Methods of offering guidance on common language usage utilizing a hashing function consisting of a hash triplet

• US 8,706,470 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2007
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vanav Holdings
• Original Assignee: David T. Lorenzen, Nicholas J. Witchey
• Inventors: Witchey, Nicholas J., Lorenzen, David T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth, David R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kazeminezhad, Farzad
• Application Number:
  US11/745,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20070260448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,542 Days
• Field of Search: 704/1, 709/206
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems

Abstract

Usages of language are analyzed in ways that are at least partially language independent. In preferred embodiments, portions of a document are hashed, and the resulting hash values are compared with each other and with those of other documents in real-time. Analyses can be used to gauge conformity of a document to one or more standards utilizing a hash triplet consisting of a hash for each document word and two involving the word and its preceding and following words, to provide suggestions to the author, and to filter email.

Claims

1. The method of providing language usage guidance with respect to a passage of a document being edited by a user, comprising:

generating a hash of the passage being edited;

comparing the hash against entries in a database to determine likelihood that the passage is written as intended by the user; and

providing alternative language suggestions to the user based in part upon entries in the database;

and allowing the user to modify the document by accepting a selected one of the suggestions;

a program when run on a local computer to compute a triplet of hashes, wherein each hash consists of a hash for each word in the document, a hash for the word and its preceding word, and a hash for the word and its following word.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing alternative suggestions comprises providing first, and second suggestions.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising presenting a drop-down listing of the possible alternatives for the passage.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating additional hashes from other passages in the document, and storing the additional hashes in a database.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of additional passages numbers at least 100.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the passage is no longer than a paragraph.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the passage is no longer than a sentence.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the entries in the database correspond to model works from a known author, and further comprising presenting likely authorship based on a comparison of the hash against the entries.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the document being edited is a received email, and further comprising using the step of comparing the hash to determine a likelihood that the email is undesirable.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the alternative language suggestions to the user in at least near real-time.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating a hash of the passage comprises using a hash function selected from a guidance filter database.

12. The method of claim 1, generating a hash of the passage comprises using a hash function that takes into account an amount of white-space in the document.