Text prediction using environment hints

• US 8,972,245 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2013
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Zachary H., Quirk, Aaron J., Sun, Lin
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Huyen X.
• Application Number:
  US13/971,591
• Publication Number:
  US 20140142923A1
• Time in Patent Office: 560 Days
• Field of Search: 704 1- 10, 704/251, 704/255, 704/257, 704/270, 704/252, 704/250, 704/256, 707/728, 709/206
• US Class Current: 704/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

Provided are techniques for text prediction using environment hints. A list of words is received, wherein each word in the list of words has an associated weight. For at least one word in the list of words, an environment weight is obtained from an environment dictionary. The associated weight of the at least one word is updated using the obtained environment weight. The words in the list of words are ordered based on the updated, associated weight of each of the words.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

dynamically generating, using a processor of a computer, an environment dictionary for a document that is being viewed based on information from one or more social networks associated with the user; and

in response to receiving a portion of a word for the document,

receiving a list of words for use in completing the portion of the word, wherein each word in the list of words has an associated weight;

for at least one word in the list of words, obtaining an environment weight from the dynamically created environment dictionary;

updating the associated weight of the at least one word using the obtained environment weight; and

ordering the words in the list of words based on the updated, associated weight of each of the words.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting information from an environment of a user; and

generating a new environment dictionary based on the collected information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting the information from the one or more social networks associated with the user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the environment dictionary based on new information collected from at least one of an environment of the user and the one or more social networks associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the ordered words to a user as suggestions for completion of the portion of the word input by the user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the list of words from an auto-completion process that generates the list of words as suggestions for completion of the portion of the word input by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a Software as a Service (SaaS) is provided to perform the method.