Systems and methods for using tone indicator in text recognition

• US 9,626,354 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2014
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Feng, Xin
• Primary Examiner(s): Riley, Marcus T
• Application Number:
  US14/160,011
• Publication Number:
  US 20150205781A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,183 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/263 Language identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities

Abstract

For using a tone indicator to determine a language for text recognition, an apparatus for using a tone indicator to identify language in text recognition is disclosed. The apparatus for text recognition using a tone indicator includes a text input module, a tone indicator module, and a language identification module. A method and computer program product also perform the functions of the apparatus.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores code executable by the processor to;

receive input text, the input text including at least one word;

determine whether a user inputs a tone indicator in association with the input text, wherein the tone indicator is selected from the group consisting of a handwritten mark, glyph, or symbol corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language, a typed mark, glyph, or symbol corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language, and a gesture corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language;

identify a particular tone associated with the input text in response to the user inputting a tone indicator for a word of the input text;

examine one or more nearby words for tone indicator in response to the user not inputting a tone indicator for a word of the input text; and

select a language recognition database based on the tone indicator.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises code executable by the processor to interpret the input text using the selected language recognition database.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises code executable by the processor to select a default language recognition database in response to no tone indicator being present in the input text.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises code executable by the processor to parse the input text to identify words within the input text, wherein the apparatus determines a tone indicator for each word within the input text.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the input text comprises words in two languages and the language recognition database is selected for each word based on the determined tone indicator for each word.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises code executable by the processor to perform handwriting recognition on the input text using the selected language recognition database.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises code executable by the processor to associate a handwritten tone indicator with typed input text.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the input text comprises a plurality of words, the apparatus further comprising code that selects the language recognition database for a particular word based in part on tone indicators determined for nearby words.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tone indicator is selected from the group comprising a mark above a word and a numeral following a word.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the language recognition database is selected from the group consisting of an English database, a pinyin database, and a Chinese database.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, by use of a processor, user input including input text;

determining whether the user input includes a tone indicator, wherein the tone indicator is selected from the group consisting of a handwritten mark, glyph, or symbol corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language, a typed mark, glyph, or symbol corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language, and a gesture corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language;

identifying a particular tone indicator associated with the input text in response to the user input including a tone indicator for a word of the input text, wherein the tone indicator indicates a particular tone from a tonal language associated with the input text;

examining one or more nearby words for tone indicator in response to the user not inputting a tone indicator for a word of the input text; and

selecting a language recognition database based on the tone indicator.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising interpreting the input text using the selected language recognition database.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising performing handwriting recognition on the input text using the selected language recognition database.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising associating a handwritten tone indicator with typed input text.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising parsing the input text to identify words within the input text, wherein determining a tone indicator comprises determining a tone indicator for each word within the input text.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the input text comprises words in two languages and the language recognition database is selected for each word based on the determined tone indicator for each word.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining a character corresponding to the input text by searching the selected language recognition database.

18. A program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores code executable by a processor to perform:

receiving input text including at least one word;

determining whether a user inputs a tone indicator with the input text, wherein the tone indicator is selected from the group consisting of a handwritten mark, glyph, or symbol corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language, a typed mark, glyph, or symbol corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language, and a gesture corresponding to a particular tone of a tonal language;

identifying a particular tone indicator associated with the input text in response to the user inputting a tone indicator, wherein the tone indicator indicates a particular tone from a tonal language associated with the input text;

examining one or more nearby words for tone indicator in response to the user not inputting a tone indicator for a word of the input text; and

selecting a language recognition database based on the tone indicator.

19. The program product of claim 18, wherein further comprising associating a handwritten tone indicator with typed input text.

20. The program product of claim 18, wherein further comprising performing handwriting recognition on the input text using the selected language recognition database.