System, method, and media for intelligent selection of searching terms in a keyboardless entry environment

• US 6,374,275 B2
• Filed: 06/11/1997
• Issued: 04/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta Incorporated (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wasilewski, Anthony John
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kindred, Alford W.
• Application Number:
  US08/873,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20020016804A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,770 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-530, 707/531, 382/100, 709/200, 709/201, 709/203-219
• US Class Current: 715/259
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3323 using document space presentation or visualization, e.g. category, hierarchy or range presentation and selection

Abstract

The disclosed invention relates to a pick list generator which displays selectable terms for inclusion in a selection field. One embodiment of the pick list generator is in assisting an Internet user in the user'"'"'s population of search fields without the use of a keyboard containing all 26 letters and 10 digits. Accordingly, through application of the present invention, browsing and searching of the Internet is enhanced for the keyboardless user.

Claims

1. A system for adding new terms to a list of terms comprising:

a receiving device for receiving a document;

a storage for storing a list of terms;

a processor for scanning said received document for at least one new term and processing the at least one new term contained within said received document, wherein said processor controls said storage to store said at least one new term with said list of terms and to store an association of the at least one new term with previously stored terms found in said list of terms;

a determination device for determining a users identity; and

a profile retrieving device for retrieving a user'"'"'s profile associated with the user'"'"'s identity, wherein the association as formed by said processor is formed in accordance with the user'"'"'s profile.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the association as formed by the processor associates the at least one term with other terms which exist on said received document.

3. The system according to claim 1,

wherein the received document received by the receiving unit is selected in accordance with at least one selection term, and

wherein the association as formed by the processor associates the at least one term with said at least one selection term.

4. The system according to claim 3, further comprising:

a selection device connected to said processor for selecting said selection term.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processor filters said at least one term based on said user'"'"'s profile to determine whether said at least one term should be associated with said list of terms.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a knowledge base,

wherein the association with the at least one term is formed with other terms of said list of terms within said knowledge base.

7. A computer readable medium containing a computer implemented program comprising:

a scanning module for scanning a received document for the existence of a new term;

an adding module for adding the new term to a stored list of terms;

an associating module for associating the new term with previously stored terms found in said list of terms;

a determining module for determining a user'"'"'s identity;

a profile retrieving module for retrieving a user'"'"'s profile associated with the user'"'"'s identity; and

wherein the associating module associates the new term in accordance with the user'"'"'s profile.

8. The computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein said associating module associates the new term with other terms which exist on said received document.

9. The computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein said associating module associates the new term with at least one selection term taken from the stored list of terms, said at least one search term having been used to retrieve said received document.

10. The computer readable medium according to claim 9, further comprising:

a selecting module for selecting said selection term via operation of a selection device.

11. The computer readable medium according to claim 7, further comprising:

a searching module for initiating a search of a network of computers, wherein the result of said search is said received document and wherein said network of computers is the Internet.

12. The computer readable medium according to claim 11, wherein said searching module is an Internet browser.

13. The computer readable medium according to claim 11, wherein said searching module is an application which can access the Internet.

14. The computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein said associating module filters the new term based on the user'"'"'s profile to determine whether said at least one term should be associated with said list of terms.

15. The computer readable medium according to claim 7, further comprising:

a knowledge base module organizing said stored list of terms,

wherein the associating module associates the new term with previously stored terms of said list of terms within said stored list of terms.

16. A method of populating, by a client based program module, a selection field in a document with at least one term selected from a list of terms context-sensitive to the selection field, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying the document including the selection field;

receiving a first user input selecting the selection field to be populated;

retrieving, by the client based program module, an initial terms list;

searching, by the client based program module, the document for terms associated with the selection field;

creating an associated terms list from the initial terms list and based on at least one term associated with the selection field, the at least one term a resultant of the search of the document;

displaying at least a portion of the associated terms list, the displayed portion of the associated terms list comprising terms context-sensitive to the selected selection field;

receiving a second user input selecting a term from the displayed context-sensitive terms; and

populating, by the client based program module, the selection field with the selected term from the list of terms context-sensitive to the selection field.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of populating the selection field further comprises the step of:

generating a call corresponding to the selected term of the populated selection field.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of creating and storing, in a client based memory, a new initial list including the at least one term associated with the selection field.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

identifying a user selecting the selection field; and

adding to the associated terms list previously input terms and terms associated with the identified user.

20. A method of adding a new term to an initial list of terms used by a client based program module to generate a context-sensitive pick-list for a data-entry field in a document, the method comprising the steps of:

searching, by the client based program module, the document for existence of the new term, the new term not being previously included in the initial list of terms; and

adding the new term to the initial list of terms, whereby the context-sensitive pick-list is generated for the data-entry field in the document by the client based program module from the initial list of terms with the new term added, wherein the adding step includes utilizing a term-type filter to selectively determine types of terms to be added based on term types selected from a group consisting of nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, and conjunctions.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of creating and storing, in a client based memory, a new initial list including the new term.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising, prior to the step of adding the new term to the initial list of terms, the steps of:

highlighting the new term in the document;

receiving user input indicating that the new term should be added; and

adding the new term to the initial list of terms only if the user input indicates that the new term should be added.

23. A method of creating and updating a client-based database of associated terms used for generating a context-sensitive pick-list for a data-entry field, the method comprising the steps of:

retrieving an initial terms list;

creating the client-based database of associated terms from the initial terms list;

searching a document associated with the data-entry field for a new term not currently included in the database;

creating a plurality of term association types for associating each term in the database with other related terms in the database;

associating the new term with at least one other related term in the database based on at least one of the term association types; and

updating the database to include the new term and the association of the new term to at least one other related term,

whereby the database and the associations based on the plurality of term association types are used to generate the context-sensitive pick-list.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of creating at least one term association type for associating terms in the database with at least one other term added from the document.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of creating at least one term association type for associating terms in the database with a user identity, the term association type based on the user identity when each term was added to the database.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of creating at least one term association type for associating terms in the database with terms in the database previously selected by a user input.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of searching the document further includes a term-type filter and the term-type filter selectively determines terms to be designated as new terms based on at least one tern-type selected from a group consisting of nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, and conjunctions.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the step of searching the document further includes a distance-limit filter, wherein the distance-limit filter selectively determines at least one term association type of the new term based on a user determined number of terms between the designated new term and at least one other term added to the database from the document.

29. A system for generating a pick-list for a data-entry field in a document when no pick-list is initially provided for the data-entry field, the system comprising:

a client-based storage device for storing a list of terms and relative associations of the terms in the list; and

a processor for determining that no pick-list is available for the data-entry field and, if no pick-list is available, for searching for and processing at least one term contained within the document, for creating a relative association of the at least one term from the document to the data-entry field and to at least one term in the list of terms, for generating the pick-list for the data-entry field from the list of terms based on the relative associations of the list of terms to the at least one term from the document, for determining a user'"'"'s identity, and for retrieving a user'"'"'s profile associated with the user'"'"'s identity, wherein the relative association is formed in accordance with the user'"'"'s profile.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor controls the storage device to store the at least one term from the document and the relative associations of the at least one term from the document if the at least one term from the document is not currently in the list of terms.

31. A system for adding additional terms to an existing pick-list, the system comprising:

a client-based storage device for storing a list of terms and relative associations of the terms in the list; and

a processor for determining the current terms of the existing pick-list, for searching for and processing at least one term contained within a document associated with the pick-list, for generating additional terms for the pick-list based on the relative associations of the terms in the list of terms to the at least one term from the document, for determining the additional terms not currently in the existing pick-list, for adding those additional terms not currently in the existing pick-list to create a new pick-list, for determining a user'"'"'s identity, and for retrieving a user'"'"'s profile associated with the user'"'"'s identity, wherein the relative association is formed in accordance with the users profile.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the processor controls the storage device to store the at least one term from the document and the relative associations of the at least one term from the document if the at least one term from the document is not currently in the list of terms.