IDENTIFICATION OF CANDIDATE CHARACTERS FOR TEXT INPUT

• US 20090295737A1
• Filed: 07/02/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Collins, Leland Douglas Jr., Chou, Chia-Chi, Vigil, Maria Celia, Goldsmith, Deborah Eileen
• Granted Patent: US 9,355,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

Methods, systems, devices, and apparatus, including computer program products, for identifying candidates for text entry. One or more inputs entering one or more characters are received. One or more first candidate characters are identified and presented for the inputs using a first dictionary. One or more second candidate characters related to a respective first candidate character are identified and presented.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an input entering a character;

identifying and presenting one or more first candidate characters based on the received input using a first dictionary; and

identifying and presenting one or more second candidate characters related to a respective first candidate character.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second candidate characters are not in the first dictionary.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying and presenting one or more second candidate characters associated with a respective first candidate character comprises identifying and presenting one or more synthetic candidate characters that resemble the respective first candidate character.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying and presenting one or more synthetic candidate characters that resemble the respective first candidate character comprises identifying the synthetic candidate characters using a second dictionary, distinct from the first dictionary, that includes mappings from characters in the first dictionary to characters that resemble the characters in the first dictionary, the second dictionary comprising a mapping from the respective first candidate character to the synthetic candidate characters.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying and presenting one or more second candidate characters associated with a respective first candidate character comprises identifying and presenting one or more extension candidate characters.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more extension candidate characters comprise a character that is semantically related to the respective first candidate character.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more extension candidate characters comprise a character that is structurally composed of multiple instances of the respective first candidate character.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying and presenting one or more extension candidate characters comprises identifying the extension candidate characters using a second dictionary, distinct from the first dictionary, the second dictionary comprising a mapping from the respective first candidate character to the extension candidate characters.

9. A method comprising:

receiving inputs entering a string having a plurality of characters; and

identifying and presenting a candidate character that is a combination of the plurality of characters.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of characters are structural components of the candidate character.

11. A method, comprising:

receiving one or more inputs entering a string of one or more characters; and

identifying and presenting one or more candidate characters, wherein each of the candidate characters forms a respective word with one or more characters at a tail end of the string.

12. A device, comprising:

a touch-sensitive display;

memory;

one or more processors; and

instructions stored in the memory and configured for execution by the one or more processors, the instructions comprising instructions to;

receive an input entering a character;

identify and present one or more first candidate characters based on the received input using a first dictionary; and

identify and present one or more second candidate characters related to a respective first candidate character.

13. The device of claim 12, comprising instructions to identify and present one or more synthetic candidate characters that resemble a respective first candidate character.

14. The device of claim 12, comprising instructions to identify and present one or more extension candidate characters.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the extension candidate characters comprise a character that is semantically related to the respective first candidate character.

16. The device of claim 14, wherein the extension candidate characters comprise a character that is structurally composed of multiple instances of the respective first candidate character.

17. The device of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

receive inputs entering a string having a plurality of characters;

identify and present a candidate character that is a combination of the plurality of characters.

18. The device of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

receive one or more inputs entering a string of one or more characters; and

identify and present one or more candidate characters, wherein each of the candidate characters forms a respective word with one or more consecutive characters at a tail end of the string.

19. A computer program product, encoded on a tangible program carrier, operable to cause a device to perform operations comprising:

receiving an input entering a character;

identifying and presenting one or more first candidate characters based on the received input using a first dictionary; and

identifying and presenting one or more second candidate characters related to a respective first candidate character.

20. A computer program product, encoded on a tangible program carrier, operable to cause a device to perform operations comprising:

receiving inputs entering a string having a plurality of characters; and

identifying and presenting a candidate character that is a combination of the plurality of characters.