METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMICALLY PROCESSING AMBIGUOUS, REDUCED TEXT SEARCH QUERIES AND HIGHLIGHTING RESULTS THEREOF

• US 20110173205A1
• Filed: 03/28/2011
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Veveo, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Aravamudan, Murali, Rajasekharan, Ajit, Barve, Rakesh, Venkataraman, Sashikumar
• Application Number:
  US13/073,257
• Publication Number:
  US 20110173205A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques

Abstract

A method and system are provided of processing a search query entered by a user of a device having a text input interface with overloaded keys. The search query is directed at identifying an item from a set of items. Each of the items has a name including one or more words. The system receives from the user an ambiguous search query directed at identifying a desired item. The search query comprises a prefix substring of at least one word in the name of the desired item. The system dynamically identifies a group of one or more items from the set of items having one or more words in the names thereof matching the search query as the user enters each character of the search query. The system also orders the one or more items of the group in accordance with given criteria. The names of the one or more items of the identified group are output to be displayed on the device operated by the user as ordered with the characters of the one or more words in the names corresponding to the prefix substring of the search query being highlighted.

Claims

1. A method of processing unresolved keystroke entries by a user from a keypad with keys in which a given key is in fixed association with a number and at least one alphabetic character, the unresolved keystroke entries being directed at identifying an item from a set of items, each item of the set of items being associated with information describing the item, the information comprising one or more words, the method comprising:

providing access to an index of the items of the set of items, the index including an association between subsets of the items of the set of items and strings of one or more unresolved keystrokes so that the subsets of the items are mapped to corresponding ones of the strings of one or more unresolved keystrokes for various search query prefix substrings;

for at least one subset of the subsets, determining which letters and numbers present in information associated with and describing the items of the subset caused the items to be associated with the strings of one or more unresolved keystrokes that are mapped to the subset;

receiving from a user a search query for desired items composed of unresolved keystrokes, the search query comprising a prefix substring for at least one word in information associated with the desired item;

in response to each unresolved keystroke, identifying and displaying the subsets of items, and information associated therewith, that are associated with the strings of one or more unresolved keystrokes received from the user based on the mapping of strings of unresolved keystrokes to subsets of items; and

in response to each unresolved keystroke, as the identified items are displayed, highlighting the letters and numbers present in the one or more words in the information describing the identified items that were determined to have caused the displayed items to be associated with the strings of unresolved keystrokes that are mapped to the items so as to illustrate to the user how the unresolved keystrokes entered match the information associated with the displayed items.