Patent ID: 7194684

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for detecting spelling errors in a target text-string, comprising: comparing the target text-string to a database of contexts and determining from the comparison, a set of contexts characterized as X contexts, where each of the X contexts are characterized as including a correct spelling of the target text-string, and Y contexts, where each of the Y contexts are characterized as including an incorrect spelling of a reference text-string; and computing a likelihood that the target text-string is a misspelling of the reference text-string as a function of one of X or Y, relative to a combination of X and Y; characterizing a context as including an incorrect spelling of the reference text-string in response to occurrences of the reference text-string in the context being at least equal to a pre-determined minimum quantity threshold, and a ratio of reference text-string occurrences in the context to target text-string occurrences in the context being greater than a pre-determined ratio threshold.