Computer-implemented methods and systems for entering and searching for non-Roman-alphabet characters and related search systems

• US 20060089928A1
• Filed: 10/20/2004
• Published: 04/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Johnson, Richard C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,376,648 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for selecting a desired Roman or non-Roman-alphabet character or objects from a set of non-Roman characters or objects may include steps of providing an association database that includes, for each non-Roman-alphabet character of the set, a Roman alphabet or other phonetic transliteration associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character and a plurality of entries that are associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character; receiving a phonetic transliteration of the desired non-Roman-alphabet character or data object and at least one associated entry that is associated with the desired non-Roman-alphabet character or other similar symbolic input; accessing the association database and identifying as candidate characters those characters of the set that are associated with the received phonetic transliteration and with the at least one received associated entry; if a number of candidate characters is greater than one, receiving additional associated entries and repeating the accessing and identifying step until a number of candidate characters is narrowed down to a single candidate character, and providing the single candidate character as the desired non-Roman-alphabet character. Also, derived from the principles described above, this invention includes a variety of methods for improving the efficiency of search engines through use of associations and other means of providing context for the item(s) being searched.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for selecting a desired non-Roman-alphabet character from a set of non-Roman characters, comprising the steps of:

providing an association database that includes, for each non-Roman-alphabet character of the set, a Roman alphabet phonetic transliteration associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character and a plurality of entries that are associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character;

receiving a phonetic transliteration of the desired non-Roman-alphabet character and at least one associated entry that is associated with the desired non-Roman-alphabet character;

accessing the association database and identifying as candidate characters those characters of the set that are associated with the received phonetic transliteration and with the at least one received associated entry;

if a number of candidate characters is greater than one, receiving additional associated entries and repeating the accessing and identifying step until a number of candidate characters is narrowed down to a single candidate character, and

providing the single candidate character as the desired non-Roman-alphabet character.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the associated entries is unrelated to a meaning of the desired character.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the associated entries in the associated database is user-provided.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein if a received associated entry is not currently associated with the desired character, carrying out a step of associating the received associated entry to the desired character and storing the received associated entry in the association database.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein if a received associated entry is not currently in the association database, carrying out a step of adding the received associated entry to the association database.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the providing step is carried out with the set of non-Roman characters including Japanese characters.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the providing step is carried out with the set of non-Roman characters including Chinese characters.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the providing step is carried out with the set of non-Roman characters including Korean characters.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the providing step is carried out with the set of non-Roman characters including Hebrew characters.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the providing step is carried out with the set of non-Roman characters including Arabic characters.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the providing step is carried out with the association database including an association table having a plurality of rows, each row including a single non-Roman-alphabet character of the set, the Roman alphabet phonetic transliteration of the single non-Roman-alphabet character and a plurality of entries that are associated with the single non-Roman-alphabet character.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the receiving steps are carried out via voice input to a computer coupled to the association database.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the receiving steps are carried out via keyboard entry to a computer coupled to the association database.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the receiving steps are carried out via machine vision to a computer coupled to the association database.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising a step of personalizing the association database such that the association database contains, for each user, the associated entries received from each said user.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further including a step of ordering the associated entries in the association database such that those received associated entries that lead to the single candidate character in fewer iterations of the accessing and identifying steps are ranked higher than the associated entries that lead to the single candidate character in a comparatively greater number of iterations of the accessing and identifying steps.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further including searching a computer network for documents that include the provided non-Roman-alphabet character.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step is carried out with the associated entry being in the same language as the desired non-Roman-alphabet character.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step is carried out with the associated entry being in a different language than the desired non-Roman-alphabet character.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further including successively returning to the phonetic transliteration receiving step to select a plurality non-Roman-alphabet characters.

21. A machine-readable medium having data stored thereon representing sequences of instructions which, when executed by a computing device, causes the computing device to selecting a desired non-Roman-alphabet character from a set of non-Roman characters by carrying out steps including:

providing an association database that includes, for each non-Roman-alphabet character of the set, a Roman alphabet phonetic transliteration associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character and a plurality of entries that are associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character;

receiving a phonetic transliteration of the desired non-Roman-alphabet character and at least one associated entry that is associated with the desired non-Roman-alphabet character;

accessing the association database and identifying as candidate characters those characters of the set that are associated with the received phonetic transliteration and with the at least one received associated entry;

if a number of candidate characters is greater than one, receiving additional associated entries and repeating the accessing and identifying step until a number of candidate characters is narrowed down to a single candidate character, and

providing the single candidate character as the desired non-Roman-alphabet character.

22. A computer system for selecting a desired non-Roman-alphabet character from a set of non-Roman characters, the computer system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one data storage device coupled to the at least one processor;

a plurality of processes spawned by said at least one processor, the processes including processing logic for;

providing an association database that includes, for each non-Roman-alphabet character of the set, a Roman alphabet phonetic transliteration associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character and a plurality of entries that are associated with each said non-Roman-alphabet character;

receiving a phonetic transliteration of the desired non-Roman-alphabet character and at least one associated entry that is associated with the desired non-Roman-alphabet character;

accessing the association database and identifying as candidate characters those characters of the set that are associated with the received phonetic transliteration and with the at least one received associated entry;

if a number of candidate characters is greater than one, receiving additional associated entries and repeating the accessing and identifying step until a number of candidate characters is narrowed down to a single candidate character, and

providing the single candidate character as the desired non-Roman-alphabet character.

23. A computer-implemented method of searching for documents that include one or more predetermined a non-Roman-alphabet characters that are unknown to the user, comprising the steps of:

providing a pronunciation of the desired non-Roman-alphabet character;

providing at least one associated entry that the user associates with the desired non-Roman-alphabet character;

causing a retrieval from an association database one ore more candidate characters whose pronunciation matches the provided pronunciation and that is associated one or more of the at least one associated entry;

if a number of candidate characters is greater than one, providing additional associated entries and repeating the retrieval causing step until a single candidate character is retrieved, and

causing a search to be carried out for documents that include the single candidate character.

24. The computer implemented method of claim 23, wherein in the pronunciation providing step, the pronunciation is a phonetic pronunciation.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein in the associated entry providing step, at least one of the associated entries is unrelated to a meaning of the predetermined character.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein if a provided associated entry is not currently associated with the predetermined character, further carrying out a step of associating the provided associated entry to the predetermined character and storing the received associated entry in the association database.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein if a provided associated entry is not currently in the association database, carrying out a step of adding the provided associated entry to the association database.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the pronunciation providing step is carried out with the non-Roman character being a Japanese character.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the pronunciation providing step is carried out with the non-Roman character being a Chinese character.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the pronunciation providing step is carried out with the non-Roman character being a Korean character.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the pronunciation providing step is carried out with the non-Roman character being a Hebrew character.

32. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the pronunciation providing step is carried out with the non-Roman characters being an Arabic character.

33. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the retrieval causing step is carried out with the association database including an association table having a plurality of rows, each row including a single different non-Roman-alphabet character, the Roman alphabet pronunciation of the single non-Roman-alphabet character and a plurality of entries that are associated with the single non-Roman-alphabet character.

34. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the providing steps are carried out via voice input to a computer coupled to the association database.

35. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the providing steps are carried out via keyboard entry to a computer coupled to the association database.

36. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the providing steps are carried out via a machine vision to a computer coupled to the association database.

37. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising a step of logging in such that the retrieval causing step causes a retrieval of the at least one candidate character from an association that is personalized to the logged in user.

38. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the search causing step causes a search of a computer network for the documents.

39. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the associated entry providing step is carried out with the associated entry being in the same language as the predetermined non-Roman-alphabet character.

40. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the associated entry providing step is carried out with the associated entry being in a different language than the predetermined non-Roman-alphabet character.

41. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further including successively returning to the pronunciation-providing step to retrieve additional candidate characters for additional predetermined non-Roman-alphabet characters.

42. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the pronunciation in the pronunciation-providing step is configured to use a phonetic alphabet.

43. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the retrieval causing step is configured to cause a retrieval of at least one of a Roman character, a non-Roman characters, a picture, music and any computer-readable file.

44. A computer-implemented method for a user to search for documents across a computer network or within the local storage of a computer, comprising the steps of:

receiving a search term;

receiving at least one associated entry, the at least one associated entry being related to the search term;

consulting an association database, the association database storing a plurality of dictionary meanings and at least one associated entry for each dictionary meaning, each associated entry being related to its corresponding dictionary meaning;

matching the received associated entry with one or more of the stored associated entries and corresponding dictionary meanings, and

searching the computer network for documents related to or containing the search term and the matched stored dictionary meanings and associated entries.

45. The computer-implemented method of claim 44, further comprising a step of adding the received at least one associated entry to the association database when the searching step is successful.

46. The computer-implemented method of claim 44, further including a step of prompting the user to provide additional information.

47. The computer-implemented method of claim 46, wherein the additional information is at least one of a category, characteristic or membership.

48. The computer-implemented method of claim 46, further including a step of receiving from the user an exclusionary associated entry such that the searching step does not search for documents including or related to one or more dictionary meanings of the search term corresponding to the received exclusionary associated entry.