Dynamic Telephone Number Interpretation on Portable Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Portable electronic devices face challenges in intuitively and accurately determining entered telephone numbers, especially when keys correspond to multiple characters, leading to ambiguity and requiring significant user training or error tolerance.
Innovation Solution
The device dynamically determines entered telephone numbers by considering likelihoods of explicit and implicit interpretations of key assertions, providing a likelihood advantage to explicit interpretations when appropriate, and accommodating various input methods, including alphanumeric characters, to display the most likely telephone number on the screen.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If keys correspond to multiple characters (alphanumeric mapping), then keyboard versatility is improved, but determination accuracy of entered telephone numbers deteriorates due to ambiguity
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the sequence of key assertions and dynamically updates the displayed telephone number interpretation in real-time. As each key is pressed, the system provides feedback by displaying the current most-likely interpretation, allowing users to see progress and correct errors immediately, thereby resolving ambiguity without requiring re-entry
Solution Approach 2:
The interpretation mechanism dynamically adapts to the input sequence by evaluating likelihoods of different interpretations as keys are pressed. The system transitions from static key mapping to dynamic sequence analysis, where the meaning of key assertions evolves based on the context of previous and subsequent inputs, enabling accurate determination despite multi-character keys
2Ease of operation
If dynamic likelihood-based interpretation is implemented, then ease of operation is improved by tolerating input errors, but device complexity increases due to likelihood calculation mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically corrects input errors by evaluating the likelihood of different interpretations and selecting the most probable intended telephone number. The likelihood calculation mechanism operates autonomously without user intervention, analyzing key assertion sequences and self-correcting for common errors such as wrong key presses or incomplete sequences
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the interpretation parameters dynamically based on the input sequence context. Instead of using fixed key-to-number mappings, the system adjusts interpretation likelihoods based on sequence position, previously pressed keys, and statistical probability models, enabling error tolerance through parameter adaptation rather than complex structural changes
3Speed
If explicit interpretations are given likelihood advantage, then determination speed is improved, but adaptability to implicit user intent deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically balances explicit and implicit interpretation likelihoods based on the input sequence context. Early in the sequence, explicit interpretations may be favored for speed, but as the sequence progresses or ambiguity increases, the system adapts to consider implicit interpretations more heavily, allowing flexible intent recognition while maintaining overall determination speed
Solution Approach 2:
The system periodically re-evaluates the likelihood balance between explicit and implicit interpretations at each key assertion step. This periodic reassessment allows the system to maintain speed by defaulting to explicit interpretations while periodically checking for implicit intent patterns, adjusting the balance based on accumulated context
Data Source
AI summary
As keys of the keyboard of a portable communication device are asserted, the device dynamically determines at least a portion of a corresponding telephone number to present on the device's display by, at least in part, considering likelihoods of differing explicit and implicit interpretations of these key assertions. By one approach this can comprise according a likelihood advantage to an explicit interpretation of one or more of the key assertions and/or implicit interpretations of such key assertions. These likelihood advantages need not be necessarily dispositive with respect to the resultant interpretation.