Disambiguating ambiguous characters

• US 8,583,087 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Longe, Michael R., Bradford, Ethan R., Kay, David J., van Meurs, Pim
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Wesley
• Application Number:
  US13/616,419
• Publication Number:
  US 20130012174A1
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 707 1- 4, 709230-231, 341/22
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

In one general sense, information may be presented to a user by receiving one or more ambiguous characters that may be resolved to one of at least two disambiguated characters, exchanging at least one of the ambiguous characters with a host, receiving, from the host, results that reflect disambiguated terms related to the ambiguous characters exchanged with the host, rendering the results in a manner enabling the user to perceive which of the disambiguated terms will be used upon user selection of an aspect of the results, and enabling the user to select an aspect of the results to effect use of a corresponding one of the disambiguated terms.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of presenting information to a user in which a computer system initiates execution of software instructions stored in memory, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving one or more ambiguous characters via a reduced-entry keypad of a wireless phone, the one or more ambiguous characters received as a sequence of numbers input through the reduced-entry keypad, each respective ambiguous character being a number that represents one of at least two disambiguated letters;

exchanging at least one of the ambiguous characters with a host by transmitting the sequence of numbers to the host across a wireless network, exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters including exchanging the sequence of numbers upon receiving an amount of numbers in the sequence that meets an initial predetermined threshold amount of numbers, and exchanging subsequently received numbers, received as part of the sequence of numbers;

receiving, from the host, results that represent disambiguated terms corresponding to the ambiguous characters exchanged with the host;

rendering the results in a display of the wireless phone in a manner that enables identification of which of the disambiguated terms will be used upon a received selection of a displayed result;

rendering advertisements in the display of the wireless phone, the advertisements responsive to the received sequence of ambiguous characters;

receiving, from the host, updated results that represent disambiguated terms corresponding to the subsequently received numbers exchanged with the host;

rendering the updated results in the display of the wireless phone; and

in response to receiving a selection of one of the disambiguated terms, displaying information corresponding to the selection.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters with the host includes:

sending the subsequently received numbers to the host without resending previously sent numbers of the sequence of numbers and without receiving a manually entered completion input that indicates a completion of the sequence of numbers;

in response to receiving the subsequently received numbers in the sequence of numbers, and without receiving the completion input, determining that no relevant results exist; and

in response to determining that no relevant results exist, indicating that that no relevant results exist.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying several user applications based on the disambiguated terms; and

rendering the results in a manner that indicates which one of the several user applications will be launched in response to selection of a given result.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving nonambiguous characters; and

exchanging nonambiguous characters with the host.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters with the host includes:

transmitting updates to the host upon receiving the subsequently received numbers, the transmitting occurring after detecting that user inactivity in entering the sequence of numbers exceeds a predetermined period of time.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

rendering word stems of potential results;

presenting an interface that provides display and selection of likely word stems; and

receiving a selection of a given word stem.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more ambiguous characters includes:

receiving the one or more ambiguous characters in a keyword retrieval field of a web browser application;

wherein rendering the results includes displaying a drop down window adjacent to the keyword retrieval field while the user inputs the ambiguous characters, the drop down window displaying likely results for the ambiguous characters; and

updating the displayed likely results upon receiving additional ambiguous characters from the user.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising rendering updated advertisements in the display of the wireless phone after rendering the updated results, the updated advertisements responsive to the received sequence of ambiguous characters.

9. A system for presenting information to a user, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform the operations of;

receiving one or more ambiguous characters via a reduced-entry keypad of a wireless phone, the one or more ambiguous characters received as a sequence of numbers input through the reduced-entry keypad, each respective ambiguous character being a number that represents one of at least two disambiguated letters;

exchanging at least one of the ambiguous characters with a host by transmitting the sequence of numbers to the host across a wireless network, exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters including exchanging the sequence of numbers upon receiving an amount of numbers in the sequence that meets an initial predetermined threshold amount of numbers, and exchanging subsequently received numbers, received as part of the sequence of numbers;

receiving, from the host, results that represent disambiguated terms corresponding to the ambiguous characters exchanged with the host;

rendering the results in a display of the wireless phone in a manner that enables identification of which of the disambiguated terms will be used upon a received selection of a displayed result;

rendering advertisements in the display of the wireless phone, the advertisements responsive to the received sequence of ambiguous characters;

receiving, from the host, updated results that represent disambiguated terms corresponding to the subsequently received numbers exchanged with the host;

rendering the updated results in the display of the wireless phone; and

in response to receiving a selection of one of the disambiguated terms, displaying information corresponding to the selection.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters with the host includes:

sending the subsequently received numbers to the host without resending previously sent numbers of the sequence of numbers and without receiving a manually entered completion input that indicates a completion of the sequence of numbers;

in response to receiving the subsequently received numbers in the sequence of numbers, and without receiving the completion input, determining that no relevant results exist; and

in response to determining that no relevant results exist, indicating that that no relevant results exist.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the memory stores further instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform the operations of:

identifying several user applications based on the disambiguated terms; and

rendering the results in a manner that indicates which one of the several user applications will be launched in response to selection of a given result.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the memory stores further instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform the operations of:

receiving nonambiguous characters; and

exchanging nonambiguous characters with the host.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters with the host includes:

transmitting updates to the host upon receiving the subsequently received numbers, the transmitting occurring after detecting that user inactivity in entering the sequence of numbers exceeds a predetermined period of time.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the memory stores further instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform the operations of:

rendering word stems of potential results;

presenting an interface that provides display and selection of likely word stems;

and

receiving a selection of a given word stem.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein receiving the one or more ambiguous characters includes:

receiving the one or more ambiguous characters in a keyword retrieval field of a web browser application;

wherein rendering the results includes displaying a drop down window adjacent to the keyword retrieval field while the user inputs the ambiguous characters, the drop down window displaying likely results for the ambiguous characters; and

updating the displayed likely results upon receiving additional ambiguous characters from the user.

16. A computer program product including a non-transitory computer-storage medium having instructions stored thereon for processing data information, such that the instructions, when carried out by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform the operations of:

receiving one or more ambiguous characters via a reduced-entry keypad of a wireless phone, the one or more ambiguous characters received as a sequence of numbers input through the reduced-entry keypad, each respective ambiguous character being a number that represents one of at least two disambiguated letters;

exchanging at least one of the ambiguous characters with a host by transmitting the sequence of numbers to the host across a wireless network, exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters including exchanging the sequence of numbers upon receiving an amount of numbers in the sequence that meets an initial predetermined threshold amount of numbers, and exchanging subsequently received numbers, received as part of the sequence of numbers;

receiving, from the host, results that represent disambiguated terms corresponding to the ambiguous characters exchanged with the host;

rendering the results in a display of the wireless phone in a manner that enables identification of which of the disambiguated terms will be used upon a received selection of a displayed result;

rendering advertisements in the display of the wireless phone, the advertisements responsive to the received sequence of ambiguous characters;

receiving, from the host, updated results that represent disambiguated terms corresponding to the subsequently received numbers exchanged with the host;

rendering the updated results in the display of the wireless phone; and

in response to receiving a selection of one of the disambiguated terms, displaying information corresponding to the selection.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein exchanging the at least one of the ambiguous characters with the host includes:

sending the subsequently received numbers to the host without resending previously sent numbers of the sequence of numbers and without receiving a manually entered completion input that indicates a completion of the sequence of numbers;

in response to receiving the subsequently received numbers in the sequence of numbers, and without receiving the completion input, determining that no relevant results exist; and

in response to determining that no relevant results exist, indicating that that no relevant results exist.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying several user applications based on the disambiguated terms; and

rendering the results in a manner that indicates which one of the several user applications will be launched in response to selection of a given result.

19. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein receiving the one or more ambiguous characters includes:

receiving the one or more ambiguous characters in a keyword retrieval field of a web browser application;

wherein rendering the results includes displaying a drop down window adjacent to the keyword retrieval field while the user inputs the ambiguous characters, the drop down window displaying likely results for the ambiguous characters; and

updating the displayed likely results upon receiving additional ambiguous characters from the user.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising rendering updated advertisements in the display of the wireless phone after rendering the updated results, the updated advertisements responsive to the received sequence of ambiguous characters.