Device and Method Incorporating an Improved Text Input Mechanism

• US 20110197128A1
• Filed: 06/10/2009
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: EXB Asset Management GmbH
• Inventors: Assadollahi, Ramin O.
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,432 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/259
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/70 methods for entering alphabetical characters, e.g. multi-tap or dictionary disambiguation methods for entering alphabetical characters per se G06F3/0237

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device incorporating an improved text input mechanism, a method for improved text input and a computer program for performing the method. A device comprising a display screen for displaying m-words and an input device for entering characters is disclosed. The device further comprises a processor receiving characters from the input device, and a context comprising K words directly preceding a desired word and wherein K is greater than one. Furthermore, the device comprises a dictionary, comprising a plurality of occurrence indicators associated with k^th order combinations of context and candidate words, indicating the frequency by which the respective candidate word follows the context word by k words in a text corpus; wherein k varies from 1 to K. In order to predict the desired word, the processor selects a list of candidate words, wherein for each candidate word the context word of the k^th order combination matches the k^th last word of the context and wherein a score is determined depending on the associated occurrence indicators for the relevant k^th order combinations. The processor then causes m-number of candidate words from said list of candidate words to be displayed on said display screen. Furthermore, it causes the display to prompt the user to select one of the displayed candidate words as the desired word or to enter at least one character for identifying the desired word using the input device.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a display screen;

an input device for entering characters;

a processor operable to receive character input from the input device, wherein the processor is operable to maintain an input context comprising K words directly preceding a desired input word, wherein K is greater than one;

a dictionary comprising a plurality of word occurrence indicators, wherein a word occurrence indicator is associated with a k^th order combination of a context word and a candidate word that indicates the frequency by which a respective candidate word follows the corresponding context word by k words in a text corpus;

wherein k takes on a value between 1 and K;

wherein the processor is operable to select a list of candidate words, wherein for each candidate word the context word of at least one k^th order combination matches the k^th last word of the input context; and

a score is determined depending on the at least one associated word occurrence indicator for the at least one relevant k^th order combination;

wherein the processor is operable to cause a number of candidate words from said list of candidate words having the highest score to be displayed on said display screen; and

wherein the processor is operable to cause the display to prompt the user to select one of the displayed candidate words as the desired word or to enter at least one character for identifying the desired word using the input device.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the score is determined as a combination of the matching word occurrence indicators.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the input context comprises linguistic delimiters, such as sentence or punctuations marks.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the dictionary is organized in K sub-dictionaries, wherein the k^th sub-dictionary comprises the k^th order combinations.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the k^th order combinations are stored as pointers to a global word dictionary comprising the context and/or candidate words.

6. The device according to claim 5, further comprising a unigram dictionary comprising occurrence indicators associated to candidate words, indicating the frequencies of the respective candidate words in a text corpus.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein the unigram dictionary is the global dictionary.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein in response to the selection of the desired word, said processor is operable to update the input context by appending the desired word to the end of the input context and deleting the leading word;

select a new list of candidate words according to claim 1; and

cause the display to prompt the user to either select one of the displayed candidate words or to enter at least one character for identifying the desired word using the input device.

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein in response to the entering of the at least one character for identifying the desired word using the input device, said processor is operable to cause only those candidate words from the list of candidate words to be displayed whose initial at least one character match the at least one character entered using the input device.

10. The device according to claim 1, wherein the candidate words are displayed on the display screen in an order corresponding to their respective score.

11. The device according to claim 1, wherein the score of a candidate word is determined by adding the occurrence indicators of matching k^th order combinations, each occurrence indicator being weighted by a weight multiplier.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the weight multipliers are decreasing with increasing values of k.

13. The device according to claim 1, wherein the occurrence indicators are normalized corresponding to the size of the text corpus.

14. The device according to claim 1, wherein the occurrence indicators are represented by a logarithmic value.

15. The device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is operable to cause the display screen to display only candidate words whose score exceeds a threshold value.

16. A method executed on an electronic device for inputting text to be displayed on a display screen, comprising the steps:

maintaining an input context comprising K words directly preceding a desired word, wherein K is greater than one;

—

providing a dictionary comprising a plurality of word occurrence indicators, wherein a word occurrence indicator is associated with a k^th order combination of a context word and a candidate word that indicates the frequency by which a respective candidate word follows the corresponding context word by k words in a text corpus;

wherein k takes on a value between 1 and K;

selecting a list of candidate words, wherein for each candidate word the context word of at least one k^th order combination matches the k^th last word of the input context; and

a score is determined depending on the at least one associated word occurrence indicator for the at least one relevant k^th order combination;

causing a number of candidate words from said list of candidate words to be displayed on the display screen; and

prompting the user to select one of the displayed candidate words as the desired word or to enter at least one character for identifying the desired word.