US 7,277,088 B2Granted

Keyboard system with automatic correction

AssigneeTegic Communications, Inc.

InventorsB. Alex Robinson, Michael R. Longe

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Abstract

A method and system are defined which determine one or more alternate textual interpretations of each sequence of inputs detected within a designated auto-correcting keyboard region. The actual contact locations for the keystrokes may occur outside the boundaries of the specific keyboard key regions associated with the actual characters of the word interpretations proposed or offered for selection, where the distance from each contact location to each corresponding intended character may in general increase with the expected frequency of the intended word in the language or in a particular context. Likewise, in a mechanical keyboard system, the keys actuated may differ from the keys actually associated with the letters of the word interpretations. Each such sequence corresponds to a complete word, and the user can easily select the intended word from among the generated interpretations.

Claims59

Dependent claims

A text entry system comprising:

(a) a user input device comprising an auto-correcting keyboard region comprising a plurality of the members of a character set, wherein locations having known coordinates in the auto-correcting keyboard region are associated with corresponding character set members, wherein user interaction with the user input device within the auto-correcting keyboard region determines a location associated with the user interaction and wherein the determined interaction location is added to a current input sequence of contact locations;
(b) a memory containing a plurality of objects, wherein each object is further associated with a promotion value;
(c) an output device with a text display area;
and
(d) a processor coupled to the user input device, memory, and output device, said processor comprising:
(i) a distance value calculation component which, for each determined interaction location in the input sequence of interactions, calculates a set of distance values between the interaction locations and the known coordinate locations corresponding to one or a plurality of character set members within the auto-correcting keyboard region;
(ii) an object evaluation component which, for each generated input sequence, identifies any candidate objects in memory, and for each of the identified candidate objects, evaluates each identified candidate object by calculating a matching metric based on the calculated distance values and the promotion value associated with the object, and ranks the evaluated candidate objects based on the calculated matching metric values;
(iii) a selection component for identifying candidate objects according to their evaluated ranking, presenting the identified objects to the user, and enabling the user to select one of the presented objects for output to the text display area on the output device;
and
(iv) a promotion component for changing a relative promotion value associated with each object in memory as a function of the user interaction with said plurality of objects.

7 more elements

A text entry system comprising:

(a) a user input device comprising an auto-correcting keyboard region comprising a plurality of the members of a character set, wherein locations having known coordinates in the auto-correcting keyboard region are associated with corresponding character set members, wherein user interaction with the user input device within the auto-correcting keyboard region determines a location associated with the user interaction and wherein said determined interaction location is added to a current input sequence of interaction locations;
(b) a memory containing a plurality of objects, wherein each object may be further associated with a promotion value, and wherein each of the plurality of objects in memory is associated with one or a plurality of predefined groupings of objects;
(c) an output device with a text display area;
and
(d) a processor coupled to the user input device, memory, and output device, said processor comprising:
(i) a distance value calculation component which, for each determined interaction location in the input sequence user interactions, calculates a set of distance values between an interaction location and said known coordinate locations within the auto-correcting keyboard region;
(ii) an object evaluation component which, for each generated input sequence, identifies candidate objects in memory, and for any identified candidate object, evaluates said identified candidate object by calculating a matching metric based on the calculated distance values and the promotion value associated with the object, and ranks evaluated candidate objects based on the calculated matching metric values;
(iii) a selection component for identifying one or a plurality of candidate objects according to their evaluated ranking, presenting the identified objects to the user, and enabling the user to select one of the presented objects for output to the text display area on the output device;
and
(iv) a promotion component for setting a relative promotion value associated with at least some of the objects in memory.

7 more elements

A text entry system comprising:

(a) a user input device comprising an auto-correcting keyboard region comprising a plurality of the characters of a character set, wherein locations having known coordinates in the auto-correcting keyboard region are associated with corresponding character set members, wherein user interaction with the user input device within the auto-correcting keyboard region determines a location associated with the user interaction and wherein the determined interaction location is added to a current input sequence of contact locations;
(b) a memory containing a plurality of objects, wherein each object is a string of one or a plurality of character set members forming an object or a part of an object, wherein each object is further associated with a frequency of use;
(c) an output device with a text display area;
and
(d) a processor coupled to the user input device, memory, and output device, said processor comprising:
(i) a distance value calculation component which, for each determined interaction location in the input sequence of interactions, calculates a set of distance values between the interaction locations and the known coordinate locations corresponding to one or a plurality of character set members within the auto-correcting keyboard region;
(ii) an object evaluation component which, for a generated input sequence, identifies one or a plurality of candidate objects in memory;
evaluates identified candidate objects by calculating a matching metric based on the calculated distance values and the frequency of use associated with the object;
and ranks the evaluated candidate objects based on the calculated matching metric values;
and
(iii) a selection component for identifying candidate objects according to their evaluated ranking, presenting the identified objects to the user, and enabling the user to select among the presented objects for output to the text display area on the output device.

8 more elements

A text entry system, comprising:

(a) a reduced user input device comprising an auto-correcting keyboard region comprising a plurality of character set members wherein locations having known coordinates in the auto-correcting keyboard region are associated with corresponding character set members, each location having associated therewith a plurality of said character set members of said alphabet such that contact with one of said locations is ambiguous as to which character set member associated with the location is intended, wherein each time a user contacts the user input device within the auto-correcting keyboard region, a location associated with the user contact is determined and the determined contact location is added to a current input sequence of contact locations;
(b) a memory containing a plurality of objects, wherein each object is a string of one or a plurality of character set members forming an object or a part of an object, wherein each object is further associated with a frequency of use;
(c) an output device with a text display area;
and
(d) a processor coupled to the user input device, memory, and output device, said processor comprising:
(i) a distance value calculation component which, for each determined contact location in the input sequence of contacts, calculates a set of distance values between the contact locations and the known coordinate locations corresponding to one or a plurality of character set members within the auto-correcting keyboard region;
(ii) an object evaluation component which, for each generated input sequence, identifies one or a plurality of candidate objects in memory, and for each of the one or a plurality of identified candidate objects, evaluates each identified candidate object by calculating a matching metric based on the calculated distance values and the frequency of use associated with the object, and ranks the evaluated candidate objects based on the calculated matching metric values;
and
(iii) a selection component for identifying one or a plurality of candidate objects according to their evaluated ranking, presenting the identified objects to the user, and enabling the user to select one of the presented objects for output to the text display area on the output device.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/090,464Filed 25 Mar 2005 · division
Priority: 9 Feb 2004
Published: US 2005/0174333 A111 Aug 2005
Granted: 2 Oct 2007
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

G06F 3/0219
Constructional details or processes of manufacture of the input device: special purpose keyboards
G06F 3/0233
Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as…:…
G06F 3/0237
Character input methods: using prediction or retrieval techniques
G06F 3/0238
Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as…:…

Family

Application10/775,483Parent of this division · filed 9 Feb 2004
US 2005/0174333 A1Pre-grant publication · published 11 Aug 2005
US 7,088,345 B2Parent of this division
US 2004/0155869 A1Published application
US 7,277,088 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.