Method for spell-checking location-bound words within a document

Abstract

The present invention uses spatial dictionaries (termed locationaries), for meaningfully checking and correcting the spelling of text on Geographic Information System (GIS) maps or other computer documents containing spatially, or coordinate-, bound text. Locationaries keep track of correctly spelled words and the geographic areas within which they are considered correctly spelled. In a preferred embodiment, locationaries are feature classes, ‘map layers’ of properly-spelled words or attributed features (objects). The invention selects such features from locationaries based on spatial criteria relative to the textual objects to spell-check. It then exports the attribute values to dictionaries that can be used by conventional spell checking engines. Once all errors and suggestions are found with such an engine and within user-specified criteria, a dialog is shown that contains a row per potentially-misspelled word found. From that dialog, the user can edit the word in the original textual object of the map.

1 . A computer-implemented method for spell-checking location-bound words, each location-bound word having a location corresponding to a real-world geographic location, each location having an associated geometry, the method comprising the steps of:
 providing a locationary comprising a plurality of words, each locationary word having a spelling, and, for each locationary word, a corresponding geographic location and geometry within which the provided spelling of the locationary word is predetermined to be correctly spelled;   for each location-bound word being spell-checked, identifying one or more locationary words whose location and geometry within which the provided spelling is correctly spelled has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word; and   for each location-bound word being spell-checked, comparing a spelling of the location-bound word being spell-checked to the spelling of the identified locationary words to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the locationary comprises a thematically heterogeneous geographic information system (GIS) feature class, each feature of the feature class comprising one of the correctly spelled locationary words and its corresponding geographic location and minimum geometry. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the geometry of each locationary word comprises an annotation feature, point, line, bounded area, or bounded volume, and wherein the location and geometry of a locationary word has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked if at least part of the annotation feature, point, line, bounded area, or bounded volume of the locationary word falls within a current extent of a map that contains the location-bound word being spell-checked. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising the step of:
 if the location-bound word being spell-checked is determined to be correctly spelled by the first comparing step, further comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to those words in the locationary whose location and geometry falls within a predefined or user-specified distance from the location-bound word being spell-checked to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled;   wherein the location-bound word being spell-checked will be considered to be too far from a feature labeled by the location-bound word being spell-checked if the location-bound word being spell-checked is determined to be incorrectly spelled by the second comparing step.   
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the geometry of each locationary word comprises an annotation feature, point, line, bounded area, or bounded volume, and wherein the location and geometry of a locationary word has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked if at least part of the annotation feature, point, line, bounded area, or bounded volume of the locationary word falls within a predefined or user-specified distance from the location-bound word being spell-checked. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the steps of:
 repeating the comparing step for a plurality of location-bound words;   after each comparing step and for each incorrectly spelled location-bound word, determining one or more suggested spelling corrections; and   after each determining step, storing the one or more determined suggested spelling corrections.   
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the location-bound words are contained in a map, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:
 identifying a word in the locationary that matches a textual label of a feature in the map;   calculating a distance between the textual label and the location and geometry of the matching locationary word; and   comparing the calculated distance to a predefined or user-specified maximum acceptable distance to determine if the textual label is too far from the label's associated feature.   
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 creating an ad hoc dictionary comprising those words in the locationary whose location and geometry has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked.   
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising the step of:
 providing one or more replacement suggestions for location-bound words determined to be incorrectly spelled, wherein the one or more replacement suggestions are selected from (a) the ad hoc dictionary, (b) one or more standard dictionaries, or (c) the ad hoc dictionary and one or more standard dictionaries.   
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising the steps of:
 providing the ad hoc dictionary to a spell-checking software program; and   providing a location-bound word to the spell-checking software program;   wherein the comparing step is performed by the spell-checking program using the ad hoc dictionary.   
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising the step of:
 providing all location-bound words to be spell checked to the spell-checking software program to enable the spell-checking program to determine if the location-bound words being spell-checked are correctly spelled using the ad hoc dictionary.   
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising the steps of:
 receiving a list of potentially misspelled words from the spell-checking program;   creating a second ad hoc dictionary comprising those words in the locationary whose location and geometry corresponds to a portion of a map within a predefined or user-specified spatial relationship from one of the potentially misspelled words;   providing the second ad hoc dictionary to the spell-checking software program; and   providing the one of the potentially misspelled words to the spell-checking software program to enable the spell-checking program to re-check the one of the potentially misspelled words using the second ad hoc dictionary.   
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the location and geometry of a locationary word has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked if at least part of the location and geometry of the locationary word falls within a predefined or user-specified distance from the location-bound word being spell-checked. 
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the location and geometry of a locationary word has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked if at least part of the location and geometry of the locationary word falls within a current extent of a map that contains the location-bound word being spell-checked. 
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the location-bound words being spell-checked are contained in a map, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:
 receiving a list of potentially misspelled words;   creating an ad hoc dictionary comprising those words in the locationary whose location and geometry corresponds to a portion of the map within a predefined or user-specified spatial relationship from one of the potentially misspelled words;   providing the ad hoc dictionary to a spell-checking software program; and   providing the one of the potentially misspelled words to the spell-checking software program to enable the spell-checking program to re-check the one of the potentially misspelled words using the ad hoc dictionary.   
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises the steps of:
 providing a plurality of locationaries, at least some of the locationaries each corresponding to a different language;   determining which one or more languages are spoken in the geographic location corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked;   selecting the one or more locationaries which correspond to the one or more languages spoken in the geographic location corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked; and   comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to those words in the selected locationaries whose location and geometry has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in one of the languages corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked.   
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising the steps of:
 creating an ad hoc multi-language dictionary or a plurality of uni-language dictionaries comprising those words in the selected locationaries whose locations correspond to a current extent of a map that contains the location-bound word being spell-checked; and   providing the ad hoc multi-language dictionary or the plurality of uni-language dictionaries to a spell-checking software program.   
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising the steps of:
 determining which language is a preferred language of a user; and   selecting a locationary which corresponds to the preferred language of the user;   wherein comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to those words in the selected locationaries whose location and geometry has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked further determines if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the preferred language of the user.   
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises the steps of:
 providing a language map depicting one or more geographic locations and corresponding one or more languages spoken at each of the one or more geographic locations;   wherein determining which one or more languages are spoken in the geographic location corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked comprises determining which geographic location depicted in the language map corresponds to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked and identifying the one or more languages are spoken at the determined corresponding geographic location.   
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein a geographic location depicted in the language map corresponds to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked if the geographic location depicted in the language map (a) is within the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked, (b) is within a predetermined proximity to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked, or (c) has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked. 
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the locationary comprises a plurality of words in a plurality of different languages and, for each word, a corresponding geographic location and geometry within which a provided spelling of the word is correctly spelled and within which the language of the word is a spoken language, such that comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to those words in the locationary whose location and geometry has a predefined spatial relationship to a location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked further determines if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the spoken language. 
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
 providing a plurality of conventional dictionaries, at least some of the dictionaries each corresponding to a different language;   determining which one or more languages are spoken in the geographic location corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked;   selecting one or more of the conventional dictionaries which correspond to the one or more languages spoken in the geographic location corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked; and   comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to the selected dictionaries to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the one or more languages.   
   
   
       23 . A computer-implemented method for spell-checking location-bound words, a location of each location-bound word corresponding to a real-world geographic location, each location having an associated geometry, the method comprising the steps of:
 providing a plurality of dictionaries, at least some of the dictionaries each corresponding to a different language;   determining which one or more languages are spoken in the geographic location corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked;   selecting the one or more dictionaries which correspond to the determined languages; and   comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to the selected dictionaries to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the one or more languages.   
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising the steps of:
 determining which language is a preferred language of a user; and   selecting a dictionary which corresponds to the preferred language of the user;   wherein comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to those words in the selected dictionaries whose location and geometry have a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked further determines if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the preferred language of the user.   
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising:
 providing a plurality of locationaries, at least some of the locationaries each corresponding to a different language, each locationary comprising a plurality of words, each locationary word having a spelling, and, for each locationary word, a corresponding geographic location and geometry within which the provided spelling of the locationary word is predetermined to be correctly spelled in the corresponding locationary language;   selecting the one or more locationaries which correspond to the determined languages;   for each location-bound word being spell-checked, identifying one or more locationary words in the selected one or more locationaries whose location and geometry within which the provided spelling is correctly spelled has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word; and   for each location-bound word being spell-checked, comparing a spelling of the location-bound word being spell-checked to the spelling of the identified locationary words to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the corresponding locationary language.   
   
   
       26 . A computer-implemented method for spell-checking location-bound words, each location-bound word having a location corresponding to a real-world geographic location, each location having an associated geometry, the method comprising the step of:
 for each location-bound word, comparing a spelling of the location-bound word to a spelling of one or more words whose provided spelling has been predetermined to be correctly spelled within a specified location and geometry and whose specified location and geometry have a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled.   
   
   
       27 . A computer-implemented method of identifying where words are correctly spelled, the method comprising:
 providing a locationary comprising a plurality of words, each locationary word having a spelling, and, for each locationary word, a corresponding geographic location and geometry within which the provided spelling of the locationary word is predetermined to be correctly spelled.   
   
   
       28 . A computer-implemented method of identifying where words are correctly spelled, the method comprising:
 identifying a geographic location and geometry within which a spelling of each of a plurality of location-bound words are predetermined to be correctly spelled; and   representing the identified geographic location and geometry with its corresponding location-bound word in a map.   
   
   
       29 . A computer-implemented method for spell-checking location-bound words, a location of each location-bound word corresponding to a real-world geographic location, each location having an associated geometry, the method comprising the steps of:
 providing a plurality of locationaries, at least some of the locationaries each corresponding to a different language, each locationary comprising a plurality of words, each locationary word having a spelling, and, for each locationary word, a corresponding geographic location and geometry within which the provided spelling of the locationary word is predetermined to be correctly spelled in the corresponding locationary language;   determining which one or more languages are spoken in the geographic location corresponding to the location and geometry of the location-bound word being spell-checked;   selecting the one or more locationaries which correspond to the determined languages;   for each location-bound word being spell-checked, identifying one or more locationary words in the selected one or more locationaries whose location and geometry within which the provided spelling is correctly spelled has a predefined spatial relationship to the location and geometry of the location-bound word; and   for each location-bound word being spell-checked, comparing a spelling of the location-bound word being spell-checked to the spelling of the identified locationary words to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the corresponding locationary language.   
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 29 , further comprising:
 providing a plurality of dictionaries, at least some of the dictionaries each corresponding to a different language;   selecting the one or more dictionaries which correspond to the determined languages; and   comparing the location-bound word being spell-checked to the selected dictionaries to determine if the location-bound word being spell-checked is correctly spelled in the corresponding dictionary language.