Method and system for speeding up data input to a communication system

Abstract

User equipment and/or devices equipped to engage in textual communication sessions also interface to a server. The server maintains a thesaurus bank that includes a variety of different thesauri. When engaging in a textual communication or editing session, the user or the user equipment can request or may automatically receive a relevant thesaurus. As the user enters characters to create a textual entry, the selected thesaurus is searched to identify candidate completions. The user can then select one of several displayed candidate completions. In addition, the user input can also be delivered to the server and used to update the content of the thesauri.

1 . A method of accelerating the entry of a text message, the method comprising:
 a. receiving a thesaurus to be utilized during a text message session;   b. storing the thesaurus;   c. receiving one or more characters to be entered, displaying the one or more characters, and defining a search string that incorporates the one or more characters;   d. searching the thesaurus for an entry that at least partially matches the search string;   e. if an entry is found in the thesaurus, displaying a list of suggested completions that is associated with the found entry;   f. receiving a selection identifying one of the suggested completions; and   g. adding the selected completion to the displayed one or more characters.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step ‘e’ further comprises returning to step ‘c’ if an entry is not found. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein step ‘g’, after adding the selected completion to the displayed one or more characters, further comprises returning to step ‘c’. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein if a selection identifying one of the suggested completions is not received, step ‘f’ further comprises receiving a next one or more characters; updating the search string by adding the next one or more characters to the search string; and continuing at step ‘d’ with the updated search string. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the received thesaurus is selected from a plurality of thesauri based on the topic of the text message session. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the entries in the received thesaurus include terms that are combinations of numbers and/or characters and/or symbols and/or letters. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the thesaurus is updated periodically. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the each of the suggested completions in the list of the suggested completions is terminated with a space character. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the list of suggested completions is sorted according to likelihood to be selected criteria. 
     
     
         10 . A system for providing an auto completion feature in a text editing system, the system comprising:
 a server that includes a database for storing a plurality of thesauri;   a plurality of user equipment, each of the plurality of user equipment including a text editing application, a data entry interface, a display and a communications interface to the server;   each of the plurality of user equipment being operable to:
 engage in a text editing session; 
 receive a thesaurus from the server; 
 receive an entry of one or more characters from the data entry interface; 
 display a string including the one or more characters; 
 creating a search string including the one or more characters; 
 search the received thesaurus based on the search string; 
 if one or more candidate completions are identified, display at least a portion of the identified candidate completions to be selected by the user; and 
 modify the entry based on the selected candidate; 
 provide one or more complete entries to the server; 
   the server being operable to:
 provide a thesaurus to at least one of the users equipment; 
 receive one or more complete entries from at least one of the plurality of user equipment; and 
 update the thesaurus based at least in part on the one or more complete entries. 
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the server is further operable to maintain a plurality of thesauri and the request sent to the server for a thesaurus includes identifying information that the server uses to select one of the plurality of thesauri. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the identifying information includes a topic associated with the text editing session. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the identifying information includes an identification of a particular user of the user equipment. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the server is operable to maintain a plurality of thesauri by updating one or more of the thesauri based at least in part on the one or more complete entries. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein a user can select one of the displayed candidate completions. 
     
     
         16 . A server for providing one or more thesauri to a plurality of users, the server comprising:
 a. a database operative to store text messages that are entered by a user during a text messaging session and received by the server;   b. a statistical processor operative to retrieve, from time to time, a section of the database, and then to process the retrieved section of the database to create an updated thesaurus of terms having high likelihood of being selected; and   c. a bank of thesauri being operative to receive and store the updated thesaurus from the statistical processor and deliver a requested thesaurus to a requesting user.   
     
     
         17 . The server of  claim 16 , wherein each entry in the thesaurus has a score, the score representing the likelihood of the entry being selected. 
     
     
         18 . The server of  claim 17 , wherein the score is based on at least one criteria selected from a group of criterion consisting of: the number of appearances of the word in the database, the number of different users that utilize the word, the frequency of use of the word, and when the word was added to the database.