Patent Application
20130009880
This application claims, under 35 U.S.C. §119(a), priority to, and the benefit of the earlier filing date of, that Korean Patent Application filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jul. 6, 2011 and assigned Serial No. 10-2011-0066846, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to input devices and more particularly to, an apparatus and method for inputting a character corresponding to a user's gesture.
2. Description of the Related Art
A character inputting apparatus having a touch screen may provide a keypad for allowing a user to input a character. The keypad is partitioned into a plurality of regions, each of which may include at least one of characters in English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, numeric characters, and/or special characters. When a user selects a region from among the plurality of regions, the character inputting apparatus may display a character corresponding to the user selected region on the touch screen.
The character inputting apparatus may provide a plurality of keypads for allowing a user to input various types of characters. Each of the plurality of keypads may be selectively displayed on the touch screen. For example, when an English keypad is displayed on the touch screen, a Korean keypad may be hidden. When one of the plurality of keypads is displayed on the touch screen, the user may select a switch button to display another one of the plurality of keypads on the touch screen.
The user may input a character included in each keypad by using the plurality of keypads which can be displayed on the touch screen. For example, the user may, after inputting a Korean character on a Korean keypad, select a keypad switch button and input a numeric character on a numeric character keypad. However, in switching between the Korean keypad and the numeric character keypad, a time for switching among the different keypads is required. This switching time increases the time needed to complete inputting a message and, also, is inconvenient for the user. Therefore there is a need for a method allowing a user to rapidly input characters of different keypads.
Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for inputting a character of each keypad when characters of different keypads are input in a character inputting apparatus having a touch screen.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character inputting method for a character inputting apparatus which selectively displays a first keypad and a second keypad, the character inputting method including displaying the first keypad on a touch screen while hiding the second keypad, sensing a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the first keypad, dragging the touch and releasing the touch in a position that is different than the touched region extracting a character of a region of the hidden second keypad, the region of the hidden second keypad corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad, and displaying the extracted character of the second keypad on the touch screen.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character inputting method for a character inputting apparatus which selectively displays a first keypad, a second keypad, and a third keypad, the character inputting method including displaying the first keypad on a touch screen while hiding the second keypad and the third keypad, sensing a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the first keypad, dragging the touch releasing the touch in one of a first position and a second position that is different than the touched region, displaying a character of a region of the second keypad on the touch screen the region corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad when the released touch is determined to be in the first position, and displaying a character of a region of the third keypad on the touch screen, the region corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad when the released the touch is determined to be in the second position.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character inputting method for a character inputting apparatus, the character inputting method including displaying a keypad on a touch screen, sensing a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the keypad, displaying a first keypad on the touch screen, and sensing a touching of one of the plurality of regions partitioning the keypad, dragging the touch, and releasing the touch outside the keypad, displaying a second character that is different than a first character associated with the touched region on the touch screen.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character inputting apparatus including a touch screen for displaying a first keypad while hiding a second keypad, a storing unit for storing characters of the first keypad and the second keypad, and a processor for; detecting a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the first keypad, dragging the touch, and sensing a releasing of the touch in a position that is different from the touched region, extracting a character of a region of the hidden second keypad from the storing unit, the region corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad, and displaying the extracted character of the second keypad on the touch screen.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character inputting apparatus including a touch screen for displaying a first keypad while hiding a second keypad and a third keypad, a storing unit for storing characters of the first keypad, the second keypad, and the third keypad, and a processor for, detecting a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the first keypad, dragging the touch, and detecting a releasing of the touch in one of a first position and a second position that is different from the touched region, displaying a character of a region of the second keypad on the touch screen, the region corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad if the released touch is in the first position, and displaying a character of a region of the third keypad on the touch screen, the region corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad if the released touch is in the second position.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character inputting apparatus including a touch screen for displaying a keypad, a storing unit for storing characters of the first keypad and the second keypad, and a processor for detecting a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the keypad, displaying a first keypad on the touch screen, and, dragging the touch, and detecting a releasing of the touch outside the keypad, displaying a second character that is different from the first character on the touch screen in response to the user's gesture.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing a character inputting method including displaying the first keypad on a touch screen while hiding the second keypad, sensing a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the first keypad, dragging the touch, and detecting a releasing of the touch in a position that is different from the touched region extracting a character of a region of the hidden second keypad, the region corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad, and displaying the extracted character of the second keypad on the touch screen.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing a character inputting method including displaying a keypad on a touch screen, sensing a touching of one of a plurality of regions partitioning the keypad, in response to the user's gesture, displaying a first keypad on the touch screen, and, dragging the touch, and detecting a releasing of the touch outside the keypad, displaying a second character that is different from the first character on the touch screen in response to the user's gesture.
The above and other features and advantages of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
A method for producing and using the present invention will be described in detail. While various embodiments of the present invention will be described below, such embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention unless specified in the appending claims.
User gestures are actions for displaying or controlling information on a touch screen, for example, by using a stylus, or more typically, fingers (especially, index fingers) or thumbs of the left and right hands. User gestures may include a touch, a long touch, release of a touch, a drag of a touch, etc. A touch may refer to an action which maintains a touch for a predetermined threshold time, and a long touch may refer to an action which maintains a touch longer than the predetermined threshold time. In particular, a drag of a touch may refer to a user's gesture of touching a region on a touch screen, dragging the touch in a particular direction while maintaining the touch, and then releasing the touch.
A touch may mean a state in which a character inputting apparatus senses that a user's finger or thumb touches the touch screen. For example, when a capacitive-type technique or a surface acoustic wave-type technique is used for a touch sensor, the character inputting apparatus may indicate that the finger or thumb touches the touch screen even if it does not actually touch the touch screen (i.e., closely approaching the touch screen-proximity sensor).
It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that in the present invention, examples of the character inputting apparatus capable of inputting a character through a touch screen may include a tablet, a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a cellular phone, a navigation terminal, an electronic dictionary, a digital frame, and so forth.
Referring to
The touch screen 110 may include a display panel and a touch pad. The display panel may use, for example, a Plasma Display Panel (PDP), an Electronic Paper Display (EPD), a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a Light-emitting Polymer Display (LPD), an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED), an Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED), or an application thereof.
The touch pad may be attached on a side of the display panel to sense a touch generated on the surface of the touch pad and detect coordinates, i.e., a location value, of a touch-generated region. The touch pad may operate according to a resistive scheme, a capacitive scheme, an ultrasonic wave scheme, an optical sensor scheme, an electromagnetic induction scheme, etc. For example, the touch pad using the optical sensor scheme is structured such that a plurality of light-emitting elements and a plurality of light-receiving elements are disposed around a display region, the light-emitting element emits light such as an infrared ray, which then passes the display region to be received by an opposite light-receiving element. The touch pad may include a separate circuit for controlling the driving of the display region and optical elements (the light-emitting elements and the light-receiving elements). In the touch pad using the optical sensor scheme, light-emitting elements and their opposite light-receiving elements are arranged at predetermined intervals and the coordinate values of a light-receiving element corresponding to each light-emitting element is previously set, such that upon generation of a user's touch on the display region, coordinate values of a blocked light is read to detect the touched positioned and the coordinate values are sent to the processor 120.
Under the touch screen 110 may be disposed the processors 120 and the storing unit 130.
The storing unit 130 may store overall programs necessary for operations according to various embodiments of the present invention and user data. The storing unit 130 may use at least one of a volatile memory and a non-volatile memory. For example, the non-volatile memory may be a Read Only Memory (ROM), an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, or the like, and the volatile memory may be a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), or the like.
At least a part of the storing unit 130 may be removable from the character inputting apparatus 100. The removable storing unit 130 may be, for example, a Compact Flash (CF) card, a Secure Digital (SD) card, a Smart Media (SM) card, a Multimedia Card (MMC), a memory stick, etc.
The processor 120 controls the overall operation of each component of the character inputting apparatus 100. For example, methods necessary for operations according to various embodiments of the present invention to be described below may be stored in the form of programs in the memory. Alternatively, some of those methods may be stored in the form of programs in the memory, and some others may be implemented with hardware (circuit or dedicated circuit). The processor 120 reads and interprets at least some of programs held in the storing unit 130, and in response to a user's gesture of touching one of a plurality of regions partitioning a first keypad on the touch screen 110, dragging a touch while maintaining the touch, and releasing the touch in a position different from the touched region, the processor 120 then extracts a character of a second keypad, which is located at a region corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad, among a plurality of regions partitioning the second keypad, and displays the extracted character on the touch screen 110.
Referring to
The character inputting apparatus 100 may include keypad switch buttons 203 and 204, 223 and 224, 243 and 244, 263 and 264 for switch between the plurality of keypads 202, 222, 242, 262. For example, the user may select a Korean/English keypad switch button 203 to switch the Korean keypad 202 to the English Keypad 222. The user may select an English/Korean keypad switch button 223 to switch the English keypad 222 to the Korean keypad 202. The user may select a numeric/special character keypad switch button 243 to switch the numeric character keypad 242 to the special character keypad 262. The user may select a special character/numeric character keypad switch button 263 to switch the special character keypad 262 to the numeric character keypad 242.
Referring to
Referring to
As shown in the diagram 500 of
As shown in diagram 520 of
As shown in diagram 540 of on the first keypad 502, drags the touch, and releases the touch on the character input window 501, the character inputting apparatus 100 may extract a numeric character ‘5’ 541, which is associated with a corresponding region of the second keypad. That is, the character “5” in the hidden keypad corresponds to the region 521 of the character ‘
’ of the first keypad 502. Thus, the extracted character ‘5’ 541 is displayed on the character input window 501. In this case, the extracted character 541 may be displayed on a particular region of the character input window 501 or may be displayed in front of, or at the rear of, a horizontal or vertical prompt icon of the character input window 501.
If the character inputting apparatus 100 senses the touch-released region within the display region of the first keypad 502 in the diagram 540 of ’ on the character input window 501.
A diagram 600 of
Diagram 620 of
Diagram 640 of
Diagram 660 of
Diagram 680 of
As shown in ’ of the first keypad 702 and drags the touch to a character input window 701, a character ‘5’ 703 of the hidden second keypad corresponding to ‘
’ may be displayed on the touch screen (see
’) in the first keypad.
As shown in ’ of the first keypad and a numeric character ‘5’ of the second keypad together.
Referring to
As shown in the diagram 520 of
In step 905, the character inputting apparatus 100 may extract a character associated with a region of the hidden second keypad that corresponds to the touched region of the first keypad in response to the user's gesture. If the touch-released region is within the region where the first keypad is displayed, the character inputting apparatus 100 may extract a character of the touch-released region of the first keypad.
In step 907, the character inputting apparatus 100 may display the extracted character on the touch screen as shown in the diagram 540 of
Referring to
In step 1003, as shown in the diagram 620 or 660 of
If determining that the user's gesture releases the touch in the first position, the character inputting apparatus 100 may display a character associated with a region of the hidden second keypad that corresponds to the touched region of the first keypad, as shown in the diagram 640 of
Referring to
In step 1103, the character inputting apparatus 100 may sense a user's gesture of touching one of a plurality of regions partitioning the keypad.
In step 1105, the character inputting apparatus 100 may determine a type of the user's gesture. If the character inputting apparatus 100 determines that the user's gesture is a touch gesture, the user may display a first character on the touch screen in step 1107. On the other hand, if the character inputting apparatus 100 determines that the user's gesture is a touch drag gesture, the user may display a second character which is different from the first character on the touch screen in step 1109.
The following tables compare a time spent in switching a first keypad to a second keypad (e.g., a numeric character keypad) and inputting a character of the second keypad by using a conventional Korean/numeric character keypad switch button with a time inputting a character of the second keypad by using a scheme according to the present invention, when the character inputting apparatus 100 displays the first keypad (e.g., a Korean character keypad) of a 3×4 keypad type and a QWERTY keypad type, respectively, while hiding the second keypad.
Comparing measurement results according to keypad types in Table 1 and Table 2, for the first keypad of the 3×4 keypad type, a character inputting scheme for the second keypad according to the present invention is faster by about 4.7 times than that using a conventional keypad switch button. For the first keypad of the QWERTY keypad type, a character inputting scheme for the second keypad according to the present invention is faster by about 6 times than that using a conventional keypad switch button.
Referring to
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch screen 110 may display a first keypad while hiding a second keypad.
The user gesture sensing unit 121 may sense a user's gesture of touching one of a plurality of regions partitioning the first keypad, dragging and releasing the touch in a position that is different from the touched region. The touch-released region may be outside a region of the touch screen where the first keypad is displayed.
The character extracting unit 122 may extract, from the storing unit 130, a character associated with a region of the hidden second keypad that corresponds to the touched region of the first keypad in response to the user's gesture. If the touch-released region is within the region where the first keypad is displayed, the character extracting unit 122 extracts a character corresponding to the touched region of the first keypad.
The character display unit 123 may display the character of the second keypad or the first keypad, extracted by the character extracting unit 122, on the touch screen.
The character inputting method of the character inputting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention may be embodied as a program command which can be executed by various computer means (computer, processor, dedicated hardware) and may be recorded on a tangible computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include a program command, a data file, a data structure, and so forth alone or in combination thereof. The program command recorded on the medium may be one specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be one well known and available to those of ordinary skill in the computer software field. Examples of the computer-readable medium may include hardware devices specially configured to store and execute the program command, such as a hard disk, floppy disk, a magnetic medium like a magnetic tape, an optical medium like a Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), etc., a magneto-optical medium like a floptical disk, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a flash memory, and so forth. Examples of the program command may include not only a mechanical language code generated by a compiler, but also a high-level language code executable by a computer using an interpreter. The aforementioned hardware devices may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to execute operations according to the present invention, or vice versa.
As is apparent from the foregoing description, the user can rapidly input a character of each keypad of the character inputting apparatus, which selectively provides different keypads. In particular, when the user continuously input characters of different keypads, the character inputting apparatus can shorten a total character inputting time.
The above-described methods according to the present invention can be implemented in hardware, firmware or as software or computer code that can be stored in a recording medium such as a CD ROM, an RAM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magneto-optical disk or computer code downloaded over a network originally stored on a remote recording medium and to be stored on a local recording medium, so that the methods described herein can be rendered in such software that is stored on the tangible or non-transitory recording medium using a general purpose computer, or a special processor or in programmable or dedicated hardware, such as an ASIC or FPGA. As would be understood in the art, the computer, the processor, microprocessor, controller or the programmable hardware include memory components, e.g., RAM, ROM, Flash, etc. that may store or receive software or computer code that when accessed may be executed by the computer, processor, microprocessor, controller or hardware to implement the processing methods described herein. In addition, it would be recognized that when a general purpose computer accesses code for implementing the processing shown herein, the execution of the code transforms the general purpose computer into a special purpose computer for executing the processing shown herein.
While the present invention has been described with reference to a certain embodiment and drawings, the present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment and those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention should be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof, rather than the described embodiment.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2011-0066846 | Jul 2011 | KR | national |
