Method and system for using machine translation with content language specification

Abstract

The Content-Language field in the entity-header of an HTTP response is used as the final factor in driving machine translation of text. The HTTP 1.1 specification defines the purpose of the value in this field to identify and differentiate entities according to a user's own preferred language. Its implication is that the content body is in the language defined via the Content-Language field. If the body content is only appropriate to a German-literate audience then typical use of this information would be to execute some processing to avoid rendering to someone other than that target. This information is used in rendering decisions. Herein, this value is a determining factor in the machine translation (MT) decision as well. It is still used in the rendering decision, but if the content is not currently in the desired language, it will be translated to it. Prior to the response being served, appropriate MT would be initiated based on this value. In addition to its current use, a new use of this field would be defined as the target language of MT as well as what language is appropriate for rendering. An HTML author (or a program that dynamically creates content) can do so in their language of choice only while the Content-Language field set during the HTTP response creation process defines what language the content should be dynamically translated into.