Explicit character filtering of ambiguous text entry
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for explicit character filtering of ambiguous key input sequences from a reduced keyboard, said apparatus comprising:
- a processor, wherein said processor manages output of objects to a display operatively coupled to said processor;
a keyboard comprising a plurality of keys, said keyboard being operatively coupled to the processor through appropriate interfacing circuitry, wherein at least some of said keys are associated with at least two characters, wherein said keyboard is configured to accept a plurality of types of key inputs including;
one-tap key inputs, wherein one-tap key inputs of said keys associated with at least two characters comprise an ambiguous key input, andat least one alternate type of key input that comprises the explicit entry of a single intended character;
wherein said processor receives at least one sequence of key inputs from said keyboard, and wherein said at least one sequence of key inputs includes any one of an ambiguous key input and an explicitly entered character input in a particular position within a sequence of key inputs, wherein said particular position is a position of any one of the at least one sequence of key inputs;
a means for distinguishing said at least one explicitly entered character input from an ambiguous key input;
a memory coupled to said processor, wherein said memory comprises;
an object database, wherein objects are associated with sequences of key inputs;
a means for disambiguating the at least one sequence of key inputs at an object level, wherein a set of candidate objects associated with said at least one sequence of key inputs is identified; and
a means for filtering the set of candidate objects, wherein objects from the set of candidate objects which do not contain said at least one explicitly entered character input in said particular position within the sequence of key inputs are filtered out of the set of candidate objects thereby forming a filtered set of candidate words, wherein only the filtered set of candidate objects are output to said display;
wherein said characters comprise letters, digits, punctuation marks, Japanese kana, Korean jamos, and icons; and
wherein objects comprise sequences of characters, words, part of words, word stems, icons, phone numbers, and inventory records.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for explicit filtering in ambiguous text entry. The invention provides embodiments including various explicit text entry methodologies, such as 2-key and long pressing. The invention also provides means for matching words in a database using build around methodology, stem locking methodology, word completion methodology, and n-gram searches.
235 Citations
34 Claims
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1. An apparatus for explicit character filtering of ambiguous key input sequences from a reduced keyboard, said apparatus comprising:
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a processor, wherein said processor manages output of objects to a display operatively coupled to said processor; a keyboard comprising a plurality of keys, said keyboard being operatively coupled to the processor through appropriate interfacing circuitry, wherein at least some of said keys are associated with at least two characters, wherein said keyboard is configured to accept a plurality of types of key inputs including; one-tap key inputs, wherein one-tap key inputs of said keys associated with at least two characters comprise an ambiguous key input, and at least one alternate type of key input that comprises the explicit entry of a single intended character; wherein said processor receives at least one sequence of key inputs from said keyboard, and wherein said at least one sequence of key inputs includes any one of an ambiguous key input and an explicitly entered character input in a particular position within a sequence of key inputs, wherein said particular position is a position of any one of the at least one sequence of key inputs; a means for distinguishing said at least one explicitly entered character input from an ambiguous key input; a memory coupled to said processor, wherein said memory comprises; an object database, wherein objects are associated with sequences of key inputs; a means for disambiguating the at least one sequence of key inputs at an object level, wherein a set of candidate objects associated with said at least one sequence of key inputs is identified; and a means for filtering the set of candidate objects, wherein objects from the set of candidate objects which do not contain said at least one explicitly entered character input in said particular position within the sequence of key inputs are filtered out of the set of candidate objects thereby forming a filtered set of candidate words, wherein only the filtered set of candidate objects are output to said display; wherein said characters comprise letters, digits, punctuation marks, Japanese kana, Korean jamos, and icons; and wherein objects comprise sequences of characters, words, part of words, word stems, icons, phone numbers, and inventory records. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for explicit character filtering of key input sequences, said method comprising the steps of:
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operatively coupling a processor with a display, wherein said processor manages output of objects to a display; operatively coupling said processor with a keyboard, said keyboard comprising a plurality of keys, wherein at least some of the keys are associated with at least two characters, wherein one-tap key inputs of said keys associated with at least two characters comprise an ambiguous key input, and wherein non-one-tap key inputs of said keys associated with at least two characters comprise an explicit key input that specifies precisely one intended character, wherein said processor receives at least one sequence of key inputs from said keyboard, and wherein said at least one sequence of key inputs includes any one of an ambiguous key input and an explicitly entered character input in a particular position within a sequence of key inputs, wherein said particular position is a position of any one of the at least one sequence of key inputs; distinguishing a non-one-tap key input from a one-tap key input; providing a memory coupled to said processor, wherein said memory comprises; an object database; and disambiguating ambiguous key inputs in said key input sequences; identifying objects in said object database that are associated with the sequence of key inputs, forming identified words; and filtering objects from the identified objects based on the input of at least one intended character in said particular position within the sequence of key inputs, forming filtered objects; and causing an output to said display of said filtered objects; wherein said characters comprise letters, digits, punctuation marks, Japanese kana, Korean jamos, and icons; and wherein objects comprise sequences of characters, words, part of words, word stems, icons, phone numbers, and inventory records. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. An apparatus for explicit character filtering of ambiguous text entry, said apparatus comprising:
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a keyboard and a display each coupled to a processor through appropriate interfacing circuitry, wherein said processor receives input characters from said keyboard and manages output objects to said display; a memory coupled to said processor, wherein said memory comprises; an operating system; disambiguating software; explicit character filtering in ambiguous text entry software; and an object database, wherein said explicit character filtering software, when executed by said processor; when one or more characters in a sequence of characters are explicitly entered, retrieves only stored objects from said object database having said explicitly entered characters in corresponding positions; and matches said objects in said database against explicitly entered characters and ambiguously entered characters as long as possible, rather than accepting a default word upon a first explicitly entered character; wherein said characters comprise letters, digits, punctuation marks, Japanese kana, Korean jamos, and icons; and wherein objects comprise sequences of characters, words, part of words, word stems, icons, phone numbers, and inventory records. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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Specification