Handheld electronic device with text disambiguation employing advanced editing feature
View Patent ↗A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software. The device provides output in the form of a default output and a number of variants. The output is based largely upon the frequency, i.e., the likelihood that a user intended a particular output, but various features of the device provide additional variants that are not based solely on frequency and rather are provided by various logic structures resident on the device. The device enables editing during text entry and also provides a learning function that allows the disambiguation function to adapt to provide a customized experience for the user. The disambiguation function can be selectively disabled and an alternate keystroke interpretation system provided. Additionally, the device can facilitate the selection of variants by displaying a graphic of a special <NEXT> key of the keypad that enables a user to progressively select variants generally without changing the position of the user's hands on the device. If a field into which text is being entered is determined to be a special input field, a disambiguated result can be sought first from a predetermined data source prior to seeking results from other data sources on the device.
1. 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 processor apparatus including a memory having a plurality of objects stored therein, the plurality of objects including a plurality of language objects, the input apparatus including a plurality of keys, the method comprising:
detecting a text input comprising a number of key selections;
outputting a default interpretation of the text input comprising an initial portion and a terminal portion adjacent one another, the initial portion including a number of initial linguistic elements at an initial end of the default interpretation, the terminal portion including a number of terminal linguistic elements at a terminal end of the default interpretation;
detecting a deletion input with respect to the terminal portion of the default interpretation;
detecting a selection of another key that successively follows the deletion input;
determining that the another key is the same key as that which provided a terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion;
responsive to the determining, outputting, as a replacement default interpretation, the initial portion and a replacement linguistic element assigned to the another key that differs from the terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion;
detecting a selection of an additional key; and
outputting, as a replacement of the replacement default interpretation, the initial portion, the replacement linguistic element, and an additional linguistic element, and further outputting a variant interpretation comprising the initial portion, the replacement linguistic element, and an alternative linguistic element different than the additional linguistic element.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: responsive to the determining, locking the initial portion of the replacement default interpretation.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining that the additional key is the same key that provided another terminal linguistic element that had been adjacent the terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion; and
locking the replacement linguistic element of the replacement default interpretation.
4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining that the additional key is different than the key that provided another terminal linguistic element that had been adjacent the terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion; and
unlocking the initial portion of the replacement default interpretation.
5. An electronic device comprising:
a processor unit including a processor, an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a memory having a plurality of objects and a routine stored therein;
the plurality of objects including a plurality of language objects;
the input apparatus including a plurality of keys; and
the routine being adapted to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
detecting a text input comprising a number of key selections,
causing the output of a default interpretation of the text input comprising an initial portion and a terminal portion adjacent one another, the initial portion including a number of initial linguistic elements at an initial end of the default interpretation, the terminal portion including a number of terminal linguistic elements at a terminal end of the default interpretation,
detecting a deletion input with respect to the terminal portion of the default interpretation,
detecting a selection of another key that successively follows the deletion input,
determining that the another key is the same key as that which provided a terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion,
responsive to the determining, cause the output of, as a replacement default interpretation, the initial portion and a replacement linguistic element assigned to the another key that differs from the terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion,
detecting a selection of an additional key, and
causing the output of, as a replacement of the replacement default interpretation, the initial portion, the replacement linguistic element, and an additional linguistic element, and further causing the output of a variant interpretation comprising the initial portion, the replacement linguistic element, and an alternative linguistic element different than the additional linguistic element.
6. The device of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise locking the initial portion of the replacement default interpretation responsive to the determining.
7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining that the additional key is the same key that provided another terminal linguistic element that had been adjacent the terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion; and
locking the replacement linguistic element of the replacement default interpretation.
8. The device of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining that the additional key is different than the key that provided another terminal linguistic element that had been adjacent the terminal linguistic element that was adjacent the initial portion before deletion; and
unlocking the initial portion of the replacement default interpretation.
9. A method of enabling input on an electronic device that comprises an input apparatus, a processor, and a memory having stored therein a number of language objects and a disambiguation routine, the input apparatus comprising a plurality of input keys, the method comprising:
detecting a text input comprising a number of selections of a number of input keys, at least one of the selections being an ambiguous input;
performing a disambiguation operation of the text input to generate a number of disambiguated interpretations of the text input that each comprises a character for each ambiguous input;
outputting one of the number of disambiguated interpretations as a default output;
detecting a deletion input with respect to one of the characters of the default output, the one of the characters being assigned to a particular input key of the text input;
detecting a reselection of the particular input key successively following the deletion input, the reselection being a selection of the particular input key;
responsive to the detecting of the deletion input and the detecting of the reselection, outputting as a replacement default output, a disambiguated interpretation having the one of the characters deleted by the deletion input replaced by a character assigned to the particular input key other than the one of the characters deleted by the deletion input;
detecting a selection of an additional key; and
outputting, as a replacement of the replacement default interpretation, the initial portion, the replacement linguistic element, and an additional linguistic element, and further outputting a variant interpretation comprising the initial portion, the replacement linguistic element, and an alternative linguistic element different than the additional linguistic element.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: responsive to the determining, locking the initial portion of the default output.