Handheld electronic device and method for disambiguation of compound text input for prioritizing compound language solutions according to quantity of text components

• US 7,952,497 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2009
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Elizarov, Michael, Fux, Vadim
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman; Brian A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dang; Hung Q
• Application Number:
  US12/436,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20090216523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 755 Days
• Field of Search: 341/22, 341/23, 345/168, 704/247, 704/245, 704/250, 704/10, 704/255
• US Class Current: 341/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1662 Details related to the integrated keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques

Abstract

A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software that is operable to disambiguate compound text input. The device is able to assemble language objects in the memory to generate compound language solutions. The device is able to prioritize compound language solutions according to various criteria.

Claims

1. A method of disambiguating an input into a handheld electronic device having an input apparatus, an output apparatus, a processor, and a memory having stored therein a plurality of objects comprising a plurality of language objects, the input apparatus including a plurality of input members, each of at least some of the input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto, the method comprising:

(1) detecting, by the processor, an ambiguous input;

(2) generating a number of compound language solution representations by, for each compound language solution representation;

identifying a language object corresponding with a first portion of the ambiguous input and having a length equal to the length of the first portion,

for the remaining portion of said ambiguous input other than said first portion, identifying one or more other language objects, each of said one or more other language objects corresponding to all or a portion of said remaining portion, and

including in the compound language solution representation the language object corresponding with the first portion of the ambiguous input and at least a portion of each of the one or more other language objects;

(3) outputting said compound language solution representations;

(4) grouping, by the processor, said output compound language solution representations into one or more groups based on the number of the one or more other language objects fully or partially included therein; and

(5) arranging, by the processor, said groups in order of decreasing priority according to the number of the one or more other language objects fully or partially included in the compound language solution representations in each group.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a length identity value for each compound language solution representation in one of said groups in which each compound language solution representation has only one other language object fully or partially included therein, wherein the length identity value for each compound language solution representation in the one of said groups is calculated by determining a difference between a length of the one other language object fully or partially included therein and the length of the first portion thereof; and

arranging the output compound language solution representations in the one of said groups in order of decreasing priority according to the increasing value of the calculated length identity value.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of objects further comprise a plurality of frequency objects, each of at least some of the language objects being associated with an associated frequency object, the method further comprising, for each subset of the output compound language solution representations in the one of said groups having an equal calculated length identity value, calculating for each output compound language solution representation in the subset an average frequency value comprised of an average of the frequency values associated with the language object corresponding with the first portion thereof and the one other language object fully or partially included therein and arranging the output compound language solution representations in the subset in order of decreasing priority according to the decreasing value of the average frequency value.

4. A handheld electronic device comprising:

an input apparatus comprising a plurality of input members, each of at least some of the input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto;

an output apparatus;

a processor apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory having stored therein a plurality of objects comprising a plurality of language objects, the processor apparatus being structured to detect an ambiguous input, and being further structured to generate a number of compound language solution representations by, for each compound language solution representation;

identifying a language object corresponding with a first portion of the ambiguous input and having a length equal to the length of the first portion,

for the remaining portion of said ambiguous input other than said first portion, identifying one or more other language objects, each of said one or more other language objects corresponding to all or a portion of said remaining portion, and

including in the compound language solution representation the language object corresponding with the first portion of the ambiguous input and at least a portion of each of the one or more other language objects;

the output apparatus being structured to output said compound language solution representations;

the processor apparatus being structured to (i) group said output compound language solution representations into one or more groups based on the number of the one or more other language objects fully or partially included therein and (ii) arrange said groups in order of decreasing priority according to the number of the one or more other language objects fully or partially included in the compound language solution representations in each group.

5. The handheld electronic device according to claim 4, the processor apparatus being structured to (i) calculate a length identity value for each compound language solution representation in one of said groups in which each compound language solution representation has only one other language object fully or partially included therein, wherein the length identity value for each compound language solution representation in the one of said groups is calculated by determining a difference between a length of the one other language object fully or partially included therein and the length of the first portion thereof, and (ii) arrange the output compound language solution representations in the one of said groups in order of decreasing priority according to the increasing value of the calculated length identity value.

6. The handheld electronic device according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of objects further comprise a plurality of frequency objects, each of at least some of the language objects being associated with an associated frequency object, the processor apparatus being structured to, for each subset of the output compound language solution representations in the one of said groups having an equal calculated length identity value, calculate for each output compound language solution representation in the subset an average frequency value comprised of an average of the frequency values associated with the language object corresponding with the first portion thereof and the one other language object fully or partially included therein and arrange the output compound language solution representations in the subset in order of decreasing priority according to the decreasing value of the average frequency value.