Patent Application
20110128235
The present invention generally relates to inputting symbols represented by alphanumeric labels or graphic icons, and more particularly to the selection of an alphanumeric character or a menu item from a plurality of alphanumeric characters, icons, or menu items on a big key input device having a plurality of alphanumeric characters, icons, or menu items on each key.
Many electronic devices, such as aircraft flight deck operational equipment including touch panels (including both opaque touch panels and transparent touch screens), receive input from the aircrew. A touch panel offers intuitive inputting for a computer or other data processing devices. It is especially useful in aircraft cockpit devices where other input devices, such as a keyboard and a mouse, are not easily available.
Touch panels are increasingly being used in the cockpit instead of cursor control devices (CCDs), hard knobs and switches, and hardware keyboards. For alphanumeric input using a touch screen, a virtual keyboard is typically displayed and the user touches the appropriate keys analagous to pushing keys on a real keyboard. However, many of the known panels particularly suited for low end general aviation applications, are relatively small and the use of a full keyboard makes each key so small that unacceptable accuracy of the touch may occur, especially during turbulence or with the use of gloves by the aircrew. These known touch panels require the aircrew's attention over an inordinate amount of time, thereby distracting them from performing other flight duties.
There are many types of touch panel sensing technologies, including capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave. All of these keyboard technologies sense touches on a screen. U.S. Pat. No. 6,492,979 discloses the use of a combination of capacitive touch screen and force sensors. U.S. Pat. No. 7,196,694 discloses the use of force sensors at the peripherals of the touch screen to determine the position of a touch. US patent publication 2007/0229464 discloses the use of a capacitive force sensor array, overlaying a display to form a touch screen. However, none of these known teachings disclose how to select one of a plurality of characters using a single key.
World wide air traffic is projected to double every ten to fourteen years and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) forecasts world air travel growth of five percent per annum until the year 2020. Such growth may cause degradation in safety and performance and an increase in an already high workload of the flight crew. One negative influence on flight performance has been the ability for the aircrew to input data while paying attention to other matters within and outside of the cockpit. The ability to easily and quickly input data can significantly improve situational awareness of the flight crew resulting in increased flight safety and performance by reducing the flight crew workload.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus and method for inputting alphanumeric characters, symbols, or menu items from a plurality of such on a small touch panel having keys sufficiently large for accurate selection. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.
A method for selecting one of a plurality of symbols from a plurality of keys, includes applying a digit to one of the keys, wherein each of the keys include at least two of the plurality of symbols, and swiping a digit across the key in the direction of one of the at least two symbols to select the one symbol.
An input device for selecting a symbol, includes a touch panel keyboard and a processor. The touch panel keyboard has at least one key including a face having two or more of a plurality of symbols disposed thereupon, and sensing circuitry disposed within the at least one key that differentiates the position of the two or more symbols, wherein the sensing circuitry is configured to sense the application of a digit to the face and sense the movement of the digit across the face in the direction of the symbol. The processor is coupled to the sensing circuitry and configured to map the movement of the digit and determine the symbol identified by the mapped movement.
The present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and
The following detailed description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any theory presented in the preceding background of the invention or the following detailed description of the invention.
A keyboard touch panel is disclosed having a plurality of keys, each key containing a plurality of symbols. Symbols as used herein is defined to include alphanumeric characters, icons, signs, words, terms, and phrases. For example, by disposing multiple alphanumeric characters on one key allows for fewer keys, and therefore larger keys, to occupy the same space as typical alphanumeric touch panels. A particular alphanumeric character is selected by sensing the application of a digit, such as a finger or a stylus, to the key containing that character. The digit is then swiped, or moved, in a direction of the particular desired character, characters, or symbol. Each key includes touch sensing circuitry disposed within for sensing the application and movement of the digit in the direction of a particular alphanumeric character from the center of the key.
Referring to
The processor 104 may be any one of numerous known general-purpose microprocessors or an application specific processor that operates in response to program instructions. In the depicted embodiment, the processor 104 includes on-board RAM (random access memory) 103, and on-board ROM (read only memory) 105. The program instructions that control the processor 104 may be stored in either or both the RAM 103 and the ROM 105. For example, the operating system software may be stored in the ROM 105, whereas various operating mode software routines and various operational parameters may be stored in the RAM 103. The software executing the exemplary embodiment is stored in either the ROM 105 or the RAM 103. It will be appreciated that this is merely exemplary of one scheme for storing operating system software and software routines, and that various other storage schemes may be implemented. It will also be appreciated that the processor 104 may be implemented using various other circuits, not just a programmable processor. For example, digital logic circuits and analog signal processing circuits could also be used.
No matter how the processor 104 is specifically implemented, it is in operable communication with the terrain databases 106, the navigation databases 108, and the display devices 116, and is coupled to receive various types of inertial data from the various sensors 112, and various other avionics-related data from the external data sources 114. The processor 104 is configured, in response to the inertial data and the avionics-related data, to selectively retrieve terrain data from one or more of the terrain databases 106 and navigation data from one or more of the navigation databases 108, and to supply appropriate display commands to the display devices 116. The display devices 116, in response to the display commands, selectively render various types of textual, graphic, and/or iconic information. The preferred manner in which the textual, graphic, and/or iconic information are rendered by the display devices 116 will be described in more detail further below.
The terrain databases 106 include various types of data representative of the terrain over which the aircraft is flying, and the navigation databases 108 include various types of navigation-related data. The sensors 112 may be implemented using various types of inertial sensors, systems, and or subsystems, now known or developed in the future, for supplying various types of inertial data, for example, representative of the state of the aircraft including aircraft speed, heading, altitude, and attitude. The ILS provides aircraft with horizontal (or localizer) and vertical (or glide slope) guidance just before and during landing and, at certain fixed points, indicates the distance to the reference point of landing on a particular runway. The GPS receiver 122 is a multi-channel receiver, with each channel tuned to receive one or more of the GPS broadcast signals transmitted by the constellation of GPS satellites (not illustrated) orbiting the earth.
The display devices 116, as noted above, in response to display commands supplied from the processor 104, selectively renders various textual, graphic, and/or iconic information, and thereby supplies visual feedback to the user 109. It will be appreciated that the display device 116 may be implemented using any one of numerous known display devices suitable for rendering textual, graphic, and/or iconic information in a format viewable by the user 109. Non-limiting examples of such display devices include various cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, and various flat panel displays such as various types of LCD (liquid crystal display) and TFT (thin film transistor) displays. The display devices 116 may additionally be implemented as a panel mounted display, a HUD (head-up display) projection, or any one of numerous known technologies. It is additionally noted that the display devices 116 may be configured as any one of numerous types of aircraft flight deck displays. For example, it may be configured as a multi-function display, a horizontal situation indicator, or a vertical situation indicator, just to name a few. In the depicted embodiment, however, one of the display devices 116 is configured as a primary flight display (PFD).
A typical alphanumeric touch panel 200 is shown in
In accordance with a first exemplary embodiment, the touch panel 300 shown in
The desired character on each of these keys 302 through 311 is selected by touching the key and then swiping, or moving, the finger across the face of the key in the direction (heading in degrees) of the desired character from the center of the key.
Referring to
The circuitry 504 includes two or more layers of patterned conductive traces 512, 514 deposited over the substrate. A flexible material 516 is deposited between the first and second patterned conductive traces at the intersection of each first and second conductive traces. The flexible material 516 is a continuous layer and, in the touch screen embodiment, preferably has a transparent elastomeric matrix, such as polyester, phenoxy resin, or silicone rubber.
The conductive traces 512, 514 are coupled to the touch panel controller through tabs 513, 515, respectively. By scanning the rows and columns of the conductive traces 512, 514 and mapping the resistance of the flexible material 516 at each intersection, a corresponding pressure map of the touch screen may be obtained. This map provides both the position and the movement of the corresponding touch.
By being able to sense this change in resistance as the digit moves across the face 508 due to pressure being applied to the pressure sensor 500, the selection of the appropriate alphanumeric character may be accomplished. The change in resistance between the traces 512, 514 is sensed and provided to the touch panel controller 111 and then to the processor 104. A mapping of the moving resistance change is accomplished and a direction is determined In the case of key 308 (
While a touch panel is shown wherein the direction of the swipe is determined by a change in resistance, there are many other technologies available that could be used, including InfraRed and capacitive. And while alphanumeric characters are illustrated in the above exemplary embodiment, a key could contain any two or more symbols, including, for example, alphanumeric characters, icons, signs, words, terms, and phrases, either alone or in combination.
Another exemplary embodiment, of a menu 600, is shown in
Referring to
While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description of the invention, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing an exemplary embodiment of the invention, it being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements described in an exemplary embodiment without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
