The present technology generally relates to systems and methods
facilitating spotting of words and phrases.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Rapid technological advancement in the field of telecommunication has
revolutionized a manner in which people communicate with each other. In addition to
facilitating oral conversations between remote users, devices such as mobile phones and
personal computers are increasingly being equipped with features enabling uninterrupted
access to the Internet (or the World Wide Web). An individual may access web-based
applications like electronic mail (email) and online chat on the go for initiating textr
based communication. Additionally, an individual may also connect with a group of
individuals on social networking websites, such as Facebook™ or -Twitter™, and may
post a comment or tweet a message for group consumption. With increasing usage of
text-based communication on such devices, conversational language between users of
such devices is also constantly evolving with new words, jargons and/or slangs
increasingly being added to conversations on a daily basis. Keeping abreast of latest
additions to the conversational language is difficult for users without adequate sharing
mechanisms in place. Further, conventional text entry means are rendered outdated and
inconvenient to use on account of the constantly evolving conversational language.
SUMMARY
[0003] This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a
simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This
summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject
matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed
subject matter.
[0004] Various systems, methods, and computer readable mediums for
facilitating spotting of words and phrases are disclosed. In an embodiment, a system for
facilitating spotting of words and/or phrases is disclosed. The system includes a
scanning module, a storage module, a computation module, a dictionary module and a
transceiver module. In an embodiment, the scanning module is configured to
periodically scan a plurality of content sources to identify words and phrases, which are
being shared among one or more online communities of remote users as spots. The
sharing of a word or a phrase as a spot by a remote user in an online community from
among the one or more online communities of remote users is indicative of user interest
in the word or the phrase. In an embodiment, the storage module is communicably
associated with the scanning module. The storage module is configured to store the spots
along with information related to the spots. The information related to the spots includes
at least one of identities of remote users from among the one or more online
communities of remote users sharing each spot, a contextual information associated with
each spot and online user comments associated with each spot. In an embodiment, the
computation module is communicably associated with the storage module and
configured to determine at least one popularity-based metric for each spot from among
the spots stored in the storage module. In an embodiment, the dictionary generation
module is communicably associated with the computation module and configured to
generate and periodically update a spotting dictionary which includes at least a listing of
popular spots based on the at least one popularity-based metric associated with each
spot. In an embodiment, the transceiver module is communicably associated with the
dictionary module and configured to provision the spotting dictionary to one or more
remote users from among the one or more online communities of remote users.
[0005] In an embodiment, a communication device configured to facilitate
spotting of words and phrases is disclosed. The communication device includes a
transceiver, at least one processor and a memory. In an embodiment, the transceiver is
configured to communicate with a remote system to receive a spotting dictionary
comprising at least a listing of popular spots. In an embodiment, a popular spot from
among the popular spots refers to a popular word or a popular phrase of being shared in
one or more online communities of remote users. In an embodiment, the at least one
processor is communicably associated with the transceiver. In an embodiment, the
memory is communicably associated with the transceiver and the at least one processor.
The memory is configured to store the spotting dictionary and machine executable
instructions therein, that when executed by the at least one processor, causes the device
to integrate the spotting dictionary with one or more word dictionaries and facilitate
provisioning of the popular spots as word completions, phrase completions, word
suggestions, phrase suggestions and next word predictions during instances of user text
entry.
[0006] In an embodiment, a method for facilitating spotting of words and
phrases is disclosed. In an embodiment, the method includes periodically scanning a
plurality of content sources to identify words and phrases, which are being shared
among one or more online communities of remote users as spots. The sharing of a word
or a phrase as a spot by a remote user in an online community from among the online
communities of remote users is indicative of user interest in the word or the phrase. The
method includes storing the spots along with information related to the spots. The
information related to the spots includes at least one of identities of one or more remote
users from among one or more online communities of remote users sharing each spot, a
contextual information associated with each spot and online user comments associated
with each spot. In an embodiment, the method further includes determining at least one
popularity-based metric for each spot from among the spots stored in the storage
module. The method also includes generating and periodically updating a spotting
dictionary comprising at least a listing of popular spots based on the at least one
popularity-based metric associated with each spot. Furthermore, the method includes
provisioning the spotting dictionary to one or more remote users from among the one or
more online communities of remote users.
[0007] In an embodiment, a computer-readable medium is disclosed. The
computer-readable medium stores a set of computer-readable instructions that when
executed by an apparatus causes the apparatus to access a spotting dictionary comprising
at least a listing of popular spots, where a popular spot from among the popular spots
refers to a popular word or a popular phrase being shared in one or more online
communities of remote users. The spotting dictionary is integrated with one or more
word dictionaries to facilitate provisioning of the popular spots as word completions,
phrase completions, word suggestions, phrase suggestions and next word predictions
during instances of user text entry.
[0008] In another embodiment, another system for facilitating spotting words
and phrases is disclosed. In an embodiment, the system includes means for periodically
scanning a plurality of content sources to identify words and phrases, which are being
shared among one or more online communities of remote users as spots. The sharing of
a word or a phrase as a spot by a remote user in an online community from among the
online communities of remote users is indicative of user interest in the word or the
phrase. The system includes means for storing the spots along with information related
0 to the spots. The information related to the spots includes at least one of identities of one
or more remote users from among one or more online communities of remote users
sharing each spot, a contextual information associated with each spot and online user
comments associated with each spot. In an embodiment, the system further includes
means for determining at least one popularity-based metric for each spot from among
5 the spots stored in the storage module. In an embodiment, the system also includes
means for generating and periodically updating a spotting dictionary comprising at least
a listing of popular spots based on the at least one popularity-based metric associated
with each spot. Furthermore, the system includes means for provisioning the spotting
dictionary to one or more remote users from among the one or more online communities
0 of remote users.
[0009] In another embodiment, yet another system for facilitating spotting
words and phrases is disclosed. In an embodiment, the system includes a scanning
module, an application module and a transceiver module. The scanning module is
configured to scan one or more user linked accounts corresponding to a remote user
5 from among one or more online communities of remote users for detecting a presence of
at least one pre-defined character embedded within textual content corresponding to the
one or more user linked accounts. In an embodiment, the application module is
communicably associated with the scanning module. The application module is
configured to extract a word or a phrase disposed substantially adjacent to the at least
0 one pre-defined character. In an embodiment, the transceiver module is communicably
associated with the application module. The transceiver module is configured to
provision the word or the phrase for user selection as one of a spot and a re-spot. In an
embodiment, the selection of the word or the phrase as the spot is indicative of the user
interest in sharing the word or the phrase among the one or more online communities of
remote user. In an embodiment, the selection of the word or the phrase as the re-spot is
indicative of user interest in sharing a spotted word or spotted phrase by another phrase
among the one or more online communities of remote user. In an embodiment, the
5 transceiver module is further configured to facilitate automatic selection of the word or
the phrase as one of the spot and the re-spot.
[0010] Other aspects and example embodiments are provided in the drawings
and the detailed description that follows.
10
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0011] For a more complete understanding of example embodiments of the
present technology, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in
connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
[0012] FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which various
embodiments of the present invention may be practised;
[0013] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system configured to facilitate
0 spotting of words and phrases in accordance with an embodiment;
[0014] FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device
configured to facilitate spotting of words and phrases in accordance with an
embodiment;
[0015] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary user sign up UI displayed to a user on
5
the display of the communication device upon invoking an application in accordance
with an embodiment;
[0016] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary home page UI displayed to a user on the
display of the communication device upon a user logging (or signing) into the
application in accordance with an embodiment;
0
[0017] FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary UI from among the plurality of UIs
associated with the application for facilitating creation of a spot in accordance with an
embodiment;
[0018] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary UI corresponding to the application
configured to facilitate selection of a word/phrase as a spot in accordance with an
embodiment;
[0019] FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary UI associated with a web browser
depicting user account on a social networking website linked to the application for
facilitating selection of a word/phrase as a spot in accordance with an embodiment;
[0020] FIG. 9 illustrates an alert notification UI corresponding to the
application for facilitating spotting of words and phrases in accordance with an
embodiment;
0
[0021] FIG. 10 illustrates a UI corresponding to the 'Invitations' tab from
among a plurality of tabs in the alert notification UI associated with the application in
accordance with an embodiment;
[0022] FIG. 11 illustrates a UI corresponding to the 'Activity' tab from among
5 a plurality of tabs in the alert notification UI associated with the application in
accordance with an embodiment;
[0023] FIG. 1 illustrates a UI provisioned upon invoking the 'Spots' icon on
the home page UI in accordance with an embodiment;'
[0024] FIG. 13 illustrates a UI provisioned upon invoking the 'Spotters' icon
0
on the home page UI in accordance with an embodiment;
[0025] FIG. 14 illustrates a UI provisioned upon invoking the 'Search' icon on
the home page UI in accordance with an embodiment;
[0026] FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary UI depicting a spot profile
5 corresponding to the spot Thonedrunk' in accordance with an embodiment;
[0027] FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary UI depicting the spot profile
corresponding to the spot 'Phonedrunk' in accordance with another embodiment;
[0028] FIG. 17 is an exemplary block diagram of a system for facilitating
spotting of words and/or phrases in accordance with another embodiment; and
0
[0029] FIG. 18 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method for
facilitating spotting of words and/or phrases in accordance with an embodiment.
[0030] The drawings referred to in this description are not to be understood as
being drawn to scale except if specifically noted, and such drawings are only exemplary
in nature.
5
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0031] In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous
specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present
Q technology. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present
technology can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances,
apparatuses and methods are shown in block diagram form only in order to avoid
obscuring the present technology.
[0032] Reference in this specification to "one embodiment" or "an
15 embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in
connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present
technology. The appearance of the phrase "in one embodiment" in various places in the
specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate
or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover,
0 various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by
others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for
some embodiments but not other embodiments.
[0033] Moreover, although the following description contains many specifics
for the purposes of illustration, anyone skilled in the art will appreciate that many
5 variations and/or alterations to said details are within the scope of the present
technology. Similarly, although many of the features of the present technology are
described in terms of each other, or in conjunction with each other, one skilled in the art
will appreciate that many of these features can be provided independently of other
features. Accordingly, this description of the present technology is set forth without any
0 loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the present technology.
[0034] Pursuant to an exemplary scenario, text-based user communication is
constantly evolving with new words, jargons and/or slangs increasingly being added to
conversations on a daily basis. Keeping abreast of latest additions to the conversational
language is difficult for users without adequate sharing mechanisms in place. Further,
conventional text entry means are rendered outdated and inconvenient to use on account
of the constantly evolving conversational language. Various embodiments of the present
technology, however, provide systems and methods for facilitating spotting of words and
5 phrases that are capable of overcoming these and other obstacles and providing
additional benefits. The term 'spotting of words and phrases' as used herein refers to the
act of sharing of words and phrases of interest by a user, with other users. For example,
a user may notice an interesting word and/or phrase that he/she comes across during
reading a book or surfing the Internet or even communicating via chat or email with
Q friends and may share such interesting words and/or phrases with other users.
Alternatively, a user may 'coin' (or define) an interesting new word and/or phrase and
subsequently share the coined word or phrase with other users. Accordingly, the spotting
of words or phrase implies sharing of words or phrases of user interest with other users.
Further, a spotted word or a spotted phrase refers to the shared word or a shared phrase
of user interest. The present technology provides various systems and methods for
facilitating spotting of words and phrases, which are described herein with reference to
FIGS. 1 to 18.
[0035] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment 100 in which various
embodiments of the present technology may be practiced. The environment 100 depicts
0 a plurality of users, such as users 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 118 and 120
located at different geographical locations. It is noted that the terms 'users' or 'remote
users' are used interchangeably hereinafter and refer to individuals involved in textbased
communication, such as online chatting, emails, posting comments on social
networking websites, writing blogs/articles for public consumption and the like. Each
5 user from among the plurality of users is associated with a communication device for
facilitating text-based communication. For example, the users 102, 104, 106, 108, 110,
112, 114, 116, 118 and 120 are associated with communication devices 122, 124, 126,
128, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138 and 140, respectively. Examples of communication devices
122-140 associated with the plurality of users may include mobile phones, Smartphones,
laptops, personal computers, tablet devices and the like. The communication devices are
configured to connect to a communication network 142 (hereinafter referred to as
network 142), which facilitates communication among users located at different
geographical locations (i.e. remote users). Examples of the network 142 may include
wired networks, wireless networks or a combination thereof. Examples of wired
networks may include Ethernet, local area network (LAN), fiber-optic cable network and
the like. Examples of wireless network may include cellular networks like
GSM/3G/CDMA networks, wireless LAN, blue-tooth or Zigbee networks and the like.
Examples of combination of wired and wireless networks may include the Internet.
[0036] The network 142, in addition to facilitating communication amongst
remote users, also provides access to a plurality of web servers hosting content for user
consumption, such as web servers 144 and 146. The web servers 144 - 146 hosting
content are hereinafter collectively referred to as plurality of content sources. In some
exemplary scenarios, a content source from among the plurality of content sources
comprises one of a website, an online social network forum, an e-mail client, a chat
client, an e-book, a web page, a text based message, an image file and a video file. The
remote users may access a content source from among the plurality of content sources
and may contribute to content creation, by engaging in text-based communication, such
as for example by posting comments on social networking websites or by participating
in web forums.
[0037] A remote user may typically engage in text-based communication with
one or more other remote users, which may in turn form a social network for the remote
user. Such a social network for a remote user constitutes an online community of remote
users. It is understood that each remote user within the online community may be
associated with his/her own online community of remote users. For example in
environment 100, the remote user 102 is communicably associated with remote users
104, 106, 108 and 110. The remote users 104 - 110 may be one of friends, colleagues,
relatives, acquaintances, and business associates with the remote user 102. The group of
remote users 102 - 110 form an online commumty of remote users 148. The
environment 100 depicts another online community of remote users 150 including
remote users 112 —120 for example purposes. It is understood that each remote user
within the online community of remote users may be associated with their own
respective social network, which is not shown herein for brevity. Accordingly, the
environment 100 includes a plurality of online communities of remote users. The
plurality of remote users within the plurality of online communities of remote users
engage in web content consumption and text-based communication resulting in further
creation of content.
[0038] With communication devices increasingly being equipped with
messaging applications (for example, chat or email clients, social networking
applications and the like) and on-the-go web connection, a volume of text-based
communication has increased sizably. With increase in volume of text-based
communication, a conversational language associated with the text-based
communication between remote users is also constantly evolving with new words,
jargons and/or slangs increasingly being added to conversations on a daily basis.
Keeping abreast of new word or phrase additions requires mechanisms facilitating
spotting of new words and phrases (also referred herein collectively as word spotting
mechanisms). A system facilitating spotting of words and phrases is explained with
reference to FIG. 2.
[0039] Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a system 200 configured to
facilitate spotting of words and phrases is shown in accordance with an embodiment. In
an embodiment, the system 200 may be embodied as a web server, such as web servers
144 - 146 depicted in FIG. 1. In an embodiment, the system 200 includes a scanning
module 202, a storage module 204, a computation module 206, a dictionary generation
module 208, a transceiver module 210, and an application module 212. The scanning
module 202, the storage module 204, the computation module 206, the dictionary
generation module 208, the transceiver module 210, and the application module 212
may communicate with each other via bus 214. Examples of the bus 214 may include a
data bus, an address bus, a serial bus and the like. It is noted that the system 200 may
include fewer or more components and that the components of system 200 are depicted
in FIG. 2 for illustrative purposes. In an embodiment, the various components of the
system 200, such as the scanning module 202, the storage module 204, the computation
module 206, the dictionary generation module 208, the transceiver module 210, the
application module 212 and the bus 214 may be implemented as hardware, software,
firmware or any combination thereof.
[0040] In an example scenario, a remote user notices an interesting word or a
phrase and shares it with other remote users as a spot. It is noted herein that sharing a
word or a phrase as a spot is indicative of user interest in the word or phrase. In another
example scenario, the remote user may coin a new word or a phrase and share it with
other remote users as the spot. In an embodiment, the scanning module 202 of the
system 200 is configured to periodically scan the plurality of content sources (such as
the plurality of content sources explained with reference to FIG. 1) to identify the words
or the phrases, which are being shared among one or more online communities of
remote users as spots. In an example embodiment, the scanning module 202 may be
embodied as a web content crawling mechanism configured to crawl web pages across
5 content sources, such as websites, email clients, chat clients, social networking
applications and collate words and phrases being shared as spots. More specifically, it is
noted that in some embodiments, the term 'scanning of content sources' refers to
crawling of web content with an intention of retrieving words and phrases shared as
spots. As explained above, a spot may refer to one of a word or a phrase coined by the
remote user, a word or a phrase coined by another remote user in the online community,
a word or a phrase encountered online for a first time by the remote user on one of an
online content source and an offline content source, and an earlier encountered known
word or phrase associated with a new usage for the remote user and the like. In an
embodiment, the scanning module 202 is configured to recognize words or phrases
shared through a specific medium such as a specific web application (explained later
with reference to application module 212) on user communication devices. In an
embodiment, the scanning module 202 is configured to scan one or more user linked
accounts (also referred herein as user social accounts) corresponding to a remote user
from among the one or more online communities of remote users for detecting a
presence of at least one pre-defined character embedded within online textual content,
and to extract a word or a phrase disposed substantially adjacent to the at least one pre¬
defined character as a spot (explained later with reference to FIG. 8).
[0041] In an embodiment, the scanning module 202 is further configured to
periodically scan the plurality of content sources to identify potential spots, where a
5 potential spot corresponds to one of a word and a phrase identified with potential of
being shared as a spot by the one or more remote users in the online communities of
remote users. For example, the scanning module 202 may perform a standard check of
words/phrases encountered during content crawling against a dictionary of known words
and phrases and/or the updated version of the spotting dictionary. Upon detecting an
absence of an encountered word/phrase in the dictionaries, the scanning module 202
may further subject such a word/phrase to further analysis, such as determining whether
the word/phrase corresponds to an acronym, whether the number of characters/letters in
the word/phrase are above or below a pre-defined limit or whether the word/phrase
corresponds to a known noun form or a short form and the like. Based on such checks,
the scanning module 202 may determine a word/phrase to have the potential of being
shared as a spot. In an embodiment, the scanning module 202 is configured to identify
the potential spot based on related information comprising at least one of temporal and
5 spatial information of content in vicinity of the potential spot, presence of significant
words in the content in vicinity of the potential spot, contextual information and
semantic sense associated with the potential spot and the associated content,
etymological and ontological inferences corresponding to the potential spot, identified
sentiment associated with the potential spot, identified context based on grammar
extraction corresponding to the potential spot, location source associated with the
potential spot and information to qualify and quantify a relevance of the potential spot.
[0042] In an embodiment, the storage module 204 is configured to store spots
retrieved by the scanning module 202, along with information related to spots. In an
embodiment, the information related to the spots includes at least one of identities of
5 remote users from among the one or more online communities of remote users sharing
each spot, a contextual information associated with each spot and online user comments
associated with each spot. For example, if a spotted word 'Selfie' is shared by ten
different remote users, then identities of such users (for example, their name, profile id,
contact details and the like) may also be retrieved along with the spotted word by the
0 scanning module 202 and stored in the storage module 204. In an embodiment, the
contextual information associated with a spot may include a written description about
the spotted word/phrase (for example, including description explaining its intended
meaning), a picture or a video of the origin of the word, an exemplary manner of usage
and the like. For example, the spotted word 'Selfie' may be associated with a written
5 description, such as follows: Ά Selfie is a type of self-portrait photograph, typically
taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone'. Further, a remote user spotting
the word 'Selfie' may capture an image or a video recording of a content source from
where the word was encountered and associate the image/video recording with the
spotted word prior to sharing the word. In some embodiments, upon spotting a word by
Q a remote user within his/her online community of remote users, the other remote users
may comment on the spotted word. This information may also be captured by the
scanning module 202 and stored in the storage module 204 along with the spotted word.
Further, the storage module 204 may be configured to store words/phrases retrieved as
potential spots along with related information. .In some embodiments, the storage
module 204 may be embodied as a memory such as, but not limited to, random access
memory (RAM), dual port RAM, synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), double data
rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), and the like.
[0043] In an embodiment, the information related to the spots and the related
information corresponding to the potential spots stored in the storage module 204 is
configured to facilitate in provisioning the one or more remote users with
recommendations comprising related spots and related content during instances of user
text entry. For example, the system 200 may be configured to facilitate provision of a
web browser plug-in, which may be configured to analyze user text entry on an on-going
basis and provide recommendations in form of related spots and related content (like
relevant blogs, web-links and the like) to the user. For example, if the user is entering a
word 'Self in the web browser text entry box, then in addition to recommending the
spot 'Selfie', the browser plug-in may suggest related spots such as 'FBing' (which is
similarly prevalent in the social networking space) in addition to web links and/or blogs
including related content stored in the storage module 204 in association with the
suggested related spots.
[0044] In an embodiment, the computation module 206 is configured to
determine at least one popularity-based metric for each spot/potential spot stored in the
storage module 204. In an embodiment, a popularity-based metric may correspond to a
score or a rank indicating a popularity of each spot/potential spot vis-a-vis other spots in
the storage module 204. In an embodiment, a separate rank may be computed for
categories, such as a demographic based category or a profession-based category, in
addition to an overall popularity-based ranking.
[0045] In an embodiment, the computation module 206 is configured to
compute one or more parameters for each spot. In an embodiment, a parameter from
among the one or more parameters is one of: a total number of times a spot is being
shared in the one or more online communities of remote users; a total number of
separate instances of sharing a spot as a new spot by different remote users within the
one or more online communities of remote users; a total number of times a spot is being
re-spotted (or re-shared) within the one or more online communities of remote users
subsequent to sharing the spot by a remote user; a popularity parameter signifying a
measure of popularity of each remote user involved in sharing the spot within the one or
more online communities of remote users; a total number of comments associated with
the each spot; a total number of recent comments associated with the each spot; a total
number of recent re-spots associated with each spot; and a profile parameter configured
to account for user additions of at least one of textual content and image content to a
spot profile associated with each spot.
[0046] In an embodiment, the computation module 206 is configured to
perform a normalization of the one or more parameters and compute a weighted average
of the normalized one or more parameters to determine the at least one popularity-based
metric for the each spot. The normalization of the parameters for determination of the at
least one popularity-based metric is exemplarily illustrated with reference to a parameter
related to a total number of times a spot was shared in the one or more online
communities of remote users as follows: A value corresponding to the total number of
times a spot was shared may be associated with each spot. For example, if the spot
'Tryinga' was shared ten times in various online communities, then the value ten may be
associated with the spot 'Tryinga'. Similarly, each spot within the storage module 204
may be associated with a value. A maximum of such values may be identified from
among all the values associated with various spots stored in the storage module 204.
Thereafter, the value associated with each spot may be divided by the identified
maximum value to derive a normalized value for each spot. For example, if the spot
'Tryinga' was shared 10 times and a maximum number of shares associated with a spot
(for example, 'Selfie') in the storage module 204 is 100, then the normalized value of
this particular parameter for the spot 'Tryinga' is 10/100 = 0.1. The other parameters,
such as those listed above, for the spot 'Tryinga' may be normalized in a manner similar
to the illustration above. In another illustrative example, say for the current spot, the
number of comments of the spot is divided by the number of comments of the spot that
is having the maximum comments to get the normalized comments score. Similarly, the
number of respots of current spot is divided by the number of respots of the spot that is
having the maximum respots to get the normalized respots score. All the normalized
parameters may be assigned weights and a weighted average may be computed by the
computation module 206 to determine a popularity-based metric for the spot 'Tryinga'.
For example, if Pj... PN are the various parameters computed by the computation module
206 and WI... W are the corresponding assigned weights, such that Wi +W2 + 3 +
... . WN = 1, then the popularity-based metric (S) is computed as depicted in equation (1)
below:
S = W, *P, + W2 *P + 3 *P 3 + ... N *P N (1)
[0047] It is noted that the weights WJ.. .W re introduced to assign priorities to
certain parameters while evaluating popularity of the spot. For example, if W2 is the
weight assigned to a parameter related to a number of comments for the spot and if W3 is
the weight assigned to a parameter related to a recent number of comments for the spot,
then W3 may be assigned a higher value than W2 (i.e. W3 > W2 ) to give more priority to
the recent comments the spot has received compared to total number of received
comments.
[0048] In an embodiment, the popularity-based metric for each spot is
computed based on at least one of: (1) a spot profile completeness score (the spot profile
is explained later with reference to FIGS. 15 and 16); (2) a maximum spot profile
completeness score (3) a number of comments for the spot; (4) a maximum number of
comments for spots within the storage module 204; (5) recent number of comments for
the spot; (6) maximum number of recent comments for spots within the storage module;
(7) number of respots associated with the spot; (8) maximum number of respots for spots
within the storage module 204; (9) recent number of respots for the spot; (10) maximum
number of recent respots for spots within the storage module 204; (11) number of notes
for the spot; (12) maximum number of notes for spots within the storage module 204;
(13) recent number of notes for the spot; (14) maximum number of recent notes for spots
within the storage module 204; (15) Other or related spots for the spot; and (16)
maximum number of other or related spots for spots within the storage module 204. In
an embodiment, information retrieved related to the spots/potential spots, such as
sentiment, trending context, relevance score of online sources using the spots, a
popularity quotient within sub-networks and online sources, temporal and spatial
information on online sources or in the spot profile, etymological and/or ontological
inferences and the like may also be included as parameters and assigned weights to
determine the popularity-based metric for the spots/potential spots.
[0049] In an embodiment, the computation module 206 is also configured to
determine a spot of the day/week/month/year based on the computed popularity-based
metrics for each spot. It is noted that the weights assigned to various parameters may be
suitably adjusted for each such determination. For example, the weights associated with
recent comments, recent number of respots and the like may be assigned higher weights
for determining the spot of the day. In an embodiment, the computation module 206 is
also configured to compute a popularity-based metric for each remote user involved in
spotting of words and/or phrases (also referred herein as spotters). In an embodiment,
the popularity-based metric may be computed based on at least one of: (1) number of
spots created by the Spotter in day/week/month; (2) maximum number of spots created
by a spotter in day/week/month within all spotters in the storage module 204; (3)
average respot score for the spotter; and (4) maximum average respot score within all
spotters in the storage module 204. As explained with reference to popularity-based
metric for spots, one or more parameters, such as the one cited above may be normalized
and a weighted average may be computed to determine the popularity-based metric for
each spotter. The spotter associated with the highest popularity-based metric value may
be assigned rank 1.
[0050] In an embodiment, the dictionary generation module 208 is configured
to generate and periodically update a spotting dictionary which includes at least a listing
of popular spots based on the at least one popularity-based metric associated with the
each spot. For example, of all the spots stored in the storage module 204, the top ten
percentile spots with the highest popularity-based metric may be chosen to be included
within the spotting dictionary, which serves as a listing of popular spots. It is understood
that the example is provided herein for illustration purposes and may not be considered
to be limiting. The spotting dictionary may be updated at periodic intervals, such as
daily, bi-weekly, weekly, monthly, quarterly or even yearly.
[0051] In an embodiment, the transceiver module 210 is configured to
provision the spotting dictionary to one or more remote users from among the one or
more online communities of remote users. Further, the spotting dictionary is configured
to be integrated with one or more word dictionaries within the user's communication
device and thereby facilitate provisioning of the popular spots as word completions,
phrase completions, word suggestions, phrase suggestions and next word predictions
during instances of user text entry. In an embodiment, the spotting dictionary may be
configured to present one or more word suggestions/predictions in response to a user
character entry on the communication device. In an embodiment, the spotting dictionary
may be retained as a stand-alone source for facilitating predictive text entry during
textual content input. For example, if the remote user is typing 'Self in a text editor
associated with a text-based application being displayed on a display, then the word
'Selfie' may also be displayed to the remote user as a predictive word (or as a word
suggestion). In an embodiment, the user may permit integration of the spotting
dictionary for only select text-based applications. In an embodiment, the remote user
may also choose to install or uninstall the spotting dictionary from the previously
selected text-based applications at any point of time. In an embodiment, the spotting
dictionary may also be integrated as a plug-in with Internet applications, search engines,
web browsers, blog sites and the like. In an embodiment, such integration may enable
the remote users, such as remote users 102 - 120, to receive spotted words as word
suggestions/predictions when searching for results, in-browser texting and the like.
[0052] In an embodiment, the spotting dictionary may serve as an additional
input source for publicly known online dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster
dictionary, Oxford dictionary and the like. Such dictionary databases may subscribe to
receive the spotting dictionary for receiving trending words (i.e. frequently shared
spotted words). In an embodiment, the subscription may specify attributes and/or
language of trending words to be received. For example* the publicly known online
dictionaries may be provisioned with context association, context of use and frequency
of usage of trending words along with other information that help refinement of the
dictionaries. In an embodiment, the publicly online dictionaries may be revised and/or
improved along with other systems like input, lookup, etymology, word mindmap and
the like based on the change in meanings/context of the one or more words that happen
over time/generations and are captured in the spotting dictionary.
[0053] In an embodiment, the dictionary generation module 208 is further
configured to frequently analyze the words and/or phrases listed in the spotting
dictionary based on a frequency of spotting, context, meaning, timestamp, popularity
rank, language, region/location identifiers for the spotted word, etymology and the like.
In an embodiment, the dictionary generation module 208 may analyze the spotting
dictionary to learn a usage of the spotted words and accordingly increment/decrement
attributes associated with the spotted words. For example, a timestamp attribute may be
utilized by the dictionary generation module 208 to automatically lower a
significance/ranking/frequency/context of those spotted words, which have been
frequently spotted and hyped earlier but have become unpopular after a certain period of
time. One or more such words may also be pruned from the spotting dictionary and
5 subsequently from the existing word dictionaries. In an embodiment, one or more words
may be pruned from the spotting dictionary based on the information provided by the
remote users (such as remote users 102 - 120) corresponding to the one or more spotted
words. For example, derogatory words, communal slangs etc. may be pruned from the
spotting dictionary either automatically or manually. In an embodiment, the dictionary
Q generation module 208 may also collect data corresponding to the timestamp attribute
from the existing word dictionaries included in the communication devices 122 - 140
corresponding to the remote users 102 - 120. In another embodiment, the timestamp
attribute may be changed along with other attributes manually by any one of linguists
and/or the remote users 102 - 120 to perform a manual check on trending words. In an
embodiment, the spotting dictionary is configured to be one of a language specific
dictionary and a multi-lingual dictionary.
[0054] In an embodiment, the spotting dictionary is configured to include
quantitative data and qualitative data corresponding to the popular spots. The usage of
quantitative and quantitative data for aiding in text entry is discussed in significant detail
0 in the earlier filed patent application (PCT application no. PCT/GB2005/001111)
corresponding to EP Patent no. 1733298, the teachings of which are also incorporated by
reference herein. For example, the qualitative data and qualitative data may include
statistical information relating to a popular spot's historical usage or selection,
probability information relating to a popular spot's historical usage, run-time analytics
information and dictionary priority information. In an embodiment, the qualitative data
and qualitative data is configured to facilitate in appropriate provisioning of the popular
spots as word completions, phrase completions, word suggestions, phrase suggestions
and next word predictions during instances of user text entry.
[0055] The spotting dictionary, as explained above, may thus serve to keep the
plurality of remote users abreast of the latest word or phrase additions to the
conversational language. Further, the integration of the spotting dictionary with other
dictionaries in the communication device to aid in word completions, word suggestions
and next word predictions during instances of user text entry, may assist in keeping the
text entry means updated and render it convenient for use in text-based communication
vis-a-vis' the latest word or phrase additions to the conversation language.
[0056] In an embodiment, the application module 212 is configured to
— facilitate creation of an interactive web-based application capable of residing natively in
a user communication device (also referred herein as user device or an apparatus)
associated with a remote user. In an embodiment, the web-based application comprises a
plurality of user interfaces (UIs) configured to facilitate a sharing of a word or the
phrase as the spot. In an embodiment, one UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to enable the remote user to provision the word or the phrase of user interest
10 for the subsequent selection of the word or the phrase as the spot. The UI may further be
configured to enable the user to add a user-defined snippet for outlining a context of the
spot. The UI for facilitating creation of a new spot is explained later with reference to
FIG. 6.
[0057] In an embodiment, another UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to display the spot among a listing of words and phrases selected as spots by
the remote user. The UI depicting the listing of words and phrases as spots is explained
later with reference to FIG. 12. In an embodiment, one or more spots from among the
spots selected by the remote user include an associated spot profile in form of userdefined
information including at least one of a meaning of the spot, an exemplary spot
20 usage instance and a picture of a location where the spot was first encountered. The spot
profile is exemplarily depicted in FIGS. 15 and 16. In an embodiment, the spot profile is
configured to display a numeral associated with the spot. The numeral is indicative of a
combined count of a number of times the spot was shared as a spot and a re-spot in the
one or more online communities of remote users. In an embodiment, the numeral is
25 further configured to include at least one of a number of comments associated with the
shared spot, a number of comments associated with the re-spot and a number of
instances of adding one of an image, textual content and video with the shared spot or
re-spot in the combined count. In an embodiment, the numeral is configured to be
displayed as one of a superscript and a subscript to the spot displayed on the spot profile.
30 The numeral associated with the spot in the spot profile is exemplarily depicted in FIG.
16. In an embodiment, the associated spot profile is configured to be edited by other
remote users from among the one or more online communities of remote users based on
permissions afforded to the other remote users through the web-based application
[0058] In an embodiment, the web-based application (hereinafter referred to as
the application) is configured to provision an option within a set of clipboard options
associated with a highlighted portion of text corresponding to one of an online textual
content source and an offline textual content source, where the option configured to
enable a selection of the highlighted portion of the text as the spot. The provisioning of
the option within a set of clipboard options for facilitating selection of the highlighted
portion of the text as the spot is explained later with reference to FIG. 7.
[0059] In an embodiment, at least one UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to provision access to one of (1) a listing of currently trending spots among
the one or more online communities of remote users and (2) a listing of remote users
from among the one or more remote users associated with the currently trending spots.
In an embodiment, the at least one UI is further configured to enable the remote user to
re-spot a word or a phrase from the listing of currently trending spots, where re-spotting
of the word or the phrase is indicative of selecting a spotted word or phrase for
subsequent sharing as the spot. The at least one UI may further be configured to enable
the remote user to annotate the spots selected by other remote users from among the one
or more online communities of remote users with one of comments and tags.
[0060] In an embodiment, a UI from among the plurality of UIs is configured
to provide alert notifications to the remote user. An alert notification may correspond to
an intimation corresponding to at least on-e of a recently shared spot among the one or
more online communities of remote users, a friend approval request from another remote
user and a comment or a tag attributed to the spot shared by the remote user. The UI
corresponding to the alert notifications is explained later with reference to FIGS. 9, 10
and 11.
[0061] In an embodiment, the application is configured to be linked to one or
more user accounts on social networking websites (For example, Facebook™,
Twitter , Linkedln and the like) associated with the remote user. In an embodiment,
the application is configured to prompt the remote user, during text entry on the one or
more user accounts on social networking websites, to append the word or the phase with
at least one pre-defined character to indicate a selection of the word or the phrase as the
spot. In an embodiment, the application is configured to extract words or phrases
appended with at least one pre-defined character within online textual content
corresponding to the one or more user accounts on social networking websites and
provision the extracted words and phrases as candidates for subsequent selection of the
words or the phrases as spots. The linking of user accounts and provisioning extracted
words and phrases as candidates for spot selection are explained later with reference to
FIGS. 8 and 9, respectively.
[0062] Furthermore, the application is configured at least in part, to provision a
voice input based option configured to convert one or more words read from a textual
content source by the remote user into a textual format for facilitating the sharing of the
word or the phrase as the spot. In an embodiment, the application is capable of
converting voice input to textual format using standard Speech to Text (STT) tools.
Thereafter, the word or the phrase from the converted text may be shared as spot. As
explained above, the application is capable of residing natively in a user device (also
referred herein as 'communication device' or an 'apparatus'). The application and its
associated UIs residing natively in a communication device are explained with reference
to FIG. 3 to 16.
[0063] FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device 300
configured to facilitate spotting of words and phrases in accordance with an
embodiment. The communication device 300 may be any one of the communication
devices 122 - 140 explained with reference to FIG. 1. In an embodiment, the
communication device 300 may be embodied as one of a mobile phone, a Smartphone, a
laptop, a personal computer, a tablet device and the like. The communication device 300
is depicted to include a transceiver 302, a processor 304, a memory 306 and a display
308. The transceiver 302, the processor 304, the memory 306 and the display 308 may
communicate with each other via bus 310. Examples of the bus 310 may include a data
bus, an address bus, a serial bus and the like. It is noted that the communication device
300 may include fewer or more components and that the components of communication
device 300 are depicted in FIG. 3 for illustrative purposes. In an embodiment, the
various components of the communication device 300 such as the transceiver 302, the
processor 304, the memory 306, the display 308 and the bus 310 may be implemented as
hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof. In an embodiment, the
memory 306 is capable of storing machine executable instructions. Further, the
processor 304 is capable of executing the stored machine executable instructions. In an
embodiment, the processor 304 may be embodied as a multi-core processor, a single
core processor, or a combination of one or more multi-core processors and one or more
single core processors. For example, the processor 304 may be embodied as one or more
of various processing devices, such as a coprocessor, a microprocessor, a controller, a
digital signal processor (DSP), a processing circuitry with or without an accompanying
DSP, or various other processing devices including integrated circuits such as, for
5 example, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate
array (FPGA), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a hardware accelerator, a special-purpose
computer chip, or the like. In an embodiment, the processor 304 may be configured to
execute hard-coded functionality. In an embodiment, the processor 304 is embodied as
an executor of software instructions, wherein the instructions may specifically configure
the processor 304 to perform the algorithms and/or operations described herein when the
instructions are executed. The processor 304 may include, among other things, a clock,
an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and logic gates configured to support an operation of the
processor 304. Examples of the memory 306 may include, but are not limited to, random
access memory (RAM), dual port RAM, synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), double
data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), and the like. In an embodiment, the transceiver 302
may include electrical circuitry, including radio/antenna circuitry, for facilitating
communication (i.e. receiving and transmitting information) with remote entities, such
as the system 200, communication devices associated with other remote users in the one
or more online communities of remote users (such as the online community of remote
users explained with reference to FIG. 2) and the like.
[0064] In an embodiment, the transceiver 302 is configured to communicate
with a remote system (such as the system 200) to receive a spotting dictionary (such as
the. spotting dictionary explained with reference to FIG. 2). The spotting dictionary
includes a listing of popular spots. As explained with reference to FIG. 2, a popular spot
5 refers to a popular word or a popular phrase being shared in one or more online
communities of remote users. In an embodiment, the memory 306 is configured to store
the spotting dictionary. In an embodiment the processor 304 may be configured to
integrate the spotting dictionary with one or more word dictionaries and facilitate
provisioning of the popular spots as word completions, phrase completions, word
suggestions, phrase suggestions and next word predictions during instances of user text
entry. Further, as explained with reference to FIG. 2, spotting dictionary may include
information related to the profile of the word like context, ontological inference,
etymological inference, temporal information, spatial information, trend score and other
such quantitative and qualitative data. In an embodiment, the information may be
weighted appropriately by the processor 304 to determine the decide best set of words to
display for word completions, phrase completions, word suggestions, phrase suggestions
and next word predictions during instances of user text entry. As explained with
reference to FIG. 2, the spotting dictionary is configured to be one of a language specific
dictionary and a multi-lingual dictionary.
[0065] In an embodiment, the transceiver 302 is further configured to receive
an interactive application capable of natively residing in the memory 306 from the
system 200. The application includes a plurality of UIs configured to facilitate sharing of
a word or a phrase by the device user associated with the communication device as a
spot. An exemplary UI of the application upon being invoked from the memory 306 is
depicted in FIG. 4.
[0066] Referring now to FIG. 4, an exemplary user sign-up UI 400 displayed
to a user on the display 308 of the communication device 300 upon invoking the
application is illustrated in accordance with an embodiment. It is noted that the
communication device 300 is depicted to a mobile phone for exemplary purposes. It is
noted that the communication device 300 may be any of a personal computer, laptop, a
tablet device or any such electronic device. The user sign-up UI 400 (hereinafter referred
to as UI 400) includes an application logo 402, which distinguishes the application from
other applications in the communication device 300. The UI 400 further includes a first
section 404 and a second section 406. The first section 404 is depicted to include web
form fields for a phone number 408 and an email id 410. The user may provide the
requisite information in the text entry fields associated with the web form fields using
text entry means associated with the communication device 300, such as for example a
physical or virtual keyboard, an auto-fill option and the like. A text-based intimation 412
is displayed below the web form fields in the first section 404 to inform the user that
he/she agrees to the terms and conditions of user agreement if he/she chooses to sign in
(or login) to the application. The text-based intimation 412 may include a hyperlink
provisioning access to the end user agreement associated with application. The user may
access the end user agreement and familiarize himself/herself with the terms therein
prior to clicking on the "Sign Up" button 414 provided in the first section 404. The
clicking on the Sign up button 414 may serve to provision user details, such as the phone
number and the email id, to a remote system (such as system 200) for verification and
provision subsequent access upon verification.
[0067] It is understood that the first section 404 is depicted to include two web
_ o m je d fo r he phone number 408 and the email id 410 for illustration purposes. The
first section 404 may include more or fewer form fields requesting user personal details
for application sign up purposes. For example, in some embodiments, the first section
404 may include a web form field for phone number 408 only. In some embodiments,
the phone number 408 web form field requesting user phone number may be configured
to automatically retrieve the requested information from the phone's subscriber identity
0 mobile (SIM) card. In some embodiments, the user may be requested to manually key-in
the requested information. In an embodiment, the text entry field associated with the
phone number 408 web form field may request the user to include the country code
information in the phone number 408 being entered. Alternatively, the user may be
displayed a drop down menu of countries of the world and/or flag associated with
5 various countries to choose the country/flag associated with the phone number 408.
Upon receiving a user selection of country/flag, the country code may be automatically
retrieved and included in the text entry field associated with the phone number 408 web
form field. The user may then subsequently add the local number to the country code.
[0068] In an embodiment, the UI 400 is configured to provide the user with
0 live inline alerts when he/she enters false/incorrect phone numbers and e-mail ids. In
some embodiments, when the user initiates typing the phone number 408 or the e-mail
id 410, he/she may be offered relevant autosuggestions for facilitating quick and
accurate text entry into the text entry fields.
[0069] Alternatively, the user may preclude provisioning personal details
requested in the first section 404, and may directly sign in into the application using
login information associated with already existing user social accounts in the second
section 406. The second section 406 is exemplarily depicted to provision two options of
logging into the application using social account 1 (for example by clicking on the
button 416) or using a social account 2 (for example, by clicking on the button 418).
0 Examples of the user social accounts may include, but not limited to, Facebook™,
Twitter™, Linkedln™ and the like. When the user clicks on the button 416, a web form
(not shown in FIG. 4) associated with the social account 1 is displayed to the user. The
user may fill in entry fields associated with the web form corresponding to the social
account 1 to sign up into the application. Alternatively, the user may click the button
418, which displays a web form (not shown in FIG. 4) associated with the second social
account to the user. The user may fill in entry fields associated with the web form
corresponding to the social account 2 to sign up into the application. Once the user signs
5 up either by provisioning personal information into the text entry fields associated with
the web form fields in the first section 404 or by using login information associated with
existing user social accounts in the second section 406, a home page UI corresponding
to the application is displayed to the user. It is noted that the home page UI may be
provisioned to the user after sign up as well as subsequent logging into the application. A
home page UI is further explained with reference to FIG. 5.
[0070] Referring now to FIG. 5, an exemplary home page UI 500 displayed to
a user on the display 308 of the communication device 300 upon a user logging (or
signing) into the application is illustrated in accordance with an embodiment. As
explained with reference to FIG. 3, the display 308 may correspond to any
5 communication device from among a mobile phone, a personal computer, laptop, a
tablet device or any such electronic device. The home page UI 500 (hereinafter referred
to as UI 500) includes an application logo 502, which may be similar to the application
logo 402 explained in reference to FIG. 4. The UI 500 further depicts an alert
notification icon 504. The alert notification icon 504 is configured to intimate a user of a
0 number of new alert notifications since last user login to the application. For example,
the alert notification icon 504 is depicted to display a numeral '56' indicating that 56
new alert notifications are pending user attention. It is noted that the numeral 56 is
depicted in alert notification icon 504 for exemplary purposes only and that the alert
notification icon 504 may include any number of alert notifications. In an embodiment,
5 the alert notification icon 504 may be provisioned as a button, which may be tapped to
view the notifications. In an embodiment, the alert notification icon 504 may be
associated with a touch screen input, such as a sliding motion in a direction of a block
arrow 506 associated with the alert notification icon 504 to view the alert notifications.
In an embodiment, the alert notification icon 504 may be configured as a bell or an
Q alarm clock for notifying the user about the alert notifications. It is understood that the
alert notification icon 504 may be associated with any such configuration for facilitating
viewing of the alert notifications. In an embodiment, the alert notifications may
correspond to intimations corresponding to recently shared spot among the one or more
online communities of remote users, a friend approval request from another remote user
and a comment or a tag attributed to the spot shared by the remote user and the like. In
an embodiment, when the user invokes the alert notification icon 504, an alert menu UI
is displayed to the user. In the alert menu UI, the user may view all notifications
associated with his/her user account. The alert notification UI is explained later with
reference to FIGS. 9, 10 and 11.
[0071] In an embodiment, the UI 500 is further depicted to display a plurality
of menu icons for facilitating the remote user to navigate through the application. In an
embodiment, the plurality of menu icons are depicted to include a 'New Spot' icon 508,
a 'Search' icon 510, a 'Spots' icon 512, a 'Spotters' icon 514, a 'Messages' icon 516, a
'Me' icon 518 and a 'Learn' icon 520. It is noted that the UI 500 is depicted to display
menu icons 508 - 520 for illustration purposes and the UI 500 may include fewer or
more icons for facilitating spotting of words and phrases. In an embodiment, each menu
icon from among the plurality of menu icons is configured as a button, which the user
may tap to open a UI associated with the respective menu icon.
[0072] In an embodiment, the 'New Spot' icon 508 is configured to facilitate
the user in creating a new spot. When the user taps the 'New Spot' icon 508, a UI
corresponding to the 'New Spot' icon 508 is displayed to the user on the display 308 of
the communication device 300. The UI facilitates the user to add a word or phrase as a
spot and further include information, such as where the word/phrase was spotted, a
description of the spotted word/phrase, and an image/video corresponding to the spotted
word/phrase and the like. The UI corresponding to the 'New Spot' icon 508 is explained
in further detail with reference to FIG. 6.
[0073] In an embodiment, the 'Search' icon 510 is configured to facilitate the
user to search from a list of available spots and spotters. It is noted that users associated
with spotted words/phrases are referred to herein as spotters. When the user taps the
'Search' icon 510, a UI corresponding to the 'Search' icon 510 is displayed to the user
on the display 308. Such a UI may include separate tabs for spots and spotters, which the
user may access to perform his/her respective search. The UI corresponding to the
'Search' icon 510 is explained in further detail with reference to FIG. 14.
[0074] In an embodiment, the 'Spots' icon 512 is configured to provision a list
of latest words or phrases identified as spots in addition to the information related to
each of these spots. For example, when the user taps the 'Spots' icon 512, a UI
associated with the spots icon is displayed to the user on the display 308. The UI
corresponding to the 'Spots' icon 12 is explained in further detail with reference to
FIG. 12.
[0075] In an embodiment, the 'Spotters' icon 514 is configured to facilitate the
user to view the list of available spotters (for example, from among the one or more
online communities of remote users) and the information related to the spotters. When
the user taps the 'Spotters' icon 514, a UI associated with the 'Spotters' icon 514 is
displayed to the user on the display 308. The UI corresponding to the 'Spotters' icon 514
1 is explained in further detail with reference to FIG. 13.
[0076] In an embodiment, the 'Messages' icon 516 is configured to facilitate
the user to view or send messages to one or more spotters, for example, from among the
one or more online communities of remote users. When the user taps the 'Messages'
icon 516, a UI associated with the 'Messages' icon 516 is displayed to the user on the
display 308. The UTmay include a list of spotters and the user may tap his/her desired
spotter, which opens another UI displaying a thread comprising a set of messages
associated with that spotter. In an embodiment, the unread messages may be displayed
as a snippet and/or bolded text along with the name of the spotter.
Q [0077] In an embodiment, the 'Me' icon 518 is configured to enable the user to
view his/her profile information. When the remote user taps the 'Me' icon 518, an UI
associated with the 'Me' icon 518 is displayed to the user in the display 308. The UI is
configured to display a user profile information along with links to user's accounts on
social networking sites, such as Facebook™, Twitter™ and the like. The UI also may
include options for editing user profile. In an embodiment, the 'Learn' icon 520 is
configured to provision a UI including information about the various features associated
with the application. The user may consult the content included therein to learn about
the various options for spotting of words and phrases facilitated by the application. A UI
configured to enable the remote user to provision a word or a phrase of user interest for
its subsequent selection as the spot is explained with reference to FIG. 6.
[0078] Referring now to FIG. 6, an exemplary UI 600 from among the
plurality of UIs associated with the application for facilitating creation of a spot is
illustrated in accordance with an embodiment. As explained with reference to FIG. 5, the
UI 500 includes the 'New spot' icon 508, which when accessed or invoked provisions a
UI, such as the UI 600, on the display 308 of the communication device 300. The UI 600
is also depicted to display a virtual keyboard 602 for enabling a user to provide textual
input into the various form fields displayed on the UI 600. It is noted that the virtual
5 keyboard 602 is depicted herein for illustration purposes and that possible alternatives,
such as physical keyboards, such as QWERTY keyboard, associated with the
communication device 300 may also be provisioned instead.
[0079] In an example scenario, a user upon coming across an interesting word
or a phrase on online sources (such as textual content from a website, email and the like)
0 r offline sources (such as newspapers, advertisement hoardings, street signboards,
image files, video files and the like) may wish to share the interesting word or phrase
with other users in the online community of remote users associated with the user.
Accordingly, the user may invoke the application in the communication device 300 and
may navigate to the UI 600. The UI 600 includes a title banner 'New Spot' 604
5 indicating a function of the UI being currently viewed by the user as one for creating
new spots. The UI 600 further depicts web form fields titled 'Spotted Word/Phrase',
'Spotted At' and 'Description' associated with text boxes 606, 608 and 610, respectively.
The user may key-in (or type) the interesting word or phrase in the text box 606, record
the source of the interesting word/phrase in the text box 608 and define a snippet
0 outlining a context of the spot in the text box 610. The UI 600 further depicts an icon
'Upload Image' 612 for enabling the user to upload an image related to the interesting
word/or phrase. The user may also use the 'browse' button 614 to retrieve the image
from the memory 306 of the communication device 300. It is noted that in some
embodiments, the UI 600 may also include provisions for uploading video content as
5 opposed to or in addition to uploading images. Upon completion of information
provision, the user may select the 'Submit' button 616 to facilitate sharing of the
word/phrase as a spot with other users. The creation of a new spot using the UI 600 is
further explained with reference to an illustrative example as follows: The user may
observe the word 'Screenager' on a billboard in suburb in New Jersey while driving a
vehicle. The user may navigate to'UI 600 as explained above and may input the word in
the text box 606. Further, the user may record the name of the suburb in New Jersey in
the text box 608 and write a note including a meaning of the word 'Screenager' (for
example: "A person in their teens or twenties who has an aptitude for computers and the
Internet") and/or an example usage of the word (for example: "We hear that school and
public libraries have to increasingly meet the needs of screenagers") in the text box 610.
The user may also click an image of the billboard and upload the image using the
'Upload image' icon 612. In an embodiment, the location of the signboard may be
automatically determined using location determination technology, such as Global
Positioning System (GPS) and the information may further append the information
provided in the text box 608.
[0080] In another illustrative example, the user may coin a phrase Ί have been
Bangalored' implying that my office has been relocated to Bangalore, India. The user
may provide the textual input Ί have been Bangalored' in text box 606, may leave the
text box 608 blank, include a meaning of the phrase in the text box 610 and select the
'Submit' button 616 for sharing the phrase as the spot. As explained above, the words or
phrases shared as spots may be identified by the scanning module 202 of the system 200
and may be utilized to configure the spotting dictionary as explained with reference to
FIG. 2. In another embodiment, a user may be directed to the UI 600 from a content
source to facilitate spotting of interesting words/phrases from content sources as
explained with reference to FIG. 7.
[0081] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary UI 700 corresponding to the application
configured to facilitate selection of a word/phrase as a spot in accordance with an
embodiment. As explained above, the user may spot interesting words/phrases while
reading/browsing through textual content, such as articles, news reports, message like
emails or SMS, and the like displayed on the display 308. A user may highlight a portion
(for example, an interesting word or an interesting phrase) of text corresponding to one
of an online textual content source and an offline textual content source (hereinafter
collectively referred to as textual content source. In an embodiment, the application is
configured to provision an option within a set of clipboard options associated with a
highlighted portion of text corresponding to the textual content source to enable a
selection of the highlighted portion of the text as the spot. More specifically, the
application is configured to facilitate the sharing of the word or the phrase as the spot by
provisioning a clipboard option 'spot' from among one or more other clipboard options,
such as 'cut' 'copy', 'paste' and enable choosing an highlight a portion of text as a spot.
For example, in FIG. 7, a text-based document is displayed. The user may highlight a
portion 702 of the text-based document (for example, the word 'Excepteur' is depicted
to be selected in UI 700) and then invoke a clipboard option 704, for example, by rightclicking
the mouse or using menu options. The clipboard option may include an option
'spot' 706 from among one or more other options in the clipboard option 704, such as
'cut' 'copy' and 'paste'. Upon selection of the option 'spot' 706, the user may be
5 directed to the UI 600 for selecting the highlighted word or phrase as the spot as
described above. In an embodiment, the user may be directed to a UI corresponding to
alert notifications instead, where the spotted word on the content source is stored as a
potential candidate for spotting. The user may navigate to such an UI to initiate spotting
of the word/phrase. In yet another embodiment, the words/phrases may be selected as
Q spots by appending the words/phrases with a pre-defined character during text entry. The
creation of spots using the pre-defined character is facilitated by linking the application
to user accounts on social networking websites as explained with reference to FIG. 8.
[0082] FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary UI 800 associated with a web browser
802 depicting user account on a social networking website linked to the application for
5 facilitating selection of a word/phrase as a spot in accordance with an embodiment. The
exemplary UI 800 associated with the web browser 802 may be displayed on the display
308 of the communication device 300. More specifically, the user may maintain a
plurality of user accounts corresponding to one or more social networking websites like
Facebook™, Twitter™, Linkedin™ and the like. The user may access the social
0 networking websites using their respective web uniform resource locators (URLs) on a
web browser, such as the web browser 802. A user may invoke the web browser 802
associated with the communication device 300 and retrieve the user account of the
desired social networking site. In an embodiment, the application may be configured to
be linked to one or more user accounts on social networking sites (also referred herein as
5 user social accounts or user accounts). The spotting of words and phrases on linked user
accounts is explained below with help of an illustrative example and UI 800.
[0083] The web browser 802 is depicted to include a first menu section 804, a
web uniform resource locator (URL) section 806, a second menu section 808 and a UI
display section 810. The first menu section 804 includes menu options such as "File",
0 "Edit", "View", "Tools" and "Help". It is noted that the menu options in the first menu
section 804 are depicted for exemplary purposes and that the first menu section 804 may
include fewer or more number of menu options than those displayed in the FIG. 8.
Further, each menu option of the first menu section 804 may be configured to display
upon clicking, a drop down list of secondary menu options. For example, upon clicking
on the "File" menu option, a drop down list of secondary menu options such as "New
Window", "New Tab", "Open location", "Save As" and the like may be displayed. Each
of the secondary menu options may be associated with an intended functionality. For
5 example, the "New Window" secondary menu option may facilitate an opening of a new
browser window. Similarly, the "Save As" secondary menu option may facilitate saving
of the UI on display in one of various formats, such as for example a hyper text mark-up
language (HTML) format or a text format. Each of the menu options such as "Edit",
"View", "Tools" and "Help" may similarly include secondary menu options with
associated functionalities.
[0084] The web URL section 806 is depicted to include a text box configured
to receive user input in form of a web link, such as web link 812 (depicted as
"http://socialnetworkl.com/user"). The web link 812 is configured to trigger a hypertext
transfer protocol (HTTP) request to fetch a desired UI, such as UI 800, corresponding to
15 the user account on a social networking website 'socialnetworkingl.com' from over a
network, such as the network 142 explained with reference to FIG. 1. It is noted that the
fetching of the webpage corresponding to the UI 800 may involve standard procedures
such as domain name resolutions using a domain name server (DNS) server and the like
and are not discussed herein. The web URL section 806 may further include a refresh
0 icon for re-sending the HTTP request for re-fetching the UI 800.
[0085] The second menu section 808 is depicted to include a text box
configured to receive user input in form of a search request. In an embodiment, the text
box for search request may be associated with one or more search engines, such as
Google search engine, Yahoo search engine, Baidu search engine and the like. Upon
5 receiving user input in form of text for searching on the Internet, an UI including results
of the search may be displayed to the remote user. The second menu option 808 is
further depicted to include tabs for "bookmarks" and "news". In an example
embodiment, a tab for "bookmarks" may be configured to store and/or list user-selected
UIs (or web pages) as bookmarks for facilitating an ease of future access. In an example
0 embodiment, the "news" tab may be configured to facilitate access to UIs corresponding
to news related web-based applications.
[0086] The UI display section 810 is depicted to display the UI 800
corresponding to the web link 812. In an embodiment, the web link 812 may correspond
to a user account of a social networking site linked to the application. In an embodiment,
the user may login into the application through the social networking account credentials
(as explained with reference to FIG. 4) and thereby link the application to the user
account on the social networking website. In an embodiment, the user may be
provisioned a separate UI (not described herein) for linking the application to one or
more user accounts on various social networking websites. In an embodiment, the
application is configured to prompt the user, during text entry on the one or more user
accounts on social networking websites, to append the word or the phase with at least
one pre-defined character to indicate a selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
The application is further configured to extract words or phrases appended with at least
one pre-defined character within online textual content corresponding to the one or more
user accounts on social networking websites and provision the extracted words and
phrases as candidates for subsequent selection of the words or the phrases as spots. In
the illustrative example of the UI 800, the pre-defined character is depicted to be an
asterisk sign (*). Accordingly, a word such as *selfie may indicate the word 'selfie' as a
spot by the user. The user may be prompted to append the asterisk sign while typing
selfie, or, the user may on his own append the asterisk sign to the word to indicate its
selection as the spot. The word or a phrase indicated to be a spot in such a manner may
be retrieved, either dynamically or at pre-defined intervals and included among the spots
spotted by the user. The appending of the word or phrase with the pre-defined character
is further explained with the help of a conversational thread on the linked user account.
[0087] The UI display section 810 depicts exemplary conversation threads
associated with the user account. A 'user is depicted to have posted an update 812
including the following text "The results are out, I have cleared my final year exams!!
Hurray! !". Another user, user 2, has replied to the status update 812 with a comment 814
including the text "Congratulations". A text box 816 is provisioned to the user of
communication device 300 to comment on the post. The user has typed the following
textual content: "Hey... Congratulations. Sorry couldn't call you earlier. My phone was
*phonedrunk". The user may append the character '*' before the word 'phonedrunk' to
signify its selection as a spot. The application may be configured to retrieve such words
from the linked user accounts and display them in a UI corresponding to alert
notifications (explained later with reference to FIG. 9) for facilitating spotting of such
words. The UI 800 is further depicted to include another conversation thread between
user 4 and user 5. The user 4 is depicted to have posted an update 818 including the
following textual content: "Two days to go... #Hawaii". The user 5 has replied to the
update 818 with the comment 820 with the following textual content: "Do remember to
take a *Selfie with the hat on. Lol". As the word 'Selfie' is appended by the character '*'
5 signifying a spot by user 5, it may be selected to be included in the UI corresponding to
alert notifications by the application in his/her communication device. As explained
earlier, the scanning module 202 of the system 200 may scan a plurality of content
sources, including user accounts of social networking sites for the plurality of remote
users to extract words or phrases disposed substantially adjacent to pre-defined
characters as spots. A popularity of such spots may be computed and their inclusion in
the spotting dictionary determined based on their popularity as explained with reference
to FIG. 2.
[0088] In an embodiment, the user may append a pre-defined character at a
beginning of a set of words and at an end of the set of words to signify the spotting of a
15 phrase composed of the set of words included between the two pre-defined characters.
For example, appending the pre-defined character at the beginning and at the end of the
set of words Ί have been Bangalored' as follows: *I have been Bangalored* may signify
the spotting of a phrase Ί have been Bangalored'. In an embodiment, the respon ing of a
word may be signified by appending two pre-defined characters disposed adjacent to the
0 word. For example, the word 'Excepteur' may be respotted by appending two pre¬
defined characters in front of the word as follows: **Excepteur. As explained herein,
words or phrases may be spotted/respotted by appending the word or the phrase with the
at least one pre-defined character to indicate the selection of the word or the phrase as
the spot. It is noted that the pre-defined character * is included herein for illustration
5 purposes. It is understood that any such character, such as hashtag (#) or any symbol
may be used, and the embodiments disclosed herein may not be limited to asterisk (*).
Further, the pre-defined character may be appended at a variety of positions, such as at
the beginning, at the end, as a subscript, as a superscript etc. to signify the word
disposed at an adjacent location as the spot.
0 [0089] In an embodiment, the application is configured to monitor the content
being typed by the user on a linked user account an on-going basis and prompt the user
to append the word or the phase with at least one pre-defined character to indicate a
selection of the word or the phrase as the spot. Thereafter, the application may be
configured to enable the user to append the word or the phrase with the at least one pre¬
defined character to indicate the selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
[0090] As explained above, the application is configured to retrieve all the
— words and phrases disposed adjacent to the pre-defined character in the user linked
account and include the retrieved words/phrases in an alert notifications UI of the
application. A user may invoke the UI corresponding to the alert notifications and view a
listing of such retrieved words and phrases. The user may proceed to share all or at least
some of these words/phrases as spots with the plurality of remote users in one or more
online communities of remote users. The UI corresponding to the alert notifications of
10 the application is further explained with reference to FIG. 9.
[0091] FIG. 9 illustrates an alert notification UI 900 corresponding to the
application for facilitating spotting of words and phrases in accordance with an
embodiment. The alert notification UI 900 (hereinafter referred to as UI 900)
corresponding to the application displayed on the display 308 of the communication
device 300 is depicted to include tabs, such as 'My Snips' tab 902, 'Invitations' tab 904
and an 'Activity' tab 906. Additionally, the UI 900 is depicted to display an application
logo 908, a UI title banner 910 and an icon 'SPOT ALL' 912. The application logo 902
may be similar to the logo 402 explained with reference to FIG. 4 and is not explained
herein for sake of brevity. The UI 900 may be invoked by accessing 'alert notification
0
icon 504' on the homepage UI 500 explained with reference to FIG. 5.
[0092] As explained above with reference to FIG. 8, words and phrases
disposed adjacent to the pre-defined characters in the user linked account are included in
the UI corresponding to the alert notifications. The words/phrases retrieved from the
user linked account are depicted to be listed under the 'My Snips' tab 902, such as
'Word 1' 914, 'Word 2' 916 and 'Phrase G 918. Each of these retrieved word/phrase is
associated with icons 'Spot' 920 and 'Delete' 922. The user may choose to individually
share the word or phrase using the icon 'Spot' 920 or choose to share all the
words/phrases using the icon 'SPOT ALL' 912. Alternatively, the user may also choose
to preclude sharing of one or more words/phrases as spot by using the icon 'Delete' 922.
0
[0093] The UI 900 further includes button 'load more' 924, which is
configured to load more retrieved words/phrases in the UI 900. The button 'load more'
924 is further associated with a numeral (depicted to be '30' in FIG. 9), which is
configured to indicate a number of words/phrases that may be loaded upon clicking or
tapping on the button 'load more' 924. The UIs corresponding to the 'Invitations' tab
904 and the 'activity' tab 906 are explained with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11,
respectively.
5 [0094] FIG. 10 illustrates a UI 1000 corresponding to the 'Invitations' tab 904
from among a plurality of tabs in the alert notification UI 900 associated with the
application in accordance with an embodiment. The UI 1000 may be displayed on the
display 308 of the communication device 300 upon invoking the 'Invitations' tab 904 on
the UI 900 explained with reference to FIG. 9. The UI 1000 also depicts 'My Snips' tab
10 902, the Activity tab 906, the application logo 908 and the UI title banner 910, which are
already discussed with reference to FIG. 9 and are not described herein. The UI 1000
corresponding to the 'Invitations' tab 904 depicts two tabs: a 'Friend Request' tab 1002
and a 'Following' tab 1004. In FIG. 10, the UI 1000 is depicted to correspond to the
'Friend Request' tab 1002 by default, however such an illustration may not be
15 considered to be limiting. The 'Friend Request' tab 1002 is depicted to display one or
more friend approval request, such as 'friend request 1006 (hereinafter referred to as
1st friend request) and 'friend request 2' 1008 (hereinafter referred to as 2nd friend
request). The 1st friend request is depicted to display an image thumbnail 1010
associated with the 1st friend to be approved. Three icons 1012, 1014 and 1016 are
0 depicted to be provisioned adjacent to the image thumbnail 1010 and are configured to
facilitate an approving of the 1st friend request, provision a list of users following a
spotting activity of the 1st friend and ignore the 1st friend, respectively. Additionally, a
spotting activity bar 1018 including latest words/phrases spotted by the 1st friend, such
as spot 1 and spot 2, are depicted to assist the user in making a decision regarding
5 approving the 1st friend request. The 2nd friend request similarly depicts an image
thumbnail 1020 associated with three icons 1022, 1024 and 1026 configured to facilitate
an approving of the 2nd friend request, provision a list of users following a spotting
activity of the 2nd friend and ignore the 2nd friend, respectively. Further, a spotting
activity bar 1028 including latest words/phrases spotted by the 2nd friend, such as spot 3
and spot 4, are depicted to assist the user in making a decision regarding approving the
2nd friend request.
[0095] The UI 1000 further includes button 'More' 1030, which is configured
to load more friend requests in the UI 1000. The button 'More' 1030 is further
associated with a numeral (depicted to be '2 -30' in FIG. 10), which is configured to
indicate a number of friend requests (for example, two) out of a total number of pending
friend requests (for example, 30) currently being displayed on the UI 1000 and those
that may be loaded upon clicking or tapping on the button 'More' 1030.
- [0096] The 'Following' tab 1004 is configured to provision a list of users
following a spotting activity of the user of the communication device 300. The UI
corresponding to the 'Activity' tab 906 is explained with reference to FIG. 11.
[0097] Referring now to FIG. 11, a UI 1100 corresponding to the 'Activity' tab
906 from among a plurality of tabs in the alert notification UI 900 associated with the
application is illustrated in accordance with an embodiment. The UI 1100 may be
displayed on the display 308 of the communication device 300 upon invoking the
'Activity' tab 906 on the UI 900 explained with reference to FIG. 9. The UI 1100 also
depicts 'My snips' tab 902, the 'Invitations' tab 904, the application logo 908 and the UI
title banner 910, which are already discussed with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10 and are
not described herein. The 'Activity' tab 906 is depicted to display a spotting activity in
terms of one or more spots along with associated information being shared by others
users within the user's online community of remote users. For example, the UI 1100
depicts spots 'SELFIE' 1102, 'EXCEPTEUR' 1104 and 'PHONEDRUNK' 1106 as three
spots being shared among the online communities of remote users associated with the
0 user. Each spot is associated with three icons configured to indicate a number of times a
spot was respotted (or re-shared), a number of comments associated with the spot and a
number of notes associated with the spot. For example, spot 'SELFIE' 1102 is depicted
to be associated with icons 1108, 1110 and 1112 indicating that the spot 'SELFIE' 1102
was re-spotted 525 times, a number of comments associated with the spot 'SELFIE'
5
1102 is 34 and there are four notes associated with spot 'SELFIE' 1102 in the one or
more online communities of remote users, respectively. Similarly, the spot
'EXCEPTEUR' 1104 is depicted to be associated with icons 1114, 1116 and 1118
indicating that the spot 'EXCEPTEUR' 1104 was re-spotted 221 times, a number of
comments associated with the spot 'EXCEPTEUR' 1104 is 15 and there are two notes
0 associated with the spot 'EXCEPTEUR' 1104 in the one or more online communities of
remote users, respectively. Furthermore, the spot 'PHONEDRUNK' 1106 is depicted to
be associated with icons 1120, 1122 and 1124 indicating that the spot 'PHONEDRUNK'
1106 was re-spotted zero times, a number of comments associated with the spot
'PHONEDRUNK' 1106 is four and there is one note associated with the spot
'PHONEDRUNK' 1106 in the one or more online communities of remote users,
respectively.
[0098] The UI 1100 further includes button 'Total' 1126 associated with a
numeral (depicted to be '40' in FIG. 11), which is configured to indicate a total number
of words/phrases currently being shared in the one or more online communities of
remote users. The remaining spots may be invoked by clicking or tapping on the button
'Total' 1126.
[0099] As explained above, the various UIs such as the UI 900, UI 1000 and
UI 1100 may be accessed by the user by invoking the alert notification icon '504' in the
home page UI 500 explained with reference to FIG. 5. The UI provisioned upon
invoking the 'Spots' icon 512 on the home page UI 500 is explained with reference to
FIG. 12.
[00100] FIG. 12 illustrates a UI 1200 provisioned upon invoking the 'Spots'
icon 512 on the home page UI 500 (explained with reference to FIG. 5), in accordance
with an embodiment. The UI 1200 corresponding to the 'Spots' icon 512 is provisioned
to the user on the display 308 of the communication device 300. The UI 1200
corresponding to the 'Spots' icon 512 is depicted to include tabs, such as a 'Recent' tab
1202, a 'Popular' tab 1204, a 'Following' tab 1206, a 'Friends' tab 1208, and a 'My
Spots' tab 1210. Additionally, the UI 1200 is depicted to display an application logo
1212, a UI title banner 'SPOTS' 1214, a new spot icon 1216 and a search icon 1218. The
application logo 1212 is configured to uniquely distinguish the application from among
other applications in the user communication device 300, as explained above. The new
spot icon 1216 when invoked may provision the UI 600, which is configured to enable
the user to provision words and phrases of user interest for their subsequent selection as
the spots, as explained with reference to FIG. 6. The search icon 1218 may be
configured to receive textual input for retrieving search results corresponding to spots
and/or spotters as will be explained later with reference to the FIG. 14.
[00101] In an embodiment, the 'Recent' tab 1202 is configured to display a list
of spots that were recently spotted and shared among the online community of remote
users. The list of spots under the 'Recent' tab 1202 is depicted to display spots, such as
'PHONEDRUNK' 1220, 'TRYINGA' 1222, 'FBING' 1224 and 'TWEETON' 1226.
Each of these spots is associated with a preview of a textual description outlining a
meaning of the respective spots. For example, the spot 'PHONEDRUNK' 1220 is
associated with the following description: 'Phonedrunk refers to a situation when the
phone is acting dumb'. The spot 'TRYINGA' 1222 is associated with the following
5 description: 'Tryinga refers to a person who is a trier'. The spot 'FBING' is associated
with following description: Fbing refers to person currently active on Facebook. The
spot 'TWEETON' 1226 is associated with following description: 'Tweeton is similar to
right on'. In an embodiment, upon tapping or clicking on the description, a UI
displaying a detailed meaning and an exemplary usage of the spot may be provisioned to
Q the user.
[00102] Further, each of the spots is associated with a 'respot' icon and an
image thumbnail. The 'respot' icon is configured to facilitate respon ing or resharing of
the associated spot. The image thumbnail corresponds to the remote user (i.e. spotter)
who has recently shared the spot. For example, the spot 'PHONEDRUNK' 1220 is
5 associated with 'respot' icon 1228 and an image thumbnail 1230 of user 1 exemplarily
depicted to be associated with the spot 'PHONEDRUNK' 1220. The spot 'TRYINGA'
1222 is associated with 'respot' icon 1232 and an image thumbnail 1234 of user 2
exemplarily depicted to be associated with the spot 'TRYINGA' 1222. The spot
'FBING' 1224 is associated with 'respot' icon 1236, and an image thumbnail 1238 of
0 user 3 exemplarily depicted to be associated with the spot 'FBING' 1224. The spot
'TWEETON' 1226 is associated with 'respot' icon 1240 and an image thumbnail 1242
of user 4 exemplarily depicted to be associated with the spot 'TWEETON' 1226.
[00103] Furthermore, each spot is depicted to be associated with count
information indicating a total number of respots and a total number of related spots
5 associated with the spot. In an embodiment, the related spots may refer to those spots,
which may be contextually related to each other. For example, the spot 'TWEETING'
may be related to 'FBING'. As displayed in the UI 1200, the spot 'PHONEDRUNK'
1220 is associated with count information 1244 depicting the total number of respots
and the total number of related spots to be 3186 and 280, respectively. The spot
0 'TRYINGA' 1222 is associated with count information 1246 depicting the total number
of respots and the total number of related spots to be 2515 and 201, respectively. The
spot 'FBING' 1224 is associated with count information 1248 depicting the total number
of respots and the total number of related spots to be 1042 and 75, respectively. The spot
'TWEETON' 1226 is associated with count information 1250 depicting the total number
of respots and the total number of related spots to be 544 and 21, respectively.
[00104] In an embodiment, when the user taps on any spot from among the list
of spots, a UI associated with spot profile is provisioned to the user on the display 308 of
the device 300. The spot profile is explained later with reference to FIG. 15. The UI
1200 further includes button 'Load More' 1252, which is configured to load more recent
spots in the UI 1200 than those already displayed in the UI 1 00.
[00105] In an embodiment, the 'Popular' tab 1204 may be configured to display
a list of spots that are tagged as popular based on at least one popularity-based metric;
the 'Following' tab 1206 may be configured to display a list of spots, whose spotting
activity is being followed by the user; the 'Friends' tab 1208 may be configured to
display a list of spots that are associated with friends of the user, and the 'My spots' tab
1210 may be configured to display a list of spots that are spotted/respotted by the user
himself/herself. The user may tap or click on any of these desired tabs from among the
plurality of tabs to view the list of spots associated with each tab. In some embodiments,
the icons, such as the respot icon and the image thumbnail along with the count
information may be provisioned with each spot from among the list of spots associated
with each of these tabs. It is noted that in some embodiments, the UI 1200 associated
with the 'Spots' icon 512 may be associated with standard navigation options, such as
horizontal swipes to navigate through the tabs and/or vertical swipes to load
subsequent/previous available spots. The UI provisioned upon invoking the 'Spotters'
icon 514 on the home page UI 500 of FIG. 5 is explained with reference to FIG. 13.
[00106] FIG. 13 illustrates a UI 1300 provisioned upon invoking the 'Spotters'
icon 514 on the home page UI 500 (explained with reference to FIG. 5), in accordance
with an embodiment. The UI 1300 corresponding to the 'Spotters' icon 514 is
provisioned to the user on the display 308 of the communication device 300. The UI
1300 corresponding to the 'Spotters' icon 514 is depicted to include tabs, such as a
'Popular' tab 1302, a 'Following' tab 1304, and a 'Friends tab 1306. Additionally, the UI
1300 is depicted to display an application logo 1308, a UI title banner 'SPOTTERS'
1310, a new spot icon 1312 and a search icon 1314. The application logo 1308 is
configured to uniquely distinguish the application from among other applications in the
user communication device 300, as explained above. The new spot icon 1312 when
invoked may provision the UI 600, which is configured to enable the user to provision
words and phrases of user interest for their subsequent selection as the spots, as
explained with reference to FIG. 6. The search icon 314 may be configured to receive
textual input for retrieving search results corresponding to spots and/or spotters as will
be explained later with reference to the FIG. 14.
[00107] In an embodiment, the 'Popular' tab 1302 may include a list of spotters
that are tagged as popular based on at least one popularity-based metric as explained
with reference to FIG. 2. The list of spotters under the 'Popular' tab 1302 is depicted to
display spotters, such as 'User G 1316, and 'User 2' 1318. Each of the spotters is
associated with an image thumbnail, which corresponds to the remote user (i.e. spotter).
For example, the spotter 'User 1316 is associated with an image thumbnail 1320
exemplarily depicted to be associated with the spotter 'User 1316. The spotter 'User
2' 1318 is associated with an image thumbnail 1322 exemplarily depicted to be
associated with the spotter 'User 1318. Further, each spotter is depicted to be
associated with icons, such as an 'Unfollow' icon, a 'Message' icon, a 'Plop' icon, a
'Spots' icon and a count information depicting a total number of spots. As displayed in
the UI 1300, the spotter 'User 1' 1316 is associated with a 'Unfollow' icon 1324, a
'Message' icon 1326, a 'Plop' icon 1328, a count information 1330 depicting a total
number of spots to be 350k or 350000 and a 'Spots' icon 1332 depicting a preview of
list of spots associated with the spotter 'User . The spotter 'User 2' 1318 is associated
with a 'Unfollow' icon 1334, a 'Message' icon 1336, a 'Plop' icon 1338, a count
information 1340 depicting a total number of spots to be 200k or 200000 and a 'Spots'
icon 1342 depicting a preview of list of spots associated with the spotter 'User 2'.
[00108] In an embodiment, when the user may decide to unfollow a particular
spotter and accordingly tap on the 'unfollow' icon. Once, the user has tapped/clicked on
the 'unfollow' icon, the user may not receive any notifications or alerts associated with
the unfollowed spotter until the user follows the spotter again. When the user wishes to
send a message to a particular spotter, the user may tap the 'Message' icon 516, which
provisions the user with a UI to view or send messages to the particular spotter. In an
embodiment, the user may 'plop' (for example, poke, nudge or hint at) the spotters by
tapping the 'plop' icon to spot or comment on the one or more words spotted by the user.
In an embodiment, the 'Spots' icon is associated with a text box, which displays a
preview of the spots associated with the spotter. When the user taps on the 'spots' icon,
the text box associated with the 'spots' icon expands to display all the spots associated
with the spotter in the same view. In some embodiments, when the user taps on the
'Spots' icon, a UI associated with the 'spots' icon, which includes a list of spots
associated with the spotter is displayed to the user.
[00109] In an embodiment, when the user taps on any spotter from among the
list of spotters, a UI associated with the tapped spotter including profile information
about the spotter is provisioned to the user on the display 308 of the device 300. The UI
1300 further includes button 'Other Spotters' 1344 which may further be associated with
a numeral (not shown in FIG. 13), which is configured to indicate a number of other
spotters (for example, thirty) out of a total number of pages (for example, four) that may
10 be displayed in the UI 1300. The button 'Other Spotters' 1344 is configured to load
more spotters in the UI 1300 than those already displayed in the UI 1300.
[00110] In an embodiment, the 'Following' tab 1304 may include a list of
spotters whose spotting activity is being followed by the user and the 'Friends' tab 1306
may include a list of spotters with whom the user has been associated with as friends.
The user may tap or click on any of these desired tabs from among the plurality of tabs
to view the list of spotters associated with each tab. In some embodiments, the icons,
such as the 'Unfollow' icon, the 'Message' icon, the 'Plop' icon, the 'Total Spots' icon,
and the 'Spots' icon may be provisioned with each spotter from among the list of
spotters associated with each of these tabs. It is noted that in some embodiments, the UI
0
1300 associated with the 'Spotters' icon 514 may be associated with standard navigation
options, such as horizontal swipes to navigate through the tabs and/or vertical swipes to
load subsequent/previous available spots. The UI provisioned upon invoking the
'Search' icon 10 on the home page UI 500 of FIG. 5 is explained with reference to FIG.
14.
5
[00111] FIG. 14 illustrates a UI 1400 provisioned upon invoking the 'Search'
icon 510 on the home page UI 500 (explained with reference to FIG. 5), in accordance
with an embodiment. The UI 1400 corresponding to the 'Search' icon 510 is provisioned
to the user on the display 308 of the communication device 300. The UI 1400
corresponding to the 'Search' icon 510 is depicted to include tabs, such as a 'Spots' tab
0
1402, and a 'Spotters' tab 1404. Additionally, the UI 1400 is depicted to display a search
editor 1406, a filter icon 1408 and a search icon 1410. In an embodiment, the search
editor 1406 is configured to facilitate the user to provide a search string (depicted as
"SEARCH STRING" in FIG. 14) for performing the search. In some embodiments,
when the user starts typing the search string, a list of suggestions (not shown in FIG. 1 )
associated with the typed search string is provisioned to the user for selection.
Accordingly, the list of suggestion may vary whenever the user changes the search string
and the user may tap or click his/her desired suggestion. Upon entering the search string
5 or selecting the suggestions provisioned to the user, the user may tap or click the search
icon 1410 for performing the search. Upon tapping or clicking the search icon 1410,
results (for example, Spots and Spotters) associated with the search string are
provisioned to the user on the display 308. For example, a list of spots associated with
the search string is listed under the 'Spots' tab 1402 and a list of spotters associated with
Q the search string is listed under the 'Spotters' tab 1404. Each tab such as the 'Spots' tab
1402 and the 'Spotters' tab 1404 may be associated with a number indicating a number
of spots and spotters that are available for the given search string. For example, if the
spots tab is depicted as "Spots (30)", the number "30" indicates that there are 30 spots
that are available in the list. Similarly, if the spotters tab is depicted as "Spotters (20)",
the number "20" indicates that there are 20 spotters that are available in the list.
[00112] As depicted in FIG. 14, the 'Spots' tab 1402 is configured to display the
list of spots associated with the search string, such as 'PHONEDRUNK', 'TRYING A',
'FBING' and 'TWEETON'. Each of these spots is associated with a preview of textual
description outlining a meaning of the respective spots as explained with reference to
0 FIG. 13. Further, each of the spots is associated with a 're-spot' icon and an image
thumbnail. The 're-spot' icon is configured to facilitate re-spotting or re-sharing of the
associated spot. The image thumbnail corresponds to the remote user (i.e. spotter) who
has recently shared the spot. Furthermore, each spot is depicted to be associated with
count information indicating a total number of re-spots and a total number of related
5 spots associated with the spot. The re-spot icon, the image thumbnail, and a count
information indicating a total number of re-spots and a total number of related spots
associated with the spot are explained with reference to FIG: 12 and are not explained
herein for the sake of brevity. The UI 1400 further includes button 'Load More' 1412,
which is configured to load more recent spots in the UI 1400 than those already
displayed in the UI 1400.
[00113] As explained above, the 'Spotters' tab 1404 is configured to display the
list of spotters associated with the search string. The user may tap or click on any of
these desired tabs from among the plurality of tabs to view the list of spots or spotters
associated with the search string. The list of spotters under the 'Spotters tab 1404 may
display spotters associated with the search string, an image thumbnail associated with
each spotter and a plurality of icons, such as a 'Unfollow' icon, a 'Message' icon, a
'Plop' icon, a 'Spots' icon, and a count information depicting a total number of spots as
explained with reference to FIG. 13 and are not explained herein for the sake of brevity.
[00114] In an embodiment, the user may tap or click the filter icon 1408 for
filtering the search results based on parameters, such as spotted from, spotted to,
language, location, spotted at, tags, content filter, images and comments. In an
embodiment, if the search string that is provided by the user in the search editor does not
match with the spot/spotter from among the list of available spots or spotters, then the
UI may be configured to display a message such as "There are no spots for 'Search
String'!" or "Search result not found" or the like. It is understood that these messages
are provided herein for illustration purposes and should not be considered limiting. It is
noted that in some embodiments, the UI 1300 associated with the 'Spotters' icon 514
may be associated with standard navigation options, such as horizontal swipes to
navigate through the tabs and/or vertical swipes to load subsequent/previous available
spots. An exemplary UI depicting a spot profile corresponding to the spot 'Phonedrunk'
is explained with reference to FIG. 15.
[00115] Referring now to FIG. 15, an exemplary UI 1500 depicting a spot
profile 1502 corresponding to the spot 'Phonedrunk' 1504 is depicted in accordance with
an embodiment. The UI 1500 may be displayed on the display 308 of the
communication device 308. As explained above, each spot is associated with a spot
profile, such as the spot profile 1502, in form of user-defined information including at
least one of a meaning of the spot, an exemplary spot usage instance and a picture of a
location where the spot was first encountered. In an embodiment, the UI 1500 may be
configured to display a user defined snippet outlining a context for the spot
'Phonedrunk' 1504 and a spotter 1506 (associated with as an image 1508 in UI 1500)
associated with the spot 'Phonedrunk' 1504 (hereinafter referred as spot 1504).
[00116] Further, the spot profile 1502 may display an application logo 1510
uniquely distinguishing the application from other applications in the communication
device 300. Furthermore, the spot profile 1502 may display a number 1512 depicting a
re-spot count associated with the spot 1504. The number 1512 is exemplarily depicted to
be '5.1k' or '5100' as a re-spot count for the spot 1504. The spot 1504 may also be
associated with a number indicating a spot count among a total number of spots. In this
example scenario, the spot 1504 is associated with a spot ratio 1514 depicted as '21/3.
indicating the spot rank to be '21' from among '3.1k' or '3100' total number of spots.
The spot profile 1502 may also display a number 1516 indicating a number of mutual
5 friends (exemplarily depicted to be '5' in UI 1500) associated with the spotter 1506 who
have re-spotted the same spot 1504. It is understood that numeral values associated with
numbers 1512, 1514 and 1516 are depicted herein for illustrative purposes only.
[00117] The spot profile 1502 is further configured to display four icons 1518,
1520, 1522 and 1524 for enabling a remote user to access more information for the spot
1504, to add a comment on the spot profile 1502, to add the spotter associated with the
spot 1504 as a friend and to respot the spot 1502, respectively. When the remote user
taps the icon 1518, a drop-down menu with a list of options such as, but not limited to, a
related spots option, a timeline option, a share option and the like may be provisioned to
the user. Upon tapping the related spots option, the remote user may be provisioned with
5 a set of spots similar to the spot 1504. Further, the timeline option provides the remote
user with the details such as a re-spot activity associated with the spot 1504 over
different time intervals, such as a day or a week or a month or a year. The remote user
may also tap the share option to share the spot 1504 with his/her friends or other remote
users. When the remote user taps the icon 1520, a UI associated with the comment icon
20 1520 may be displayed to the remote user, where the remote user may view other
comments associated with one or more remote users and/or add comments in the UI
corresponding to the spot 1504. Furthermore, when the user taps the icon 1522, a UI
associated with the icon 1522 may be displayed to the remote user, wherein the remote
user may add a note and/or text to describe the meaning of the spot 1504 and/or add a
25 note and/or text to describe an example usage of the spot 1504. When the user taps the
re-spot icon 1524, the remote user is provided with an option to re-spot and in turn the
re-spot count depicted in the number 1512 may get updated automatically. In an
embodiment, the user may restrict access to the spot 1504 to one or more remote users,
as the user may feel that the spot or its meaning includes content, which may be
inappropriate for one or more remote users. Accordingly, the spotter 506 may flag the
spot 1504 as inappropriate to the one or more remote users.
[00118] In an embodiment, the UI 1500 is further configured to display two text
boxes 1526 and 1 28 outlining a meaning of the spotted word or phrase and an example
usage of the spot, respectively. Accordingly, the text box 1526 depicts a meaning of the
spot 'Phonedrunk' 1504 as follows: "Phonedrunk is referred to phone acting dumb or
weird at times ...as if the phone is drunk". Further, the text box illustrates an example
way of using the word 'Phonedrunk' as "I think my phone is Phonedrunk as my phone
says "Battery fully charged, please unplug charger" even after unplugging the charger."
The text box 1526 may include only one meaning/description of the word 'Phonedrunk'.
However, a link ther Descriptions' 1530 may be provided to provision access to other
meanings of the word 'Phonedrunk' to the user. The link 'Other Descriptions' 1530 may
display a number (depicted to be '3' in the UI 1500) for a total number of descriptions
for the spot 1504 precluding the description in the text box 1526. The UI 1500 may
further display an edit option 1532 for facilitating an editing of the meaning and/or
example usage of the spot 1 04.
[00119] Referring now to FIG. 16, an exemplary UI 1600 illustrates a spot
profile 1602 corresponding to the spot 'Phonedrunk' 1604 is depicted in accordance with
an embodiment. The UI 1600 may be displayed on the display 308 of the
communication device 308. The spot profile 1602 corresponding to the spot
'Phonedrunk' 1604 is substantially similar to the spot profile 1502 corresponding to the
spot 'Phonedrunk' 1504. More specifically, the various components, such as those
associated with numerals 1506 - 1532 are common to both the spot profiles 1502 and
1602 and are accordingly not described again herein.
[00120] The spot profile 1602 is configured to display a numeral 1606 (depicted
as number "2132"), which is configured to indicate a combined count of a number of
times (for example, "2132" times) the spot was shared as a spot and a re-spot in the one
or more online communities of remote user. Though the numeral 1606 is depicted to be a
superscript to the spot 'Phonedrunk' 1604, it is noted that the numeral 1606 may be
associated in various positions, such as for example, as a subscript, with respect to the
displayed spot 'Phonedrunk' 1604 on the spot profile 1602. In an embodiment, the
numeral 1606 is further configured to include at least one of a number of comments
associated with the shared spot, a number of comments associated with the re-spot and a
number of instances of adding one of an image, textual content and video with the
shared spot or re-spot in the combined count. Upon tapping on the numeral 1606, a UI
displaying a break-up of the various components configuring the count associated with
the numeral 1606 is provisioned to the user. In an embodiment, the breakup may include
information corresponding to the identities of the spotters who have spotted/respotted/
commented on the spot 'Phonedrunk' 1604 and the comments/content annotated
to the spot 1604 and also description, images added to the spot 1604 in a timeline
manner (by showing the recent activities at the top).
[00121] In an embodiment, the spot profiles, such as the spot profiles 1502 and
1602, are configured to be edited by other remote users from among the one or more
online communities of remote users based on permissions afforded to the other remote
users through the application.
[00122] Referring back to the application residing natively in the
communication device 300, in some embodiments, UIs such as the UI 1200 and 1300
are configured to provision access to (1) a listing of currently trending spots among the
one or more online communities of remote users, and (2) a listing of remote users from
among the one or more remote users associated with the currently trending spots,
respectively. Such UIs are further configured to enable the remote user to re-spot a word
or a phrase from the listing of currently trending spots. The UIs, such as the UI 1200 and
1300 are also configured to enable the remote user to annotate the spots selected by
other remote users from among the one or more online communities of remote users
with one of comments and tags. Further, as explained with reference to FIG. 2, the
application is further configured at least in part, to provision a voice input based option
configured to convert one or more words read from a textual content source by the
remote user into a textual format for facilitating the sharing of the word and the phrase
as the spot.
[00123] Various techniques of spotting the words and/or phrases are explained
in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 16. It is to be understood that the spotting of words
based on English language as explained herein may not be considered limiting. Indeed
the spotting of words/phrases may be extended to other languages as well. Another
system, such as the system 200, for facilitating spotting of words and phrases is
explained with reference to FIG. 17.
[00124] FIG. 17 is an exemplary -block diagram of a system 1700 for facilitating
spotting of words and/or phrases in accordance with another embodiment. As explained
with reference to FIG. 2, the system 200 may be configured with fewer or more number
of components than those depicted in FIG. 2. Accordingly, the system 1700 is depicted
to include only a scanning module 1702, an application module 1704 and a transceiver
module 1706. The scanning module 1702, the application module 1704 and the
transceiver module 1706 may communicate with each other via bus 1708. Examples of
the bus 1708 may include a data bus, an address bus, a serial bus and the like. It is noted
that the system 1700 may include fewer or more components and that the components of
system 1700 in FIG. 17 are depicted for illustrative purposes. In an embodiment, the
various components of the system 1700, such as the scanning module 1702, the
application module 1704, the transceiver module 1706, and the bus 1708 may be
implemented as hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof.
[00125] In an embodiment, the scanning module 1702 is configured to scan one
or more user linked accounts (such as the user linked accounts explained with reference
to FIG. 8) corresponding to remote users from among one or more online communities
of remote users for detecting a presence of at least one pre-defined character embedded
within their textual content. Examples of the linked accounts include, but are not limited
to, social networking accounts, email accounts, blog accounts and the like. In an
embodiment, the scanning module 1702, may detect the presence of one of a symbol, a
letter and a mark representing the at least one pre-defined character which is embedded
within the textual content corresponding to a linked account. In an embodiment, a pre
defined character from among the at least one pre-defined character is an asterisk ('*')
symbol. For example, the textual content may include a phrase such as "I have been
*Nick'ed again!" (implying being yelled at by Nick). The scanning module 1702 may
scan the phrase and detect the presence of the asterisk symbol included therein. I some
embodiments, the scanning module 1702 may be further configured to detect the
presence of words disposed between two pre-defined characters from among the at least
one pre-defined character as the phrase if the two pre-defined characters are detected
within a pre-defined acceptable distance of each other. For example, the scanning
module 1702 may scan a phrase such as "*I have been Nick' ed again!*" and detect the
presence of words "I have been Nicked again!" disposed between two asterisk symbols
within the pre-defined acceptable distance.
[00126] In an embodiment, the application module 1704 is communicably
associated with the scanning module 1702 and configured to extract a word or a phrase
disposed substantially adjacent to the at least one pre-defined character. In an
embodiment, the application module 1704 is configured to extract the word immediately
succeeding a detected pre-defined character from among the at least one pre-defined
character. For example, consider the phrase "I have been *Nick'ed again!". The
application module 1704 extracts the word "Nick'ed" upon detection of the asterisk
symbol by the scanning module 1702. In an embodiment, the application module 1704 is
configured to extract words disposed between two detected pre-defined characters from
among the at least one pre-defined character as the phrase if the two detected pre
defined characters are detected within a pre-defined acceptable distance of each other.
[00127] In another example, consider the phrase "*I have been Nick'ed
again!*", here the application module 1704 is configured to extract the phrase within
two asterisk symbols detected by the scanning module 1702 within the pre-defined
acceptable distance. The pre-defined acceptable distance may be defined in terms of a
number of words, for example 0 - 4 words and. the like. The phrase "I have been
Nick'ed again!" is disposed between the two asterisk symbols is extracted by the
application module 1704 and is considered as spot. In an embodiment, the application
module 1704 is configured to extract the word immediately succeeding two pre-defined
characters disposed next to each other for facilitating subsequent provisioning or
automatic selection of the word as the re-spot. In such a scenario, remote user sharing a
word or phrase as a spot, which has already been spotted by other one or more remote
users is considered as the re-spot. Such re-spots may be stored in a list of spots within a
spotting dictionary, such as the spotting dictionary associated with the dictionary
generation module 208 in FIG. 2. For example, consider a spot "**Fbing". The
application module 1704 extracts the word immediately succeeding two asterisk
symbols as the re-spot, in this case, the word "Fbing" is extracted upon detection of the
two asterisk symbols by the scanning module 1702 and is considered as a re-spot.
[00128] In an embodiment, the transceiver module 1706 is communicably
: associated with the application module 1704 and is configured to perform provisioning
of the word or the phrase for user selection as one of a spot and a re-spot. For example,
the transceiver module 1706 may provision the word or the phrase to a communication
device, such as the communication device 300, associated with a remote user. The
remote user may select the word or the phrase as a spot or a re-spot based n the remote
user's interest. As explained above, the selection of the word or the phrase as the spot is
indicative of the user interest in sharing the word or the phrase among the one or more
online communities of remote user. Furthermore, the selection of the word or the phrase
as the re-spot is indicative of user interest in sharing a spotted word or spotted phrase by
another phrase among the one or more online communities of remote user.
[00129] In an embodiment, the transceiver module 1706 is further configured to
facilitate automatic selection of the word or the phrase as one of the spot and the re-spot.
It is understood that the transceiver module 1706 may facilitate the communication
device to select the word or the phrase as one of the spot and the re-spot automatically
and/or the remote user may select the word or phrase manually as one of the spot and the
re-spot.
[00130] In an embodiment, the transceiver module 1706 may receive the
selection of a word or a phrase as a spot from a communication device associated with
the remote user, and search the received word or the phrase in a list of words and
phrases stored in the spotting dictionary. If the word or the phrase is found among the
list of words and phrases in the spotting dictionary during the search by the transceiver
module 1706, the word or the phrase is considered as the re-spot. If the word or phrase is
not found in the list of words and phrases in the spotting dictionary during the search by
the transceiver module 1706, the word or the phrase is considered as a new spot and may
be included in the list of words and phrases in the spotting dictionary. The list of words
or phrases in the spotting dictionary may be provisioned to the communication device
300 associated with the remote user by the transceiver module 1706 and the search for
the word or the phrase as the spot or the re-spot may be done manually by the remote
user. A method for facilitating the spotting of words and phrases is explained with
reference to FIG. 18.
[00131] FIG. 18 is a flow diagram depicting an exemplary method 1800 for
facilitating spotting of words and phrases, in accordance with an embodiment. The ,
method 1800 depicted in the flow diagram may be executed by, for example, the system
200 explained with reference to FIG. 2. Operations of the flowchart, and combinations
of operation in the flowchart, may be implemented by, for example, hardware, firmware,
a processor, circuitry and/or a different device associated with the execution of software
that includes one or more computer program instructions. The operations of the method
1800 are described herein with help of the system 200. However, the operations of the
method 1800 can be described and/or practiced by using a system other than the system
200. The method 1800 starts at operation 1802.
[00132] At operation 1802, a plurality of content sources is periodically scanned
(for example, by the scanning module 202 of the system 200) to identify words and
phrases, which are being shared as spots among one or more online communities of
remote users. As explained above, the word or the phrase being shared as the spot by the
remote user is one of a word or a phrase coined by the remote user word or the phrase
being shared as the spot by the remote user is one of a word or a phrase coined by the
remote user, a word or a phrase coined by another remote user in the online community,
a word or a phrase encountered for a first time by the remote user on one of an online
content source and an offline content source, and a known word or phrase associated
with a new usage for the remote user. The periodic scanning of the plurality of content
sources may also include identifying potential spots as explained with reference to FIG.
2 and is not explained herein for the sake of brevity.
[00133] At operation 1804, the spots and/or potential spots along with
information related to the spots are stored (for example, in the storage module 204 of the
system 200). The information related to the spots comprises at least one of identities of
one or more remote users from among one or more online communities of remote users
sharing each spot, a contextual information associated with each spot and online user
comments associated with each spot. At operation 1806, at least one popularity-based
metric for each spot/potential spot from among the stored spots is determined (for
example, by the computation module 206 of the system 200). The storing of the spots
along with related information of the spots/potential spots, and determining the at least
one popularity-based metric are explained with reference to FIG. 2 and are not explained
herein for the sake of brevity.
[00134] At operation 1808, a spotting dictionary comprising at least a listing of
popular spots is generated and periodically updated (for example, by the dictionary
generation module 210 of the system 200) based on the at least one popularity-based
metric associated with each spot. The spotting dictionary is configured to be integrated
with one or more word dictionaries and facilitate provisioning of the popular spots as
word completions, word suggestions and next word predictions during instances of user
text entry. At operation 1810, the spotting dictionary is provisioned to one or more
remote users from among the one or more online communities of remote users (for
example, by the transceiver module 212 of the system 200). The generation and periodic
updation of the spotting dictionary and provisioning of the spotting dictionary to the one
or more remote users are explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and are not explained
herein.
[00135] Without in any way limiting the scope, interpretation, or application of
the claims appearing below, advantages of one or more of the exemplary embodiments
disclosed herein include enabling users of communication devices to keep abreast of
new words, phrases, jargons and/or slangs being added to the conversational language
on a daily basis. Further, the integration of the spotting dictionary with other dictionaries
in the communication device aids in word/phrase completions, word/phrase suggestions
and next word predictions during instances of user text entry, which further assists in
10 keeping the text entry means updated and render it convenient for use in text-based
communication vis-a-vis' the latest word or phrase additions to the conversation
language. In an embodiment, interactive web-based application may also serve as stand¬
alone social network for a plurality of users.
[00136] In an embodiment, the interactive web application maybe configured to
be integrated into a keyboard of the user's device as a plug-in or a form of source code.
A spot bar (similar to suggestion bar in prediction keyboards) may then be displayed on
top of the keyboard. Further, a spot icon may be provisioned on either side of the spot
bar. User can enter a word/phrase (which will be displayed in spot bar) and tap on the
spot icon to automatically spot the word of user's interest. In another embodiment, a user
20 can type a pre-defined syntax/character followed by a word/phrase to spot automatically,
or, a pre-defined syntax/character followed by a word/phrase and ends again with the
same pre-defined character to respot the word/phrase automatically. In an embodiment,
if a keyboard is associated with predictive capability and includes a suggestion bar on
top of the keyboard, which shows at least 2 suggestions based on the user input, then one
25 word may be suggested by the web based application. The user may tapping on this
suggestion to spot the word and can place the word on the user's profile automatically. In
an embodiment, the word suggestion may be facilitated based on the quantitative and
qualitative data as explained above. In another embodiment, a spot widget may also be
provisioned for enabling the user to directly enter a word/phrase for spotting purposes.
[00137] Although the present technology has been described with reference to
specific exemplary embodiments, it is noted that various modifications and changes may
be made to these embodiments without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the
present technology. For example, the various blocks, modules, etc., described herein
may be enabled and operated using hardware circuitry (for example, complementary
metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based logic circuitry), firmware, software and/or
any combination of hardware, firmware, and/or software (for example, embodied in a
machine-readable medium). For example, the systems and methods may be embodied
5 using transistors, logic gates, and electrical circuits (for example, application specific
integrated circuit (ASIC) circuitry and/or in Digital Signal Processor (DSP) circuitry).
[00138] Particularly, the system 200 and the system 1700 may be enabled using
software and/or using transistors, logic gates, and electrical circuits (for example,
integrated circuit circuitry such as ASIC circuitry). Various embodiments of the present
disclosure may include one or more computer programs stored or otherwise embodied
on a computer-readable medium, wherein the computer programs are configured to
cause an apparatus (like the communication device 300) or computer to perform one or
more operations (for example, operations related to facilitating accessing and integrating
the spotting dictionary and the interactive web application into the apparatus as
explained above). A computer-readable medium storing, embodying, or encoded with a
computer program, or similar language, may be embodied as a tangible data storage
device storing one or more software programs that are configured to cause a processor or
computer to perform one or more operations. Such operations may be, for example, any
of the steps or operations described herein. In some embodiments, the computer
0 programs may be stored and provided to a computer using any type of non-transitory
computer readable media. Non-transitory computer readable media include any type of
tangible storage media. Examples of non-transitory computer readable media include
magnetic storage media (such as floppy disks, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives, etc.),
optical magnetic storage media (e.g. magneto-optical disks), CD-ROM (compact disc
5 read only memory), CD-R (compact disc recordable), CD-R/W (compact disc
rewritable), DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), BD (Blu-ray (registered trademark) Disc), and
semiconductor memories (such as mask ROM, PROM (programmable ROM), EPROM
(erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM (random access memory), etc.). Additionally, a
tangible data storage device may be embodied as one or more volatile memory devices,
Q one or more non-volatile memory devices, and/or a combination of one or more volatile
memory devices and non-volatile memory devices. In some embodiments, the computer
programs may be provided to a computer using any type of transitory computer readable
media. Examples of transitory computer readable media include electric signals, optical
signals, and electromagnetic waves. Transitory computer readable media can provide the
program to a computer via a wired communication line (e.g. electric wires, and optical
fibers) or a wireless communication line.
[00139] Also, techniques, devices, subsystems and methods described and
illustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may be combined or
integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, or methods without departing from
the scope of the present technology. Other items shown or discussed as directly coupled
or communicating with each other may be coupled through some interface or device,
such that the items may no longer be considered directly coupled with each other but
10 may still be indirectly coupled and in communication, whether electrically,
mechanically, or otherwise, with one another. Other examples of changes, substitutions,
and alterations ascertainable by one skilled in the art, upon or subsequent to studying the
exemplary embodiments disclosed herein, may be made without departing from the
spirit and scope of the present technology.
[00140] It should be noted that reference throughout this specification to
features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and
advantages should be or are in any single embodiment. Rather, language referring to the
features and advantages may be understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or
characteristic described in connection with an embodiment may be included in at least
20 one embodiment of the present technology. Thus, discussions of the features and
advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not
necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.
[00141] Various embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed above,
may be practiced with steps and/or operations in a different order, and/or with hardware
elements in configurations which are different than those which are disclosed.
Therefore, although the technology has been described based upon these exemplary
embodiments, it is noted that certain modifications, variations, and alternative
constructions may be apparent and well within the spirit and scope of the technology.
Although various exemplary embodiments of the present technology are described
herein in a language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, the
subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific
features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above
are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claims.

I/We Claim:
A system comprising:
a scanning module configured to periodically scan a plurality of content sources to
identify words and phrases, which are being shared among one or more online communities of
remote users as spots, wherein sharing of a word or a phrase as a spot by a remote user in an
online community from among- the one or more online communities of remote users is
indicative of user interest in the word or the phrase;
a storage module communicably associated with the scanning module and configured to
store the spots along with information related to the spots, wherein the information related to
the spots comprises at least one of identities of remote users from among the one or more
online communities of remote users sharing each spot, a contextual information associated
with each spot and online user comments associated with each spot;
a computation module communicably associated with the storage module and configured
to determine at least one popularity-based metric for each spot from among the spots stored in
the storage module;
a dictionary generation module communicably associated with the computation module
and configured to generate and periodically update a spotting dictionary comprising at least a
listing of popular spots based on the at least one popularity-based metric associated with each
spot; and
a transceiver module communicably associated with the dictionary generation module
and configured to provision the spotting dictionary to one or more remote users from among
the one or more online communities of remote users.
The system according to claim 1, wherein the word or the phrase being shared as the spot by
the remote user is one of a word or a phrase coined by the remote user, a word or a phrase
coined by another remote user in the online community, a word or a phrase encountered for a
first time by the remote user on one of an online content source and an offline content source,
and a known word or phrase associated with a new usage for the remote user.
3. The system according to claim 1, wherein a content source from among the plurality of content
sources comprises one of a website, an online social network forum, an e-mail client, a chat
client, an e-book, a web page, a text based message, an image file and a video file.
4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the computation module is further configured to
compute one or more parameters for each spot, wherein a parameter from among the one or
more parameters is one of:
total number of times the each spot is being shared in the one or more online
communities of remote users;
a total number of separate instances of sharing the each spot as a new spot by different
remote users within the one or more online communities of remote users;
a total number of times the each spot is being re-spotted within the one or more online
communities of remote users subsequent to sharing the each spot by a remote user;
a popularity parameter signifying a measure of popularity of each remote user involved in
sharing the each spot within the one or more online communities of remote users;
a total number of comments associated with the each spot;
a total number of recent comments associated with the each spot;
a total number of recent re-spots associated with each spot; and
a profile parameter configured to account for user additions of at least one of textual
content and image content to a spot profile associated with each spot.
5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the computation module is further configured to:
perform a normalization of the one or more parameters; and
compute a weighted average of the normalized one or more parameters to determine the
at least one popularity-based metric for the each spot.
6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the spotting dictionary is configured to be
integrated with one or more word dictionaries and facilitate provisioning of the popular spots
as word completions, phrase completions, word suggestions, phrase suggestions and next
word predictions during instances of user text entry.
7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the spotting dictionary is configured to be one of a
5 language specific dictionary and a multi-lingual dictionary.
8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the scanning module is configured to scan one or
more user linked accounts corresponding to a remote user from among the one or more online
communities of remote users for detecting a presence of at least one pre-defined character
10 embedded within online textual content, and to extract a word or a phrase disposed
substantially adjacent to the at least one pre-defined character as a spot.
9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an application module configured to
facilitate creation of an interactive web-based application capable of residing natively in a
1 user-device associated with the remote user, the web-based application comprising a plurality
of user interfaces (UIs) configured to facilitate a sharing of the word or the phrase as the spot.
10. The system according to claim 9, wherein one UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to enable the remote user to provision the word or the phrase of user interest for
20 the subsequent selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the one UI is configured to enable the user to add"
a user-defined snippet for outlining a context of the spot.
25 12. The system according to claim 10, wherein another UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to display the spot among a listing of words and phrases selected as spots by the
remote user.
13. The system according to claim 12, wherein one or more spots from among the spots selected
30 by the remote user comprise an associated spot profile in form of user-defined information
including at least one of a meaning of the spot, an exemplary spot usage instance and a picture
of a location where the spot was first encountered.
14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the spot profile is configured to display a numeral
associated with the spot, wherein the numeral is indicative of a combined count of a number
of times the spot was shared as a spot and a re-spot in the one or more online communities of
remote users.
15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the numeral is further configured to include at
least one of a number of comments associated with the shared spot, a number of comments
associated with the re-spot and a number of instances of adding one of an image, textual
content and video with the shared spot or re-spot in the combined count.
16. The system according to claim 14, wherein the numeral is configured to be displayed as one
of a superscript and a subscript to the spot displayed on the spot profile.
17. The system according to claim 13, wherein the associated spot profile is configured to be
edited by other remote users from among the one or more online communities of remote users
based on permissions afforded to the other remote users through the web-based application.
18. The system according to claim 9, wherein the web-based application is configured to
provision an option within a set of clipboard options associated with a highlighted portion of
text corresponding to one of an online textual content source and an offline textual content
source, the option configured to enable a selection of the highlighted portion of the text as the
spot.
19. The system according to claim 9, wherein at least one UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to provision access to one of:
a listing of currently trending spots among the one or more online communities of remote
users; and
a listing of remote users from among the one or more remote users associated with the
currently trending spots.
20. The system according to claims 19, wherein the at least one UI is further configured to enable
5 the remote user to re-spot a word or a phrase from the listing of currently trending spots,
wherein re-spotting of the word or the phrase is indicative of selecting a spotted word or
phrase for subsequent sharing as the spot.
21. The system according to claim 19, wherein the at least one UI is further configured to enable
10 the remote user to annotate the spots selected by other remote users from among the one or
more online communities of remote users with one of comments and tags.
22. The system according to claim 9, wherein a UI from among the plurality of UIs is configured
to provide alert notifications to the remote user, wherein an alert notification from among the
5 alert notifications corresponds to intimation corresponding to at least one of a recently shared
spot among the one or more online communities of remote users, a friend approval request
from another remote user and a comment or a tag attributed to the spot shared by the remote
user.
20 23. The system according to claim 9, wherein the web-based application is configured to be linked
to one or more user accounts on social networking websites associated with the remote user.
24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the web-based application is configured to prompt
the remote user, during text entry on the one or more user accounts on social networking
25 websites, to append the word or the phase with at least one pre-defined character to indicate a
selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
25. The system according to claim 23, wherein the web-based application is configured to extract
words or phrases appended with at least one pre-defined character within online textual
30 content corresponding to the one or more user accounts on social networking websites and
provision the extracted words and phrases as candidates for subsequent selection of the words
or the phrases as spots.
The system according to claim 9, wherein the web-based application is further configured at
least in part, to provision a voice input based option configured to convert one or more words
read from a textual content source by the remote user into a textual format for facilitating the
sharing of the word and the phrase as the spot.
The system according to claim 1, wherein the scanning module is further configured to
periodically scan the plurality of content sources to identify potential spots, wherein a
potential spot from among the potential spots corresponds to one of a word and a phrase
identified with potential of being shared as a spot.
28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the scanning module is configured to identify the
potential spot based on related information comprising at least one of temporal and spatial
information of content in vicinity of the potential spot, presence of significant words in the
content in vicinity of the potential spot, contextual information and semantic sense associated
with the potential spot and the associated content, etymological and ontological inferences
corresponding to the potential spot, identified sentiment associated with the potential spot,
identified context based on grammar extraction corresponding to the potential spot, location
source associated with the potential spot and information to qualify and quantify a relevance
of the potential spot.
29. The system according to claim 28, wherein the potential spots are stored in the storage
module along with the related information, and, wherein the at least one popularity-based
metric is computed for each potential spot for determining a subsequent inclusion of the each
potential spot in the spotting dictionary as a popular spot.
The system according to claim 28, wherein the information related to the spots and the related
information corresponding to the potential spots stored in the storage module is configured to
facilitate in provisioning the one or more remote users with recommendations comprising
related spots and related content during instances of user text entry.
31. The system according to claim 30, wherein the spotting dictionary is configured to include
quantitative data and qualitative data corresponding to the popular spots, wherein the
quantitative data and qualitative data comprises statistical information relating to a popular
spot's historical usage or selection, probability information relating to a popular spot's
historical usage, run-time analytics information and a dictionary priority information.
32. The system as claimed in claim 31, wherein the qualitative data and qualitative data is
configured to facilitate in appropriate provisioning of the popular spots as word completions,
phrase completions, word suggestions, phrase suggestions and next word predictions during
instances of user text entry.
33. A communication device comprising:
a transceiver configured to communicate with a remote system to receive a spotting
dictionary comprising at least a listing of popular spots, wherein a popular spot from among
the popular spots refers to a popular word or a popular phrase being shared in one or more
online communities of remote users;
at least one processor communicably associated with the transceiver;
a memory communicably associated with the transceiver and the at least one processor
and configured to store the spotting dictionary, the memory having stored therein machine
executable instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor, causes the device to:
integrate the spotting dictionary with one or more word dictionaries and facilitate -
provisioning of the popular spots as word completions, phrase completions, word suggestions,
phrase suggestions and next word predictions during instances of user text entry.
34. The communication device according to claim 33, wherein the spotting dictionary is
configured to be one of a language specific dictionary and a multi-lingual dictionary.
35. The communication device according to claim 33, wherein the transceiver is further
configured to receive an interactive web -based application capable of natively residing in the
memory, the web-based application comprising a plurality of user interfaces (UIs) configured
to facilitate sharing of a word or a phrase by the device user associated with the
communication device as a spot, wherein the sharing of the word or the phrase as the spot is
indicative of user interest in the word or the phrase.
36. The communication device according to claim 35, wherein one UI from among the plurality
of UIs is configured to enable a remote user to provision the word or the phrase of user
interest for the subsequent selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
37. The communication device according to claim 36, wherein the one UI is configured to enable
the user to add a user-defined snippet for outlining a context of the spot.
38. The communication device according to claim 36, wherein another UI from among the
plurality of UIs is configured to display the spot among a listing of words and phrases
selected as spots by the remote user.
. '
39. The communication device according to claim 38, wherein one or more spots from among the
spots selected by the remote user comprise an associated spot profile in form of user-defined
information including at least one of a meaning of the spot, an exemplary spot usage instance
and a picture of a location where the spot was first encountered.
40. The communication device according to claim 39, wherein the spot profile is configured to
display a numeral associated with the spot, wherein the numeral is indicative of a combined ;
count of a number of times the spot was shared as a spot and a re-spot in the one or more
online communities of remote user.
41. The communication device according to claim 40, wherein the numeral is further configured
to include at least one of a number of comments associated with the shared spot, a number of
comments associated with the re-spot and a number of instances of adding one of an image,
textual content and video with the shared spot or re-spot in the combined count.
42. The communication device according to claim 40, wherein the numeral is configured to be
displayed as one of a superscript and a subscript to the spot displayed on the spot profile.
43. The communication device according to claim 39, wherein the associated spot profile is
5 configured to be edited by other remote users from among the one or more online
communities of remote users based on permissions afforded to the other remote users through
the web-based application.
44. The communication device according to claim 35, wherein the web-based application is
10 configured to facilitate an option within a set of clipboard options associated with a
highlighted portion of text corresponding to one of an online textual content source and an
offline textual content source, the option configured to enable a selection of the highlighted
portion of the text as the spot.
1 45. The communication device according to claim 35, wherein at least one UI from among the
plurality of UIs is configured to provision access to one of:
a listing of currently trending spots among the one or more online communities of remote
users; and
a listing of remote users from among the one or more remote users associated with the
0 currently trending spots.
46. The communication device according to claims 45, wherein the at least one UI is further
configured to enable the remote user to re-spot a word or a phrase from the listing of currently
trending spots, wherein re-spotting of the word or the phrase is indicative of selecting a
5 spotted word or phrase for subsequent sharing as the spot.
47. The communication device according to claim 45, wherein the at least one UI is further
configured to enable the remote user to annotate the spots selected by other remote users from
among the one or more online communities of remote users with one of comments and tags.
0
48. The communication device according to claim 35, wherein a UI from among the plurality of
UIs is configured to provide alert notifications to the remote user, wherein an alert notification
from among the alert notifications corresponds to intimation corresponding to at least one of a
recently shared spot among the one or more online communities of remote users, a friend
approval request from another remote user and a comment or a tag attributed to the spot
5 shared by the remote user.
49. The communication device according to claim 35, wherein the web-based application is
configured to be linked to one or more user accounts on social networking websites associated
with the remote user.
10
50. The communication device according to claim 49, wherein the web-based application is
configured to prompt the remote user, during text entry on the one or more user accounts on
social networking websites, to append the word or the phase with at least one pre-defined
character to indicate a selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
15
51. The communication device according to claim 49, wherein the web-based application is
configured to extract words or phrases appended with at least one pre-defined character within
online textual content corresponding to the one or more user accounts on social networking
websites and provision the extracted words and phrases as candidates for subsequent selection
20 of the words or the phrases as spots.
52. The communication device according to claim 35, wherein the web-based application is
further configured at least in part, to provision a voice input based option configured to
convert one or more words read from a textual content source by the remote user into a textual
25 format for facilitating the sharing of the word and the phrase as the spot.
53. The communication device according to claim 33, wherein the communication device
comprises one of a personal computer, a mobile phone and a tablet device.
30 54. A method comprising:
periodically scanning a plurality of content sources to identify words and phrases, which
are being shared among one or more online communities of remote users as spots, wherein
sharing of a word or a phrase as a spot by a remote user in an online community from among
the online communities of remote users is indicative of user interest in the word or the phrase;
storing the spots along with information related to the spots, wherein the information
5 related to the spots comprises at least one of identities of one or more remote users from
among one or more online communities of remote users sharing each spot, a contextual
information associated with each spot and online user comments associated with each spot;
determining at least one popularity-based metric for each spot from among the spots
stored in the storage module;
10 generating and periodically updating a spotting dictionary comprising at least a listing of
popular spots based on the at least one popularity-based metric associated with each spot; and
provisioning the spotting dictionary to one or more remote users from among the one or
more online communities of remote users.
1 55. The method according to claim 54, wherein the word or the phrase being shared as the spot by
the remote user is one of a word or a phrase coined by the remote user, a word or a phrase
coined by another remote user in the online community, a word or a phrase encountered for a
first time by the remote user on one of an online content source and an offline content source,
and a known word o phrase associated with a new usage for the remote user.
0
56. The method according to claim 54, further comprising computing one or more parameters for
each spot, wherein a parameter from among the one or more parameters is one of:
a total number of times the each spot is being shared in the one or more online
communities of remote users;
5 a total number of separate instances of sharing the each spot as a new spot by different
remote users within the one or more online communities of remote users;
a total number of times the each spot is being re-spotted within the one or more online
communities of remote users subsequent to sharing the each spot by a remote user;
a popularity parameter signifying a measure of popularity of each remote user involved in
0 sharing the each spot within the one or more online communities of remote users;
a total number of comments associated with the each spot;
a total number of recent comments associated with the each spot;
a total number of recent re-spots associated with each spot; and
a profile parameter configured to account for user additions of at least one of textual
5 content and image content to a spot profile associated with each spot.
57. The method according to claim 56, further comprising:
performing a normalization of the one or more parameters; and
computing a weighted average of the normalized one or more parameters to determine
10 the at least one popularity-based metric for the each spot.
58. The method according to claim 54, wherein the spotting dictionary is configured to be
integrated with one or more word dictionaries and facilitate provisioning of the popular spots
as word completions, phrase completions, word suggestions, phrase suggestions and next
word predictions during instances of user text entry.
59. The method according to claim 54, wherein the spotting dictionary is configured to be one of a
language specific dictionary and a multi-lingual dictionary.
20 60. The method according to claim 54, further comprising scanning one or more user linked
accounts corresponding to a remote user from among the one or more online communities of
remote users for detecting a presence of at least one pre-defined character embedded within .
online textual content, and, to extract a word or a phrase disposed substantially adjacent to at
least one pre-defined character as a spot.
25
61. The method according to claim 54, further comprising facilitating creation of an interactive
web-based application capable of residing natively in a user-device associated with the remote
users, the web-based application comprising a plurality of user interfaces (UIs) configured to
facilitate a sharing of the word or the phrase as the spot.
30
62. The method according to claim 61, wherein one UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to enable the remote user to provision the word or the phrase of user interest for
the subsequent selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
63. The method according to claim 62, wherein the one UI is configured to enable the user to add
a user-defined snippet for outlining a context of the spot.
64. The method according to claim 62, wherein another UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to display the spot among a listing of words and phrases selected as spots by the
remote user.
65. The method according to claim 64, wherein one or more spots from among the spots selected
by the remote user comprise an associated spot profile in form of user-defined information
including at least one of a meaning of the spot, an exemplary spot usage instance and a picture
of a location where the spot was first encountered.
66. The method according to claim 65, wherein the spot profile is configured to display a numeral
associated with the spot, wherein the numeral is indicative of a combined count of a number
of times the spot was shared as a spot and a re-spot in the one or more online communities of
remote user.
67. The method according to claim 66, wherein the numeral is further configured to include at
least one of a number of comments associated with the shared spot, a number of comments
associated with the re-spot and a number of instances of adding one of an image, textual
content and video with the shared spot or re-spot in the combined count.
68. The method according to claim 66, wherein the numeral is configured to be displayed as one
of a superscript and a subscript to the spot displayed on the spot profile.
The method according to claim 65, wherein the associated spot profile is configured to be
edited by other remote users from among the one or more online communities of remote users
based on permissions afforded to the other remote users through the web-based application.
70. The method according to claim 61, wherein the web-based application is configured to
provision an option within a set of clipboard options associated with a highlighted portion of
text corresponding to one of an online textual content source and an offline textual content
5 source, the option configured to enable a selection of the highlighted portion of the text as the
spot.
71. The method according to claim 61, wherein at least one UI from among the plurality of UIs is
configured to provision access to one of:
listing of currently trending spots among the one or more online communities of remote
users; and
listing of remote users from among the one or more remote users associated with the
currently trending spots.
72. The method according to claims 71, wherein the at least one UI is further configured to enable
the remote user to re-spot a word or a phrase from the listing of currently trending spots,
wherein re-spotting of the word or the phrase is indicative of selecting a spotted word or
phrase for subsequent sharing as the spot.
20 73. The method according to claim 71, wherein the at least one UI is further configured to enable
the remote user to annotate the spots selected by other remote users from among the one or
more online communities of remote users with one of comments and tags.
74. The method according to claim 61, wherein a UI from among the plurality of UIs is configured
25 to provide alert notifications to the remote user, wherein an alert notification from among the
alert notifications corresponds to intimation corresponding to at least one of a recently shared
spot among the one or more online communities of remote users, a friend approval request
from another remote user and a comment or a tag attributed to the spot shared by the remote
user.
30
75. The method according to claim 61, wherein the web-based application is configured to be
linked to one or more user accounts on social networking websites associated with the remote
user.
76. The method according to claim 75, wherein the web-based application is configured to
5 prompt the remote user, during text entry on the one or more user accounts on social
networking websites, to append the word or the phase with at least one pre-defined character
to indicate a selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
77. The method according to claim 75, wherein the web-based application is configured to extract
words or phrases appended with at least one pre-defined character within online textual
content corresponding to the one o more user accounts on social networking websites and
provision the extracted words and phrases as candidates for subsequent selection of the words
or the phrases as spots.
15 78. The method according to claim 61, wherein the web-based application is further configured at
least in part, to provision a voice input based option configured to convert one or more words
read from a textual content source by the remote user into a textual format for facilitating the
sharing of the word and the phrase as the spot.
20 79. A computer-readable medium storing a set of computer-readable instructions that when
executed by an apparatus causes the apparatus to:
access a spotting dictionary comprising at least a listing of popular spots, wherein a;
popular spot from among the popular spots refers to a popular word or a popular phrase being
shared in one or more online communities of remote users; and
25 integrate the spotting dictionary with one or more word dictionaries and facilitate
provisioning of the popular spots as word completions, phrase completions, word suggestions,
phrase suggestions and next word predictions during instances of user text entry.
80. The computer-readable medium according to claim 79, wherein the spotting dictionary is
30 configured to be one of a language specific dictionary and a multi-lingual dictionary.
81. The computer-readable medium according to claim 79, further comprising another set of
computer-readable instructions that when executed by the apparatus causes the apparatus to
access an interactive web-based application capable of residing natively in the apparatus, the
web-based application comprising a plurality of user interfaces (UIs) configured to facilitate a
sharing of the word or the phrase as the spot.
82. The computer-readable medium according to claim 81, wherein one UI from among the
plurality of UIs is configured to enable the user to provision the word or the phrase of user
interest for subsequent selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
83. The computer-readable medium according to claim 82, wherein the one UI is configured to
enable the user to add a user-defined snippet for outlining a context of the spot.
84. The computer-readable medium according to claim 82, wherein another UI from among the
plurality of UIs is configured to display the spot among a listing of words and phrases
selected as spots by the user.
85. The computer-readable medium according to claim 84, wherein one or more spots from
among the spots selected by the user comprise an associated spot profile in form of userdefined
information including at least one of a meaning of the spot, an exemplary spot usage
instance and a picture of a location where the spot was first encountered.
86. The computer-readable medium according to claim 85, wherein the spot profile is configured
to display a numeral associated with the spot, wherein the numeral is indicative of a combined
count of a number of times the spot was shared as a spot and a re-spot in the one or more
online communities of remote users.
87. The computer-readable medium according to claim 86, wherein the numeral is further
configured to include at least one of a number of comments associated with the shared spot, a
number of comments associated with the re-spot and a number of instances of adding one of
an image, textual content and video with the shared spot or re-spot in the combined count.
88. The computer-readable medium according to claim 86, wherein the numeral is configured to
be displayed as one of a superscript and a subscript to the spot displayed on the spot profile.
5 89. The computer-readable medium according to claim 85, wherein the associated spot profile is
configured to be edited by other remote users from among the one or more online
communities of remote users based on permissions afforded to the other remote users through
the web-based application.
0 90. The computer-readable medium according to claim 81, wherein the web-based application is
configured to provision an option within a set of clipboard options associated with a
highlighted portion of text corresponding to one of an online textual content source and an
offline textual content source, the option configured to enable a selection of the highlighted
portion of the text as the spot.
15
91. The computer-readable medium according to claim 81, wherein at least one UI from among
the plurality of UIs is configured to provision access to one of:
listing of currently trending spots among the one or more online communities of remote
users; and
0 listing of remote users from among the one or more remote users associated with the
currently trending spots.
92. The computer-readable medium according claim 91, wherein the at least one UI is further
configured to enable the remote user to re-spot a word or a phrase from the listing of currently
5 trending spots, wherein re-spotting of the word or the phrase is indicative of selecting a
spotted word or phrase for subsequent sharing as the spot.
93. The computer-readable medium according to claim 91, wherein the at least one UI is further
configured to enable the remote user to annotate the spots selected by other remote users from
0 among the one or more online communities of remote users with one of comments and tags.
94. The computer-readable medium according to claim 81, wherein a UI from among the plurality
of UIs is configured to provide alert notifications to the user, wherein an alert notification
from among the alert notifications corresponds to intimation corresponding to at least one of a
recently shared spot among the one or more online communities of remote users, a friend
approval request from another remote user and a comment or a tag attributed to the spot
shared by the user.
95. The computer-readable medium according to claim 81, wherein the web-based application is
configured to be linked to one or more user accounts on social networking websites associated
with the user.
96. The computer-readable medium according to claim 95, wherein the web-based application is
configured to prompt the user, during text entry on the one or more user accounts on social
networking websites, to append the word or the phase with at least one pre-defined character
to indicate a selection of the word or the phrase as the spot.
97. The computer-readable medium according to claim 95, wherein the web-based application is
configured to extract words or phrases appended with at least one pre-defined character within
online textual content corresponding to the one or more user accounts on social networking
websites and provision the extracted words and phrases as candidates for subsequent selection
of the words or the phrases as spots.
98. The computer-readable medium according to claim 81, wherein the web-based application is
further configured at least in part, to provision a voice input based option configured to
convert one or more words read from a textual content source by the user into a textual format
for facilitating the sharing of the word and the phrase as the spot.
99. A system comprising:
means for periodically scanning a plurality of content sources to identify words and
phrases, which are being shared among one or more online communities of remote users as
spots, wherein sharing of a word or a phrase as a spot by a remote user in an online
community from among the online communities of remote users is indicative of user interest
in the word or the phrase;
means for storing the spots along with information related to the spots, wherein the
information related to the spots comprises at least one of identities of one or more remote
users from among one or more online communities of remote users sharing each spot, a
contextual information associated with each spot and online user comments associated with
each spot;
means for determining at least one popularity-based metric for each spot from among the
spots stored in the storage module;
means for generating and periodically updating a spotting dictionary comprising at least a
listing of popular spots based on the at least one popularity-based metric associated with each
spot; and
means for provisioning the spotting dictionary to one or more remote users from among
the one or more online communities of remote users.
100. A system comprising:
a scanning module configured to scan one or more user linked accounts corresponding to
a remote user from among one or more online communities of remote users for detecting a
presence of at least one pre-defined character embedded within textual content corresponding
to the one or more user linked accounts;
an application module communicably associated with the scanning module and
configured to extract a,word or a phrase disposed substantially adjacent to the at least one pre¬
defined character; and
a transceiver module communicably associated with the application module and
configured to perform one of:
provision the word or the phrase for user selection as one of a spot and a re-spot,
wherein the selection of the word or the phrase as the spot is indicative of the user interest in
sharing the word or the phrase among the one or more online communities of remote user and,
wherein the selection of the word or the phrase as the re-spot is indicative of user interest in
sharing a spotted word or spotted phrase by another phrase among the one or more online
communities of remote user, and
facilitate automatic selection of the word or the phrase as one of the spot and the
re-spot.
5 101. The system according to claim 100, wherein the application module is configured to extract
the word immediately succeeding a detected pre-defined character from among the at least
one pre-defined character.
102.The system according to claim 100, wherein the application module is configured to extract
0 words disposed between two detected pre-defined characters from among the at least one pre¬
defined character as the phrase if the two detected pre-defined characters are detected within a
pre-defined acceptable distance of each other.
103.The system according to claim 100, wherein the application module is configured to extract
5 the word immediately succeeding two pre-defined characters disposed next to each other for
facilitating subsequent provisioning or automatic selection of the word as the re-spot.
104. The system according to claim 100, wherein a pre-defined character from among the at least
one pre-defined character is one of a symbol, a letter and a mark.
0
105. The system according to claim 104, wherein the pre-defined character from among the at
least one pre-defined character is an asterisk symbol.
106.A system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to accompanying drawings.
5
107. A method substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to accompanying drawings.