DIRECTIONAL INPUT SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC CORRECTION

• US 20100277416A1
• Filed: 07/15/2010
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tegic Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: HULLFISH, Keith Charles, PALMER, Brian, BRAMS, Doug, LONGE, Michael R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,294,667 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/02 Input arrangements using manually operated switches, e.g. using keyboards or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0354 with detection of 2D relative movements between the device, or an operating part thereof, and a plane or surface, e.g. 2D mice, trackballs, pens or pucks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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 3/04897 Special input arrangements or commands for improving display capability
• 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: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32

Abstract

A system associated with a text entry application, such as email or instant messaging, comprises an optional onscreen representation of a circular keyboard, a list of potential linguistic object matches, and a message area where the selected words are entered. The circular keyboard is manipulated via a hardware joystick or game-pad with analog joystick or omni-directional rocker switch built therein. The user points the joystick in the general direction of the desired letter, and then continues pointing roughly to each letter in the desired word. Once all letters have been roughly selected, buttons are used to select a specific word from the list of potential matches and send the selected word to the message area.

Claims

1. A text entry input system, comprising:

a direction selector to individually point in a direction of letters to collectively form an intended linguistic object, where each letter comprises a linguistic object subcomponent;

a collection of linguistic objects;

an output device with a text display area;

a processor, comprising;

a difference calculation module configured to output, for each act of pointing, various letters based upon factors including at least a vector difference between an actual direction indicated by the directional selector and pre-assigned directions of said letters;

an object search engine configured to construct at least one predicted linguistic object based on the output letters; and

a selection component to facilitate user selection of a desired linguistic object.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an on-screen keyboard representation of an array of letters in each writing system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said on-screen keyboard is of any shape selected from a group comprising circle, square, oval, and polygon.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of compass point letters, said compass point letters being placed in an on-screen compass area.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each letter comprises any subcomponent or combination of one or more of the following forming an incomplete part of one of the linguistic objects:

an alphabetic letter, numeric digit, symbol, character;

a sub-word component from a non-English language including one or more strokes, radicals, jamos, kana, punctuation symbols, digits.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said linguistic objects are ordered according to a linguistic model.

7. The system of claim 6, where said linguistic model includes one or more of:

frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object in formal or conversational written text;

frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object when following a preceding linguistic object or linguistic objects;

proper or common grammar of the surrounding sentence;

application context of current linguistic object entry; and

recency of use or repeated use of the linguistic object by the user or within an application program.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said list of predicted linguistic objects are ordered by a combination value of a calculated weighted difference value and a linguistic model.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said linguistic model comprises one or more of:

frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object in formal or conversational written text;

frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object when following a preceding linguistic object or linguistic objects;

proper or common grammar of the surrounding sentence;

application context of current linguistic object entry; and

recency of use or repeated use of the linguistic object by the user or within an application program.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a means for extending a selected linguistic object with completions.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a means for precisely selecting said letters of said linguistic object.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein an exact spelling sequence is displayed in said text display area.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the last entered letter is indicated in said exact spelling sequence.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the last entered letter is indicated in said on-screen keyboard.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprises a smart punctuation symbol, said smart punctuation symbol when selected is automatically interpreted as a punctuation symbol, diacritic mark or tonal indication at the place in the input sequence where a matching punctuation symbol, diacritic mark or tonal indication occurs in predicted linguistic objects.