Handheld electronic device with reduced keyboard and associated method of providing improved disambiguation

• US 8,532,977 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Pathiyal, Krishna K., Lazaridis, Mike, Griffin, Jason T., Babu, George V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Godbold, Douglas
• Application Number:
  US13/616,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060563A1
• Time in Patent Office: 361 Days
• Field of Search: 704/1, 704/9, 704/270, 345/169
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

An improved handheld electronic device having a reduced keyboard provides facilitated language entry by making available to a user certain words that a user may reasonably be expected to enter. In some situations, certain words can be stored, for example, in a temporary dictionary for use in particular situations. For instance, the names of the recipients of an electronic message might be stored in a temporary dictionary for rapid retrieval when entering a salutation in the message. As another example, a number of the words in an existing electronic message may be stored in a temporary dictionary and made available to a user when replying to or forwarding the message since the existing message might include words that the user might reasonably be expected to type in the reply message or the forwarded message.

Claims

1. A method of enabling disambiguation of an input into a handheld electronic device, the handheld electronic device including a memory for storing a plurality of language objects, the method comprising:

initiating a second message in response to a first received message, the first received message having a sender, the second message including the sender as a recipient of a number of recipients;

storing in the memory a first language object from the first received message, the first language object corresponding to the sender of the first received message;

associating a frequency value with the first language object from the first received message;

detecting an ambiguous input for the second message, the ambiguous input being at least a portion of a salutation of the second message;

determining that the first language object stored in the memory corresponds with the ambiguous input for the second message; and

outputting at least a portion of the first language object as a first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the frequency value comprises associating a relatively high frequency value with the first language object from the first received message.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting as the at least a portion of the output the recipient and another recipient of the number of recipients as the first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a second language object of the plurality of language objects corresponds with the ambiguous input; and

outputting as at least another portion of the output at least a portion of the second language object as a second proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the ambiguous input is at a location adjacent at least a first salutatory expression of a number of predetermined salutatory expressions in a language input field of the second message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the ambiguous input is on an initial line of a language input field of the second message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in a first portion of the memory at least a portion of the recipients of the number of recipients of the second message.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising seeking in the first portion of the memory said recipient that corresponds with the ambiguous input.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, responsive to said determining that the ambiguous input is at least a portion of a salutation, performing said seeking in the first portion of the memory said recipient that corresponds with the ambiguous input.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the at least a portion of the first language object based on the frequency value associated with the first language object.

11. A method of enabling disambiguation of an input into a handheld electronic device, the handheld electronic device including an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a memory for storing a plurality of language objects, the handheld electronic device having a number of received messages available thereon, the method comprising:

detecting a replying input with respect to a first received message of the number of received messages available on the handheld electronic device, the first received message having at least a sender;

initiating a second message including the sender as a recipient of a number of recipients, and storing in the memory a first language object from the first received message, the first language object corresponding to the sender of the first received message;

associating a frequency value with the first language object from the first received message;

detecting an ambiguous input for the second message, the ambiguous input being at least a portion of a salutation of the second message;

determining that the first language object stored in the memory corresponds with the ambiguous input for the second message; and

outputting at least a portion of the first language object as a first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein associating the frequency value comprises associating a relatively high frequency value with the first language object from the first received message.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing in a first portion of the memory at least a portion of the recipients of the number of recipients of the second message.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising identifying in the first portion of the memory said recipient of the number of recipients.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining that a second language object in a second portion of the memory corresponds with the ambiguous input; and

outputting as at least another portion of the output at least a portion of the second language object as a second proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising outputting as the at least a portion of the output the recipient and another recipient of the number of recipients as the first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining that the ambiguous input is at a location adjacent at least a first salutatory expression of a number of predetermined salutatory expressions in a language input field of the second message.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining that the ambiguous input is on an initial line of a language input field of the second message.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising outputting the at least a portion of the first language object based on the frequency value associated with the first language object.

20. A handheld electronic device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing a plurality of language objects;

wherein the processor is configured to;

initiate a second message in response to a first received message, the first received message having a sender, the second message including the sender as a recipient of a number of recipients;

store in the memory a first language object from the first received message, the first language object corresponding to the sender of the first received message;

associate a frequency value with the first language object from the first received message;

detect an ambiguous input for the second message, the ambiguous input being at least a portion of a salutation of the second message;

determine that the first language object stored in the memory corresponds with the ambiguous input for the second message; and

output at least a portion of the first language object as a first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

21. The handheld electronic device of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to output the at least a portion of the first language object based on the frequency value associated with the first language object.