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Handheld electronic device with text disambiguation

  • US 7,477,238 B2
  • Filed: 08/31/2004
  • Issued: 01/13/2009
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2004
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of disambiguating an input into a handheld electronic device of a type including an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a processor apparatus, the processor apparatus including a processor and a memory having stored therein a plurality of objects including a plurality of language objects and a plurality of frequency objects, each of at least a portion of the language objects being associated with an associated frequency object, the memory including a first data source and a second data source, the first data source including a number of language objects of the plurality of language objects and a number of associated frequency objects of the plurality of frequency objects, the second data source including a number of language objects of the plurality of language objects and a number of associated frequency objects of the plurality of frequency objects, the input apparatus including a plurality of input members, each of at least a portion of the input members of the plurality of input members having a plurality of characters assigned thereto, the method comprising:

  • detecting an ambiguous input into an input field;

    generating a number of prefix objects corresponding with the ambiguous input;

    determining that the input field is a special input field;

    for each prefix object of at least a portion of the number of prefix objects, seeking in the first data source a corresponding language object that corresponds with the prefix object;

    generating a primary result by, for each prefix object of at least a portion of the number of prefix objects, identifying in the first data source a language object corresponding with the prefix object, obtaining from the first data source an associated frequency object associated with the identified language object and having a frequency value, and associating the frequency value of the associated frequency object with the prefix object;

    for at least a portion of the prefix objects of the primary result, generating a primary output set of the prefix objects sorted according to the frequency values associated therewith;

    making a determination that the quantity of the prefix objects in the primary output set is less than a predetermined quantity;

    responsive to said determination;

    for each prefix object of at least a portion of the number of prefix objects, seeking in the second data source a corresponding language object that corresponds with the prefix object;

    generating a secondary result by, for each prefix object of at least a portion of the number of prefix objects, identifying in the second data source a language object corresponding with the prefix object, obtaining from the second data source an associated frequency object associated with the identified language object and having a frequency value, and associating the frequency value of the associated frequency object with the prefix object;

    for at least a portion of the prefix objects of the secondary result, generating a secondary output set of the prefix objects sorted according to the frequency values associated therewith;

    outputting an output including at least a portion of the prefix objects of the primary output set and at least a portion of the prefix objects of the secondary output set; and

    wherein the plurality of language objects include a plurality of word objects and a plurality of n-gram objects, substantially each n-gram object including at least a first character, and further comprising determining that the primary result and the secondary result include a quantity of prefix objects, determining that the quantity of prefix objects in the primary result and the secondary result is fewer than a predetermined quantity, and adding as an orphan prefix object to the output at a position corresponding with a relatively low frequency a prefix object of the number of prefix objects for which a corresponding word object was not identified.

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