WO2009024194A1

WO2009024194A1 - Method and device for word input

Info

Publication number: WO2009024194A1
Application number: PCT/EP2007/062334
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yandong-Jason Wen; Lei Yang
Original assignee: Nokia Corporation
Priority date: 2007-08-17
Filing date: 2007-11-14
Publication date: 2009-02-26

Abstract

It is presented a method for accepting user input of a word. The method comprises receiving a sequence of characters, comparing the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word, the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset of entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; generating, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; presenting the list of candidate words; and receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words. A corresponding device, a computer program product and a user interface are also presented.

Description

METHOD AND DEVICE FOR WORD INPUT

Technical field

The present invention generally relates to user input and particularly to user input of words. Background

Entering text into a mobile terminal is an important part in utilising such a device. For example, various types of text messaging, e.g. using short message service or multimedia message service, have become increasingly popular. One known method for entering text in a mobile terminal is by utilising a multi-tap method. The multi-tap method works by pressing a key on a keypad a specific number of times, to allow the user to input one of several characters assigned to the key in question. A more recently developed method is to use predictive text entry, facilitating the entry of a text. This differs from the multi-tap method, by suggesting letters or letter combinations along the way of entering the text to decrease the tapping of the keys of a mobile terminal. Mobile terminals utilising handwriting recognition using predictive text methods are known, with the mobile terminal displaying candidate words during the entry of text. Predictive text entry methods nevertheless have some drawbacks, and can certainly be improved. Some of these issues will be addressed below. Summary

In view of the above, an objective is to provide an improvement of the above discussed solutions. In particular, one objective is to provide a solution to the problem of entering long words with handwriting on a small display. According to a first aspect, there is provided a method for accepting user input of a word, the method comprising receiving a sequence of characters; comparing the sequence of characters with a list of entries where parh <=>ntrv nnrrpsnnnHs tn a wnrri saiH mmnarinπ iisinn thp sf»πι J<=»ΠΓ:P nf characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; generating, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; presenting the list of candidate words; and receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words. Ordinary predictive text engines display candidate words when only a few consecutive characters of a leading part of a word have been entered, giving a very wide array of candidate words. Since handwriting is very quick, getting a wide array of candidates can be frustrating, because scrolling through the options can take much longer time than finishing the word. There is provided a solution by generating fewer candidate words by, when entering a word, omitting some characters of a word, but still entering defining characters so that the list of candidate words will become much shorter than for usual predictive text engines.

The special character may be selected from the group consisting of: an asterisk, a period, a plurality of periods or a pound sign.

The step of receiving a sequence may involve receiving a leading part and a trailing part of the sequence of characters.

The step of receiving a sequence of characters may involve receiving an intermediate part, containing at least one special character, the intermediate part representing any characters between the leading and trailing parts.

The received sequence comprising a leading, an intermediate and a trailing part, provides a narrower list of candidate words by entering the leading part and the trailing part of a word, indicating these parts by an intermediate part which may be positioned between the leading and the trailing part.

The step of receiving a sequence of characters may involve the second character to the last character of the sequence of characters being consonants or numbers. The first character in a word may be entered, either as a consonant, a vowel or a number, wherein the following characters may be entered as consonants or numbers. Thus, for long words, users can write the consonants and omit the vowel characters. An advantage is that this narrows the candidate word list compared to usual predictive text, making the selection of the desired word faster. For example the word "complexity" may be entered as "cmplxt. The step of receiving the sequence of characters may utilise handwriting recognition.

According to a second aspect, there is provided a device configured to accept a user input of a word, the device comprising an input device; a controller, wherein the input device being configured to receive a sequence of characters; the controller being configured to compare the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word, the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; the controller being further configured to generate, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters, the controller being configured to present the list of candidate words and receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words.

The device may be a mobile phone, PDA, a handheld game consol, a digital camera or any other mobile device comprising an input device. The device may comprise a server. The server may receive a sequence of characters, wherein the server may comprise a wordlist. The server may further comprise software for handwriting recognition. The server may present the list of candidate words by sending the list of candidate words to a mobile phone, a PDA, handheld game console, a digital camera or any other device connected to the server.

The device may further comprise a display device, wherein the provided list of candidate words is presented on the display device as user selectable candidate words. The display device may be configured to display at least two writing boxes for entering the sequence of characters. Entering a leading and a trailing part of the sequence of characters in two writing boxes is facilitates the entering for the user. For example, entering the sequence of characters with a leading part in one writing box and a trailing part in another writing box results in a narrower candidate list of words since more defining characters are entered than in usual predictive text engines. The display device may be a touch sensitive screen, wherein the input device is the display device.

According to a third aspect, there has been provided a device configured to accept a user input of a word, the device comprising means for receiving a sequence of characters; means for comparing the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word; the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; means for generating, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; means for presenting the list of candidate words; and means for receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words.

According to a fourth aspect, there is provided a computer program product, comprising program code, which when executed by a controller may carry out the method according to the first aspect. According to a fifth aspect, there is provided a user interface configured to accept a user input of a word, the device comprising in input device; wherein the input device being configured to receive a sequence of characters; the user interface being configured to compare the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word, the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; the user interface being further configured to generate, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; the user interface being configured to present the list of candidate words and receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words. Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein. All references to "a/an/the [element, device, component, means, step, etc]" are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of said element, device, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless explicitly stated. Other objectives, features and advantages will appear from the following detailed disclosure, from the attached dependent claims as well as from the drawings.

Brief description of the drawings

The above, as well as additional objects, features and advantages, will be better understood through the following illustrative and non-limiting detailed description of embodiments, with reference to the appended drawings, where the same reference numerals will be used for similar elements, wherein:

Fig 1 is a schematic illustration of a cellular telecommunication system, as an example of an environment in which the present invention may be applied.

Fig 2 is a schematic front view illustrating a mobile terminal according to an embodiment.

Fig 3 is a schematic block diagram representing an internal component, software and protocol structure of the mobile terminal shown in Fig 2.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment. Figs 5a-c are schematic display views illustrating one embodiment of the mobile terminal of Fig 2. Figs 6a-c are schematic display views illustrating one embodiment of the mobile terminal of Fig 2.

Figs 7a-c are schematic display views illustrating one embodiment of the mobile terminal of Fig 2. Detailed description of embodiments Fig 1 illustrates an example of a cellular telecommunications system in which the methods and arrangements summarized above may be applied. In the telecommunication system of Fig 1. various telecommunications services such as cellular voice calls, www/wap browsing, cellular video calls, data calls, facsimile transmissions, music transmissions, still image transmissions, video transmissions, electronic message transmissions and electronic commerce may be performed between a mobile terminal 100 and other devices, such as another mobile terminal 106. It is to be noted that for different embodiments of the mobile terminal 100 and in different situations, different ones of the telecommunications services referred to above may or may not be available; there is no limitation in terms of any particular set of services in this respect. The mobile terminals 100, 106 are connected to a mobile telecommunications network 110 through RF links 102, 108 via base stations 104, 109. The mobile telecommunications network 110 may be in compliance with any commercially available mobile telecommunications standard, such as GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS, CDMA2000, FOMA and TD-SCDMA. The mobile telecommunications network 110 is operatively connected to a wide area network 112, which may be Internet or a part thereof. An Internet server 115 has a data storage 114 and is connected to the wide area network 112, as is an Internet client computer 116. The data storage 114 may comprise a wordlist which may be used by software for handwriting recognition in the server 115.

The mobile terminal 100 is aiso capable of communicating locally via a local link 101 to one or more local devices 103. The local link can be any type of link with a limited range, such as Bluetooth, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) link, a Wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) link, an IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network link, an RS-232 serial link, etc. The local device 103 can be a personal computer, a mobile terminal 100, a digital camera, a handheld game console etc.

An embodiment 200 of the mobile terminal 100 is illustrated in more detail in Fig 2. The mobile terminal 200 comprises a speaker or earphone 222, a microphone 225, a touch sensitive display 223 and a set of keys 224. Alternatively, other character input mechanisms than the touch sensitive screen 223 can be utilised, e.g. by using a keypad of common ITU-T type (alpha-numerical keypad representing characters "0"-"9", "^*" and "#").

The internal component, software and protocol structure of the mobile terminal 200 will now be described with reference to Fig 3. The mobile terminal has a controller 331 which is responsible for the overall operation of the mobile terminal and is preferably implemented by any commercially available CPU ("Central Processing Unit"), DSP ("Digital Signal Processor") or any other electronic programmable logic device. The controller 331 has associated electronic memory 332 such as RAM memory, ROM memory,

EEPROM memory, flash memory hard drive, or any combination thereof. The memory 332 is used for various purposes by the controller 331 , one of them being for storing data and program instructions for various software in the mobile terminal. The software includes a real-time operating system 336, drivers for a man-machine interface (MMI) 339, an application handler 338 as well as various applications. The applications can include a messaging application 340 for sending and receiving SMS, MMS or email, a media player application 341 , as well as various other applications 342, such as applications for voice calling, video calling, web browsing, an instant messaging application, a phone book application, a calendar application, a control panel application, a camera application, one or more video games, a notepad application, etc.

The MMI 339 also includes one or more hardware controllers, which together with the MMI drivers cooperate with the display 323/223, keypad 324/224, as well as various other I/O devices 329 such as microphone, speaker, vibrator, ringtone generator, LED indicator, etc. As is commonly known, the user may operate the mobile terminal through the man-machine interface thus formed.

The software also includes various modules, protocol stacks, drivers, etc., which are commonly designated as 337 and which provide communication services (such as transport, network and connectivity) for an RF interface 333, and optionally a Bluetooth interface 334 and/or an IrDA interface 335 for local connectivity. The RF interface 333 comprises an internal or external antenna as well as appropriate radio circuitry for establishing and maintaining a wireless link to a base station (e.g. the link 102 and base station 104 in Fig 1 ). As is well known to a person skilled in the art, the radio circuitry comprises a series of analogue and digital electronic components, together forming a radio receiver and transmitter. These components include, La., band pass filters, amplifiers, mixers, local oscillators, low pass filters, AD/DA converters, etc.

The mobile terminal can also have a SIM card 330 and an associated reader. As is commonly known, the SlM card 330 comprises a processor as well as local work and data memory.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment. In a receive a sequence of characters step 401 , a device receives a sequence of characters. The device can be a mobile terminal, a server, a digital camera, a PDA, a handheld game console etc.

In one embodiment, the sequence of characters is received via handwriting via handwriting recognition on a touch screen display. In a compare the sequence of characters step 405, the sequence of characters is being compared with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word.

In one embodiment, the compare the sequence of characters step 402 is implemented by adding a wildcard, e.g. a "*" between the leading and the trailing part of the sequence of characters. For example, if the leading part of the sequence of characters is "int", and the trailing part of the sequence of characters is "nal", then the compare the sequence of characters step 405 will compare "int^*nal" with all words starting with "int" and ending with "nal". The entry of a leading and an ending part of a word narrows down the list of candidate words, making it quicker to select the desired word.

In one embodiment, the compare the sequence of characters step 402 is implemented by adding a wildcard, e.g. a "*" between the characters of the sequence of characters. For example, if the sequence of characters is "intrntnl", then the compare the sequence of characters step 405 will compare "i*n*t*r*n*t*n*l" with words in a wordiist, wherein the "*" character is compared to vowel characters of words in the wordiist. The entered sequence of characters can be consonants, except for the first character, which can be any kind of character, e.g. a vowel, a consonant or a number. In one embodiment, the compare the sequence of characters step 402 there is a wildcard, e.g. a "*" between the leading and the trailing part of the sequence of characters, the characters being consonants, except for the first character in the first part of the sequence of characters, which first character can be any type of character, e.g. a consonant, a vowel or a number. There are also wildcards between each character of the leading and trailing parts. For example, if the first part of the sequence of characters is "int", and the last part of the sequence of characters is "nl", then the compare the sequence of characters step 402 will compare "i*n*t#nT with words starting with "l*n*t" and ending with "nT in a wordiist, wherein the "*" character is compared to vowel characters of the words in the wordiist. Here, the "#" indicates that there can be a spacing between the leading part and the trailing part.

In a conditional match step 406, it is determined whether the sequence of characters matches a word in the compare the sequence of characters step 402. If there is a match, the process continues to a generate a set of words step 405. On the other hand, if there is no match between the sequence of characters and the word list in compare the sequence of characters step 5, the process continues to an indicate no match step 404. In the indicate no match step 404, there is an indication that there is no match between the sequence of characters and the words in the word list. Optionally nothing is presented.

This can for example be presented on the display of the mobile terminal.

In a generate a list of candidate words step 405 there is a generation of a list of candidate. The list depends on the results of the compare the sequence of characters step 402. Each candidate word comprise all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprises at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters.

In a present list of candidate words step 406, the list of candidate words is presented. In one embodiment, the presentation is on a display of a mobile terminal.

Figs 5a-c are schematic display views illustrating one embodiment of the mobile terminal of Fig 2.

In fig 5a, the display 501 comprises a status field 502 known to a person skilled in the art and a text entry box 503 for entering a sequence of characters. Figs 5b-c also comprises the status field 502, being the same display as in fig. 5a, at a later moment in time.

Here, the sequence of characters is entered with a leading part 510, an intermediate part 511 and a trailing part 512, wherein the intermediate part 511 comprises at least one special character. The at least one special character can for example be a period, a plurality of periods (as shown here), a star, a pound sign (#) or a combination thereof.

When the sequence of characters has been entered, the compare the sequence of characters step 402, the generate a list of candidate words step 405 and the present list of candidates step 406 of Fig. 4 are performed, wherein the box 504 with selectable candidate words is visualized. A user selection of the desired word results in displaying the desired word 505.

Figs 6a-c are schematic display views illustrating one embodiment of the mobile terminal of Fig 2. In figs 6a-c the display 601 comprises a status field 602 corresponding to the status field 502 of fig 5a, with the addition of two text entry boxes 606, 607 in fig 6a. In one embodiment, a sequence of characters is being entered with a first part and a last part, the first part of the sequence of characters being entered in the text entry box 606 and the last part of the sequence of characters being entered in the text entry box 607. In one embodiment, the entering involves leaving out the vowels after the first character in the first part of the sequence of characters and only entering consonants in the last part of the sequence of characters.

When the sequence of characters has been entered, the compare the sequence of characters step 402, the generate a list of candidate words step 405 and the present list of candidates step 406 of Fig. 4 are performed, wherein the box 604 with selectable candidate words is visualized. A user selection of the desired word results in displaying the desired word 605

Figs 7a-c are schematic display views illustrating one embodiment of the mobile terminal of Fig 2. In figs 7a-c the display 701 comprises a status field 702 corresponding to the status field 502 of fig 5a.

The sequence of characters being entered are consonants, except the first character in the sequence of characters, which first character can be any type of character, e.g. a consonant, a vowel or a number. In one embodiment, the sequence of characters doesn't have to comprise the ending characters of a word related to the sequence of characters. in one embodiment, consonants forming a vowel combination with a vowel in the word related to the sequence of characters can be left out, e.g. in the word "international" the combination of "e" and "r" forming "er", being a vowel combination, the vowel combinations being language dependant. When the sequence of characters has been entered, the compare the sequence of characters step 402, the generate a list of candidate words step 405 and the present list of candidates step 406 of Fig. 4 are performed, wherein the box 704 with selectable candidate words is visualized. A user selection of the desired word results in displaying the desired word 705.

Claims

1. A method for accepting user input of a word, the method comprising: receiving a sequence of characters; comparing the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word, the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; generating, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; presenting the list of candidate words; and receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the receiving a sequence involves receiving a leading part and a trailing part of the sequence of characters.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein, the receiving a sequence of characters involves receiving an intermediate part, containing at least one special character, the intermediate part representing any characters between the leading and trailing parts.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the special character is selected from the group consisting of: an asterisk, a period, a plurality of periods or a pound sign.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the receiving a sequence of characters involves the second character to the last character of the sequence of characters being consonants or numbers.

6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the receiving the sequence of characters utilises handwriting recognition.

7. A device configured to accept a user input of a word, the device comprising: an input device; a controller; wherein the input device being configured to receive a sequence of characters; the controller being configured to compare the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word, the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; the controller being further configured to generate, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; the controller being configured to present the list of candidate words and receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the device is a mobile phone, PDA, a handheld game console or a digital camera.

9. The device according to claim 7, wherein the device comprises a server.

10. The device according to claim 8, wherein the device further comprises a display device, wherein the provided list of candidate words is presented on the display device as user selectable candidate words.

11. The device according to claim 10, wherein the display device is configured to display at least two writing boxes for entering the sequence of characters.

12. The device according to claim 10 or 11 , the display device being a touch sensitive screen, wherein the input device is the display device.

13. A device configured to accept a user input of a word, the device comprising: means for receiving a sequence of characters; means for comparing the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word, the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; means for generating, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising all characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; means for presenting the list of candidate words; and means for receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words.

14. A computer program product, comprising program code, which when executed by a controller carries out the method as claimed in claim 1.

15. A user interface configured to accept a user input of a word, the device comprising: an input device; wherein the input device being configured to receive a sequence of characters; the user interface being configured to compare the sequence of characters with a list of entries where each entry corresponds to a word, the comparing using the sequence of characters and, for at least a subset entries, a subset of characters of the corresponding word; the user interface being further configured to generate, depending on the results of the comparison, a list of candidate words, each candidate word comprising ail characters of the received sequence in the same sequential order as the received sequence, and at least one candidate word comprising at least one character between two characters of the candidate word, wherein the two characters of the candidate word correspond to two characters of the sequence of characters; the user interface being configured to present the list of candidate words and receiving a user selection of a desired word from the list of candidate words.