Systems and methods for identifying and suggesting emoticons

• US 9,372,608 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2015
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mz Ip Holdings, LLC (AppLovin Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Machine Zone, Inc. (AppLovin Corporation)
• Inventors: Leydon, Gabriel, Bojja, Nikhil
• Primary Examiner(s): Opsasnick, Michael N
• Application Number:
  US14/718,869
• Publication Number:
  US 20160004413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 397 Days
• Field of Search: 704/4, 704/5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0219 Special purpose keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0238 Programmable keyboards key guide holders G06F3/0224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/20 Natural language analysis semantic analysis of natural language G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/226 Validation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0209 Incentive being awarded or redeemed in connection with the playing of a video game
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for suggesting emoticons for insertion into text based on an analysis of sentiment in the text. An example method includes: determining a first sentiment of text in a text field; selecting first text from the text field in proximity to a current position of an input cursor in the text field; identifying one or more candidate emoticons wherein each candidate emoticon is associated with a respective score indicating relevance to the first text and the first sentiment based on, at least, historical user selections of emoticons for insertion in proximity to respective second text having a respective second sentiment; providing one or more candidate emoticons having respective highest scores for user selection; and receiving user selection of one or more of the provided emoticons and inserting the selected emoticons into the text field at the current position of the input cursor.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving one or more user-defined emoticons provided by a first user, each user-defined emoticon comprising a visual representation of the emoticon and being associated with a respective first sentiment;

receiving text authored by a second user;

determining a second sentiment of the text;

identifying one of the user-defined emoticons as a candidate for insertion into the second text based on, at least, a score indicating relevance between the respective first sentiment of the candidate emoticon and the second sentiment;

providing the candidate user-defined emoticon for selection by the second user;

receiving selection of the candidate user-defined emoticon by the second user; and

inserting the selected user-defined emoticon into the text.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user-defined emoticons further comprise respective natural language meanings provided by the first user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user-defined emoticons further comprise respective suggested uses provided by the first user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a respective popularity of the one or more user-defined emoticons through crowd sourcing.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the score is based at least in part on the popularity of the candidate emoticon.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected user-defined emoticon is inserted at a current position of an input cursor in the text.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising crediting an account of the first user for providing the selected user-defined emoticon.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein crediting the account comprises providing a credit for use in a video game, the credit selected from the group consisting of a point, virtual currency, and a virtual good.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing statistics to the first user pertaining to use of the user-defined emoticons by other users.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising crediting an account of the first user based on use of the user-defined emoticons by other users.

11. A system comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon; and

a data processing apparatus configured to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving one or more user-defined emoticons provided by a first user, each user-defined emoticon comprising a visual representation of the emoticon and being associated with a respective first sentiment;

receiving text authored by a second user;

determining a second sentiment of the text;

identifying one of the user-defined emoticons as a candidate for insertion into the second text based on, at least, a score indicating relevance between the respective first sentiment of the candidate emoticon and the second sentiment;

providing the candidate user-defined emoticon for selection by the second user;

receiving selection of the candidate user-defined emoticon by the second user; and

inserting the selected user-defined emoticon into the text.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more user-defined emoticons further comprise respective natural language meanings provided by the first user.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more user-defined emoticons further comprise respective suggested uses provided by the first user.

14. The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising determining a respective popularity of the one or more user-defined emoticons through crowd sourcing.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the score is based at least in part on the popularity of the candidate emoticon.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the selected user-defined emoticon is inserted at a current position of an input cursor in the text.

17. The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising crediting an account of the first user for providing the selected user-defined emoticon.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein crediting the account comprises providing a credit for use in a video game, the credit selected from the group consisting of a point, virtual currency, and a virtual good.

19. The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising providing statistics to the first user pertaining to use of the user-defined emoticons by other users.

20. The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising crediting an account of the first user based on use of the user-defined emoticons by other users.

21. A computer program product stored in one or more non-transitory storage media for controlling a processing mode of a data processing apparatus, the computer program product being executable by the data processing apparatus to cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving one or more user-defined emoticons provided by a first user, each user-defined emoticon comprising a visual representation of the emoticon and being associated with a respective first sentiment;

receiving text authored by a second user;

determining a second sentiment of the text;

identifying one of the user-defined emoticons as a candidate for insertion into the second text based on, at least, a score indicating relevance between the respective first sentiment of the candidate emoticon and the second sentiment;

providing the candidate user-defined emoticon for selection by the second user;

receiving selection of the candidate user-defined emoticon by the second user; and

inserting the selected user-defined emoticon into the text.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the one or more user-defined emoticons further comprise respective natural language meanings provided by the first user.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the one or more user-defined emoticons further comprise respective suggested uses provided by the first user.

24. The computer program product of claim 21, the operations further comprising determining a respective popularity of the one or more user-defined emoticons through crowd sourcing.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the score is based at least in part on the popularity of the candidate emoticon.

26. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the selected user-defined emoticon is inserted at a current position of an input cursor in the text.

27. The computer program product of claim 21, the operations further comprising crediting an account of the first user for providing the selected user-defined emoticon.

28. The computer program product of claim 27, wherein crediting the account comprises providing a credit for use in a video game, the credit selected from the group consisting of a point, virtual currency, and a virtual good.

29. The computer program product of claim 21, the operations further comprising providing statistics to the first user pertaining to use of the user-defined emoticons by other users.

30. The computer program product of claim 21, the operations further comprising crediting an account of the first user based on use of the user-defined emoticons by other users.