Input method editor application platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9921665-B2
Application number	US-201213586267-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 15, 2012
Priority date	Jun 25, 2012
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

An input method editor (IME) provides a distributed platform architecture that enables associating multiple applications with the IME to provide extended functionalities. The presentations of the applications, such as skins, may be different from each other and that of the IME. The applications may be represented in a manifest file that is human-readable and editable. The IME collects multiple parameters relating to a user input into a host application including a query input by the user and a scenario of the host application, and selects one or more applications to provide candidates based on a score or ranking of the applications under the collected multiple parameters. Machine-learning may be used to improve the score or ranking. The candidates may include text candidates, rich candidates, and informative candidates.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
collecting multiple parameters relating to a user input into an input method editor (IME), the multiple parameters including:
a query submitted by a user through an interface of the IME; and
a scenario of a host application that indicates a type of interaction with the host application;

selecting, based at least in part on the multiple parameters, an application from one or more applications to provide one or more candidates for the user to select from to input into the host application;
sending a request to the application to provide the one or more candidates;
receiving, from the application, the one or more candidates for the user to select from to input into the host application, the one or more candidates including a rich candidate comprising at least one of audio, video, an image of weather information, or an image of map information; and
displaying the one or more candidates to the user through the interface of the IME for the user to select from to input into the host application.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an indication from the user that the user is interested in accessing additional information associated with a particular candidate of the one or more candidates;
selecting an application to provide an informative candidate, the informative candidate illustrating the additional information associated with the particular candidate; and
presenting the informative candidate.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 ,
wherein the displaying the one or more candidates to the user through the IME comprises:
displaying the rich candidate at a rich candidate window of the IME; and
in response to a determining that the one or more candidates include a text candidate, displaying the text candidate at a text candidate window of the IME.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving a selection by the user of a respective candidate from the one or more candidates; and
inserting the respective candidate into a user interface of the host application in a format supported by the host application.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the multiple parameters further include a context of the user input, a language mode, and a previous use history.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the sending the request comprises calling an engine of the application that has at least some components residing at a server.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
presenting a graphical user interface (GUI) of an application store that includes one or more icons representing the one or more applications respectively;
receiving a user-submitted indication through the GUI to select a respective icon representing a respective application;
downloading at least a portion of the respective application from a server to a client device; and
installing at least a portion of the respective application at the client device.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising pre-installing at least a portion of at least one of the one or more applications at a client device.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the selecting comprises:
pre-selecting one or more qualified applications from the one or more applications that are qualified to run under the scenario of the host application;
calculating a score for each of the one or more qualified applications based on the multiple parameters relating to the user input;
ranking the one or more qualified applications based on their respective scores; and
selecting the application from the one or more qualified applications based on a threshold of score, a threshold of ranking, or both.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , further comprising modifying a ranking or a score of a particular application through machine-learning techniques.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an indication of a user selection of a particular application from the one or more applications, the one or more applications including at least one of a calculator application, a map application, or a weather application;
launching the particular application;
collecting another one or more parameters relating to another user input into the particular application, the another one or more parameters including another user-submitted query received through the particular application; and
requesting the particular application to provide one or more candidates at least partly based on the another one or more parameters.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising using a manifest file in a form of declarative markup language to describe one or more characteristics of the one or more applications, the manifest file being human-readable and editable.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising providing an application management interface to enable a user to add, delete, or modify one or more characteristics of a respective application, the one or more characteristics including a respective condition that a respective application is qualified to run under different scenarios of different host applications and a respective score of the respective application under different parameters.

14. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising allowing a respective application to access and manage functionalities of the IME.

15. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein a presentation style of a respective application of the one or more applications is not tied with a presentation style of the IME, the presentation style of the respective application and the presentation style of the IME including a skin respectively.

16. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising selecting another application from the one or more applications to provide another one or more candidates for the user to select from to input into the host application at least partly based on the multiple parameters, the application and the another application running concurrently and independently.

17. A method comprising:
providing an input method editor (IME) user interface indicating one or more applications associated with the IME;
receiving a user-submitted selection of a particular application from the one or more applications;
launching the particular application in a stand-alone interface independent from the IME user interface;
collecting multiple parameters relating to a user input into the particular application, the multiple parameters including:
a query submitted by a user through the stand-alone interface of the particular application; and
a scenario of the particular application that indicates a type of interaction with the particular application;

sending a request to the particular application to provide one or more input candidates to be input into a user interface of a host application based at least partly on the multiple parameters; and
receiving, from the particular application, the one or more input candidates to be input into the user interface of the host application, the one or more input candidates including at least one of audio, video, an image of weather information, or an image of map information.

18. The method as recited in claim 17 , further comprising using a manifest file in a form of declarative markup language to describe one or more characteristics of the one or more applications associated with the IME, the manifest file being human-readable and editable.

19. A system comprising:
one or more processors; an

Assignees

• Scott Matthew Robert
• Hou Huihua
• Chen Xi
• Liu Weipeng
• Lai Rongfeng
• Shi Yonghong
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Scott Matthew Robert
• Hou Huihua
• Chen Xi
• Liu Weipeng
• Lai Rongfeng
• Shi Yonghong

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06F40/274 Primary

  Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs · CPC title

• G06F40/166

  Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting · CPC title

• G06F40/232

  Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation · CPC title

• G06F40/242

  Dictionaries · CPC title