US 2007/0168588 A1Published application

Handheld electronic device with text disambiguation allowing dynamic expansion of input key associations

AssigneeResearch In Motion Limited

InventorsMichael Elizarov, Vadim Fux, Dan Rubanovich

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Abstract

A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software. The device provides output in the form of a default output and a number of variants. The output is based largely upon frequency of use, but some variants are provided by various logic structures resident on the device. The device enables editing during text entry and also provides a learning function that allows the disambiguation function to adapt. The disambiguation function can be selectively disabled and an alternate keystroke interpretation system provided. Additionally, the device can facilitate the selection of variants by displaying a graphic of a special <NEXT> key of the keypad that enables a user to progressively select variants. If a field into which text is being entered is determined to be a special input field, a disambiguated result can be sought first from a predetermined data source.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method of enabling input into a handheld electronic device of a type including an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a memory having stored therein a number of linguistic elements, an alphabet, and a number of objects, at least some of the linguistic elements each being in the alphabet, the number of objects comprising a number of language objects, the language objects each comprising a number of the linguistic elements in the alphabet, the input apparatus including a plurality of input members, at least some of the input members each having a number of the linguistic elements assigned thereto, at least some of the linguistic elements assigned to the at least some of the input members being inactive while others of the linguistic elements assigned to the at least some of the input members being active, the alphabet including only the active linguistic elements, the method comprising:

detecting as a first input an input of a new language object comprising at least a first new linguistic element different than the linguistic elements in the alphabet;
storing the at least a first new linguistic element as part of the alphabet;
detecting as a second input an ambiguous input comprising a number of actuations of a number of the input members;
generating a number of prefix objects from the alphabet each having a number of the linguistic elements of the input members of the ambiguous input, at least one of the prefix objects including the at least a first new linguistic element;
and
for each prefix object of at least some of the prefix objects, seeking a corresponding language object that corresponds with the prefix object.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.