Application program interfaces for semantically labeling strings and providing actions based on semantically labeled strings

• US 7,712,024 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2001
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Huynh, Tuan, Wang, Ziyi, Reynar, Jeff, Wolff, Roger, Higashiyama, Nobuya, Ammerlaan, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Ries; Laurie
• Assistant Examiner(s): Debrow; James J
• Application Number:
  US09/906,467
• Publication Number:
  US 20020035581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,214 Days
• Field of Search: 707/6, 707/513, 707/531, 707/515, 707/101, 345/356, 345/346, 345/334, 345/335, 345/354, 364/419, 395/773, 715/512, 715/230
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Application program interfaces (API) are provided for labeling strings while a user is creating a document and providing user actions based on the type of semantic label applied to the string. A recognizer API is provided and includes properties and methods or instructions which allow recognizer plug-ins to semantically label strings of text or cells or information. An action API is provided and includes properties and methods that are called upon when a user initiates particular actions such as opening a web browser, going to a particular URL, or opening an instance of a word processing or spreadsheet program. After the strings are annotated with a type label, application program modules may use the type label to provide users with a choice of actions. If the user'"'"'s computer does not have any actions associated with a type label, the user may be provided with the option to surf to a download Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and download action plug-ins for that type label. One or more recognizer plug-ins perform the recognition of particular strings in an electronic document. The recognizer plug-ins may be packaged with an application program module or they may be written by third parties to recognize particular strings that are of interest. One or more action plug-ins provide possible actions to be presented to the user based upon the type label associated with the string.

Claims

1. In a system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, a method of implementing an application program interface for further implementing a recognizer plug-in, the method comprising:

providing, for the recognizer plug-in, an identification, a title, and a description, wherein the recognizer plug-in is provided for recognizing text items as belonging to one of a plurality of semantic categories;

providing a number of text label types and a download location for additional label types, wherein each text label type belongs to a semantic category;

providing a list of text items for recognition as belonging to the semantic category by the recognizer plug-in;

receiving a selection of text in the recognizer plug-in; and

causing the recognizer plug-in to search for the text items belonging to the semantic category from the list of text items in the selection of text received by the recognizer plug-in;

labeling the recognized text items with at least one text label belonging to the semantic category, wherein the semantic category is associated with a plurality of possible actions to be performed by the system based upon the semantic category and the text label associated with the electronic document; and

storing the at least one text label and the plurality of semantic categories to which the recognized text items belong in the electronic document as part of a semantic category namespace.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising registering the recognizer plug-in in an operating system registry.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the identification, the title, and the description for the recognizer plug-in includes providing the name of the recognizer plug-in for presentation via a user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the number of text label types includes providing a number of text label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the download location for additional text label types includes providing a uniform resource locator (URL) for obtaining additional text label types.

6. In a system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, a method of implementing an application program interface for further implementing an action plug-in, the method comprising:

providing, for the action plug-in, an identification, a title, and a description, wherein the action plug-in provides a plurality of possible actions to be performed by the system based upon a semantic category represented by the semantically labeled string of text and at least one text label associated with the string of text, and wherein the semantically labeled text is labeled as a result of a recognition process of a received selection of text and the at least one text label is stored in the electronic document;

providing to a recognizer DLL a number of text label types, a name for each of the number of text label types, and a caption for each of the number of text label types, wherein the caption identifies each of the number of text label types as belonging to a semantic category, wherein the semantic category is associated with the electronic document by storing the semantic category in the electronic document as part of a semantic category namespace;

providing the recognizer DLL a number of text label actions, a name for each of the number of text label actions, and an identification for each of the number of text label actions, wherein each text label action is associated with the text label related to the string of text; and

displaying a list of the text label actions upon user initiation.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising prior to displaying The list of the text label actions upon user initiation, providing names of each of the number of text label actions for presentation in a user interface.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein providing to the recognizer DLL a caption for each of the number of text label types, further comprises providing captions for displaying in the user interface each of the number of text label types.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein providing to the recognizer DLL the number of text label types, includes providing a number of text label types for which the action plug-in provides actions.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising registering the recognizer DLL and the action plug-in in a computer operating system registry.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the semantic category is and extensible markup language (XML) construct for uniquely identifying a group of XML tags that belong to each of the number of text label types.

12. In a system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, a method of implementing an application program interface for further implementing a recognizer plug-in and an action plug-in, the method comprising:

providing, for the recognizer plug-in, an identification, a title, and a description, wherein the recognizer plug-in is provided for recognizing text items as belonging to one of a plurality of semantic categories;

providing the recognizer plug-in a number of text label types, a name for each of the number of text label types, and a caption for each of the number of text label types wherein the caption identifies each of the number of text label types, wherein each text label type belongs to a semantic category;

providing the recognizer plug-in a list of text items for recognition by the recognizer plug-in as belonging to the semantic category;

providing the recognizer plug-in a number of text label actions, a name for each of the number of text label actions, an identification for each of the number of text label actions, and a download location for additional label types;

causing the recognizer plug-in to search for text items belonging to the semantic category from the list of text items in a selection of text received by the recognizer plug-in and to label semantically the string of text with at least one text label belonging to the semantic category, wherein the semantic category is associated with a plurality of possible actions to be performed by the system based upon the semantic category and the text label associated with the electronic document;

storing the at least one text label and the plurality of semantic categories to which the recognized text items belong in the electronic document as part of a semantic category namespace;

providing an identification, a title, and a description for the action plug-in wherein the action plug-in provides possible actions to be performed by the system based upon the semantically labeled string of text; and

displaying a list of the text label actions upon user initiation.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising registering the recognizer plug-in and the action plug-in in an operating system registry.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the identification, the title, and the description for the recognizer plug-in includes providing the name of the recognizer plug-in for presentation via a user interface.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the number of text label types includes providing a number of text label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the list of text label action types includes providing a list of text label action types associated with the action plug-in and recognizable by the recognizer plug-in.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the download location for additional text label types includes providing a uniform resource locator (URL) for obtaining additional text label types.

18. A system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, the system embodied on a computer-readable media and including a recognizer plug-in and an application program interface (API) for allowing the recognizer plug-in to semantically label strings of text, comprising:

a Description property including a description of the recognizer plug-in;

a Name property including a name of the recognizer plug-in;

a programmatic identifier including a unique identifier for the recognizer plug-in;

a LabelCount property identifying a number of semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in;

a LabelName property including unique identifiers for the semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in;

a label DownloadURL property for locating additional semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in;

a Recognize method including instructions which when executed by a computer cause the recognizer plug-in to recognize character strings semantically labeled with at least one text label as character string types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in as belonging to a semantic category, wherein the semantic category is associated with a plurality of possible actions to be performed by the system based upon the semantic category and the text label associated with the electronic document; and

a storage method including instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to store the at least one text label and the semantic category to which the recognized character strings belong in the electronic document as part of a semantic category namespace.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising an action API, comprising

a Description property describing a semantic label action associated with an action operable on the semantically labeled text string;

a Name property including a title for the semantic label action, wherein the semantic label action identifies an action to be performed by the system based on the text label of the semantically labeled text string;

a programmatic identifier property including a unique identifier for the semantic label action;

a LabelCaption property for displaying via a user interface an identification of a text label type for the semantically labeled text string;

a LabelName property identifying a number of types of semantic label actions operable by the action plug-in;

a LabelCount property identifying the number of semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in;

a VerbOaptionFromlD property including captions for the number of semantic label actions provided via a user interface, wherein the captions identify an action class for the number of semantic label actions;

a VerbCount property including a quantity of semantic label actions supported by a semantic label type;

a VerbID property for returning a unique identifier within a semantic label for use within the application program module;

a VerbNameFromlD property for returning a name to represent a semantic label action for use within the application program module; and

an InvokeVerb method including instructions which when executed by a computer initiate the semantic label action.