Predictive conversion of user input

• US 7,506,254 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2005
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Franz, Alexander M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Desai; Rachna S
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CHAU T
• Application Number:
  US11/111,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20060241933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 715/259, 715/260, 715/264, 715/265, 715/271, 715/816, 704/1, 704/2, 704/3, 704/5, 704/8, 704/10
• US Class Current: 715/259
• 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

Systems and methods for predictive conversion of user text input in one language or character set to another language or character set are disclosed. The method may generally include converting a partial user input in a non-target language or character set to a converted partial user input in a target language or character set and computing likely possible converted completions of the converted partial user input based on a likely completions module. The converting may be based on a dictionary of non-target language or character set to target language or character set mappings. The likely completions module may be a database or a model trained by performing statistical analysis on a database of user inputs or a subset thereof. The subset of user inputs may be selected from those from a particular geographic location or time period and/or from the user or the user'"'"'s current session.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for predictively converting a partial user input, comprising:

receiving a partial user input from a user, the partial user input being Roman characters;

converting the partial user input of Roman characters to a converted partial user input, the converted partial user input being first non-Roman characters that are represented by the user input of Roman characters;

generating possible completions from the converted partial user input of non-Roman characters, each possible completion including the first non-Roman characters and second non-Roman characters, the first non-Roman characters being a prefix to the second non-Roman characters, and the second non-Roman characters being non-Roman characters that are not represented by the partial user input;

outputting one or more of the possible completions.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the converting is based on a statistical mapping of user inputs in Roman characters to converted inputs in non-Roman characters.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the converting is based on a database of user inputs in Roman characters to converted inputs in non-Roman characters.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the converting includes performing statistical analysis on at least a portion of the user inputs in the database to determine likely completions of the partial user inputs.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the converting is based on a subset of the user inputs in the database, the subset of the user inputs being associated with at least one of:

a geographic location, a time period, and the user from whom the partial user input is received.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the partial user input represents a partial user query to a search engine.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the partial user input is a pinyin input, and the possible completions comprises Chinese characters.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the partial user input corresponds to a prefix of the possible completion, the prefix being the first non-Roman characters.

9. computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium on which are stored instructions executable on a computer processor, and upon such execution cause the computer processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a partial user input, the partial user input being Roman characters;

converting the partial user input of Roman characters to a converted partial user input, the converted partial user input being first non-Roman characters that are represented by the user input of Roman characters;

generating possible completions from the converted partial user input of non-Roman characters, each possible completion including the first non-Roman characters and second non-Roman characters, the first non-Roman characters being a prefix to the second non-Roman characters, and the second non-Roman characters being non-Roman characters that are not represented by the partial user input; and

outputting one or more of the possible completions.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the converting is based on a statistical mapping of user inputs in Roman characters to converted inputs in non-Roman characters.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the partial user input represents a partial user query to a search engine.

12. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a partial user input of Roman characters in a first language, the partial user input defining one or more Pinyin syllables;

converting the partial user input to a converted partial user input of one or more non-Roman characters in the second language, the one or more non-Roman characters being first Chinese characters that are represented by the one or more Pinyin syllables;

generating a converted completion of the partial user input from the converted partial user input, the converted completion being non-Roman characters in the second language and including the first Chinese characters and second Chinese characters, the first Chinese characters being a prefix to the second Chinese characters, and the second Chinese characters not being represented by the one or more Pinyin syllables; and

outputting the converted completion to a user device.