Input apparatus, input method and input program

• US 8,346,537 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Chino, Tetsuro, Kamatani, Satoshi, Sumita, Kazuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Colucci, Michael
• Application Number:
  US11/528,558
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,287 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9, 704/277, 704/257, 704/235, 704/2, 709/232, 709/231, 701/533, 701/451, 701/431, 701/420, 455/513, 455/457, 455/456.1, 345/204, 340/686.1, 246/5
• US Class Current: 704/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

An input apparatus which presents examples suitable to users, including an example storage module to store a plurality of example expressions; an edit storage module to store edits when a user edits the plurality of example expressions; a presentation example determining module to determine one or more presentation examples to be presented to the user from the plurality of example expressions stored in the example storage module; an edit adapting module to edit the presentation examples determined by the presentation example determining module based on the edits stored in the edit storage module; a display control module to present the presentation examples determined by the presentation example determining module to the user; and an entry accepting module to accept one of the presentation examples as a selected example when one of the presentation examples is selected by the user, or to receive edits from the user to one of the presentation examples and accept the edited presentation example as the selected example.

Claims

1. An expression selection and modification apparatus including a processor comprising:

a memory that contains a plurality of pre-stored multi-word example expressions, each example expression including at least one editable portion, said example expressions being stored in said memory prior to a current use of said apparatus by a user;

a deciding module configured to select one of said pre-stored example expressions to be presented to the user from among the pre-stored example expressions based on the current use being made of the apparatus determined by a physical activity association with the current location, but not the language spoken at that location, as a presentation example expression;

an editing storage module configured to store, upon the edit by the user to the editable portion of one of the example expressions, words of the one of the example expression before the edit and words thereof after the edit;

an editing adapting module configured to adjust the presentation example expression by replacing the words of the presentation example expression before the edit with the words thereof after the edit;

a display control module configured to present the presentation example expression adjusted by the edition adaptation module; and

an entry accepting module configured to provide the option to;

accept the unedited presentation example expression for further processing upon a selection of it by the user;

or

accept the edited presentation example expression for further processing upon the edit of it by the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said expressions are speech expressions.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the editing storage module includes an association of a wording of the portion to be edited in the presentation example before editing with the user edit of that portion, and of the portion to be edited in the presentation example by said associated user edit;

the editing adapting module permits editing of an example of expression stored in said example storage module including the wording of the portion to be edited by replacing that wording with the associated user edit.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory includes an association of a semantic attribute expressing a meaning of a user edit with that user edit, and with the wording of the portion to be edited in the presentation example by said associated user edit;

and

the editing adapting module permits editing of presentation examples that have wording given the same semantic attribute as the semantic attribute of the portion to be edited in an edited presentation example, by replacing that wording with the associated user edit.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a semantic relation storage module which associates a plurality of wordings with a semantic relation between the plurality of the wordings, of the portion to be edited in the presentation example by said associated user edit;

wherein the editing adapting module permits editing of wording of an example of expression from the semantic relation storage module, by acquiring a wording having the same semantic relation as the acquired semantic relation for the wording after editing from the semantic relation storage module, and by editing said example of expression by replacing the wording having the semantic relation acquired for the wording before editing with the wording having the semantic relation acquired for the wording after editing.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an analyzing module which, when the entry accepting module accepts an entry having a description that a user partially edits in a presentation example, specifies the edited portion and registers an indication that a wording before editing is associated with a wording after editing in the editing storage module.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input apparatus further includes a use detecting module and wherein the display control module presents possible current uses;

the entry accepting module accepts an entry of a use selected by the user from the uses displayed by the display control module; and

the use detecting module detects the use accepted by the entry accepting module as the current use.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a location information acquiring module which acquires information about a location of the input apparatus, including a use detecting module that permits detection of the current use based on information about a location acquired by the location information acquiring module.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the entry accepting module, upon receipt of speech input, applies the accepted speech input to speech recognition to determine if that speech input describes a displayed presentation example, either wholly or partially.

10. An input method for use with an input apparatus comprising:

storing a plurality of multi-word example expressions in an electronic medium, each example expression including at least one editable portion, said example expressions being stored in said electronic medium prior to a current use of said apparatus by a user;

electronically selecting at least one of said example expressions from the examples stored in the example storage module to be presented to a user of the input apparatus as a presentation example based on the current use being made of the apparatus as determined by a physical activity association with the current location, but not the language spoken at that location;

electronically displaying said at least one presentation example;

electronically editing at least the editable portion of the at least one of the displayed presentation examples based on user input;

electronically storing words of the one of the example expression before the edit and words thereof after the edit; and

exercising the option of selecting between;

accepting the unedited presentation example expression for further processing upon a selection of it by the user;

or

accepting the edited presentation example expression for further processing upon the edit of it by the user.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said expressions are speech expressions.

12. The method of claim 10, including:

associating a wording of the portion to be edited in the presentation example before editing with the user edit of that portion; and

editing an example of expression stored in said example storage module including the wording of the portion to be edited by replacing that wording with the associated user edit.

13. The method of claim 10, including:

electronically associating a semantic attribute expressing a meaning of a user edit with that user edit, and with the wording of the portion to be edited in the presentation example by said associated user edit; and

electronically editing presentation examples that have wording given the same semantic attribute as the semantic attribute of the portion to be edited in an edited presentation example, by replacing that wording with the associated user edit.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

associating a plurality of wordings with a semantic relation between the plurality of the wordings; and

editing of wording of an example of expression by acquiring a semantic relation associated with the wording before editing, by acquiring a wording having the same semantic relation as the acquired semantic relation for the wording after, and by editing said example of expression by electronically replacing the wording having the semantic relation acquired for the wording before editing with the wording having the semantic relation acquired for the wording after editing.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

identifying when a user partially edits a presentation example;

specifying the edited portion; and

electronically registering an indication that a wording before editing is associated with a wording after editing.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

electronically displaying possible current uses; and

selecting, by input from a user, one of the displayed possible current uses as the current use.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

using a location information acquiring module to acquire information about a location of the input apparatus; and

determining the current use of the input apparatus based on information about a location acquired by the location information acquiring module.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

using a speech recognition apparatus to determine if speech input describes a displayed presentation example, either wholly or partially; and

if said speech input only partially describes a displayed presentation example, editing said example to conform with said speech input.

19. A computer-readable medium comprising program instructions, which, when executed by an input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

storing a plurality of multi-word example expressions in an electronic medium, each example expression including at least one editable portion, said example expressions being stored in said electronic medium prior to a current use of said apparatus by a user;

selecting at least one of said examples of expressions from the examples stored in the example storage module to be presented to a user of the input apparatus as a presentation example based on the current use being made of the apparatus as determined by a physical activity association with the current location, but not the language spoken at that location;

displaying said at least one presentation example;

editing at least the editable portion of the at least one of the displayed presentation examples based on user input;

electronically storing words of the one of the example expression before the edit and words thereof after the edit; and

exercising the option of selecting between;

accepting the unedited presentation example expression for further processing upon a selection of it by the user;

or

accepting the edited presentation example expression for further processing upon the edit of it by the user.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein said expressions are speech expressions.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising program instructions, which, when executed by the input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

associating a wording of the portion to be edited in the presentation example before editing with the user edit of that portion; and

editing an example of expression stored in said example storage module including the wording of the portion to be edited by replacing that wording with the associated user edit.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising program instructions, which, when executed by the input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

associating a semantic attribute expressing a meaning of a user edit with that user edit, and with the wording of the portion to be edited in the presentation example by said associated user edit; and

editing presentation examples that have wording given the same semantic attribute as the semantic attribute of the portion to be edited in an edited presentation example, by replacing that wording with the associated user edit.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 further comprising program instructions, which, when executed by the input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

associating a plurality of wordings with a semantic relation between the plurality of the wordings; and

editing of wording of an example of expression by acquiring a semantic relation associated with the wording before editing, by acquiring a wording having the same semantic relation as the acquired semantic relation for the wording after, and by editing said example of expression by electronically replacing the wording having the semantic relation acquired for the wording before editing with the wording having the semantic relation acquired for the wording after editing.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising program instructions, which, when executed by the input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

identifying when a user partially edits a presentation example;

specifying the edited portion; and

electronically registering an indication that a wording before editing is associated with a wording after editing.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising program instructions, which, when executed by the input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

using a location information acquiring module to acquire information about a location of the input apparatus; and

determining the current use of the input apparatus based on information about a location acquired by the location information acquiring module.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising program instructions, which, when executed by the input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

using a speech recognition apparatus to determine if speech input describes a displayed presentation example, either wholly or partially; and

if said speech input only partially describes a displayed presentation example, editing said example to conform with said speech input.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising program instructions, which, when executed by the input apparatus, cause said input apparatus to perform the steps of:

electronically displaying possible current uses; and

selecting, by input from the user, one of the displayed possible current uses as the current use.