System and method for providing context to an input method by tagging existing applications

Abstract

An improved system and method for providing context information of executable code to an input method is provided. Advanced text input methods may be made aware of the type of text expected to be received as input so that input methods may achieve a higher accuracy in recognition of text input. Generic interfaces provide a framework for supporting application authoring platforms to allow application developers to easily specify context information to the system and have it reliably forwarded to the correct input methods. Additionally, a context tagging tool may associate specific text input fields of an existing application with a n input scope without modifying the application itself. The context tagging tool may create a manifest that contains tags associating the specific text input fields with an input scope. Any advanced input methods use by the application may be updated with instructions for accessing the context information stored in the manifest.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 850,844, filed May 21, 2004, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CONTEXT TO AN INPUT METHOD BY TAGGING EXISTING APPLICATIONS, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 693,330, filed Oct. 24, 2003, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CONTEXT TO AN INPUT METHOD, and incorporates the foregoing applications by reference in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates generally to computer systems, and more particularly to an improved system and method for providing context to an input method.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Advanced text input methods such as handwriting, speech, and Input Method Editors (IMEs) are often limited to leveraging language rules and a language dictionary as the primary forms of context used to achieve accuracy in recognition of text input. Contextual information such as unigrams or n-grams has ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]Briefly, the present invention provides an improved system and method for providing context information of executable code to an input method. Advanced text input methods may be made aware of the type of text expected to be received as input so that such input methods may achieve a higher accuracy in recognition of text input. To this end, an architecture is provided with a generic interface for supplying context information so that applications can provide input scope for any of their fields expecting text input. Furthermore, any input method may use the context information provided by an application. Consequently, users may switch between input methods to input information to the application without loss of the context information.

[0008]The present invention additionally provides a system of components including a context component with generic interfaces and a context tagging utility. The generic interfaces provide a framework for supporting application authoring platforms to allow application developers to easily specify context information to the system and have it reliably forwarded to the correct input methods. Such context information may include a common input scope, a set of input scopes, a word or phrase list, a custom input scope defined by a regular expression or other grammar.

[0009]In addition to providing a system and method for development of new applications, the present invention may also support existing applications without needing to modify the application itself by providing a context tagging tool for associating specific text input fields of an application with an input scope. The context tagging tool may create a manifest that contains tags associating the specific text input fields with an input scope. Such a manifest may be stored along with the program files. Any advanced input methods use by the application may be updated with instructions for accessing the context information stored in the manifest. Thus, existing applications may also benefit from use of the present invention for increasing accuracy of recognition for text input fields by advanced input methods.

Problems solved by technology

Advanced text input methods such as handwriting, speech, and Input Method Editors (IMEs) are often limited to leveraging language rules and a language dictionary as the primary forms of context used to achieve accuracy in recognition of text input.

Unfortunately, some of the most common fields of applications and of forms expect input that may not conform to the language rules of a specific language and may not even conform to the vocabulary of a specific language.

As a result, such input methods may be severely limited in their ability to accurately recognize input for these types of fields.

Users consequently may have an unsatisfactory experience when using such input methods that result in poor recognition accuracy for these types of fields.

However, this technique has been limited in its use by a single application for a specific input method.

Multiple input methods could not use this technique for constraining context without implementing the technique for each separate input method.

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