, particularly regarding example sentence translation, which is a feature of small electronic translators. When translating example sentences, the first problem is that if the example sentence can be changed in multiple places,
Where should the change be made? Where should the key input be made? Therefore, according to the present invention, the change is made so that the parts that can be changed and the parts that require key input are displayed with different symbols such as different symbols so that they can be clearly distinguished (see the example of key input and its display below). Possible locations are separated by parentheses, for example, and locations that can be changed by key input are separated and displayed using double parentheses. Further, according to the present invention, immediately after calling up an example sentence, the changeable location near the beginning of the sentence is always the location where key input is required, and the operator can perform key input without hesitation. In this way, it may seem natural to be able to input from a position near the beginning of a sentence, but in reality, this is not the case. As shown in the example of key input and its display below, there is As will be described later, the correspondence between the changed locations may be different (see Sections 8c and 8d). No matter what language you choose as your native language, special controls are required to be able to make changes starting near the beginning of a sentence. Furthermore, according to the present invention, corresponding changes in the native language and the foreign language are stored in the memory as example sentences with the same code inserted, so it is possible to create a correspondence relationship in which the above-mentioned sentences come before and after (for example, )
₁ , () ₂ code, see Figure 8). Further, according to the present invention, when displaying an example sentence first, a display method different from that for displaying words or sentences other than the example sentence is adopted. That is, specifically, for example, example sentences are displayed by typing. Here, ``typing display'' refers to displaying each character or multiple characters from the beginning of a sentence, as if pressing the keys on a typewriter. By distinguishing the display formats in this way, it becomes clear whether the input is input by the operator or the input is pre-stored in the memory, so that the operator is not confused. Furthermore, since this type of typing display is performed by reading and displaying the contents of compressed memory, example sentences begin to be displayed immediately in response to the example sentence recall operation.
The typing display itself is also a feature. Furthermore, after the example sentences have been displayed through the typing display or the like, a changeable location to be entered by key is newly displayed, so that the operator can immediately notice the location. The present invention aims to provide an improved electronic translator as described above, and its features are listed below. This is a translation machine that can change multiple places in an example sentence and display the translated text.The parts to be changed can be indicated with special symbols such as parentheses, and the parts that require key input can be changed in other ways. It is indicated by a symbol different from the location (for example, double katsuko 〓 and single layer ( )). To provide a translation machine that can change a plurality of places in an example sentence and display the translated text, and can be set to a state where changes can be automatically made starting from the changeable places near the beginning of the sentence immediately after calling up the example sentence. To provide a translator capable of displaying at least an example sentence, its translation, and a translation of a word or sentence inputted from a key, and to make the display format when calling up the example sentence different from other display formats. (e.g. simultaneous display with typing display). This is a translation machine that can call up an example sentence that can be partially changed and display its translation, and the symbol indicating the changeable part is displayed when the example sentence is called up and immediately after that when it can be changed (when key input is possible). It is possible to display different symbols (for example, when an example sentence is called, only a single cutlet is displayed, and immediately after that, a combination of a double cutlet and a single cutlet is displayed). It is a translation machine that can call up example sentences that can be changed in multiple places and display the translated sentences.
This is to store the codes that indicate the parts that can be changed between the native language memory and the foreign language memory using the same code (for example, ( ) <sub>1</sub> code, ( ) <sub>2</sub> code). Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external view mainly showing a display section and a key section of an example of an electronic translator according to the present invention. In the figure, the aircraft 1 has a character display section 2, an indicator 3 that indicates the language (native language and other languages), a display section 4 that includes various indicators to be described later, and keys 5 for inputting alphabets, katakana, or symbols.
and a key unit 7 including function keys 6 for executing various functions such as translation. Figure 2 shows the system configuration diagram of the aircraft. In the figure, DISPLAY10 corresponds to the display section shown in Figure 1, and DISPLAY10 corresponds to the display section shown in Figure 1.
Character display or indicator lighting is controlled by CONTROL & DRIVER (display control/drive section 11). The KEY MATRIX 12 corresponds to the keys in FIG. 1, and is connected to the KEY strobe signal and KEY input of the 1-chip microcomputer 13. Language ROM,, 14-16
is a ROM (read-only memory) that stores sentences or words in an electronic translator, and one language corresponds to one ROM. These language ROMs are connected to a 1-chip microcomputer by an address bus and a data bus, and the required language is selected by the chip select signals CE <sub>1</sub> , CE <sub>2</sub> CE <sub>3</sub> , and sentences or words are read out. be able to. CE <sub>4</sub> is DISPLAY−
This is a chip selection of CONTROL & DRIVER11. In this embodiment, the language ROMI is built into the set,
The ROM is a module that can be replaced at will. Language ROMI stores English, the most commonly spoken language. FIG. 3a shows the internal configuration of the 1-chip microcomputer 13 shown in FIG.
The instruction ROM stores instructions that control each function of the electronic translator. By sequentially uploading ROM addresses, instructions are generated, which are then sent to the CPU (central processing unit). Once given, the CPU decodes and executes instructions (usually coded). The data RAM temporarily stores the data required to execute each function of the electronic translator, and functions in the same way as a conditional flip-flop in software branching. By accessing the RAM address, the CPU Can write to or read from RAM.
S is a buffer for storing the KEY strobe signal in FIG. 2, and keys can be arranged in a matrix between it and the KEY input to read the keys. AD is an address register and is coupled to the address bus. This is used to set an address in external memory, and the address register can be incremented, decremented, and set to a certain value via the CPU. The CPU is also connected to an external data bus, and data can be transferred to and from external memory through this data bus. The directionality of data transfer from the CPU to the external memory or from the external memory to the CPU can be controlled by an R/W (read/write) signal. External memory is the second
As shown in the figure, the language ROM, and
DISPLAY CONTROL & DRIVER (including memory). CE <sub>1</sub> to <sub>CE 4</sub> are flip-flops that are set or reset by the CPU, and their outputs are output to the outside. CE <sub>1</sub> to <sub>3</sub> are language ROM chip select signals, CE <sub>4</sub> is DISPLAY CONTROL &
This is the DRIVER chip select signal. 3b is the DISPLAY in Figure 2.
This shows the internal configuration of CONTROL & DRIUER 11. In this embodiment, a liquid crystal (LCD) is used as a display, each character is composed of 5×7 dots, and there are 19 indicators.
The DISPLAY-CONTROL & DRIUER consists of a RAM, its address decoder, an LCD backplate signal generator, and a segment buffer, and each bit of the RAM corresponds to each dot on the LCD display. When you write "1" to a certain bit in RAM, the corresponding dot on the LCD lights up. In FIG. 3b, S <sub>1</sub> , S <sub>2</sub> and S <sub>3</sub> are segment signals for indicators, and S <sub>4</sub> to <sub>S N</sub> are segment signals for characters. M <sub>1</sub> to <sub>M 7</sub> correspond to the "▲" symbol (native language) in FIG. 1, and F <sub>1</sub> to <sub>F 7</sub> correspond to the "〓" symbol (foreign language). Further, numbers 1, 2, to 7 correspond to languages such as English, German, and so on. MT
corresponds to a polysemous word, KA to a kana, SN to a sentence, WD to a word, and * to an indicator of * as is. The 1ehip microcomputer writes data to this RAM according to the internal information to be displayed. Figure 4 shows the language ROM used in electronic translators.
The format is shown below. The language format is broadly divided into a control data area (word start address table, text area start address, etc.), a compression table area, a text area, and a word area.
The words are not stored exactly as spelled, but are compressed and stored in the language ROM. Sentences are also made up of compressed groups of words. Compression tables are used to restore compressed words or to compress input spelling. The compression table differs depending on each language, and is configured to provide the highest compression rate for each language. Sentences are classified into categories, and each category has several more sentences lined up. Words are similarly arranged and classified into categories. The words are divided into 256 words, and the addresses of the first words of each of these 256 words (N <sub>0</sub> , N <sub>1</sub> , N <sub>2</sub> . . . in FIG. 4) are separately provided as a word start address table. This table is used to shorten the processing time when finding a word corresponding to a certain number. The language code in FIG. 4 is 1-byte data, the upper 4 bits indicate the field of the language ROM, and the lower 4 bits indicate the language name. The field here refers to the field targeted by the electronic translator, such as economics, engineering, and medicine. In this embodiment, the language names are as follows. Lower 4 bits 0001 English 0010 German 0011 Japanese 0100 French 0101 Spanish (Spanish) Codes of 6 or higher are sequentially assigned to languages other than the above. FIG. 5 shows details of the word area in FIG. 4. In the word area, data is arranged in 1-byte units. The 8th bit of the first character of a word is "1", and the 8th bit of a character other than the first character of a word is "0". 1 bit to 7 bits represent the type of character, including compressed codes. For example, compression is
Looking at WATCH, the two letters WA are one
In addition, the two characters CH are compressed into one byte, and WATCH (5 characters) is stored in three bytes in the word area. WA in this case,
The 1-byte data corresponding to the CH becomes the compressed code. As mentioned above, words have a 1:1 correspondence between languages based on one meaning concept, but annotations are added to distinguish homographs. In the example shown in Figure 5, WATCH
There are two semantic concepts for CLOCK and SEE, and to distinguish between them, WATCH
Annotations are indicated in parentheses, such as (CLOCK) and WATCH (SEE). These annotations are placed following the annotation code (7E: hexadecimal display) in the word area. Annotations ( ) are sometimes placed after the word, but sometimes before the word.
In this case, the annotation is placed following the annotation code (7D: hexadecimal display). The annotation for LOVE in FIG. 5 is indicated by (THE)LOVE. Some words include compound words, which also have a 1:1 correspondence under one semantic concept. In the example shown in FIG. 5, an example of a compound word HOT DOG is shown. Compound words are formed by inserting a space code (7B: hexadecimal representation) between words. Here, if one word is stored in the language ROM and at the same time becomes the first word of a compound word, the compound word code (7C: hexadecimal representation) is written after the letter of the word. ). In the example of Figure 5, the word HOT corresponds to this. HOT is an independent word in itself, and is also the first word of the compound word HOT DOG, so a compound word code is added after the word HOT. This is because when you find the word HOT, it indicates that there is a compound word that starts with this word. As mentioned above, words are classified and arranged into several categories, and category classification codes (7F: hexadecimal representation) are used to indicate the divisions between categories. This code is placed at the end of the last word in the category. Fifth
The example in the figure shows that the word HOT DOG is the last word in a certain category. A code (FF: hexadecimal display) indicating the rear end of the word area is attached to the end of this word area. FIG. 6 is a table showing the characters, compression codes, and control codes used in the word area shown in FIG. 5. In the word area, the data is in units of 1 byte, and each piece of data is used to indicate the first character of 256 types, so the remaining 7 bits, or 128 types of combinations, can be taken. In FIG. 6, the shaded codes are numbers, symbols, and control codes, which are common to each language. Others can be assigned to basic characters (alphabet in FIG. 6) and compressed codes. The control codes <sub>C0</sub> to <sub>C5</sub> correspond to the control codes shown in FIG. In the figure,
C <sub>0</sub> is a space code, C <sub>1</sub> is a compound word code, C <sub>2</sub> is an annotation code (front), C <sub>3</sub> is an annotation code (back), C <sub>4</sub> is a category division code, and C <sub>5</sub> is a word area end code. FIG. 7 shows details of the compression table in the language ROM format of FIG. 4. This corresponds to the compressed code shown in FIG. Data where the 8th bit is 1 indicates a character, and data where the 8th bit is 0
The data is the compressed code of the character group above it. This table varies by language and selects the most efficient compression code for each language. FIG. 8 shows details of the text area of the language ROM format in FIG. 4. A sentence is a collection of words, but the individual words are compressed in the same way as in the word area.
The beginning of a word is indicated by the 8th bit being "1", and the characters until the next 8th bit becomes "1" indicate the character code or compression code of one word. Two types of codes are used to separate sentences.
One is used as a delimiter code after an affirmative sentence, and the other is used as a delimiter code after an interrogative sentence. The code for affirmative sentences is "FE" and the code for interrogative sentences is "FC" (in hexadecimal). As mentioned earlier, sentences are classified and arranged into several categories, and category classification codes (FF hexadecimal representation) are used to indicate the divisions between categories. This code is added after the sentence delimiter code. In the example in Figure 8a, the sentence GOODLUCK is the last sentence in the category.
In this text area, one text may be used in several categories, and in this case, storing the text as it is will increase the number of ROM bytes, so the shared text will be stored in the area where the text is stored. By remembering only the address
The number of bytes of ROM is reduced. The address storage code (FD: hexadecimal notation) is a control code for this purpose, and the two bytes following this code store the address of the first word of the shared sentence. In this electronic translator, these sentences can be called up on the display section and translated, but some words or phrases in the sentences can be translated by replacing them with other words or phrases. These variable words or phrases appear surrounded by ( ). There can be up to two parentheses in one sentence, and an example of a sentence with parentheses is shown in Figure 8. A LITTLE MORE (MILK) PLEASE is shown as an example with one parenthesis. In this case, the word in parentheses is indicated by the ( ) <sub>1</sub> code (FA: hexadecimal display),
A code in which the 8th bit following this code is "0" becomes one word in parentheses. If there are multiple words or phrases in parentheses, ( ) <sub>1</sub> code follows the previous word. For example, if the phrase in parentheses is (CHECK IN), the order is ( ) <sub>1</sub> code, CHECK, ( ) <sub>1</sub> code, IN (Figure 8b). An example with two parentheses is I WANT(2)TICKETS TO(TOKYO). It is shown. In this case, (2) is indicated by ( ) <sub>1</sub> code, but
(TOKYO) is indicated by ( ) <sub>2</sub> code (FB: hexadecimal display). The ( ) <sub>1</sub> chord does not always come first in a sentence. Figure 8c shows a Japanese sentence corresponding to the above example sentence,
In this case, the ( ) <sub>2</sub> chord comes first. This is due to the difference in word order between the two languages. In this electronic translator, the first ( ) in an English sentence is shown as ( ) <sub>one</sub> code, and the second ( ) is shown as ( ) <sub>two</sub> codes, and when translated into English in other languages, the first ( ) is shown as ( ). ( ) <sub>1</sub> code, and the following ( ) is set to be ( ) <sub>2</sub> codes. In addition, in sentences with one ( ), always use the ( ) <sub>one</sub> code. FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the system configuration using the electronic translator according to the present invention. In the figure, each symbol means the following, and is stored in a predetermined area in the RAM shown in FIG. 3a. In other words, F <sub>1</sub> is a flag indicating that the example sentence is called, F <sub>2</sub> is a flag indicating that the content inside the parentheses has been changed, and F <sub>3</sub> is a flag indicating that the parentheses to be input are the first one.
The flag IB indicating whether it is a parenthesis or a second parenthesis is an input buffer, and the contents of this buffer are displayed on the display section. NBI is a word number storage section in the first parenthesis, and NB2 is a word number storage section in the second parenthesis. First, the "sentence/word" key is pressed once to call up an example sentence, and then the character key corresponding to the desired category is pressed. As a result, the flag <sub>F1</sub> is set in step <sub>S5</sub> , so the process proceeds from <sub>S3</sub> to <sub>S8</sub> to <sub>S9</sub> . S <sub>9</sub>
Example sentences belonging to the category specified by are read from memory and input to the input buffer IB. After the flag <sub>F1</sub> is reset in step <sub>S10</sub> , the code in the contents of the input buffer IB is determined character by character from the beginning in step <sub>S11</sub> , and a parenthetical code is detected. If detected, the code is converted into a double parenthesis code in <sub>S12</sub> . Furthermore, word number storage units NB1 and NB2 are set to 0 in <sub>S13</sub> . Specifically, if the example sentence shown in FIG. 8c is read out in <sub>S9</sub> , it is input to the input buffer IB as shown in FIG. 10a. Here, ( <sub>2</sub> ( <sub>1</sub> and ) are all parenthesis codes, and ( <sub>2</sub> ( <sub>1</sub> is an open parenthesis) is displayed as a closing parenthesis, but they are different codes that can be distinguished from each other. In other words, Fig. 9 In S <sub>9</sub> (Tokyo) parentheses and
Both parentheses in (2) are displayed as single parentheses. Moreover, as shown in Figure 10a, when inputting symbols and character codes, the memory contents in Figure 8c are read from the beginning of the sentence and input to the input buffer IB for display. Example sentences are displayed by typing (the sentences are displayed character by character or by several characters in a typewriter style). Note that the content described in FIG. 8c uses compressed codes such as "kiyo" and "ga" as described above, so it is input after being converted into a form to be displayed on the input buffer. In S <sub>11</sub> of Figure 9, the parenthetical code is searched from the contents of Figure 10 a, and in this case (because <sub>the 2</sub> code is suddenly detected, this code is converted to the 〓 <sub>2</sub> code in S <sub>12</sub> , and further after that) The code is converted to a 〓 code (section 10b). The 〓 <sub>2</sub> , 〓 code, and <sub>〓</sub> code are each displayed as <sub>double</sub> brackets, but they are different codes that can be distinguished as codes. 1
Parentheses, meaning the second parenthesis. Because the code is converted in this way, the parentheses near the beginning of the called example sentence are displayed as double parentheses. That is, after all the example sentences are displayed by the above-described typing display, the single parenthesis near the beginning changes to the display of double parentheses. After that, if you enter the character key, S <sub>3</sub> → S <sub>8</sub> → S <sub>14</sub>
→ Proceed to <sub>S15</sub> (in the initial state, flag <sub>F3</sub> is in the reset state). In <sub>S15</sub> , a double parenthesis code, ie, 〓 <sub>2</sub> or 〓 <sub>2</sub> and 〓 code is searched in the input buffer IB, and its position (cursor position) is stored.
At <sub>S16</sub> , a space code is entered within the double parentheses. After Funatsugu <sub>F3</sub> is set in <sub>S17</sub> , the character code input by key is entered in double parentheses in <sub>S18</sub> . Thereafter, each time a character key is input, the sequence advances from S <sub>14</sub> to S <sub>18</sub> , and the word is input within double parentheses. In addition,
If you enter a word with more characters than the number of characters in the double parentheses shown at the beginning as an example sentence, enter the character code entered using the key while shifting all the character codes after the code to the right. I'm going to go. Therefore, it is possible to key-in words that have more characters than the words in parentheses in the example sentence.
Note that since the position of the code has already been detected in <sub>S14</sub> , the above relationship can be determined from the relationship with the cursor position that moves each time a key is input. After that, if you press the ( ) key, S <sub>2</sub> → S <sub>20</sub> → S <sub>21</sub>
→S <sub>22</sub> (Flag F <sub>2</sub> is set in S <sub>19.</sub> ) In S <sub>22</sub> , the words in double parentheses in the input buffer IB are read out and matched with the words previously stored in memory. A determination is made. At this time, the distinction as to whether the double parenthesis is the first parenthesis or the second parenthesis and the position information of the double parenthesis have already been stored in another storage area in S <sub>15</sub> , so in S <sub>22</sub> the double parenthesis is The words in the memory are read out and compared with the words in the memory, and if a matching word is found, the word number is stored in the storage unit NB1 or NB2. That is, if the word is in the first parenthesis, it is stored in the storage unit NB1, and if it is in the second parenthesis, it is stored in the storage unit NB2. If there is no matching item, processing for "not applicable" is performed in <sub>S24</sub> . Otherwise, proceed as S <sub>25</sub> → S <sub>26</sub> , and after flag F <sub>2</sub> is reset, double brackets become single brackets in S <sub>26</sub> ,
Single brackets are converted to double brackets. This also determines the contents of the input buffer IB code by code,
It is converted as follows. ( <sub>1</sub> → 〓 <sub>2</sub> ( <sub>2</sub> → 〓 <sub>2</sub> 〓 <sub>1</sub> → ( <sub>1</sub> 〓 <sub>2</sub> → ( <sub>2</sub> ) → 〓 〓 →) This causes the position of the double brackets to change on the display. The new double brackets If you want to convert the word to another word, continue to input the character keys in this state.
This operation is performed in the same way as inputting a word into the parentheses described above. In other words, proceed as S <sub>3</sub> → S <sub>8</sub> → S <sub>14</sub> → S <sub>15</sub> , and newly 2
Words are entered where the double brackets appear. Next, press the translation key to advance from S <sub>1</sub> to S <sub>27</sub> .
An example sentence corresponding to the translation of the example sentence read in <sub>S9</sub> is read from the memory of the language specified as the foreign language. This means that when an example sentence in the native language is read out in <sub>S9</sub> , the sentence number is memorized, and in <sub>S27</sub> , an example sentence with the same sentence number as that sentence number is read out. After reading, it is determined in <sub>S28</sub> whether the content of the word storage unit NB1 is 0 or not, but since the word number of the word input in the first parenthesis is stored in <sub>S22</sub> , the process advances to <sub>S29</sub> → <sub>S30</sub> (S28). The determination of <sub>28</sub> can be said to be a determination of whether or not the word in parentheses has been changed based on the fact that the word number starts from 1 and that it is first set to 0 in <sub>S13</sub> .) In <sub>S29</sub> , S The first example sentence in a foreign language called in <sub>27</sub>
Clear what is inside the parentheses. This also corresponds to searching in the input buffer IB, finding the first parenthetical code, and removing the word inside the parentheses. continue
At S <sub>30</sub> , enter the first word of NB in the other language in the parentheses. NB The first foreign language word is the foreign language word (translation) corresponding to the word already entered in the first parenthesis using the key. Similarly, S <sub>31</sub> →S <sub>32</sub> →
Proceeding to S <sub>33</sub> , the word in the second parenthesis is also converted into a translated word. The contents of the input buffer IB partially changed in this way are displayed all at once in <sub>S7</sub> . In the above example, the contents of both parentheses were changed, but for example, if only the second parenthesis was changed, S <sub>28</sub> →
The sequence goes from S <sub>29</sub> →S <sub>30</sub> →S <sub>31</sub> →S <sub>37</sub> , and the contents of the first parenthesis are the contents of the memory stored in advance as an example sentence and are displayed as they are. Therefore, it is not necessary to find a translation for the word in the first parenthesis from the memory, and the time required to translate the example sentence can be shortened. Next, each specification that characterizes the electronic translator according to the present invention will be explained. (Explanation of specifications of electronic translator) (1) Display An example is shown in Fig. 1. The character display section 2 displays alphabets, katakana, numbers, and symbols. The indicator is a symbol “▲” indicating the native language
and the symbol "〓" indicating other languages corresponds to English, German, Japanese, French, Spanish, and the languages shown in Figures 6 and 7, and an indicator that lights up when a polysemous word is translated (polysemous ), an indicator that lights up (kana) that allows you to enter katakana, an indicator that specifies when calling a sentence or word (sentence or word), and a “〓” symbol that lights up when there is a case that is grammatically incorrect when translated. There is. These displays are displayed on the DISPLAY shown in Figure 2.
It can be displayed by writing data compatible with the 1chip microcomputer to CONTROL & DRIVER 11. (2) Concept of translation According to the system configuration shown in Figure 2, this electronic translator is capable of mutual translation between three countries. As shown in FIG. 4, one language ROM stores sentences and words, and these have a 1:1 correspondence between each language ROM. These correspondences are made using text numbers common to all language ROMs,
This is the word number. For example, if the 100th sentence in the English language ROM is "GOODMORNING.", then the 100th sentence in the Japanese language ROM is "GOODMORNING."
The second sentence is ``Ohayo'', which is arranged so that in German it would be ``GUTENMORGEN''. The same is true for words, as in the English ROM.
If the 500th word is "SEE", the 500th word in the Japanese language ROM is "mil", and in German it is "SEHEN". In other words, there is a 1:1 correspondence between each language ROM based on one semantic concept, and translation with this electronic translator means that the sentence or word is first It means finding out which number is given and then retrieving the sentence or word corresponding to that number in the foreign language ROM. The translation function can be broken down and expressed in the following steps. First step - Select the language ROM to be your native language. Second step - Find out what number the sentence or word is numbered in the selected language ROM. Third step - Select the language ROM to another language. Fourth step - From the number found in the second step, derive the sentence or word corresponding to this number in the selected language ROM. (3) Translation of sentences by calling categories As shown in the language format in Figure 4, the language
The ROM has an area for storing sentences, and these sentences are classified and arranged in each category. The classification into categories is related to the calling method of sentences, and L <sub>1</sub> , L <sub>2</sub> ... in Figure 1 are classified into categories.
L <sub>14</sub> keys arranged in an L shape indicate category classification. These keys become effective for calling sentences after the "sentence/word" key is pressed and the indicator "sentence" lights up. For example, if you press the "Sentence/Word" key and then press the key corresponding to L <sub>3</sub> ("Le"), the first of the third category will be displayed.
text is called. One category contains several sentences, and when you press the ``search'' key, these sentences are called up in sequence, and when you reach the end of the category, you return to the first sentence. Thus, in the example of Figure 1, the text is 14
classified into categories. When you call up a sentence, find its number at the same time, and press the ``Translate'' key, and the sentence will be translated from the third step of translation shown in section (2). The function of translating sentences by calling categories is broken down into the following steps. 1st step - Select the language ROM as your native language 2nd step - Press the "Sentence/Word" key to light up the indicator "Sentence" 3rd step - Press the category key (any one of L <sub>1</sub> to L <sub>14</sub> ) . Fourth step--Sequentially call up sentences using the "Search" key. (The sentence number is found in this step.) Press the "Translate" key here to enter the next step. Fifth step - Select the language ROM to another language. Sixth step - From the number found in the fourth step in the selected language ROM, derive the sentence corresponding to this number. (4) Translation of the entered word Enter the spelling of the word using the letter keys and press the "Translate" key to translate the word from the native language indicated by the indicator into another language. In this case, the following may occur regarding the input spelling. If there is no word corresponding to the spelling entered in the language ROM selected as the native language. If there is only one word in the language ROM selected as your native language that matches the spelling you entered; If there are multiple words that match the spelling you entered in the language ROM you selected as your native language. ) is when the input word is not in the language ROM and after the spelling entered to indicate this! ! Mark. For example, if the word ABALONE is not in the ROM, pressing the "Translate" key will
ABALONE! ! is displayed. ) is a case where the input word is in the native language ROM, the word number in the native language ROM is found, the foreign language ROM is then selected, and the word corresponding to this number is retrieved and displayed. For example, the meaning concept of the 500th word is "see"
If so, the 500th word in the English ROM is "SEE" and the 500th word in the Japanese ROM is "mil". Now, if you select English ROM as your native language, enter SEE and press the "Translate" key, the word will be drawn from the beginning of the word area in Figure 4 and matched with the input spelling. If there is no match, a counter that stores the word number is incremented, and the next word is moved on to find a match. In this way, when you reach the position containing "SEE" and a match is established, the word number at that time is 500.
It's my turn. Next, select Japanese ROM as the other language,
Pull out the 500th word in the word area. Naturally, this word is "mil". In other words, when you lead in SEE and press the translation key, "mil" will be displayed and the word will be translated. ) are cases of homographs, and these words are given annotation codes as shown in Figure 5.
It is up to the person using the electronic translator to decide which meaning to take. First, an annotation is added after the input spelling to indicate that the input word has the same spelling but a different meaning. of! ? Mark. For example, if we take WATCH as an example, first,
Lead in with WATCH and press the "Translate" key, WATCH (CLOCK)! ? Now, if you press the "Search" key, other words with homographs will be shown. WATCH(SEE)! ? WATCH (CLOCK)! ? or WATCH(SEE)! ? is displayed, then click "Translate"
When you press the key, the corresponding translation will be displayed in the same way as ). When a word with such an annotation is translated, the polysemous word indicator shown in FIG. 1 lights up. This indicator indicates that the translated word has other meanings. (5) Translation of multiple words You can lead in two or more words and translate them. The "space" key is used for multiple word lead-ins. You can lead in a spelling and press the "space" key to lead in the next word if that word is in your native language ROM. If the lead-in word is not in the native language or is a homograph, the results are the same as in (4)) and 〓). For example, I,
Assuming that the words AM, A, and BOY are in the ROM, if you enter I "space" AM "space" A "space" BOY, I AM A BOY will be displayed. If you press the "Translate" key here, the other language will be changed to Japanese.
In the case of ROM, it is displayed as ``Watashiha Des Hitotsuno Shiyounen''. In this way, when translating multiple words,
It simply translates word-to-word, regardless of word order or grammar.
Therefore, if we consider these as one sentence,
The entered text is grammatically correct, but when translated, the text is usually incorrect. To indicate this, if the above interpretation is made, the 〓 indicator in FIG. 1 is lit. (6) ( ) Word input and translation of sentences with parentheses As shown in Figure 8, sentences stored in the language ROM can be translated by changing the words or phrases in them. These variable parts are indicated by parentheses ( ) when calling the text. Suppose that the following example sentence shown in Figure 8 is called by the method described in section (3). A LITTLE MORE (MILK) PLEASE. The content of the Japanese ROM corresponding to this sentence is the 8th.
d is shown in Figure d. If you press the ``Translate'' key without changing anything in parentheses, ``(milk)'' will be displayed. If you use COFFEE as the lead-in in the English sentence above, the display will be A LITTLE MORE (COFFEE)
PLEASE. If you press the "Translate" key here, it will say (coffee). is displayed. However, this is the case when the word COFFEE is accommodated in the English ROM, and the other
This is the same as the processing of ) and ) in paragraph (4). The translation when ( ) is changed is shown in the following steps. Calling the example sentences with ( ) is shown in the 1st to 4th steps of section (3), so if you write it from the 5th step, the word will be lead-in to the 5th step ( ),
Press the "Translate" key. 6th step Selected native language
Find words with the same spelling as the input word and their numbers in the ROM. Here, if there is no word equivalent to the spelling you entered, or if there are multiple equivalent words,
The same processing as in (4)) and ) is performed, but in the case of (4)), proceed to the next step. 7th step Select a ROM in another language. 8th step: Pull out the sentence corresponding to the already memorized sentence number from the selected foreign language ROM and put it into the buffer register. At this time, the ( ) code is also stored in the buffer register. 9th step The word corresponding to the word number found in the 6th step is extracted from the selected foreign language ROM, and the word in the parentheses ( ) indicated by the ( ) code stored in the buffer register in the 8th step Put the word in. Use the ``( )'' key to lead into a sentence with two ( ) characters. I WANT (2) TICKETS TO
(TOKYO). When you call up the example sentence, the previous parentheses are shown as double parentheses, allowing you to lead into the double parentheses. When you press the ( ) key, the double ( ) moves from the front to the back, allowing you to lead into the next ( ). The translation procedure after lead-in is the same as the above steps. (7) Non-translation function For things that cannot be translated, such as people's names and proper nouns, you can use the "HLP" key to hold the character and press the "Translate" key to translate it without going through the translation process. Display the character as it is. This electronic translator also achieves the same functionality as described below. If you enter a spelling that is not generally stored in the language ROM, such as a person's name or proper noun, and press the "Translate" key, it will work as described in section (4)! ! It will be displayed with a mark, but if you press the "Translate" key again in this state, it will be processed in the same way as if you pressed the "HLD" key above. This function can be called the HOLD function. (8) AUTO HOLD function 0~9,〓,・,：,? Numbers and symbols such as "HLD" are used if there are no other characters in the word.
The function in item (7) is performed automatically without pressing any key. (9) Calling up category words As shown in Figure 4, words are classified and arranged into several categories, and these words can be called up by category in the same way as sentences. (10) Word spelling search All words containing the input spelling can be randomly searched. (11) Actual Key Operation Example Here, an actual Key operation example is shown below. (A) Translation of words Enter the spelling of a word and press the "Translate" key to translate the input word into the corresponding target language as your native language. If you connect and press the "Translate" key, the original native language will be displayed, and then the native language and the other language will be displayed alternately in reverse.

[Table] 〓 indicates NOT FOUND. Use the "Search" key to find words similar to TREES! ? mark to indicate that the machine is asking if it is a TREE.

[Table] At this time, the polysemous word indicator 〓 lights up, indicating that the polysemous word has been translated. LOVE has two parts, a noun and a verb, LOVE (THE)! ? indicates that you are asking whether it is the noun LOVE.
When you press the "Search" key, LOVE (TO)! ? and asks if it is the verb LOVE. (Example 5) ABC “translation” ABC! ! "Translation" ABC "Translation" ABC ABC is spelled NOT FOUND,
This shows that this is treated like a proper noun (hold processing is performed. In this case, ABC becomes an untranslated word. (B) Word-to-word translation By using the "Space" key, you can You can perform word-to-word translation side by side.
When you press the "Space" key, the display remains as the input word, but it is actually translating! ! ，! ? Regarding marks, the same applies as in paragraph (5) above.

[Table] When translating word-to-word pairs, there are cases where inflections, word order, etc. are grammatically incorrect, so the 〓 symbol is lit after all word-to-word translations. (C) HOLD (non-translation) function (``HLD'' key) For things that cannot be translated, such as people's names and proper nouns, the ``HLD'' key holds the character and does not translate only this character.

[Table] If you press the "Translation" key without pressing the "HLD" key, OSAKA will become NOT FOUND, but if you press the "Translation" key subsequently, OSAKA will be held and the same result as the above example will occur.

【table】

[Table] (D) AUTO HOLD function 0 to 9, 〓, ・, :,? If there are no other characters in the sequence, the numbers and symbols in "HLD"
It will be held automatically without pressing any key.

[Table] (E) Calling up example sentences and translation To call up example sentences, press the ``Sentence/Word'' key to light up the ``Sentence'' indicator, then use the Category key to call up the first example sentence of the corresponding category. Furthermore, by using the "Search" key, example sentences are sequentially called up within that category. After calling up the desired example sentence, the example sentence is translated by pressing the "translation" key. Further, use the next "Search" key to sequentially search for example sentences.

[Table] (F) () After inputting the word of the example sentence with parentheses and calling up the translated example sentence, if you lead in a character, the word in parentheses will be cleared and the input character will be inserted.

【table】

【table】

【table】

【table】

【table】

【table】

[Table] F.
(G) Mutual translation between three countries By combining the language function and translation function, mutual translation between three countries is possible: word translation, word-to-word translation, and example sentence translation.

[Table] (H) Calling and interpretation of category words Words are classified and arranged into several categories. The first 14 categories are the same as those in the example sentences, and the way they are called is also the same as in the example sentences.

【table】 …
Words are classified into one of 47 categories, and words in the same category as the currently input word can be recalled one after another.

[Table] However, the above specifications are valid only when only one word is input. After translating with the "Translation" key, call up the next word using the "Search" key. (I) Word spelling search Randomly searches for all words containing the input spelling. Homographs are output continuously.

[Table] If you want to continue searching after translating with the "Translate" key, press the "Translate" key again to return to the original native language, and then press the "Search" key to restart. (Different from category search.) If the input word has 4 or more characters, cut down to 4 characters and start from all words containing these 4 characters. If there is no word that includes the input spelling, the input spelling is reduced by one and the search is performed.

[Table] The "C/ON" key is valid during a search and can clear the search.

[Table] As explained above, according to the electronic translator of the present invention, if there is a part that can be changed in the sentence example called up by specifying a category, that part is automatically displayed so that it can be recognized. If necessary, you can change that part and then translate it. Therefore, the number of sentence examples stored in the language ROM is limited by its memory capacity, but since it is possible to load them from the language ROM, make partial changes, and then translate them, the memory of the language ROM is limited. It has the great effect of being able to translate a very large number of sentence examples compared to its capacity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is an external view of an embodiment of an electronic translator according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a system configuration diagram of the same machine, and Figure 3 is a diagram of the system configuration of the same machine.
Figure a is the internal configuration diagram of the 1-chip microcomputer in Figure 2, and Figure 3b is the diagram in Figure 2.
The internal configuration diagram of DISPLAY CONTROL & DRIVER, Figure 4 is a format diagram of the language ROM used in the machine, Figure 5 is a detailed diagram of the word area shown in Figure 4, and Figure 6 is the word area shown in Figure 5. A diagram showing the characters, compression codes and control codes used; FIG. 7 is a detailed diagram of the compression table in the language ROM format of FIG. 4; FIG. 8a-
Fig. d is a detailed view of the text area of the language ROM format shown in Fig. 4, Fig. 9 is a view used to explain the operation of the machine, and Fig. 10 is a view showing a display state used to explain Fig. 9. In the figure, 1: main body, 4, 10: display section, 7: key section, 12: key matrix, 13: 1-chip microcomputer, 14-16: language ROM
~.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An example sentence belonging to a desired category in an input language.
In an electronic translator that can be read from a ROM and translated into an output language using an output language ROM, when there is a part that can be changed in the example sentence called from the input language ROM by specifying a category,
means for displaying the sentence example so that the part can be automatically recognized; a memory buffer for storing the content when the content of the changeable part is changed; A means for determining whether a changeable part has been changed based on the presence or absence of contents of a memory buffer, and an output language.
means for clearing a portion corresponding to the changeable portion in the corresponding text example called from the ROM, and for calling and displaying an output language corresponding to the changed content in the cleared portion from the output language ROM; An electronic translator that is characterized by: