Handheld electronic device and method for disambiguation of compound text input and that employs N-gram data to limit generation of low-probability compound language solutions
AssigneeResearch In Motion Limited
InventorsVadim Fux, Michael Elizarov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software that is operable to disambiguate compound text input. The device is able to assemble language objects in the memory to generate compound language solutions. The device is able to analyze the combinations of language objects in light of N-gram data stored on the device to avoid proposing low-probability compound language solutions.
Claims6
A method of enabling input into a handheld electronic device having an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a memory having stored therein a plurality of language objects and a plurality of frequency objects, at least some of the language objects each being associated with an associated frequency object, at least some of the language objects each comprising a number of linguistic elements, the input apparatus including a plurality of input members, each of at least some of the input members having a plurality of the linguistic elements assigned thereto, the method comprising:
- detecting an ambiguous input;
- generating a number of compound language solutions by, for each compound language solution, identifying a language object corresponding with an initial portion of the ambiguous input and having a length equal to the length of the initial portion, and identifying another language object corresponding with another portion of the ambiguous input;
- for at least a first compound language solution, generating a junction object comprising a terminal linguistic element of the language object and an initial linguistic element of the another language object, and making a determination that at least one of:
- the junction object corresponds with a language object associated with a frequency object having a frequency value below a predetermined threshold, and
- no language object corresponds with the junction object;
- outputting a representation of each of at least some of the compound language solutions, each said representation comprising a representation of the language object and a representation of at least a portion of the another language object;
- and
- at least one of:
- outputting a representation of the at least first compound language solution at a position of relatively lower priority than a representation of another compound language solution, and
- suppressing from the output the at least first compound language solution.
A handheld electronic device comprising:
- an input apparatus comprising a plurality of input members, at least some of the input members each having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto;
- an output apparatus;
- a processor apparatus comprising a processor and a memory having stored therein a plurality of language objects and a plurality of frequency objects, at least some of the language objects each being associated with an associated frequency object, at least some of the language objects each comprising a number of the linguistic elements, the processor apparatus being structured to detect an ambiguous input, and being further structured to generate a number of compound language solutions by, for each compound language solution, identifying a language object corresponding with an initial portion of the ambiguous input and having a length equal to the length of the initial portion, and identifying another language object corresponding with another portion of the ambiguous input, for at least a first compound language solution, the processor apparatus being structured to generate a junction object comprising a terminal linguistic element of the language object and an initial linguistic element of the another language object, and to make a determination that at least one of:
- the junction object corresponds with a language object associated with a frequency object having a frequency value below a predetermined threshold, and
- no language object corresponds with the junction object;
- the output apparatus being structured to output a representation of each of at least some of the compound language solutions, each said representation comprising a representation of the language object and a representation of at least a portion of the another language object;
- and
- the processor apparatus being structured to at least one of:
- generate a signal outputting a representation of the at least first compound language solution at a position of relatively lower priority than a representation of another compound language solution, and
- suppress from the output the at least first compound language solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.