USING PARTS-OF-SPEECH TAGGING AND NAMED ENTITY RECOGNITION FOR SPELLING CORRECTION

• US 20120166942A1
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Ramerth, Brent D., Davidson, Douglas R., Moore, Jennifer Lauren
• Granted Patent: US 10,762,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/257
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation

Abstract

Techniques to automatically correct or complete text are disclosed. An entered text and a context data indicating a context in which the entered text is used are received. Examples of context data include additional words and/or a phrase or sentence in which the entered text occurs. A replacement candidate to replace the entered text is determined based on the entered text and the context data.

Claims

1. A method of automatically correcting or completing text, comprising:

receiving an entered text and a context data indicating a context in which the entered text is used; and

determining based on the entered text and the context data a replacement candidate to replace the entered text.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the replacement candidate comprises a more correct or complete word or phrase than the entered text.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the entered text comprises one or more of a string, a word, and a phrase.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the context data comprises one or more words that occur in a same sentence as the entered text.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the context data comprises and/or is used to determine one or more features of the entered text.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the features include one or more of the following:

a part of speech, an identification as a named entity, a prefix, a suffix, and capitalization.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving further context data as additional text is entered and using the further context data to update an evaluation of one or more replacement candidates.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the replacement candidate includes using the context data to evaluate the replacement candidate.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the replacement candidate includes using the context data to assign to the replacement candidate a score indicating a degree of confidence that the replacement candidate should be suggested.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the replacement candidate further includes selecting the replacement candidate based at least in part on a determination that the score exceeds a selection threshold.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the replacement candidate includes determining based at least in part on the context data that the replacement candidate is more likely correct than one or more alternative replacement candidates.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a statistical language model, the entered text, and the context data to determine an expected attribute of the entered text.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating the statistical model.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein generating the statistical model includes augmenting a commercially available annotated corpus with annotated content comprising one or more of blog entries, online comments, comments posted on online social networks, and other user generated online content.

15. A system, comprising:

an input device configured to receive user inputs comprising entered text; and

a processor coupled to the input device and configured to;

receive an entered text entered using the input device and a context data is indicating a context in which the entered text is used; and

determine based on the entered text and the context data a replacement candidate to replace the entered text.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the context data comprises one or more words that occur in a same sentence as the entered text.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to use the context data to determine an expected attribute of the entered text and to use the expected attribute to evaluate the replacement candidate.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to update an evaluation of the replacement candidate as additional context data is received.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to use the context data to assign to the replacement candidate a score indicating a degree of confidence that the replacement candidate should be suggested.

20. A computer program product for automatically correcting or completing text, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an entered text and a context data indicating a context in which the entered text is used; and

determining based on the entered text and the context data a replacement candidate to replace the entered text.