Recognition of and Operation on Text Data

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the field of text data processing.

2. Description of the Related Art

Word recognition involves an ability to recognize selected words in a document or the like. One example of word recognition is the searching of large volumes of text, such as encyclopedias or legal case books, using key words or search terms. A user typically locates relevant segments of information from within large volumes by specifying a word or words which must appear in the segment in order for it to be retrieved. Generally, other limiters are used, such as commands which require that the searched for words appear in a same sentence or paragraph, or within a predetermined number of words from one another. Boolean connectors also figure prominently in this type of searching. Generally, therefore, this type of word recognition involves searching a large body of text for the presence of one or more words, which possibly are arranged in a predefined order. No operations are performed other than retrieval of a portion of text which includes the selected words and the words are not recognized as part of a general class.

Other word recognition and operation features are known. Generally, programs which provide for word recognition and for operations using or on the recognized words require the words to have been created by the program. For example, conventional applications that allow users to perform word recognition and operations on the words typically require that the words be created using the application. Words created using any other application are not recognizable and may not be operated on. Consequently, words created using a particular word processing or database program can be recognized and operated on only by the word processing or database program responsible for their creation. Examples of the conventional operations which can be performed on words by conventional word processing or database programs include spell checking, finding and replacing, etc.

The present invention will benefit any application which displays text to a user, regardless of the origin of the text. The invention expands the operations which may be performed using recognized text by allowing a user to intuitively exploit the presence of certain classes or types of text in any document by transforming the text into an interface to other functions or operations.

The invention pertains to recognition of text in a body of text as belonging to a predetermined class and performing an operation relevant to the recognized text.

The following detailed description will be more fully understood with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGS. 1a-1f are graphic representations of recognized text on video monitors in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart diagram of the operation of the test recognition and operation features of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the libraries of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram of the menu building features of the invention.

The invention selectively recognizes text and performs relevant operations based on the recognition. Referring to FIG. 1a and FIG. 2, for example, a date 11 in text appearing on a video monitor is accented (step 21 of FIG. 2) for example by shading, underlining or pointing to and clicking on the text. The invention recognizes the accented text (step 22), and provides a menu bar 13 in which the name of menu 12 corresponding to the class of text accented is highlighted or shown in bold type, thereby showing that the menu is enabled (step 23). In the example of FIG. 1a, the Date menu 12 is shown in bold type, signifying that the invention includes a menu of operations and/or programs which are relevant to dates. A user can "click" on the Date menu name 12 or otherwise call the menu by one or more keystrokes on a keyboard associated with the video monitor to display or pull down the contents of the menu (step 24). A view of an embodiment of a pulled-down Date menu 18 is shown in FIG. 1b. A user may directly call a calender or appointment database program from pulled-down menu 18. Other programs may be included in pulled-down date menu 18 as discussed below.

As shown in FIGS. 1c-1f, the invention is not limited to the recognition of dates in text and preferred embodiments of the invention can recognize e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. In fact, there is no limit on the type of text which can be recognized by the invention and additional embodiments can recognize such classes of text as Uniform Resource Locators, nouns, verbs, names, street addresses, etc.

The pull-down menus provided by the invention identify the operations and/or programs which relate to the class of text accented, highlighted or otherwise indicated. For example, referring again to FIG. 1a where date 11 has been accented and recognized by the invention, the pulled-down menu 18 can identify operations and/or programs relevant to dates, such as the calendar program and appointment programs shown as well as a To-Do list program, an anniversary database, a scheduling program etc. . . . A user is able to run one or more of the programs relevant to dates which are identified in the pulled-down menu in a known manner, such as by clicking on the name of the program as it appears in the pulled-down menu (step 25) or through the execution of one or more keyboard key strokes. In the example shown, therefore, a user is able to record in, for example, a calendar program, an upcoming event mentioned in a body of text in which a date has been recognized. The user may then quickly return to the body of text (step 26).

Referring to FIG. 1c, an e-mail address 14 is accented. In this example, a user may click on the highlighted menu name EMail 15 to pull-down the menu. The EMail menu preferably includes, for example, an identification of programs and operations related to EMail and EMail addresses.

An embodiment of pulled-down EMail menu 19 is shown in FIG. 1d. Included in pulled-down Email menu 19 are such programs as a writable Email or general address book database and an EMail template and transmitting program, preferably automatically addressed with the accented address recognized in the text, etc. Any other program related to EMail sending or address storage may be included as within the scope of this invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1e, a telephone number 16 is accented. The pull down menu named Phone #17 is highlighted and preferably identifies the executable operations and/or programs which are relevant to telephone and telefax numbers. As shown in FIG. 1f on pulled-down menu 20, possible programs include a writable computer database of telephone and telefax numbers, a program which instructs a properly equipped computer to dial the number accented, a program which generates a template for the preparation of a fax message and which subsequently causes a properly equipped computer to transmit the message to the accented number, etc. Again, any program related to telephone or telefax numbers can be included in pulled-down menu 20 for direct accessing in accordance with the teachings of this disclosure.

Where the invention is capable of recognizing nouns or verbs, pull-down menus can, for example, identify executable programs which provide the meaning of the highlighted word, appropriate synonyms and the singular or plural version of the noun or conjugation of the verb.

As noted above the invention preferably includes a library enabling recognition of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) in text. Consequently, preferred programs which appear on and can be run from the pull-down menu in response to the accenting and subsequent recognition of a URL include World-Wide Web browser programs, such as "NETSCAPE" or "NCSA MOSAIC."

In a preferred embodiment, in the event the accented text is not recognized, i.e., the text is not of the specific type or class recognizable by any of the libraries provided, a menu bar having a list of one or more menu names of default operations can be made to appear (step 27). The invention preferably includes as default operations such programs as spell-checkers, grammar-checkers, a thesaurus, a dictionary, execution of an EMail program to transmit the text, programs to store the text and any other programs relating to words in general. Of course, the names of the default programs appear on one or more pull-down menus (step 28) corresponding to the one or more menu names.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the invention is implemented in one or more modular libraries of subroutines. The libraries can be Dynamically Linked Libraries as understood by those skilled in the art with "MICROSOFT" operating systems. Every subroutine performs a distinct task. In FIG. 3, three libraries 30, 50 and 60 are shown, although the number of libraries which are possible is limited only by the number of possible operations which may be performed. Each library preferably holds five sets of subroutines. For example, Libraries A, B and C each include subroutines a, b, c, d and e. Subroutines a and c are concerned with the class or type of text data recognized by the Library. Subroutines b, d and e are concerned with the operations performed by the Library on the recognized text.

Library A concerns, for example, recognizing and performing operations on dates in text as described above in reference to FIGS. 1a and 1b. Subroutine a (31) of Library A preferably detects a class or type of text data, in this case, dates. Generally, subroutine a is a parser capable of recognizing a class or type of text data in a number of formats. In the case of Library A, the parser subroutine a is able to recognize, for example, date text written in a number of variations, for example 1/1/99, 1/1/1999, 1-1-99, January 1, 1999 etc.

Subroutine c (33) of Library A provides the menu name corresponding to Library A and its text recognition and operating functions. For example, subroutine c provides the name Date or Dates 12. This name appears in menu bar 13, as shown in FIG. 1a and can be displayed in bold-face type or emphasized in some other way whenever date text has been recognized to signify that a number of operations are available for running on the date text.

Subroutine d (34) of Library A identifies the particular number of operations which can be performed on the date text and correlates to the number of operations implemented by subroutine b. Each operation is identified by a number between and including 1 and the value returned by subroutine d.

Given a number identifying an operation, subroutine e (35) of Library A identifies the name of the operation. Examples of the names of the operations which can be run on date text include Schedule, To-Do List, Anniversary, etc. Subroutine e provides the names of the operations as they appear in pull-down menu 18.

Given a number identifying an operation, subroutine b (32) of Library A performs the identified operation on the recognized text data. For example, subroutine b can call scheduling programs, writable calendar databases, writable to-do list databases, anniversary book databases and any other number of programs or operations relevant to dates.

A person of ordinary skill will understand that any additional libraries, such as Libraries B and C shown in FIG. 3 will have subroutines generally related in function to the subroutines of Library A for implementing the invention with respect to other classes of text. For example, the subroutines of Library B preferably are directed to implementing the invention with respect to EMail addresses in a document and the subroutines of Library C are directed to implementing the invention with respect to telephone and telefax numbers, as shown in FIGS. 1b-1f. Other libraries may be added to, for example, operate on URLs, nouns, verbs, names street addresses, etc.

Conventionally, a software program must be entirely recompiled for its functionality to be increased or its operations changed in any manner. The present invention, however, is highly modular and allows libraries to be added at will and additional features to be added to libraries without recompiling. For example, by implementing libraries as "MICROSOFT" Component Object Model Servers or by using equivalent standards known to those skilled in the art, each library is recognized and utilized using the same programming interface, i.e., though the function and results of the subroutines a-e differ from library to library, every library has subroutines a-e. Consequently, an application which is written to recognize and utilize one library can automatically recognize and utilize any other library. Furthermore, an application which is written to recognize and utilize more than one library can automatically recognize and utilize any number of other libraries. Additional libraries can be added at any time, without recompiling, and an application using standards known to those skilled in the art will recognize the addition of one or more libraries at run-time. For example, an application 29 using the invention will use standards known to those skilled in the art to check for the presence of any libraries. Once recognized, the application 29 will be able to use any or all of the libraries.

The invention also allows additional features to be added to a library without recompiling. For example, additional operations can be installed in a library at any time, and recognized by application 29 at run-time. For example, at run-time, application 29 will build the appropriate menus relating to the one or more types of data which are recognizable. At run-time, application 29 will identify, for example, the presence of Library A (steps 41 and 42 of FIG. 4). Subroutine c of Library A informs application 29 of the name of the Library (step 43), which of course will be used as one of the names of the menu of operations of appearing in the menu bar. Application 29 subsequently queries subroutine d of Library A for the number of operations Library A is capable of performing on the recognized data (step 44). Subroutine e provides to application 29 the names for each of the number of operations identified, e.g. Schedule, Calendar, To-Do, Anniversary, etc. (step 45). Application 29 will repeat the process outlined above to build menus relating to every library which is part of the invention (Step 46). This menu-building procedure at run time allows libraries to be added and to be upgraded at any time, for example to add additional operations performable on a piece of recognized text, without a need for recompiling the program.

Conventional programs that provide any text recognition and operation capabilities, i.e., find and replace, etc. require the text to be embedded in, for example, a document created by the program. This invention does not require that the text be embedded in any document created on or by a particular application program. Any text appearing on a video monitor can be operated on by the invention, whether the text is within an EMail message, World-Wide Web site, created by a word processing or database program, etc. Furthermore, by using parsers as the subroutines for detecting certain types of data, the invention is able to recognize data appearing in a number of formats, rather than a single defined format.

The present invention can be embodied in the form of computer-implemented processes and apparatuses for practicing those processes. The present invention also can be embodied in the form of computer program code embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMS, hard drives, or any other computer-readable storage medium, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. The present invention can also be embodied in the form of computer program code, for example, whether stored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer, or transmitted over some transmission medium, such as over electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via electromagnetic radiation, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention.

When implemented on a general-purpose microprocessor, the computer program code segments configure the microprocessor to create specific logic circuits.

Furthermore, it should be understood that various changes in the details, materials, and arrangements of the parts which have been described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of this invention may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in the following claims.