SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENHANCED LOOKUP IN AN ONLINE DICTIONARY

• US 20120254802A1
• Filed: 03/30/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thinkmap Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Thinkmap Incorporated
• Inventors: TINKLER, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 9,235,566 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/830
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/322 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries

Abstract

A system and method predictively generates words based on a user input, according to a frequency of lookup of each of the generated words. The system and method also allows for a user to add predictively generated words to a word list that assists in the facilitation of word and vocabulary comprehension for a user. Words in the online dictionary are grouped in word families where a user can navigate between different forms of a root word.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for predictively looking up words in an online dictionary, the method comprising:

responsive to user input of a text string, generating and outputting, by a computer processor, a scrollable list of words containing the text string, the words being arranged in descending order of frequency of lookup in the online dictionary.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining and outputting, by the computer processor, a word that is closest alphabetically to the text string, the alphabetically closest word being added to the displayed portion of the list.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the alphabetically closest word is displayed immediately beneath the scrollable list, the method further comprising:

responsive to a user-input scroll instruction, dynamically updating a displayed portion of the list to display different words of the scrollable list, the alphabetically closest word not being changed in response to the user-input scroll instruction.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to selection of a word from the scrollable list, updating a frequency of lookup for the selected word.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering the list of words according to selected attributes by the user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each displayed word of the output scrollable list, displaying a primary definition of the respective word adjacent to the respective word; and

displaying, in a separate section of a window in which the scrollable list is displayed, additional definitions of a most frequently looked up word of the displayed words.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, for a most frequently looked up one of displayed words of the scrollable list, a plurality of sentences including the most frequently looked up one of the displayed words, the plurality of sentences being obtained from a plurality of media sources, and being displayed in reverse chronological order with respect to a time at which the sentences are obtained.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, for a most frequently looked up one of displayed words of the scrollable list, a plurality of sentences including the most frequently looked up one of the displayed words, the plurality of sentences being obtained from a plurality of media sources, and being displayed in reverse chronological order with respect to at least one of a date and a time associated by the media sources with the sentences.

9. The method of claim 8, where the sentences obtained from the media sources are included in dated articles of the media sources, the chronological order being based on the dates of the articles.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subsequent to the outputting of the scrollable list of words, receiving a character appended to the text string, forming an updated text string;

responsive to the receipt of the appended character, dynamically updating the displayed list to include words that contain the updated text string.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a hierarchical representation of a word family of a displayed word of the scrollable list for which a greatest look up frequency, compared to all other displayed words of the scrollable list, is recorded.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the hierarchical representation includes a plurality of bars, one of the bars including a portion representing the displayed word for which the greatest look up frequency is selected, and each of the remaining bars including an ancestor word of the displayed word for which the greatest look up frequency is recorded, each of the ancestor words including a core text string from which the displayed word for which the greatest look up frequency is recorded, is formed.

13. An online dictionary system for predictively looking up words, the system comprising:

a computer processor configured to;

responsive to user input of a text string, generating and outputting, by a computer processor, a scrollable list of words containing the text string, the words being arranged in descending order of frequency of lookup in the online dictionary.

14. A computer-implemented method for outputting a hierarchically structured word family, the method comprising:

assigning, by a computer processor, a selected word as a main word represented by a portion of a bar of a first hierarchical level;

for each hierarchical level, beginning with the first hierarchical level until a root word is assigned to a respective bar;

assigning, by the computer processor, a word that is an immediate parent of the main word of the respective hierarchical level as a main word represented by a portion of a bar of an immediately lower hierarchical level; and

assigning, by the computer processor, to remaining portions of the bar of the immediately lower hierarchical level, children of the word that is the immediate parent; and

displaying, by the computer processor, the bars according to the assignments.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, for each of the bars to which more than one word is assigned, sizes of the respective portions of the bar to which the more than one word is assigned are based on a differences in respective frequencies of occurrence of respective ones of the more than one word in a corpus of text.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the corpus of text includes text received from at least one online source.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the portions of the bars are selectable for changing which word is the selected word.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

responsive to a selection of the selected word;

if a definition is stored for the selected word, displaying the definition of the selected word; and

if a definition is not stored for the selected word;

traversing one or more hierarchical word levels beginning with a hierarchical level that includes an immediate parent of the selected word, for an ancestor word of the selected word for which a definition is stored; and

displaying the stored definition of the ancestor word.

19. A hardware computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a processor, the instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a method for predictively looking up words in an online dictionary, the method comprising:

responsive to user input of a text string, generating and outputting a scrollable list of words containing the text string, the words being arranged in descending order of frequency of lookup in the online dictionary.

20. A hardware computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a processor, the instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a method for outputting a hierarchically structured word family, the method comprising:

assigning a selected word as a main word represented by a portion of a bar of a first hierarchical level;

for each hierarchical level, beginning with the first hierarchical level until a root word is assigned to a respective bar;

assigning a word that is an immediate parent of the main word of the respective hierarchical level as a main word represented by a portion of a bar of an immediately lower hierarchical level; and

assigning to remaining portions of the bar of the immediately lower hierarchical level, children of the word that is the immediate parent; and

displaying the bars according to the assignments.