Space prediction for text input

• US 8,819,574 B2
• Filed: 10/22/2012
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ouyang, Yu, Zhai, Shumin
• Primary Examiner(s): SAX, STEVEN PAUL
• Application Number:
  US13/657,574
• Publication Number:
  US 20140115519A1
• Time in Patent Office: 673 Days
• Field of Search: 715/780, 715/816, 715/702, 715/773, 715/764, 715/255, 715/257, 705/26, 434/178, 704/9
• US Class Current: 715/773
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/163 Handling of whitespace
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

An example method includes displaying, at a presence-sensitive device, a virtual keyboard, receiving an indication of input entered at a presence-sensitive device indicating a plurality of characters, determining a sequence of at least three character strings in the plurality such that the sequence does not include any space characters, modifying the characters by inserting at least two space characters to demarcate the at least three character strings, and determining at least two suggested character strings based on first, second, and third character strings of the sequence. The method further includes outputting, for display at the presence-sensitive device and at a text-suggestion area of the GUI, the at least two suggested character strings, receiving a selection that indicates a selected character string of the at least two suggested character strings, and outputting, for display at the presence-sensitive device and at the text-entry area of the GUI, the selected character string.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

outputting, by a computing device and for display at a keyboard area of a graphical user interface (GUI), a plurality of virtual keys;

receiving, by the computing device, an indication of input entered at a presence-sensitive device of the computing device, the input indicating a plurality of characters, each character from the plurality of characters corresponding to a respective virtual key from the plurality of virtual keys;

determining, by the computing device and based at least in part on at least one lexicon accessible to the computing device, at least three character strings included in the plurality of characters, wherein the plurality of characters does not include any space characters, and wherein each of the at least three character strings is associated with a respective entry in the at least one lexicon;

inserting, by the computing device, at least two space characters within the plurality of characters to form a modified plurality of characters, the at least two space characters demarcating the at least three character strings from one another in the modified plurality of characters;

determining, by the computing device and based at least in part on the modified plurality of characters, at least two suggested sets of character strings;

outputting, by the computing device and for display, the at least two suggested sets of character strings at a text-suggestion area of the GUI;

determining, by the computing device, an entry age of a first character string of the at least three character strings, the entry age of the first character string indicating at least one of (a) an elapsed time since receiving a first portion of the input, the first portion indicating characters corresponding to the first character string, and (b) a number of characters that are indicated by a second portion of the input, the second portion being received after the first portion;

determining, by the computing device, whether the entry age of the first character string is greater than a threshold value; and

responsive to determining that the entry age of the first character string is greater than the threshold value, outputting, by the computing device and for display, the first character string at an entered-text area of the GUI.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to determining that the entry age of the first character string is greater than the threshold value, modifying the at least two suggested sets of character strings such that no suggested set of character strings of the at least two suggested sets of character strings output at the text-suggestion area of the GUI includes the first character string.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the entry age of the first character string comprises:

determining an entry time of a final character that is indicated by the first portion of the input; and

determining an elapsed time measured from the entry time of the final character to a current time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the at least two suggested sets of character strings further comprises generating a first suggested set of character strings of the at least two suggested sets of character strings at least in part by:

deleting an erroneous character of the plurality of characters; and

replacing the erroneous character with an alternate character, the alternate character being different from the erroneous character.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating, based at least in part on heuristic data, a suggested set of character strings from the at least two suggested sets of character strings as a preferred suggested set of character strings, the heuristic data being associated with previous selections of the suggested set of character strings.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

responsive to determining that a predetermined time period has elapsed since receiving the indication of the input, without the computing device having received an indication of a selection of one of the at least two suggested sets of character strings, outputting, for display, the preferred suggested set of character strings at the entered-text area of the GUI.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the at least two suggested sets of character strings further comprises:

responsive to receiving the indication of the input indicating the plurality of characters, outputting, for display, a character set at the entered-text area of the GUI generated based at least in part on the plurality of characters; and

responsive to receiving an indication of a selection of one of the at least two suggested sets of character strings, removing, from display at the entered-text area of the GUI, the character set generated based at least in part on the plurality of characters.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the input comprises a first input, wherein the plurality of characters comprises a first plurality of characters, and wherein the character set comprises a first character set, the method further comprising:

responsive to receiving the indication of the selection of the one of the at least two suggested sets of character strings, receiving, by the computing device, an indication of a second input entered at the presence-sensitive device, the second input indicating a second plurality of characters; and

outputting, for display, the one of the at least two suggested sets of character strings and a second character set at the entered-text area of the GUI, the second character set generated based at least in part on the second plurality of characters, such that the second character set is displayed to one side of the one of the at least two suggested sets of character strings.

9. A computing device comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to;

output, for display at a keyboard area of a graphical user interface (GUI), a plurality of virtual keys;

receive an indication of input entered at a presence-sensitive device, the input indicating a plurality of characters, each character from the plurality of characters corresponding to a respective virtual key from the plurality of virtual keys;

determine, based at least in part on at least one lexicon accessible to the computing device, at least three character strings included in the plurality of characters, wherein the plurality of characters does not include any space characters, and wherein each of the at least three character strings is associated with a respective entry in the at least one lexicon;

insert at least two space characters within the plurality of characters to form a modified plurality of characters, the at least two space characters demarcating the at least three character strings from one another in the modified plurality of characters;

determine, based at least in part on the modified plurality of characters, at least two suggested sets of character strings;

output, for display, the at least two suggested sets of character strings at a text-suggestion area of the GUI;

determine an entry age of a first character string of the at least three character strings, the entry age of the first character string indicating at least one of (a) an elapsed time since receiving a first portion of the input, the first portion indicating characters corresponding to the first character string, and (b) a number of characters that are indicated by a second portion of the input, the second portion being received after the first portion;

determine whether the entry age of the first character string is greater than a threshold value; and

responsive to determining that the entry age of the first character string is greater than the threshold value, output, for display, the first character string at an entered-text area of the GUI.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

responsive to determining that the entry age of the first character string is greater than the threshold value, modify the at least two suggested sets of character strings such that no suggested set of character strings of the at least two suggested sets of character strings output at the text-suggestion area of the GUI includes the first character string.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the entry age of the first character string at least in part by:

determining an entry time of a final character that is indicated by the first portion of the input, and

determining an elapsed time measured from the entry time of the final character to a current time.

12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine the at least two suggested sets of character strings further at least in part by:

generating a first suggested set of character strings of the at least two suggested sets of character strings at least in part by;

deleting an erroneous character of the plurality of characters; and

replacing the erroneous character with an alternate character, the alternate character being different from the erroneous character.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

designate, based at least in part on heuristic data, a suggested set of character strings from the at least two suggested sets of character strings as a preferred suggested set of character strings, the heuristic data being associated with previous selections of the suggested sets of character strings.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

responsive to determining that a predetermined time period has elapsed since receiving the indication of the input, without the computing device having received an indication of a selection of one of the at least two suggested sets of character strings, output, for display, the preferred suggested set of character strings at the entered-text area of the GUI.

15. A computer-readable storage device encoded with instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor of a computing device to perform operations comprising:

outputting, for display at a keyboard area of a graphical user interface (GUI), a plurality of virtual keys;

receiving an indication of input entered at a presence-sensitive device of the computing device, the input indicating a plurality of characters, each character from the plurality of characters corresponding to a respective virtual key from the plurality of virtual keys;

determining, based at least in part on at least one lexicon accessible to the computing device, at least three character strings included in the plurality of characters, wherein the plurality of characters does not include any space characters, and wherein each of the at least three character strings is associated with a respective entry in the at least one lexicon;

inserting at least two space characters within the plurality of characters to form a modified plurality of characters, the at least two space characters demarcating the at least three character strings from one another in the modified plurality of characters;

determining, based at least in part on the modified plurality of characters, at least two suggested sets of character strings;

outputting, for display, the at least two suggested sets of character strings at a text-suggestion area of the GUI;

determining an entry age of a first character string of the at least three character strings, the entry age of the first character string indicating at least one of (a) an elapsed time since receiving a first portion of the input, the first portion indicating characters corresponding to the first character string, and (b) a number of characters that are indicated by a second portion of the input, the second portion being received after the first portion;

determining whether the entry age of the first character string is greater than a threshold value; and

responsive to determining that the entry age of the first character string is greater than the threshold value, outputting, for display, the first character string at an entered-text area of the GUI.