System and method for automatic language translation for applications
Patent No. US8862456 (titled "System and method for automatic language translation for applications") on Mar 23, 2012. The application was issued on Oct 14, 2014.
What is this patent about?
’456 is related to the field of software internationalization and user interface localization. Traditionally, translating an application requires access to its source code to manually map text strings to language-specific property files, a process that is labor-intensive and often impossible for third-party applications where the source code is unavailable.
The underlying idea behind ’456 is to perform language translation at the middleware layer or operating system level, effectively decoupling the translation process from the application itself. By sitting between the application and the display drivers, the system can dynamically modify the user interface without the original program being aware of the intervention.
The claims of ’456 focus on a method and system that intercepts display commands containing text in a first language, extracts that text, and routes it through a translation mechanism. Once the translated text is received in the target language, the system completes the display command using the new string, ensuring the user sees the localized version on their screen.
In practice, this is achieved by modifying a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) or similar runtime environment to catch calls to specific methods like setText or setLabel. The system can utilize a hybrid translation approach, combining local lookup tables for speed and common terms with cloud-based APIs for complex phrases, while handling layout adjustments to accommodate different string lengths.
This approach differs from prior solutions by eliminating the need for developers to recompile code or provide pre-defined language files. It further enhances accuracy through a hints database that provides context to disambiguate words with multiple meanings, allowing for application-specific translations that remain independent of the software's binary executable.
How does this patent fit in bigger picture?
Technical Landscape
In the early 2010s when ’456 was filed, internationalization of software applications was typically implemented using language-specific property files that mapped unique identifiers to translated strings. At a time when systems commonly relied on the manual modification of source code to support multi-language mapping via APIs, providing localized interfaces for third-party components or legacy applications was often restricted by the unavailability of the underlying source code. Hardware and software constraints of the era made real-time translation non-trivial, as existing solutions frequently required developers to explicitly pass text phrases to remote translation servers, necessitating both an active network connection and invasive code-level integration to facilitate user interface updates.
Prosecution Position
The disclosed invention represents a technical advancement by enabling the on-the-fly translation of user interface text without requiring access to or modification of an application's source code. This architectural shift is achieved through a middleware-based interception mechanism that captures display commands at the execution level, extracts the primary language text, and dynamically replaces it with translated content from a translation mechanism. By decoupling the translation logic from the application logic, the system overcomes the technical constraint of source code dependency, allowing for the localization of third-party or closed-source applications while reducing the labor-intensive requirements of traditional internationalization workflows.
Claims
The patent contains 19 claims, with claims 1 and 11 serving as the independent claims. These independent claims focus on a method and a system for translating user-interface text by intercepting display commands, extracting the text, querying a translation mechanism, and displaying the resulting text in a second language. The dependent claims serve to provide specific technical refinements, such as adapting the translation to a specific application, handling multi-word phrases and invariant words, adjusting grammatical tense or plural forms, and managing display formatting for the translated output.
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US8862456
- Application Number
- US13428135A
- Filing Date
- Mar 23, 2012
- Publication Date
- Oct 14, 2014
- External Links
- Slate, USPTO , Google Patents