US 7,599,830 B2Granted

Handheld electronic device with reduced keyboard and associated method of providing quick text entry in a message

AssigneeResearch In Motion Limited

InventorGeorge V. Babu

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Abstract

An improved handheld electronic device having a reduced keyboard provides facilitated language entry by making available to a user certain words that a user may reasonably be expected to enter. In some situations, certain words can be stored, for example, in a temporary dictionary for use in particular situations. For instance, the names of the recipients of an electronic message might be stored in a temporary dictionary for rapid retrieval when entering a salutation in the message. As another example, a number of the words in an existing electronic message may be stored in a temporary dictionary and made available to a user when replying to or forwarding the message since the existing message might include words that the user might reasonably be expected to type in the reply message or the forwarded message.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of enabling disambiguation of an input into a handheld electronic device, the handheld electronic device including an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a memory having a plurality of objects stored therein, the plurality of objects including a plurality of language objects and a plurality of frequency objects, each of at least a portion of the language objects of the plurality of language objects being associated with an associated frequency object of the plurality of frequency objects, the handheld electronic device having a number of messages available thereon, each message of at least a portion of the number of messages including a number of language objects, the input apparatus including a plurality of input members, each of at least a portion of the input members of the plurality of input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto, the method comprising:

detecting at least one of a replying input and a forwarding input with respect to a message of the number of messages;
detecting an ambiguous input including a number of input member actuations of a number of the input members of the plurality of input members, each of at least a portion of the input members of the number of input members including a number of linguistic elements assigned thereto, at least one of the input members of the number of input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto;
determining that a first portion of the memory is associated with the message, the first portion of the memory including at least a portion of the language objects of the number of language objects of the message;
identifying in the first portion of the memory a first language object that corresponds with the ambiguous input;
and
outputting at least a portion of the first language object as a first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

3 more elements

A method of enabling disambiguation of an input into a handheld electronic device, the handheld electronic device including an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a memory having a plurality of objects stored therein, the plurality of objects including a plurality of language objects and a plurality of frequency objects, the handheld electronic device having a number of messages available thereon, each message of at least a portion of the number of messages including a number of language objects, each of at least a portion of the language objects of the plurality of language objects being associated with an associated frequency object of the plurality of frequency objects, the input apparatus including a plurality of input members, each of at least a portion of the input members of the plurality of input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto, the method comprising:

detecting at least one of a replying input and a forwarding input with respect to a message of the number of messages;
storing in a first portion of the memory at least a portion of the language objects of the number of language objects of the message;
detecting an ambiguous input including a number of input member actuations of a number of the input members of the plurality of input members, each of at least a portion of the input members of the number of input members including a number of linguistic elements assigned thereto, at least one of the input members of the number of input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto;
identifying in the first portion of the memory a language object that corresponds with the ambiguous input;
and
outputting at least a portion of the language object as a first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

3 more elements

A handheld electronic device comprising:

a processor apparatus including a memory having a plurality of objects stored therein, the plurality of objects including a plurality of language objects and a plurality of frequency objects, each of at least a portion of the language objects of the plurality of language objects being associated with an associated frequency object of the plurality of frequency objects;
an input apparatus including a plurality of input members, each of at least a portion of the input members of the plurality of input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto;
an output apparatus;
the handheld electronic device having a number of messages available thereon, each message of at least a portion of the number of messages including a number of language objects;
the processor apparatus being adapted to detect at least one of a replying input and a forwarding input with respect to a message of the number of messages;
the processor apparatus being adapted to detect an ambiguous input including a number of input member actuations of a number of the input members of the plurality of input members, each of at least a portion of the input members of the number of input members including a number of linguistic elements assigned thereto, at least one of the input members of the number of input members having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto;
the processor apparatus being adapted to make a determination that a first portion of the memory is associated with the message, the first portion of the memory including at least a portion of the language objects of the number of language objects of the message;
the processor apparatus being adapted to identify in the first portion of the memory a first language object that corresponds with the ambiguous input;
and
the processor apparatus being adapted to output to the output apparatus an output including at least a portion of the first language object as a first proposed disambiguation of the ambiguous input.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.