Directional input system with automatic correction

Abstract

A system associated with a text entry application, such as email or instant messaging, comprises an optional onscreen representation of a circular keyboard, a list of potential linguistic object matches, and a message area where the selected words are entered. The circular keyboard is manipulated via a hardware joystick or game-pad with analog joystick or omni-directional rocker switch built therein. The user points the joystick in the general direction of the desired letter, and then continues pointing roughly to each letter in the desired word. Once all letters have been roughly selected, buttons are used to select a specific word from the list of potential matches and send the selected word to the message area.

1 . A text entry system, comprising:
 a direction selector to point in a direction of letters to collectively form an intended linguistic object, where each letter comprises a linguistic object subcomponent;   an output device with a text display area; and   a processor, comprising:
 a difference calculation module configured to output, for each act of pointing, various letters based upon factors including at least the difference between an actual direction indicated by the direction selector and pre-assigned directions of the letters; 
 an object search engine responsive to a sequence of pointing acts to identify linguistic objects from a collection of linguistic objects, where each identified linguistic object comprises a different combination of one letter output by the difference calculation module for each act of pointing in the sequence; and 
 a selection component to facilitate user selection of a desired linguistic object from the identified linguistic objects. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 an on-screen keyboard representation of an array of letters.   
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the on-screen keyboard has a shape comprising any of a circle, a square, an oval, and a polygon. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein each of the output letters comprises any subcomponent or combination of one or more of the following forming an incomplete part of one of the linguistic objects:
 an alphabetic letter, accented letter, numeric digit, punctuation symbol;   a sub-word component from a non-alphabetic language including one or more strokes, radicals, jamos, or kana.   
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a mechanism for ordering the linguistic objects according to a linguistic model, where the linguistic model includes one or more of:
 frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object in formal or conversational written text; 
 frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object when following a preceding linguistic object or linguistic objects; 
 proper or common grammar of the surrounding sentence; 
 application context of current linguistic object entry; and 
 recency of use or repeated use of the linguistic object by the user or within an application program. 
   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein identified linguistic objects are ordered by a combination value of a calculated weighted difference value and a linguistic model, wherein the linguistic model comprises one or more of:
 frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object in formal or conversational written text;   frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object when following a preceding linguistic object or linguistic objects;   proper or common grammar of the surrounding sentence;   application context of current linguistic object entry; and   recency of use or repeated use of the linguistic object by the user or within an application program.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a mechanism for extending a selected linguistic object with completions.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising
 a mechanism for selecting the letters of the linguistic object, wherein the mechanism is configured to detect, during an act of pointing, an amount that a direction of the mechanism is above any of a threshold distance, a degree of tilt, or a period of time.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein either an exact spelling sequence is configured to be displayed in the text display area, or the last entered letter is configured to be indicated in an exact spelling sequence, or the last entered letter is configured to be indicated in an on-screen keyboard. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a smart symbol, wherein the smart symbol when indicated is automatically interpreted as any of a punctuation symbol, diacritic mark or tonal indication at the place in the input sequence where a matching punctuation symbol, diacritic mark or tonal indication occurs in identified linguistic objects.   
     
     
         11 . A text input method comprising:
 receiving a signal from a directional input device, wherein the signal corresponds to a user act of entering a direction through the directional input device, wherein the entered direction corresponds to one or more linguistic object subcomponents according to a current mapping;   for the entered direction, preparing an output of candidate linguistic object subcomponents based upon factors including at least the difference between directions indicated by the directional input device and pre-assigned directions of the linguistic object subcomponents according to the current mapping;   using the output to predict at least one linguistic object; and   facilitating selection by the user of a desired one of the predicted linguistic objects.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the candidate linguistic object subcomponents comprise one of any number of letters or symbols near the entered direction. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 utilizing a linguistic model to order the predicted linguistic objects according to likelihood of intended selection by the user, wherein the order of the predicted linguistic objects is based either on a combination of weightings and the linguistic model, or the linguistic model comprises one or more of:
 frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object in formal or conversational written text; 
 frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object when following a preceding linguistic object or linguistic objects; 
 proper or common grammar of the surrounding sentence; 
 application context of current linguistic object entry; and 
 recency of use or repeated use of the linguistic object by the user or within an application program. 
   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the directional input device is associated with an on-screen keyboard. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the user selects a partial linguistic object and continues with more directional inputs, and wherein the predicted linguistic objects includes only linguistic objects that begin with the selected partial linguistic object. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 responsive to a set of buttons or a second directional input device being used alone or with the directional input device, separately or simultaneously, conducting actions to perform one or more of the following:
 switching between input modes; 
 choosing input modes; 
 changing from input to linguistic object selection; and 
 invoking other functions. 
   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 in response to a user invoking an undo after selecting a linguistic object, deselecting the linguistic object.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 presenting an on-screen keyboard representation of linguistic object subcomponents, wherein the linguistic object subcomponents that are presented on the on-screen keyboard are limited to, or highlighted as, the linguistic object subcomponents in certain positions, in a collection of linguistic objects.   
     
     
         19 . A computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a digital data processing machine to perform text input operations comprising:
 receiving machine-readable signals representing an ordered series of user-submitted directional inputs entered via a directional input device, wherein directional inputs of the directional input device correspond to different linguistic object subcomponents according to a current mapping;   for each user-submitted directional input, based upon that directional input alone, estimating multiple corresponding linguistic object subcomponents that the user might have intended by such directional input;   assembling the different ones of the estimated linguistic object subcomponents to construct multiple different proposed linguistic objects that the user might have intended by the series of directional inputs, where each proposed object includes one estimated linguistic object subcomponent for each user-submitted directional input, the linguistic object subcomponents occurring in the proposed object in the same order as the series of user-submitted directional inputs; and   facilitating selection of a desired one of the proposed objects.   
     
     
         20 . The medium of  claim 19 , where each linguistic object subcomponent comprises any of an alphabetic letter, an accented letter, a numeric digit, a punctuation symbol, a sub-word component from a non-alphabetic language including one or more strokes, radicals, jamos, or kana. 
     
     
         21 . The medium of  claim 19 , where the assembling operation further comprises ordering the proposed linguistic objects according to any of word length, ordinal ranking, weighting value of proposed linguistic object subcomponents, frequency of general usage, recency of use, appearance in a user-defined list. 
     
     
         22 . A text input system, comprising:
 a direction selector configured to point in a direction through input by a user toward one or more linguistic object subcomponents;   a predetermined or dynamic mapping between directions and linguistic object subcomponents;   an output device with a text display area;   a processor, including an object evaluation component configured to identify at least one linguistic object within a collection of linguistic objects based on a sequence of directions; and   a selection component to facilitate selection by the user of a desired linguistic object wherein the object evaluation component matches the sequence of directions against predetermined sequences of directional values associated with each linguistic object and identifies at least one linguistic object whose associated directional values minimize differences with the sequence of directions.   
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein the identification of at least one linguistic object is further based on a linguistic model, wherein the linguistic model comprises any of:
 frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object in formal or conversational written text;   frequency of occurrence of a linguistic object when following a preceding linguistic object or linguistic objects;   proper or common grammar of the surrounding sentence;   application context of current linguistic object entry; and   recency of use or repeated use of the linguistic object by the user or within an application program.   
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein at least one of the mapped directions corresponds to a plurality of linguistic object subcomponents, one or a plurality of which include a diacritic mark, wherein the plurality of linguistic object subcomponents comprise variant forms of a single base linguistic object subcomponent, and wherein the collection of linguistic objects include linguistic object subcomponents with diacritic marks. 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 22 , wherein the direction selector comprises any of:
 an omni-directional joystick or sliding switch, a radial gesture with a mouse, a data glove or, on a touch-sensitive surface, a touch-sensitive ring, a wheel, an accelerometer-based tilt device, or an eye-tracking device wherein selection of a direction using a ring or wheel is determined by detecting a difference in speed of selection, a threshold time delay within a range of direction, or a change in acceleration, and wherein selection of a direction using an accelerometer-based tilt device is determined by detecting a change in acceleration or by a confirming button press.   
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 22 , where the direction selector initially points to an X-Y coordinate position and then the X-Y coordinate position is converted into a radial direction. 
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 22 , where the object evaluation component is configured to identify the at least one linguistic object based upon the sequence of directions independent of other input.