EXPLICIT CHARACTER FILTERING OF AMBIGUOUS TEXT ENTRY

• US 20150161245A1
• Filed: 01/16/2015
• Published: 06/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: BRADFORD, Ethan Robert, HULLFISH, Keith Charles, KAY, David, LONG, Michael R., VAN MEURS, Pim
• Application Number:
  US14/599,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20150161245A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/02 Input arrangements using manually operated switches, e.g. using keyboards or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0235 using chord techniques G06F3/0234 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for explicit filtering in ambiguous text entry. The invention provides embodiments including various explicit text entry methodologies, such as 2-key and long pressing. The invention also provides means for matching words in a database using build around methodology, stem locking methodology, word completion methodology, and n-gram searches.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a series of key entries from a user input device;

determining at least one entry in the series of key entries is ambiguous, wherein each ambiguous entry corresponds to two or more potential characters in a human language;

determining one or more entry groups in the series of key entries and one or more potential character sequences associated with the entry groups, wherein, when a first entry group of the entry groups includes an ambiguous entry, the first entry group corresponds to at least two potential character sequences;

matching a potential character sequence of the potential character sequences against a language database; and

presenting the potential character sequence on a character input interface when the potential character sequence matches at least a portion of a known word or object in the language database.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

locking the potential character sequence such that the first entry group is considered unambiguous and explicitly corresponding to the potential character sequence.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein locking the potential character sequence is in response to receiving a user input via the user input device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the user input corresponds to a character indicating a word boundary.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the user input corresponds to a command to move a cursor of the character input interface toward a next character.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input to move a cursor over one or more characters in the potential character sequence; and

locking the one or more characters that the cursor moved over such that entries corresponding to the one or more characters are considered unambiguous and explicitly entered.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising locking a subsequence of the potential character sequence thereby causing one or more entries to correspond explicitly to respective characters in the subsequence.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining one or more new entry groups in the series of key entries and one or more new potential character sequences associated with the new entry groups; and

selecting at least one of the new potential character sequences corresponding to a second entry group to present on a character input interface based on whether the selected new potential character sequence matches at least a portion of a known word or object in the language database.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said matching includes performing an N-Gram search.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user input device is a keyboard component of a mobile device and wherein the character input interface is displayed on a display component of the mobile device.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a series of key entries via a user input device;

determining, based on a user interaction with a text entry interface, at least a first key entry being explicitly associated with a character in a human language;

determining, based on a known attribute of the user input device, two or more potential characters for at least a second key entry;

identifying character combinations based on characters, explicit or ambiguous, of the series of key entries; and

performing a search to identify a likely character combination from among the character combinations that at least partially matches a word or object in a language database.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to the search not identifying any character combination that at least partially matches a word or object in the language database, performing a modified search to identify the likely character combination as a character combination including most number of explicit or locked-in characters.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein performing the search includes determining whether there is a match in the language database to a character combination sequence of an entire length of the series of key entries.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising displaying the character combination sequence when there is a match in the language database for the character combination sequence of the entire length of the series of key entries.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein performing the search further comprises:

dividing the series of key entries into subsets of entries when there is no match in the language database for the character combination sequence of the entire length.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein performing the search further comprises:

determining whether there is a match for a character subsequence corresponding to a first subset of entries, wherein the character subsequence includes an explicit character, a potential character, or any combination thereof.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising displaying the character subsequence for user verification via the text entry interface when there is a match for the character subsequence in the language database.

18. An apparatus for typing in a human language comprising:

a user input device to receive a series of key entries;

a display device for displaying a text entry interface;

a processor;

a memory storing a language object database and executable instructions to implement an engine when executed by the processor;

wherein the engine is operable to configure the processor to;

determine, based on a user interaction with the text entry interface, at least a first key entry being explicitly associated with a character in a human language;

determine, based on a known attribute of the user input device, two or more potential characters for at least a second key entry;

identify character combinations based on characters, explicit or ambiguous, corresponding to the series of key entries; and

perform a search to identify a likely character combination from among the character combinations that at least partially matches a word or object in a language database.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the user input device includes a button that, when pressed, generates an ambiguous key entry that corresponds to at least two potential characters in the human language.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the known attribute of the user input device specifies the potential characters corresponding to the button.