Correction of previous words and other user text input errors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9760560-B2
Application number	US-201514663368-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2015
Priority date	Mar 19, 2015
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

The disclosed system provides an efficient method of using a later word or words entered after a previous word along with one or more language models that show which words are likely to occur together to identify a better disambiguated choice for the previous word. To identify the better disambiguated choice for the previous word, the system can evaluate the conditional probability for the later word of various candidate previous words, and select the candidate previous word that has the highest conditional probability. If the conditional probability of the selected candidate previous word exceeds that of the previous word that was entered by at least a factor, then the system can include the selected candidate previous word in a selection list for user selection. The disclosed system also provides an efficient method for using one or more language models and a later word to correct errors in segmenting the word.

First claim

We claim:

1. A computing device comprising:
a memory; and
a processor disposed to have access to the memory and configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to:
receive multiple words input by a user via a displayed keyboard of the computing device, the multiple words including a current word and a previous word preceding the current word;
identify, based on probabilities in a language model for predicting a next word that is likely to follow one or more prior words, a suggested correction to a space transposition error that includes at least one suggested word to replace the previous word, the current word or both, by:
segmenting a tap sequence including the previous word, a space and the current word multiple ways to generate candidates for the previous word and the current word; and
scoring the candidates using the probabilities in the language model to identify candidates for the previous word and the current word that are likely to be words the user intended to input,
wherein the space transposition error is based on the user tapping a displayed space key of the displayed keyboard during input of the tap sequence; and

display the suggested correction for user selection via a user interface of the computing device.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one suggested word to replace the previous word has a higher likelihood of preceding the current word than the previous word based on the probabilities in the language model.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , further configured to identify the suggested correction for the space transposition error by:
searching a language database based on the language model using the tap sequence and the previous word and the current word to identify the suggested words.

4. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the suggested correction that includes the suggested word for the previous word and the current word is identified when there is an ambiguous space between the previous word and the current word.

5. The computing device of claim 4 , further configured to identify the suggested correction for the ambiguous space by:
recording a tap sequence in which the previous word and the current word, including the ambiguous space were input by the user; and
identifying, based on the probabilities in the language model, knowledge of a layout of a keypad on the computing device and a context of a word preceding the previous word, the suggested word formed from a combination of the previous word and the current word.

6. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the suggested correction that includes the suggested word for the current word is identified when there is a function key tap or a punctuation key tap.

7. A method, comprising:
receiving multiple words input by a user via a keyboard displayed by an input interface of a computing device, the multiple words including a current word and a previous word preceding the current word;
identifying, based on probabilities in a language model for predicting a next word that is likely to follow one or more prior words, a suggested correction to a space transposition error that includes at least one suggested word to replace the previous word, the current word or both, by:
segmenting a tap sequence including the previous word, a space and the current word multiple ways to generate candidates for the previous word and the current word; and
scoring the candidates using the probabilities in the language model to identify candidates for the previous word and the current word that are likely to be words the user intended to input,
wherein the space transposition error is based on the user tapping a displayed space key of the displayed keyboard during input of the tap sequence; and

displaying the suggested correction for user selection via a user interface of the computing device.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one suggested word to replace the previous word has a higher likelihood of preceding the current word than the previous word based on the probabilities in the language model.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein identifying the suggested correction to the space transposition error includes searching a language database based on the language model using the tap sequence and the previous word and the current word to identify the suggested words.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the language model includes a probability of a previous word or words being followed by a current word.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving a user selection of the suggested correction via the input interface of the computing device; and
in response, replacing the previous word or the current word with the suggested correction.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the space transposition error is determined by a space key module that detects an ambiguous space key tap during input of the multiple words by the user.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
receiving multiple words input by a user via a keyboard displayed by an input interface of a computing device, the multiple words including a current word and a previous word preceding the current word;
identifying, based on probabilities in a language model for predicting a next word that is likely to follow one or more prior words, a suggested correction to a space transposition error that includes at least one suggested word to replace the previous word, the current word or both, by:
segmenting a tap sequence including the previous word, a space and the current word multiple ways to generate candidates for the previous word and the current word; and
scoring the candidates using the probabilities in the language model to identify candidates for the previous word and the current word that are likely to be words the user intended to input,
wherein the space transposition error is based on the user tapping a displayed space key of the displayed keyboard during input of the tap sequence; and

displaying the suggested correction for user selection via a user interface of the computing device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the at least one suggested word to replace the previous word has a higher likelihood of preceding the current word than the previous word based on the probabilities in the language model.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein identifying the suggested correction to the space transposition error includes searching a language database based on the language model using the tap sequence and the previous word and the current word to identify the suggested words.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the language model includes a probability of a previous word or words being followed by a current word.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving a user selection of the suggested correction via the input interface of the computing device; and
in response, replacing the previous word or the current word with the suggested correction.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the space transposition error is determined by a space key module that detects an ambiguous space key tap during input of the multiple words by the user.

Assignees

• Nuance Communications Inc

Inventors

• Corston Simon
• Bradford Ethan R
• Mccray Donni
• Unruh Erland
• Mannby Claes-Fredrik
• Kay David J
• Trnka Keith

Classifications

• G06F3/0236 Primary

  using selection techniques to select from displayed items · CPC title

• G06F40/216

  using statistical methods · CPC title

• G06F40/253

  Grammatical analysis; Style critique · CPC title

• G06F3/04886

  by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus · CPC title

• G06F40/284 Primary

  Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates · CPC title