Research in Motion was recently granted a patent for the upcoming BlackBerry 10 predictive text engine, which is one of the highlight features of the upcoming OS. This is definitely a good thing for RIM.
Instead of simply hunting for typos, the patented keyboard guesses the next word based either on the context of the words around it or on other criteria, like common used expressions such as “lol” instead of “laugh out loud” and the like.
The device enables editing during text entry and also provides a learning function that allows the disambiguation function to adapt to provide a customized experience for the user. The disambiguation function can be selectively disabled and an alternate keystroke interpretation system provided. Additionally, the device can facilitate the selection of variants by displaying a graphic of a special key of the keypad that enables a user to progressively select variants generally without changing the position of the user’s hands on the device.
About the only time the technology doesn’t predict words is for passwords.
Some very intriguing technology RIM has here. We can hardly wait to see it in action in its final form!