JPS6411988B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to an electronic translator, and in particular, it stores example sentences such as sentences in advance, and by reading them out at will, displays the stored sentences or pronounces them as audio. Regarding electronic translators.

Conventional electronic translators store word information and sentence information related to different languages in advance in a read-on memory (hereinafter referred to as ROM), specify the desired word or sentence in some way, and then translate the word or sentence information into another language. It was used as a dictionary or translator by displaying or pronouncing words and sentences.

However, when trying to have a conversation with a foreigner using this electronic translator while traveling abroad, various problems arise. For example, you can ask someone a question by displaying the desired sentence on an electronic translator and showing it to the other person or pronouncing it audibly, but if the other person asks a question, reply immediately. I can't. Therefore, I memorize example sentences in an electronic translator in advance,
When the other party asks a question, it would be convenient if one could immediately select an appropriate example sentence from among the sample sentences and display it for the other person to see, or pronounce it audibly.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to store example sentences such as question sentences and response sentences in advance, and to display or pronounce any one of the stored example sentences by external reading operation. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electronic translation device that can be used.

To summarize, this invention stores in advance a question sentence and an example sentence as a response sentence corresponding to this question sentence,
A question sentence or a response sentence can be distinguished and arbitrarily expressed by an external read operation.

The above objects and other objects and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description given below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the appearance of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a keyboard 1 includes a plurality of keys for inputting alphabets, katakana, symbols, etc., and function keys for executing various functions such as translation. The keys L1 to L14 included in this keyboard 1 are also used as keys of a category designation means for reading interrogative sentences or affirmative sentences by category. That is, L
1 is for reading multiple interrogative sentences or affirmative sentences required for conversation at an airport, etc., and L2 is for reading interrogative sentences or affirmative sentences required for conversation at a hotel, etc. put out. Further, the key 41 is also used as a question sentence specifying means for specifying an interrogative sentence, and the key 42 is also used as a response sentence specifying means for specifying an affirmative sentence. A key 43 serving as a text search means is operated when searching for a desired text from among a plurality of interrogative sentences or affirmative sentences included in the same category.
The key 44 is used to display a corresponding response sentence (affirmative sentence) when a question sentence (interrogative sentence) is displayed, and to display a corresponding question sentence when a response sentence is displayed.

The display section 2 includes a character display section 3, a language display section 4 that displays symbols indicating the currently designated native language and another language, and an interrogative sentence that indicates that the content displayed on the character display section 3 is an interrogative sentence. It is comprised of a display section 46 and an affirmative sentence display section 47 that indicates that the content displayed on the character display section 3 is an affirmative sentence. For example, a liquid crystal display device is used as the display section 2. The character display section 3 has a structure of 31 (5.times.7) dots per digit, and each symbol in the language display section 4 and various symbol display sections 5 has a one-segment structure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the general structure of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, character display on the display section 2, lighting and non-lighting of each symbol, etc. are controlled by an output signal from a display drive control section 6. The key matrix circuit 7 constitutes the keyboard 1 shown in FIG. 1, and is connected, for example, to a key strobe signal output terminal and a key input terminal of a one-chip microcomputer 8 constituting a readout control means. The language ROMs 9 to 11 store sentences, words, etc. in the electronic translator in advance. In this example, 1
Two ROMs support one language. (i.e.
For example, the language ROM 9 is predetermined as English, the language ROM 10 as Japanese, and the language ROM 11 as German. ) Also, language ROM9 (English
ROM) is a replaceable
The language ROMs 10 and 11 are configured as ROMs that can be arbitrarily replaced as modules.

These language ROMs 9, 10 and 11 are connected to the one-chip microcomputer 8 by an address bus 12 and a data bus 13.
And chip select signals CE1, CE2, CE
3 by desired language ROM 9, 10 or 11
Select one of the selected language ROM
Thus, sentences or words can be read out to the one-chip microcomputer 8. Note that the chip select signal CE4 is a chip select signal of the display drive control section 6. Further, the read/write signal R/W specifies whether to read or write.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the one-chip microcomputer 8 shown in FIG. 2.
In the figure, an instruction ROM 14 stores instructions (usually coded) for controlling the execution of each function of the electronic translator.
By sequentially raising the ROM address register 15, the instructions are sequentially output from the ROM 14. When the instruction is given to the CPU 16,
The CPU 16 decodes it and executes predetermined processing. The one-chip microcomputer 8 also includes a control logic circuit 17, an arithmetic logic circuit 18, an accumulator (ACC) 19, an internal data bus 20, a data RAM 21, and a RAM address register 22. The data RAM 21 is
It is used for temporary storage of data required to execute each function of an electronic translator, or as a conditional flip-flop for program branching. In this data RAM 21, data is written by the CPU 16 into an area specified by the RAM address register 22, and data is read from the area to the CPU 16. The output buffer register 23 is for outputting a keystrope signal (KS).
The output of the output buffer register 23 is given to the key matrix circuit 7 as a key strobe signal KS, and the key matrix circuit 7
The output signal from CPU1 is used as the key input signal KI.
6.

The external memory address register 24 is used to set the addresses of the language ROMs 9, 10, and 11 as external memories and the RAM included in the display drive control section 6 (described later in FIG. 4).
Its output is connected to address bus 12.
The CPU 16 controls the incrementing and decrementing of this address register and the setting of arbitrary values. Also, CPU
16 is the external memory data bus 1 shown in FIG.
The data bus 13 is connected to the data bus 13, and data can be transferred to and from an external memory via the data bus 13. The direction of data transfer from the CPU 16 to the external memory or from the external memory to the CPU 16 is controlled by the read/write signal R/W.

Flip-flops 25 to 28 are respectively
It is set or reset by a set/reset control logic circuit 29 controlled by an output signal from the CPU 16. The outputs of these flip-flops 25 to 28 are led out as chip select signals CE1 to CE4, respectively. These chip select signals CE1 to CE3 are for selecting the language ROMs 9 to 11 as described above, and are the chip select signals CE1 to CE3.
CE4 selects the display drive control section 6.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the display drive control section shown in FIG. 2. In the figure, the display drive control section 6 includes a RAM 30, an address decoder 31, an address buffer 32, a common electrode signal generation section 33, and a segment buffer 34. Each bit of the RAM 30 corresponds to each dot (segment) of the display section 2 on a one-to-one basis. That is, when a ``1'' is written to a certain bit in the RAM 30, a dot (segment) on the display section 2 corresponding to this bit lights up, and when a ``0'' is written, a dot (segment) corresponding to that bit lights up. is not lit. Segment electrode signals S1, S2 and S3 are signals for symbol display, and segment electrode signals S4 to Sn are signals for character display. The common electrode signals H1 to H7 are signals applied to the common electrode of the display section 2.

Figure 5 shows the language ROM format.
It is a ROM format diagram. In the diagram, language
ROM is roughly divided into control data area CDA, compression table area CTA, text area SA, and word area.
It consists of each area of WA.

Note that the spelling of words is not stored as is, but is compressed and stored in the language ROM. For example, in the case of English ROM,
The spelling "AN" (character example) is converted into one compressed code (one-byte code) CC1, and the spelling "BA" is converted into a compressed code CC2 and stored. Similarly, some frequently occurring spellings of English words are selected, and the selected spellings are converted into corresponding compressed codes and stored. The correspondence between each of the selected spellings and the compressed code is stored in the compressed table area CTA. More specifically, when matching an input word with a word stored in the language ROM, the input word is converted into a code string including a compressed code based on a single-word compression table, and then the word is stored in the language ROM. The structure is such that the words (stored in the form of a code string including compressed codes) are sequentially compared. Also, language
The compression table is also used to restore the original spelling of a word stored in the ROM for display.

The compression table differs depending on each language, and is determined to give the highest compression rate for each language.

In addition, words are classified into 47 categories and arranged in order for each category (in Figure 4, WG1 is a word group of category 1, WG2 is a word group of category 1,
is category 2 word group WG3 is category 3
word group, WG4 is a word group of category 4, WG5 is a word group of category 5, WG
6 is a storage area for storing word groups of category 6, WG47 is a storage area for storing word groups of category 47, respectively.

On the other hand, a sentence is also composed of a collection of compressed words. In addition, sentences are similarly classified into 14 categories and arranged sequentially for each category (in Figure 4, SG1 stores a group of sentences [S1-1,...S1-i1] belonging to category 1). A storage area, SG2, stores a group of sentences [S2-1,...S2-i2] belonging to category 2, ...SG14 stores a group of sentences [S14-1, ...S14-i14] that belongs to category 14. storage area).

Note that each of the 1st to 14th categories in the word area WA is configured to be the same as the same category in the text area SA.

Also, words are divided into 256 words, and the address of the first word of each of these 256 words (more precisely, the address of the area where the first character code or compression code of the first word is stored). N0, N1, N2, N3, N in Figure 4
4,...) are stored in the word start address table area WSTA as word start addresses. In addition, in this embodiment, since the address is expressed in 2 bytes, each start address is expressed by the upper byte (NO(H),...Ni(H)) and the lower byte (NO(L),...Ni(L). )) and are stored separately. The word start address table is used to shorten the processing time when finding a word corresponding to a certain number.

Further, CSA is a text area start address storage area that stores the start address CS (CS(H), CS(L)) of the text area SA.

Also, LNA is the word number LN of the language name (LN(H),
This is a storage area that stores LN(L)). Here, the definition of the word number LN of the language name is as follows. For example, if it is an English ROM, one of its memorized words is the word "ENGLISH" (i.e.
(a word indicating the language name of the language ROM) is included. The word number LN of the language name is the word number of the word indicating the language name of the language ROM. Note that the word number is a number indicating the number of a certain word stored in the word area WA, counting from the first word.

The example sentence area EA is included in the sentence area SA, and stores a plurality of example sentences for each category. A plurality of example sentences are stored, each including a question sentence serving as an interrogative sentence and a plurality of affirmative sentences serving as a response sentence corresponding to the question sentence. Interrogative sentences and affirmative sentences are distinguished by the question mark or full stop code that is part of the example sentence. For this purpose, a code representing a question mark (?) QSM or a full stop (.) ASM is stored corresponding to each interrogative sentence QS or affirmative sentence AS. Note that this code is displayed as a question mark or a full stop when displaying an example sentence on the display unit 2, but for languages that do not use signs equivalent to question marks or full stops, the code is detected as being in that language. The above code is not displayed. Each example sentence of interrogative sentence QS or affirmative sentence AS is classified by code.
Classified by BC1. And for each example sentence,
If there is an affirmative sentence, multiple interrogative sentence numbers ASN and QSN are added. That is, the interrogative sentence QS stores the number ASN of the example sentence that becomes its response sentence AS, and each response sentence AS has a number QSN added to it that becomes its interrogative sentence. These example sentences are classified into each category and stored in a predetermined area, and the category classification code BC2 is the code that performs the classification, and the category search described below is performed by detecting and counting this classification code. It is carried out with

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the specific operation of one embodiment of the present invention.

Next, the specific operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6. First, when displaying a question sentence, the key 41 is operated. When the key 41 is operated, a corresponding key code signal is given from the key matrix circuit 7 to the microcomputer 8. The microcomputer 8 constantly determines whether or not a key code signal has been supplied, and when it determines that a key code signal has been supplied, it determines whether or not it is a translation key. If it is a translation key, it is input from the keyboard 1, and a translation of, for example, an English sentence into Japanese is read out and displayed on the character display section 3. If it is not a translation key, it is determined whether it is a key 41 for specifying an interrogative sentence. When it is determined that the key 41 is pressed, a flag F1 indicating that the interrogative sentence reading mode is set is set. With this flag F1 set, the interrogative sentence display section 46 representing the interrogative sentence included in the display section 2 is lit.

Next, a desired key among the category keys L1 to L14 is operated. microcomputer 8
When determining that a category key, for example L1, has been operated, it detects an area corresponding to that category. At this time, since the flag F1 representing an interrogative sentence is set, the microcomputer 8 reads out the first interrogative sentence QS in the specified category included in the example sentence area EA and stores it in the example sentence buffer SB. At this time, the question sentence read out
An output example sentence number, eg, "1," indicating that QS is the first in the category, is stored in the output example sentence number buffer SN. Furthermore, the example sentence number ASN1 of the area ASN added to the interrogative sentence QS is stored in the example sentence number buffer NBI. Then, it is determined whether a question mark code exists in the area QSN corresponding to the example sentence stored in the example sentence buffer SB. If the question mark code does not exist,
In other words, if it is an affirmative sentence, the output example sentence number
Count up the SN and read the next example sentence. If a question mark code exists, the example sentence stored in the example sentence buffer SB is displayed on the character display section 3.

If the interrogative sentence displayed on the character display section 3 is not the desired interrogative sentence, the search key 43 is operated. In response to the operation of the search key 43, the microcomputer 8 outputs the output example sentence number
count up. When it is determined that the flag F1 is set, the example sentence corresponding to the counted up output example sentence number is read out.
By repeating the above-described operations, interrogative sentences as example sentences included in the category corresponding to the category key L1 are sequentially displayed. When the last interrogative sentence included in the category is read out, when BC2 is read out and the microcomputer 8 detects this, the example sentences in the same category are read out again sequentially starting from the first example sentence.

When a desired interrogative sentence is displayed on the character display section 3, if it is desired to display an affirmative sentence corresponding to this interrogative sentence, the answer/question key 44 is operated. Accordingly, the microcomputer 8 is the example sentence number Batsuhua NBI
The affirmative sentence corresponding to the example sentence number, for example ASN1, stored in is read out and displayed on the character display section 3. When the answer/question key 44 is operated again, the example sentence number buffer NBI is counted up, and ASN2 corresponding to the next example sentence number is read out and displayed. Therefore, by operating the answer/question key 44,
A desired affirmative sentence corresponding to the initially displayed interrogative sentence can be displayed.

Next, if an affirmative sentence is to be displayed as an example sentence, the key 42 for specifying the affirmative sentence is operated. When the key 42 is operated, a flag F2 indicating the affirmative sentence reading mode is set. Then, by operating any category key, the first affirmative sentence included in that category is read out. The read affirmative sentence is stored in the example sentence buffer SB in the same manner as for interrogative sentences, and the example sentence number of the interrogative sentence corresponding to the affirmative sentence is stored in the example sentence number buffer NBI. Thereafter, the interrogative sentence is displayed on the character display section 3 by the same operation as in the case of the interrogative sentence described above. At this time, by operating the search key 43, affirmative sentences included in that category are displayed in sequence, and by operating the answer/question key 44, the corresponding interrogative sentences are displayed.

As described above, according to this embodiment, a desired interrogative sentence or affirmative sentence can be read out within a short time. Furthermore, since the keys for specifying interrogative sentences and the keys for specifying affirmative sentences are also used as conventional keys, key operations can be performed easily without increasing the number of keys.

In the above-described embodiment, example sentences as interrogative sentences or affirmative sentences are stored in the ROM in advance, but the present invention is not limited to this, and any example sentence may be input from the keyboard 1. In this case, in addition to providing RAM instead of ROM, a mode for setting example sentences is provided, and in that mode, any example sentence can be entered from keyboard 1.
All you have to do is store it in RAM.

Further, in the above embodiment, the read example sentence is displayed on the character display section 3, but the example sentence is not limited to this, and the example sentence may be pronounced as voice.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, each time the search key 43 is operated, the questions or affirmative sentences stored at the beginning of the text area EA are sequentially read out. hand,
Interrogative sentences or affirmative sentences may be sequentially read out automatically by the CPU 16. Then, reading by the CPU 16 may be stopped when the search key 43 is operated again or when another key is operated.

Alternatively, the area in which interrogative sentences or affirmative sentences to be displayed may be specified by using the numerical keys 0 to 9 included in the keyboard 1, and the text information to be read may be specified.

Further, when the answer/question key 44 is operated to read the corresponding sentences, the corresponding sentences are automatically read out in sequence according to the operation of the answer/question key 44,
Reading may be stopped when the answer/question key 44 is operated again.

Furthermore, the character display section can be configured to display multiple example sentences, and by displaying multiple response sentences on each display section and asking the other party to point out a suitable example sentence with their finger, it is possible to find out the other person's intentions. can.

As described above, according to the present invention, example sentences as question sentences or response sentences can be stored, and a desired example sentence can be specified and read out. Since the operator knows whether the example sentence to be read is a question sentence or a response sentence, the target example sentence can be limited and the example sentence can be read out in a short time. can. Furthermore, when the other party asks a question, a response to the question can be read out in a short time. Furthermore, when you are traveling abroad and the other person asks you a question, you can read out an appropriate response and either show it to the other person or pronounce it audibly, so if you use an electronic translator to ask the other person a question, You can also have the other person operate this electronic translator and get the other person to answer the question.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the appearance of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the microcomputer included in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the display drive control section included in FIG. 2. Fifth
The figure shows the format of the language ROM.
FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the specific operation of one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1...Keyboard, 2...Display section, 3...Character display section, 41...Question sentence specification key, 42...Affirmative sentence specification key, 43...Search key, 44...Answer/question key , 6...Display control drive unit, 7...Matrix circuit, 8...Microcomputer, 9 to 11...Language ROM.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A memory that stores in advance first text information in the form of a plurality of question sentences and second text information in the form of a response sentence corresponding to each of the plurality of first text information. means for sequentially specifying the question text or the response text; a reading device for sequentially reading out corresponding first or second text information from the storage means according to the specification by the text format specifying means; comprising: a control means; and an expression means for expressing the first or second text information read by the reading control means;
Electronic translator. 2. The readout control means includes readout start designation means for specifying text information to start reading out, and the readout control means uses the readout start designation means to select from a plurality of first or second text information stored in the storage means. 2. An electronic translator according to claim 1, wherein text information specified by a user is read out. 3. The reading control means sequentially reads out the plurality of first or second text information in response to the operation of the text specifying means, and the text specifying means reads the first or second text information from the storage means. The electronic translator according to claim 1, further comprising means for stopping reading of the second text information. 4. The storage means stores the plurality of first or second
includes category designating means for storing the text information by category, and designating first or second text information of either category, and the readout control means stores the text information in the category designated by the category designation means. An electronic translation machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the electronic translator reads out first or second text information included in the text. 5. The storage means stores a code indicating that the plurality of first text information in the form of a question is a question, corresponding to each of the first text information in the plurality of question text formats, and stores a code indicating that the plurality of second text information in the response text format is A code indicating that it is a response sentence corresponding to each is stored, and the sentence format designation means includes: a question sentence designation means for designating first sentence information in the question sentence format; and a first sentence information in the response sentence format. response sentence designation means for specifying the text information of item 2, and the readout control means includes a code indicating that the question text is attached in response to the operation of the question text designation means. The first text information is read out, and in response to the operation of the response text designation means, the second text information to which a code representing the response text is attached is read out. The electronic translator according to any one of items 1 to 4. 6. The storage means stores codes representing second text information in a response text format corresponding to each of the first text information in the plurality of question text formats, and stores codes representing second text information in the response text format, respectively. A code representing first text information in a question format corresponding to each piece of text information is stored, and second text information corresponding to the first text information or a first text information corresponding to the second text information is stored. The reading control means includes a corresponding sentence designation means for reading out information, and the reading control means is configured to, in response to the operation of the corresponding sentence designation means, write information attached to the first or second text information designated immediately before. 6. The electronic translation machine according to claim 1, wherein the corresponding second or first text information is read from the storage means based on the code. 7 The storage means stores codes of the plurality of second text information corresponding to the plurality of first text information, and also stores codes of the plurality of first text information corresponding to the plurality of second text information. The reading control means stores a code, and each time the corresponding sentence specifying means is operated, the reading control means reads the first or second code specified immediately before.
7. The electronic translator according to claim 6, wherein the second or first text information corresponding to the text information is sequentially read out. 8 The storage means stores codes of the plurality of second text information corresponding to the plurality of first text information, and also stores codes of the plurality of first text information corresponding to the plurality of second text information. The reading control means stores a code, and in response to the operation of the corresponding sentence designation means, reads second or first text information corresponding to the first or second text information designated immediately before. 7. The electronic translation machine according to claim 6, wherein the reading is stopped in response to the corresponding sentence designating means being operated again after sequentially reading out the corresponding sentences from the storage means. 9. The electronic translation machine according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the expression means is a dot matrix display that displays the character information read by the readout control means. 10. The electronic translator according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the expression means is a sounding means for pronouncing the character information read by the reading control means.