Automatic spelling correction apparatus

Abstract

An automatic spelling correction apparatus. The apparatus comprises a storage device and a processing unit. The storage device stores a character group table containing a character sequence of each cycled button, and multiple character combination records. A processing unit receives an original character combination and a new character, to determine whether the original character combination has a valid spelling, if not, a valid character combination matching the character combination record according to the character group table is generated.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION[0001]This patent application is a continuation application (CA) of a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 817,804 filed Apr. 6, 2004, and now pending. The contents of the related patent application are incorporated herein for reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to input correction, and more particularly to an apparatus for automatic spelling correction.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Handheld devices, such as cellular phones, and PDAs, are designed to be small enough to meet mobility requirements. In order to reduce size handheld devices provide a limited number of buttons for input, and the sum of the buttons is less the total number of characters, such as English letters or phonetic symbols corresponding with Zhu Yin Fu Hao phonetic symbol system. Mobile phones, for example, are limited to 12 buttons for input of phonetic symbols to assemble a Chinese word while the Zhu Yin Fu Hao phonetic symbol system ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an automatic spelling correction apparatus that reduces keystrokes. The apparatus includes a storage device, a processing unit, and a display unit. The apparatus stores a character group table and multiple character combination records. The processing unit first determines whether a first character combination is valid spelling according to the character combination records. If the first character combination is invalid spelling, a second character combination is automatically generated by appending a second character to the original character combination. The characters are associated with the same cycled button. The technical effect of this invention is to improve the efficiency and accuracy of spelling correction.

Problems solved by technology

Mobile phones, for example, are limited to 12 buttons for input of phonetic symbols to assemble a Chinese word while the Zhu Yin Fu Hao phonetic symbol system has 37 phonetic symbols, resulting in input difficulty.

Although character entry via cycled button is functional, requiring additional keystrokes to input a phonetic symbol or an English letter may be considered by some to be inconvenient or even difficult.

It has often been argued manipulating cycled buttons is difficult due to small, difficult to read prompts.

Additionally, when an incorrect character is input, the “clear” button must be pressed to first erase the character before the correct character can be input, resulting in additional keystrokes.

Not all character combinations, however, have valid spelling.

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