The emergence and popularity of mobile computing has made portable electronic devices, due to their compact design and light weight, a staple in today's marketplace. In addition, many of these portable electronic devices include a touchscreen display device configured to detect the location and presence of a user's desired touch input. For example, a user's finger or a passive object, such as a stylus, may come into physical contact with the touchscreen display so as to register as an input at said location. Furthermore, some portable electronic devices include an on-screen virtual keyboard for enabling and facilitating character input on the touchscreen display by the user. Since typing and text entry are commonplace on traditional keyboards, efficient replication of these natural actions is essential for the success of portable electronic devices having touchscreen functionality.
The features and advantages of the inventions as well as additional features and advantages thereof will be more clearly understood hereinafter as a result of a detailed description of particular embodiments of the invention when taken in conjunction with the following drawings in which:
The following discussion is directed to various embodiments. Although one or more of these embodiments may be discussed in detail, the embodiments disclosed should not be interpreted, or otherwise used, as limiting the scope of the disclosure, including the claims. In addition, one skilled in the art will understand that the following description has broad application, and the discussion of any embodiment is meant only to be exemplary of that embodiment, and not intended to intimate that the scope of the disclosure, including the claims, is limited to that embodiment.
Generally, when an on-screen keyboard is activated by components of the portable electronic device, the keyboard is simply displayed as a graphical element on the display unit. More particularly, individual key caps or characters of the keyboard are shown as elements forming a key legend. Due to the size of the virtual keyboard and key legend, in addition to the flat surface of the touchscreen display, many users find it difficult and cumbersome for efficient typing or text entry. Unlike a physical keyboard, there are no tactile-defined areas for these generic virtual keyboards. That is, the keys of standard virtual keyboards are only two-dimensional such that the user may visualize the keyboard, but cannot actually feel or depress individual keys.
Examples of the present invention provide a haptic on-screen keyboard for a portable electronic device. In particular, each key of the on-screen keyboard includes a tactile boundary area so as to create a haptic feedback mechanism for the user operating (i.e. typing) the touch-enabled display of the portable electronic device. With tactile boundaries configured for each individual key of the key legend, a haptic feedback area is created for the user to quickly identify the location of each key. As a result, a user may type with more precision and efficiency. Accordingly, examples of the present invention provide a haptic feedback mechanism for touch-enabled portable electronic devices, thus creating a more responsive and familiar typing environment for the user.
Referring now in more detail to the drawings in which like numerals identify corresponding parts throughout the views,
In the present example, the portable electronic device 200 is in a keyboard mode such that a top portion 210a of the graphical user interface displays an image or graphic, while a lower portion 210b displays a virtual keyboard 215 comprising of a plurality of individual keys or key selectors forming a key legend. As shown here, the virtual keyboard represents a standard QWERTY keyboard including rows of key selectors 216a-216d such as alphanumeric characters 217a-217f for example. The virtual keyboard 215 may also include numerical characters, punctuation characters, command characters, symbols, and the like. Furthermore, each key selector of the virtual keyboard includes a haptic border region 219a-219f created by a plurality of electrical members positioned on a back side of the display unit. The haptic border regions 219a-219f are created by the tractable members and represent an outline of each individual key selector 217a-217f so as to allow the user to easily identify each key selector of the virtual keyboard 215.
According to one example of the present invention, tractable members 314 comprises of a conductive board of electoactive polymers configured to expand outward or rise perpendicularly with respect to the display unit upon receiving voltage from the processing unit via electrical connection 330. Tractable members 314 may be any material, actuator, sensor or the like configured to change in size and/or shape upon being stimulated by an electrical field, or mechanically. In one example, each tractable member is formed to correspond to a border region of each key selector of the virtual keyboard. Alternatively, the tractable members forming the haptic border regions may be formed for only a single key of the virtual keyboard, for two or more keys but not all, or for only a portion of the virtual keyboard.
In step 506, the processing unit determines if a touch input is received from the operating user. The touch input may be a user's finger or stylus physically touching an object of the graphical user interface, such as an individual key selector of the virtual keyboard. If a touch input is received on the virtual keyboard, then in step 508 the processing unit determines a target key selector based on the location of the touch input. Once the precise location of the touch input is determined, then in step 510, the processing unit registers the character associated with the key selector as the desired touch input. For example, if the user physically presses the character “R” on the virtual keyboard, then the processing unit registers and outputs the letter “R” on the graphical user interface associated with the display unit. On the other hand, if a touch input is not received, then in step 512 the processing unit determines if the graphical user interface should switch from the keyboard mode to a standard display mode. Again, this determination can be made automatically based on the orientation of the portable electronic device (e.g. switch from landscape to portrait), or upon manual activation from a user via a physical button, a menu option, or similar method. Upon switching to a display mode, the processing unit stops the supply of voltage to the tractable members (e.g. electroactive polymers) so as deactivate the haptic border regions of the virtual keyboard by causing the tractable members to revert back to an inactive state and the smaller, original size.
Examples of the present invention provide a haptic virtual keyboard for a touch-enabled display of a portable electronic device. According to one example, tractable members such as electroactive polymers are mounted on the backside of a display unit so that each corresponds with an outline (i.e. border region) of each letter or symbol of the virtual keyboard. Voltage from a processing unit coupled to the tractable members causes the border regions of the key selectors to activate when in a keyboard mode. In particular, the border around each key of the virtual keyboard will be raised in order to give the user a tactile feedback, i.e. the user can feel where the individual key starts and ends.
In addition, several advantages are afforded by the examples of the present invention. Haptic border regions allow the operating user to both see and rub the physical on-screen boundaries of the keyboard. As such, this configuration creates individual boundaries for the key legends and allows the user to locate and sense each key easily. This will facilitate more efficient text entry because it gives the user the effect of typing using physical buttons as on an external keyboard. Furthermore, by utilizing electroactive materials embedded within the device, these haptic borders can be raised accordingly, and when the virtual keyboard isn't in use the front surface of display immediately returns to a level or flush state.
Furthermore, while the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize that numerous modifications are possible. For example, although exemplary embodiments depict a notebook computer and tablet computer as the portable electronic device, the invention is not limited thereto. For example, the portable electronic device may be a netbook, an all-in-one computer, a smartphone, or any other electronic device configured with a touch-enabled display.
Furthermore, the virtual keyboard and tractable members may be positioned at various locations with respect display unit as opposed to the lower half of the display as described and depicted herein. For example, the virtual keyboard and corresponding electrical border regions may be positioned on the upper half of the display or in a central area of the display. Thus, although the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/US10/50483 | 9/28/2010 | WO | 00 | 1/22/2013 |