Automatic language identification for dynamic text processing

• US 8,464,150 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2008
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Davidson, Douglas R., Ozer, Ali
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Maikhanh
• Application Number:
  US12/211,694
• Publication Number:
  US 20090307584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,729 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/204, 715/205, 715/226, 715/254, 715/255, 715/256, 715/257, 715/259, 715/264, 715/265, 715/273, 715/731, 715/760, 715/234, 715/700, 715/762, 704/1, 704/4, 704/5, 704 8- 10, 704/203
• US Class Current: 715/264
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/263 Language identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

Methods and systems which utilize, in one embodiment, automatic language identification, including automatic language identification for dynamic text processing. In at least certain embodiments, automatic language identification can be applied to spellchecking in real time as the user types.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method comprising:

identifying by a machine, within a document, a first language of a first portion of the document;

identifying by the machine, within the document, a second language, distinct from the first language, of a second portion of the document; and

performing a modifying function on at least one of the first and the second portions, wherein the modifying function is based at least in part on the identification of at least one of the first and second languages, and the modifying function checks a correctness of the identification of at least one of the first and second languages;

wherein the correctness is determined by the modifying function based at least in part on errors detected when performing the modifying function;

further comprising identifying by the machine, which of the first and the second portions is being operated on currently by a user and dynamically selecting modifying functions based on the portion being currently operated on;

wherein the machine dynamically, as the user types in either of the first and the second portions, selects between a spell checker function for the first language in the first portion, and a spell checker function for the second language in the second portion.

2. The method as in claim 1 wherein the first and second portions of the document are one or more words.

3. The method as in claim 1 wherein the identification of the language is subject to user override.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second languages are selected from a group consisting of English, Italian, French, Russian, Ukrainian, and Latin.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying function is invoked by the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying function is invoked automatically by the machine.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying function is a member of a group consisting of:

a spellchecking function;

a grammar checking function; and

a hyphenation function.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the correctness is determined based at least in part on the amount of the errors detected by the modifying function.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the correctness is determined based at least in part on the type of the errors detected by the modifying function.

10. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

in accordance with a determination that at least one of the first and second languages is not correct, identifying an alternative language, wherein the alternative language is identified based at least in part on errors detected when performing a modifying function that is based at least in part on the alternative language.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the modifying function comprises performing the modifying function on both the first and the second portions of the document, based at least in part on the identification of the first and second languages, wherein the modifying function checks a correctness of the identification of both the first and second languages.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method of processing data, the method comprising:

identifying by a machine, within a document, a first language of a first portion of the document;

identifying by the machine, within the document, a second language, distinct from the first language, of a second portion of the document; and

performing a modifying function on at least one of the first and the second portions, wherein the modifying function is based at least in part on the identification of at least one of the first and second languages, and the modifying function checks a correctness of the identification of at least one of the first and second languages;

wherein the correctness is determined by the modifying function based at least in part on errors detected when performing the modifying function;

further comprising identifying by the machine, which of the first and the second portions is being operated on currently by a user and dynamically selecting modifying functions based on the portion being currently operated on;

wherein the machine dynamically, as the user types in either of the first and the second portions, selects between a spell checker function for the first language in the first portion, and a spell checker function for the second language in the second portion.

13. A data processing system comprising:

means for identifying by a machine, within a document, a first language of a first portion of the document;

means for identifying by the machine, within the document, a second language, distinct from the first language, of a second portion of the document; and

means for performing a modifying function on at least one of the first and the second portions, wherein the modifying function is based at least in part on the identification of at least one of the first and second languages, and means for the modifying function checking a correctness of the identification of at least one of the first and second languages;

wherein the correctness is determined by the modifying function based at least in part on errors detected when performing the modifying function;

further comprising means for identifying by the machine, which of the first and the second portions is being operated on currently by a user and dynamically selecting modifying functions based on the portion being currently operated on;

wherein the machine dynamically, as the user types in either of the first and the second portions, selects between a spell checker function for the first language in the first portion, and a spell checker function for the second language in the second portion.