A hand-held device is provided. The hand-held device includes a rotary wheel, a first switch, a second switch, an encoder, a memory, and a controller. The rotary wheel has a plurality of positioning inputs. The encoder is responsive to operations on the rotary wheel and outputs positioning codes. The memory stores a plurality of input modes, wherein each input mode includes characters corresponding to positioning codes. The controller obtains an input mode from the memory, and shifts a current input mode to the input mode obtained in responsive to an input from the first switch. The controller inputs a character of the current input mode according to a positioning code that the encoder outputs in response to an input from the second switch. The above-mentioned rotary wheel can replace keyboard in the hand-held device.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic, front view of a hand-held device with a character input rotary wheel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a hardware infrastructure of the hand-held device of FIG. 1.
Claims
1. A hand-held device comprising:
a rotary wheel having a plurality of positioning inputs;a first switch;a second switch;an encoder responsive to operation on the rotary wheel and outputting positioning codes;a memory storing a plurality of input modes, wherein each input mode includes a plurality of characters corresponding to the positioning codes; anda controller configured for obtaining an input mode from the memory, and shifting a current input mode to the input mode obtained in responsive to an input from the first switch;the controller inputs a character of the current input mode according to a positioning code that the encoder outputs in response to an input from the second switch.
2. The hand-held device of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of character regions corresponding to the input modes, each character region including a plurality of icons corresponding to the positioning inputs of the rotary wheel, each icon including a character.
3. The hand-held device of claim 1, further comprising an indicator to indicate the positioning input of the rotary wheel.
4. The hand-held device of claim 3, wherein the indicator is placed on the rotary wheel.
5. The hand-held device of claim 1, wherein the first switch is adjacent to the rotary wheel.
6. The hand-held device of claim 1, wherein the second switch is placed on the rotary wheel.
7. The hand-held device of claim 5, wherein the first switch and the second switch are buttons.
8. The hand-held device of claim 6, wherein the first switch and the second switch are buttons.
Patent Application
20070195071
