AUGMENTED LIST FOR SEARCHING LARGE INDEXES
First Claim
1. A method for obtaining an item desired by a user from a database of items, comprising:
- using a general-purpose computing device to perform the following;
inputting an original sub-string to be matched to items in the database of items;
obtaining a count of matches to the original sub-string of items in the database of items;
comparing the count of sub-string matches to a list threshold to determine whether to use an augmented list view or a regular list view to present at least some of the items in the sub-string matches;
determining whether the desired item is in the augmented list view or the regular list view; and
revising the original sub-string if the desired item is not in the augmented list view or the regular list view.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An augmented large index searching system and method for searching a database of items using a device having a limited input mechanism. Embodiments of the system and method present to a user in an augmented list view or a regular list view a list of items matching a sub-string search. The augmented list view contains a list of sub-group representations so that each sub-group is represented by an item in the sub-group most likely to be selected by the user. The user can select an item wanted by the user or refine the sub-string search by pinning a character to append the character to the sub-string and generated a revised sub-string. The above process is repeated using the revised sub-string. The list can be augmented by displaying visual features that indicate quantity and distinguish between items or characters by using coloring, highlighting, shading, size, and so forth.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for obtaining an item desired by a user from a database of items, comprising:
using a general-purpose computing device to perform the following; inputting an original sub-string to be matched to items in the database of items; obtaining a count of matches to the original sub-string of items in the database of items; comparing the count of sub-string matches to a list threshold to determine whether to use an augmented list view or a regular list view to present at least some of the items in the sub-string matches; determining whether the desired item is in the augmented list view or the regular list view; and revising the original sub-string if the desired item is not in the augmented list view or the regular list view. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A process for searching a database of items for a specific item in the database of items, comprising:
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obtaining matches of an original sub-string using a matching technique; organizing the sub-string matches into sub-groups containing items from the database of items; associating a single available character with the sub-group of items such that a number of sub-groups is less than or equal to a number of available characters; for each of the sub-groups, select an item in the sub-group to represent that sub-group using the information retrieval system and based on scoring criteria; generate an augmented list view of items containing sub-group representations of at most each of the sub-groups where the sub-group representation for each of the sub-groups is a name of the item in the sub-group selected to represent that sub-group; determining whether the specific item is contained in the augmented list view; and revising the original sub-string using a pinned character from the augmented list view to generate a revised sub-string that includes the pinned character. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for navigating a database of items to find a specific item in the database of items that is desired by a user, comprising:
using a portable media player having a limited input mechanism to perform the following; inputting an empty sub-string; obtaining a count of matches for the empty sub-string from a hash table; selecting a sub-group for processing from the matches for the empty sub-string, where there is a sub-group for each available English language character, and for each of the sub-groups performing the following actions; determining whether a count of items for the sub-group being processed is in the hash table; if the count of items for the sub-group being processed is not in the hash table, then looking up matches for an expanded sub-string and obtaining a count of the matches for the expanded sub-string using an information retrieval system, where the expanded sub-string is defined as the empty sub-string plus an additional character associated with the sub-group being processed; if the count of items for the sub-group being processed is in the hash table, then retrieving the count of items for the sub-group being processed from the hash table; selecting an item in the sub-group being processed to represent the sub-group by using the information retrieval system and based on scoring criteria; generating an augmented list view of items based on the empty sub-string, where each of the sub-groups are represented in the augmented list view by the item selected to represent the sub-group, and where the number of sub-groups represented in the augmented list view is less than or equal to a number of available characters; determining that the specific item in the database of items that is desired by the user is not shown in the augmented list view; pinning a character shown in the augmented list view using the limited input mechanism to obtain a pinned character; revising the empty sub-string based on pinned character to generate a revised sub-string, such that the revised sub-string includes the pinned character; and repeating the above process actions by substituting the revised sub-string for the empty sub-string and determining whether a count of matches for the revised sub-string is greater than a list threshold. - View Dependent Claims (20)
Specification