Methods of Offering Guidance On Common Language Usage

• US 20070260448A1
• Filed: 05/07/2007
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vanav Holdings
• Original Assignee: David Lorenzen, Nicholas J. Witchey
• Inventors: Witchey, Nicholas, Lorenzen, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,706,470 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

Usages of language are analyzed in ways that are at least partially language independent. In preferred embodiments, portions of a document are hashed, and the resulting hash values are compared with each other and with those of other documents in real-time. Analyses can be used to gauge conformity of a document to one or more standards, to provide suggestions to the author, and to filter email.

Claims

1. A method of providing guidance with respect to a passage, comprising:

using a language independent algorithm to prepare an analysis of the passage; and

using the analysis to provide guidance to a user as to a usage of a language within the passage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the passage is no longer than a paragraph.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the passage is no longer than a sentence.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the language independent algorithm comprises a hash function.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the guidance comprises suggestion of an alterative usage.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the guidance comprises a listing of alterative usages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the guidance comprises information regarding likely authorship.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising use of the guidance in an email filter.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the guidance is provided to the user in at least near real-time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying the algorithm to a plurality of additional passages, and storing results of such application in a database.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of additional passages numbers at least 100.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the passage and at least one of the plurality of additional passages coexist within a single document.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the analysis comprises a statistical analysis, and the guidance relates to identification of spam.