Patent Application
20080182599
1. Field
The disclosed embodiments generally relate to communication devices, and in particular to a user interface for a communication device.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Many electronic devices allow a user to input, for example, text into the device for sending messages, making notes, creating documents or event entries. The user input capabilities of the electronic devices are generally provided with either a hardware implemented interface such as, for example, a keyboard with buttons or keys or by a software implemented interface through the use of, for example, a touch screen of the device.
Input through hardware implemented devices such as keyboards allow a relatively high level of comfort and fast input speeds. However, a large number of input keys or buttons and an extensive amount of mechanics must be provided to the user to allow for easy input of information. For example, number keys, letter keys, punctuation keys, special character keys, etc. should be provided to the user to allow for easy input. However, depending on the user, providing this large array of buttons or keys may result in a significant number of buttons that are rarely used. In addition, when keyboards are used on small devices, the keyboards are made as small as possible in an attempt to provide as many keys to user using the limited amount of space available on the device. The small keys may also prove difficult for a user to operate.
Input through a touch screen is generally performed with a pointing device such as, for example, a stylus or a user's finger. Where a stylus is used the small tip of the stylus enables a greater number of software implemented menu items in the form of buttons or elements to be displayed on the screen for selection by the user. However, the small size of these soft keys can prohibit the user from using a finger to activate or select the soft key. Mechanical buttons are not needed when inputting information through a touch screen, which allows the soft keys or input elements to be adapted to the current language, input context, etc. However, input using the touch screen is slower and more cumbersome to the user than inputting information through a keyboard. For example, the stylus may require the user to take out the stylus and place it back in its storage location after each use. The stylus also occupies one hand of the user where a user generally holds the device in one hand while inputting information with the stylus in the other making it hard for the user to use the hand not holding the device for something else. This mode of input also does not allow a user to use both hands for inputting information. Generally, where software and hardware input methods exist in a device the user of the device can choose whether the stylus and touch screen are to be used as an input method or whether the keyboard is to be used as the input method but the user cannot use both concurrently for inputting, for example, text.
Other devices include both hardware and software implemented user interfaces however, the software and hardware user interfaces are generally not used in conjunction with each other when inputting text. For example, menu items are generally presented on a screen of the device and may be accessed through a touch screen implementation or through soft keys of the device. However, the soft keys generally do not allow a user to input, for example, text in combination with a keyboard of the device. In other attempts to aid the user with textual input, text prediction software is used to try and predict a word the user is inputting. However, the wrong words can be presented to the user such that almost every character of the word needs to be entered before the correct word is predicted by the text prediction software.
It would be advantageous to have a user interface that combines features of both hardware and software implemented input methods to provide quick and easy input of information.
In one aspect, the disclosed embodiments are directed to a method that includes activating an application, determining if data or at least a portion of a message is present and displaying candidate selections related to the data or at least a portion of the message that are available to the user for selection where the candidate selections supplement a user input related to the data or portion of the message.
In another aspect, the disclosed embodiments are directed to an apparatus that includes a first input, a display, a second input and a processor connected to the first and second input and the display, the processor is configured to cause a presentation of candidate selections on the display in response to a user input through the second input, wherein information is entered with the second input in conjunction with selecting the candidate selections through the first input so that the candidate selections supplement the user input.
In another aspect, the disclosed embodiments are directed to a computer program product. In one embodiment the computer program product includes a computer useable medium having computer readable code means embodied therein for causing a computer to display candidate selections related to the data or at least a portion of the message that are available to the user for selection. The computer readable code means in the computer program product includes computer readable program code means for causing a computer to activate an application, computer readable program code means for causing a computer to determining if data or at least a portion of a message is present and computer readable program code means for causing a computer to displaying candidate selections related to the data or at least a portion of the message that are available to the user for selection where the candidate selections supplement a user input related to the data or portion of the message.
The foregoing aspects and other features of the embodiments are explained in the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
The disclosed embodiments generally allow a user to quickly and easily enter information into a device 100. The device 100 has a user interface that includes at least a keyboard 110 and a display 120. The display 120 can comprise or include a touch screen that can be used to select or input information. The touch screen may be incorporated as part of the display 120 or can be provided as a separate user interface screen or area 125. Generally a user of the device inputs information such as, for example text, using the keyboard 110 of the device. In accordance with the disclosed embodiments, menu selection items or candidates pertaining to, for example, functions of the device 100 or character inputs can be presented to the user for selection using the touch screen to provide the user with an enhanced input experience. The candidates presented to the user through the display may include any items such as, for example, individual characters, character strings (including but not limited to words, phrases, sentences, abbreviations, etc.), images, avatars, animations or any other suitable information (collectively referred to herein as “characters”) that the user is likely to use in conjunction with inputting information into the device 100. The candidates can be used to supplement information that the user is inputting through the keyboard and provide a more efficient and expedient manner in which to input the information. These candidates will generally be referred to herein as the “supplemental selections” for the hardware keyboard input. The supplemental selections may be context sensitive and depend on, for example, the context or current task and application of the device 100 as well as what the user has previously inputted into the device 100. The supplemental selections can be used to provide input selections that are based on the prediction of possible future input (e.g. text prediction, error corrections, and the like as will be described in greater detail below) to assist the user with inputting information in an efficient and accurate manner.
The exemplary device 100 shown in
The device 100 may be configured to access a network 130 as will be described in greater detail below. The network may be, for example a wide area network, a local area network, a cellular network, the World Wide Web or internet. The device may be further configured to communicate with other devices such as, mobile communication devices (e.g. cellular phones, PDAs, etc.) or stationary devices (e.g. landline phones, desktop computers, etc.) as will also be described in greater detail below.
Referring now to
In the example shown in
In this example, the information bar 330 includes indicators that can identify the type of application (e.g. in this example it is a chat application), an alert status (e.g. ring tone and the like) of the device 100, a battery life of the device 100 and an option to close the chat application. The application area 320 of the display 120 is generally used to present the main functionality of the application, and may allow the user of the device 100 to view, for example, chat room communications, web pages, calendar entries or any other suitable information. In this example, the application area includes the thread or discussion contents of the chat participants. The input display area 310 of the display 120 may allow the user to see, for example, characters, character strings, symbols, icons or avatars the user inputs into the device 100 before they are placed in the application area 320. In alternate embodiments, the text may be inputted directly into the application area 320. The input display area 310 may also provide the user with editing or navigation options such as spell check, cut, paste, next page, back, home, etc. As noted above, the candidate selection menu 300 of the display 120 includes supplemental selections that might be presented to the user during operation of the device.
In this example the application area 320 is located towards the top of the screen 120. The input display area 310 is located below the application area 320. The candidate selection menu 300 is located below the input display area 310 or closest to the keyboard 110. It is noted that the placement of the different portions 300, 310, 320 is merely exemplary and the different portions may be presented in any suitable locations of the display 120. In this example the candidate selection menu 300 is shown as a “panel” (e.g. a rectangular area) on the display 120. In alternate embodiments the candidate selection menu 300 may take any suitable form on the display 120. The candidate selection menu 300 is located proximate the keyboard 110 in this example to allow the user to access the supplemental selection areas 345-375 with the user's fingers without having to excessively re-posture the user's hands while the user is concurrently operating the keyboard 110.
The candidate selection menu 300 is generally configured to present to the user any suitable candidates. For example, the candidate selection menu 300 may be configured so that the most used candidates are presented in an area configured, for example, as buttons that are suitably sized for selection by a user's finger or other touch screen input device. In other embodiments the characters may be presented in areas configured in any suitable manner. There may be a settings menu in the device 100 that allows the user to select or set the number of candidate areas that are presented in the candidate selection menu. For example, in ”, a representation of a flirting smiley, a representation of a surprised smiley, “DOOd!” and “LOL”. The characters in the areas 345-375 may represent the most used characters for the chat application, user defined characters or a combination of the most used characters and user defined characters. In this example, in response to the last thread posting by “Superman” the user would like to indicate he is laughing out loud. Rather than manually pressing each key for the sequence “L-O-L” the user selects the area 375 corresponding to the abbreviation “LOL” and that character string is automatically inserted into the reply message in a suitable or selected position.
In other embodiments, the size of the areas 345-375 may automatically change depending on the number of candidate selections that are presented to the user. The user may be able to specify a size of each of the areas (e.g. width and height) so that as candidate selections are added to the candidate selection menu 300 the size of each individual button does not become smaller than the specified size.
The characters presented in the candidate selection menu 300 are generally intended to allow faster and easier input of information into the device than using just the keyboard. For example, if the “@” symbol is presented in an area in the candidate selection menu 300, it can be faster to select the area corresponding to the “@” symbol than pressing the “shift” and number “2” key on a QWERTY keyboard or trying to access the “@” symbol on a T9 keyboard. In another example, as shown in
The information presented in the candidate selection menu 300 may be context sensitive. For example, when the user is sending an email the most frequently used candidates for emailing can be available for presentation to and for selection by the user. For example, when the user opens the email application some frequently used characters can be presented. As the user starts to interact with the application by, for example, typing a message, the device can try to predict what characters, strings, or images might be used, and display those in the selection menu. Alternatively, the device can scan a received message, and present possible or predicted options for any reply. When the user is making notes in, for example a note pad of the device, the most frequently used candidates for making notes made available for presentation and selection by the user. When the user is using a calculator application the most frequently used candidates in the calculator application are made available for presentation and selection by the user. The candidates presented in the candidate selection menu 300 may be different for each of the applications in the device. For example, in a calculator function the candidates “+”, “=”, “−” and “/” may be examples of some of the most frequently used characters. In a web browsing application the candidates “www.”, “.com” and “.org” may be examples of some of the most frequently used and in an email application the candidates “!”, “?”, “”, “
” and “$” may be examples of some of the most frequently used. In other embodiments, the candidates in the candidate selection menu may change upon the detection of a predetermined condition. For example, when the user is typing a note in a notes application and enters the character string “http://” the device 100 may recognize this string of characters and present candidates pertaining to the world wide web (e.g. “www.”, “.com”, etc.) in the candidate selection menu 300. The device 100 may return to the most frequently used candidates for the notes application after a determination that the user is no longer inputting information pertaining to the world wide web.
In one embodiment, the device may be configured to automatically learn which candidates are the most frequently used for a respective application. For example, the device can recognize which characters are used, and the frequency of the user in conjunction with an application (”, “
” and “$” are the most frequently used characters in an email application and record the same as candidates in a memory so that when the email application is activated by the user of the device 100, the most frequently used candidates are made available in the candidate selection menu 300 for presentation and for selection by the user (
In other embodiments, the user may customize the candidate selection menu 300 by defining the candidates that are to be included in the candidate selection menu 300 (
The candidate selection menu 300 and the keyboard 110 may be configured to work synchronously with each other to allow the user of the device to utilize both the keyboard 110 and the candidate selection menu 300 in conjunction with each other to quickly and easily enter information into the device 100.
Referring now to
Referring to
An exemplary screen shot 500 representing a notes application of the device 100 is shown in
Referring now to
It is noted that in the case of the presentation of alternate words in the candidate selection menu 640, the alternate words may or may not appear in the notes application area 510 before the user selects the alternate word from the search results. For example, the device 100 may recognize the string of keys pressed by the user, search the dictionaries/databases and present the words which can be formed from the sequence of pressed keys as candidates for selection by the user. This may save the user time in that the user only has to hit each key corresponding to a letter of the word only once rather than having to, for example, press the “9” key three times to get to the letter “y” and so on.
Referring now to
The device may have any suitable settings menu to allow the user to select which mode or function the device is to operate (e.g. spell check, text/word prediction, most commonly used candidates, etc.). It is also noted that the different modes of the device may be used individually or in combination. For example, the word prediction and spell check modes may be used at the same time. In other embodiments there may be, for example, a toggle key provided on the device that allows the user to switch between the different modes of the device without having to navigate through a menu. In other embodiments the mode of the device may be dependent on the application. For example in a word processing application, such as the notes application, the device may default to the one or more of the spell check, text/word prediction modes while in a text messaging application the device may default to a most used candidate mode corresponding to the application.
One embodiment of a device 100 in which aspects of the disclosed embodiments may be employed is illustrated in greater detail in
In one embodiment, the device 100, may be for example, a PDA style device 900 illustrated in
The voltage regulators 1021 form the interface for the speaker 1005, the microphone 1006, the LED drivers 1001 (for the LEDS backlighting the keypad 1007 and the display 1003), the SIM card 1022, battery 1024, the bottom connector 1027, the DC jack 1031 (for connecting to the charger 1033) and the audio amplifier 1032 that drives the (hands-free) loudspeaker 1025.
A processor 1018 can also include memory 1002 for storing any suitable information and/or applications associated with the mobile communications device such as, for example, those described herein.
The processor 1018 also forms the interface for peripheral units of the device, such as for example, a (Flash) ROM memory 1016, the graphical display 1003, the keypad 1007, a ringing tone selection unit 1026, an incoming call detection unit 1028. In alternate embodiments, any suitable peripheral units for the device can be included.
The software in the RAM 1015 and/or in the flash ROM 1016 contains instructions for the processor 1018 to perform a plurality of different applications and functions such as, for example, those described herein.
The mobile terminals 1100, 1106 may be connected to a mobile telecommunications network 1110 through radio frequency (RF) links 1102, 1108 via base stations 1104, 1109. The mobile telecommunications network 1110 may be in compliance with any commercially available mobile telecommunications standard such as GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS, CDMA2000, FOMA and TD-SCDMA.
The mobile telecommunications network 1110 may be operatively connected to a wide area network 1120, which may be the internet or a part thereof. An internet server 1122 has data storage 1124 and is connected to the wide area network 1120, as is an internet client computer 1126. The server 1122 may host a www/hap server capable of serving www/hap content to the mobile terminal 1100.
For example, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 1130 may be connected to the mobile telecommunications network 1110 in a familiar manner. Various telephone terminals, including the stationary telephone 1132, may be connected to the PSTN 1130.
The mobile terminal 1100 is also capable of communicating locally via a local link 1101 to one or more local devices 1103. The local link 1101 may be any suitable type of link with a limited range, such as for example Bluetooth, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) link, a wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) link, an IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) link, an RS-232 serial link, etc. The local devices 1103 can, for example, be various sensors that can communicate measurement values to the mobile terminal 1100 over the local link 1101. The above examples are not intended to be limiting, and any suitable type of link may be utilized. The local devices 1103 may be antennas and supporting equipment forming a WLAN implementing Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX, IEEE 802.16), WiFi (IEEE 802.11x) or other communication protocols. The WLAN may be connected to the internet. The mobile terminal 1100 may thus have multi-radio capability for connecting wirelessly using mobile communications network 1110, WLAN or both. Communication with the mobile telecommunications network 1110 may also be implemented using WiFi, WiMax, or any other suitable protocols, and such communication may utilize unlicensed portions of the radio spectrum (e.g. unlicensed mobile access (UMA)).
The disclosed embodiments may also include software and computer programs incorporating the process steps and instructions described herein that are executed in different computers.
Computer systems 1202 and 1204 may also include a microprocessor for executing stored programs. Computer 1202 may include a data storage device 1008 on its program storage device for the storage of information and data. The computer program or software incorporating the processes and method steps incorporating aspects of the invention may be stored in one or more computers 1202 and 1204 on an otherwise conventional program storage device. In one embodiment, computers 1202 and 1204 may include a user interface 1210, and a display interface 1212 from which aspects of the invention can be accessed. The user interface 1210 and the display interface 1212 can be adapted to allow the input of queries and commands to the system, as well as present the results of the commands and queries.
In accordance with the embodiments described herein the candidate selection menu may be provided as a semi-dedicated user interface area of the display. The candidate selection menu may not be displayed when, for example, there are no most frequently used characters, predicted text/words, etc., to present to a user. When the candidate selection menu is displayed the other user interface content (e.g. the application areas, toolbars, etc.) may be automatically resized in any suitable manner so that the candidate selection menu is presented on the display so as not to obstruct the user's view of the other user interface areas.
The disclosed embodiments may allow a user to quickly and easily enter information into an device by implementing both a keyboard of the device in conjunction with a touch enabled screen of the device. Generally a user of the device inputs information such as, for example, text using the keyboard of the device. In accordance with the disclosed embodiments, candidate selection menus or areas are presented to the user, which include characters that can be selected using the touch screen display to provide the user with an enhanced input experience. The candidate selections presented to the user through the touch screen display may contain any suitable information such as individual text characters, text strings, images and the like that supplement whatever information the user is inputting through the keyboard. The candidate selection menu may be a context sensitive area of the display that depends on, for example, the context or current task and application of the device as well as what the user has previously inputted into the device. The candidate selection menu and the candidates included therein may provide and predict possible future input (e.g. text/word prediction, error corrections, and the like) to assist the user with inputting information in an efficient and accurate manner by supplementing the inputting of information through, for example, the keyboard.
The disclosed embodiments incorporate the ability for fast input speeds of the hardware implemented keyboards and the dynamic content of the software implemented inputs (e.g. touch screen display) to allow a user to quickly and easily input information into the device. The full input method does not have to be provided with the candidate selection menu as the candidate selection menu works in conjunction with the hardware implemented inputs to enhance the abilities of the hardware implemented inputs.
It should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the embodiments. Various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the embodiments. Accordingly, the disclosed embodiments are intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances that fall within the scope of the appended claims.
