Techniques for automatic proofing of textual data

• US 20190311031A1
• Filed: 06/01/2018
• Published: 10/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Powell, Kevin R., Cipollone, Domenic J., Daniels, Michael W., Gauthier, Olivier M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,691,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/216 using statistical methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique

Abstract

Techniques for automatic proofing of textual data is described. In one embodiment, these techniques are directed towards producing proofed textual data for various operational environments via logic operative on a logic circuit to access information comprising a set of n-grams, at least one mapping between at least one replacement n-gram and a corresponding n-gram in the set of n-grams, and a corresponding confidence score for each mapping being determined by user activity while producing text for various applications; process input to a productivity application comprising textual data and identify a portion thereof to replace based upon the accessed information; and automatically modify the portion of the textual data using a replacement n-gram selected from the replacement n-grams based upon a corresponding confidence score between the portion of the textual data and the replacement n-gram. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a logic circuit; and

logic operative on the logic circuit to access information comprising a set of n-grams, at least one mapping between at least one replacement n-gram for a corresponding n-gram in the set of n-grams, and a corresponding confidence score for each mapping being determined by user activity while producing text for various applications, process input to a productivity application comprising textual data and identify a portion thereof to replace based upon the accessed information, and automatically modify the portion of the textual data using at least one word from the replacement n-grams based upon a corresponding confidence score between the portion of the textual data and the at least one word.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising logic operative on the logic circuit to identify an error in the portion of the textual data.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the error comprises at least one of a spelling error, a grammatical error, or a style error.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising logic operative on the logic circuit to replace a word in the portion of the textual data with a word from the replacement n-grams.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising logic operative on the logic circuit to generate a mapping between an n-gram in the set of n-grams and a replacement n-gram in response to a user selection, amongst a number of n-grams, of the replacement n-gram for the n-gram in the set of n-grams, and compute the corresponding confidence score for the mapping based upon telemetry data associated with the various applications.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising logic operative on the logic circuit to identify a word having an error in the textual data and modifying the word to correct the error if the error exceeds an autocorrection threshold value.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising logic operative on the logic circuit to modify the autocorrection threshold value in view of telemetry data corresponding to the user activity.

8. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

accessing information comprising a set of n-grams, at least mapping between at least one replacement n-gram and an n-gram in the set of n-grams, and a corresponding confidence score for each mapping being determined by user activity while producing text for various computing applications;

processing input to a productivity application comprising textual data and identifying a portion thereof to replace based upon the accessed information; and

automatically modifying the portion of the textual data using a replacement n-gram selected from the replacement n-grams based upon a corresponding confidence score between the portion of the textual data and the replacement n-gram.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising identifying an error in the portion of the textual data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the error comprises at least one of a spelling error, a grammatical error, or a style error.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising replacing a word in the portion of the textual data with a word from the replacement n-grams.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising generating a mapping between an n-gram in the set of n-grams and the replacement n-gram in response to a user selection, amongst a number of n-grams, of the replacement n-gram for the n-gram in the set of n-grams, and computing the corresponding confidence score for the mapping based upon telemetry data associated with the various applications.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising identifying a word having an error in the textual data and modifying the word to correct the error if the error exceeds an autocorrection threshold value.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising modifying the autocorrection threshold value in view of telemetry data associated with the various computing applications.

15. At least one computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

access information comprising a set of n-grams, at least one mapping between at least one replacement n-gram and a corresponding n-gram in the set of n-grams, and a corresponding confidence score for each mapping being determined by user activity while producing text for various applications;

process input to a productivity application comprising textual data and identify a portion thereof to replace based upon the accessed information; and

automatically modify the portion of the textual data using a replacement n-gram selected from the replacement n-grams based upon a corresponding confidence score between the portion of the textual data and the replacement n-gram.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

identify an error in the portion of the textual data, wherein the error comprises at least one of a spelling error, a grammatical error, or a style error.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

replace a word in the portion of the textual data with a word from the replacement n-grams.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

generate a mapping between an n-gram in the set of n-grams and a replacement n-gram in response to a user selection, amongst a number of n-grams, of the replacement n-gram for the n-gram in the set of n-grams; and

compute the corresponding confidence score for the mapping based upon telemetry data associated with the various applications.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

identify a word having an error in the textual data and modifying the word to correct the error if the error exceeds an autocorrection threshold value.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

modify the autocorrection threshold value in view of telemetry data corresponding to the user activity.