Unified Text Editing Interface for Multi-Word Correction

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Text editing systems often require users to manually correct errors in text passages, which can be inefficient, especially when only a single word is selected, as they typically provide limited suggestions that do not span neighboring words, restricting the range of potential changes.

Innovation Solution

A unified interface that combines word-level and phrase-level suggestions, allowing users to select a portion of a word and display suggestions that can replace not only the selected word but also neighboring words, with the option to highlight and color-code the affected text to show the maximum range of potential changes.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If traditional text editing systems provide word-level suggestions only, then the interface remains simple and easy to operate, but the editing efficiency and accuracy are limited when multiple words need correction

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveediting efficiencyVSAvoidsuggestion interface complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges word-level suggestions and phrase-level suggestions into a single unified suggestion interface. When a user selects a word, the system provides both single-word replacements and multi-word phrase replacements in the same interface, allowing users to correct multiple words simultaneously without switching between different interfaces. This resolves the contradiction by combining multiple suggestion types into one interface, improving editing efficiency without proportionally increasing complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The suggestion interface is designed to serve multiple functions: it can provide single-word suggestions, multi-word phrase suggestions, and automatically highlight the maximum range of affected text. This universal interface handles various editing scenarios (single word correction, multiple word correction, phrase-level editing) through a single mechanism, improving productivity while maintaining interface simplicity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Loss of information

If the system highlights the maximum range of affected text, then users can see the full extent of potential changes, but the visual complexity and distraction increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation about change rangeVSAvoidvisual interface complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies different visual treatments to different parts of the text. The maximum range of affected text is highlighted with a subtle visual indicator, while the specific selected word or words are marked with a different indicator. This local differentiation allows users to understand both the full scope of potential changes and the specific target area without creating uniform visual complexity throughout the entire text. The highlighting provides necessary information while maintaining visual clarity through selective application.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP2579251B1Interactive text editing
Publication Date: 2014.12.03 GOOGLE LLC
  • EP2579251B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2579251B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2579251B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

A method for providing suggestions includes capturing audio that includes speech and receiving textual content from a speech recognition engine. The speech recognition engine performs speech recognition on the audio signal to obtain the textual content, which includes one or more passages. The method also includes receiving a selection of a portion of a first word in a passage in the textual content, wherein the passage includes multiple words, and retrieving a set of suggestions that can potentially replace the first word. At least one suggestion from the set of suggestions provides a multi-word suggestion for potentially replacing the first word. The method further includes displaying, on a display device, the set of suggestions, and highlighting a portion of the textual content, as displayed on the display device, for potentially changing to one of the suggestions from the set of suggestions.