The present disclosure relates generally to virtual keyboard entry, and more particularly to correcting erroneously entered letter, number, and/or symbol keys.
Keyboards on devices are used to enter information. A traditional keyboard for a computer or PC allows the user to enter information, create documents, access and search the Internet, create emails, etc. More recently, smaller devices are also incorporating keyboards to enter information. Some examples include PDAs, smart phones, and remote controls. However, due to the small sizes of some of these types of devices, the keyboard can sometimes be very small, such as on a Blackberry® phone. As a result, users may have difficulty pressing the desired letter, number, or symbol, especially users with larger fingers.
One solution is to have a virtual keyboard for the device. Virtual keyboards can be temporary larger displays of a keyboard, which may allow the user to more easily select the desired key. One example of this type of keyboard is the iPhone®, which displays a keyboard on screen when needed, such as creating a text message to send, entering a web site address, creating an email, etc. The user uses a finger to select the desired keys. When a selected key is not the desired one, the user uses a backspace key to delete the earlier entry and then attempts to select the desired key again. This can be cumbersome and frustrating, especially with repeated entry of erroneous keys.
Another type of virtual keyboard is associated with controls, which allows a user to enter information using arrow buttons on the control either on the screen of the control or on the screen of a display device, such as a television set. Typically, an on-screen menu is presented to the user with some sort of keypad (e.g., QWERTY or sequential). The user presses up, down, left or right arrows to move the selection to the desired key or entry and presses an okay or select button to select the key. If the selection is not correct, the user selects a backspace key to delete the entry and re-selects a key. Even without erroneous selections, this process can be cumbersome for the user to navigate through the keys using only arrows.
Accordingly, there is a need to easily navigate and select desired entries from a virtual keypad, as well as easily make corrections to erroneously entered keys.
Same reference numbers indicate the same step or element in the figures.
According to one aspect of the disclosure, a letter, symbol, or number is entered on a virtual keypad. If the device has a virtual keyboard with a touch pad interface, the key is entered by touching or tapping the desired key and waiting a predetermined amount of time or entering the next key. If the entry is incorrect (typically because the user tapped an adjacent key), the user can correct the entry by pressing a directional arrow, such as an up, down, left, or right arrow to the desired entry. If the entry is now correct, the user can press a select key to select the entry (or the entry is automatically selected after a predetermined period of time or when another key is selected by touching or tapping the virtual keyboard. The next key may then be entered. In one embodiment, the arrows and select key are located on one side of the device, with the select button in the middle of the four arrow keys, where the user may press the arrow or select keys with a single finger, such as the user's thumb.
In another embodiment, the device is a control that controls a virtual keyboard separate from the control, e.g., a free-space control. By pointing the control to a desired key from a virtual keyboard on a display device, such as a television screen, desired letters, numbers, or symbols may be selected. Once the control is pointed at the desired key, the user presses a select button to enter the key. If this turns out to be incorrect, the user may press an up, down, left, or right arrow to move the selection to an adjacent key. In one embodiment, the user may scroll to the desired key. When the correct entry is shown, selection is made by the user pressing a select key or automatically after a predetermined amount of time. The select button is in the middle of the four directional arrows or a scrolling means so that the user can simply move to and select a desired key with only one finger, such as a thumb.
As a result, the user can easily correct a keyboard entry without requiring the user to move or reposition the user's hands and/or eyes.
Once the entry is made, a determination is made, at step 104, whether the selected entry is the desired or correct entry or key. If the selected entry is the desired one, the selection is confirmed at step 106. Confirmation may be accomplished by the user selecting, pressing, or touching a “select,” “enter,” or “ok” button, by the user simply waiting a predetermined amount of time without doing anything, entering a subsequent key, or other suitable means. Once confirmed, the user ends the process or selects the next entry at step 102, depending on whether the user has finished entering all the desired numbers, letters, and/or symbols, as determined at step 108.
If the determination is made at step 104 that the entry was incorrect, the user moves the selection, at step 110, up, down, left or right to the desired entry. An incorrect entry may occur if the user inadvertently taps/touches an adjacent key (usually directly adjacent to the desired entry), which may be relatively common due to the small size of many virtual keyboards. Incorrect entries may be especially susceptible with users having large fingers or attempting entry in an unstable environment, such as in a moving car, walking, or on a plane. With a free-space control, the user may mistakenly point the control at an entry adjacent to the desired entry due to such factors as distance, accuracy of the control, environmental conditions (e.g., bright light), etc. It is noted that the correction is after entry of a key, where the initial entry may be with the user selecting a key and waiting a predetermined amount of time, with the user selecting a subsequent key, or with the user actively confirming or entering a key with a button.
In one embodiment, the movement at step 110 may be accomplished by the use of arrow keys, where each selection or press of the key by the user moves the entry up, down, left, or right one key. Movement can also be by other suitable means, such as a scroll pad, scroll wheel, or scroll knob. Once the user moves the entry, a determination is made, at step 112, whether the newly selected entry is correct. If so, the selection is confirmed as before. Typically, the incorrect key is only one key away from the desired key and thus movement by one key is usually sufficient to correct the entry. However, there may be situations where the correct entry or key is more than one key away, such as when the user is bumped when making the initial entry. In this case, the determination at step 112 is that the newly selected entry is still incorrect. The user then moves the selection again, at step 110. This continues until the correct or desired entry is obtained. By allowing the user to use directional controls to move beyond adjacent keys, it is easier and quicker for the user to correct entries that are farther away, without requiring the user to sequentially select adjacent keys, such as in the case of moving along pre-set radio stations.
Using such a method, a user can quickly and easily make corrections to any erroneously selected key from a virtual keyboard without the user having to take time to look at the control, move the user's hands significantly, or other time consuming and cumbersome methods used previously. A set of arrow keys (or other suitable means) positioned with a select button such that the user can operate both with a single hand and a means for entering a key from a virtual keyboard using the other hand make this possible. The means for entering may be a touch pad interface with a virtual keyboard or a free-space control for pointing at a virtual keyboard on a separate display screen.
If a key is incorrectly tapped, which would be evident to the user if a non-desired entry was shown on the screen and/or a temporary enlarged pop-up of the tapped key, the user can use navigation wheel/selector 204 to correct the entry. Navigation wheel/selector 204 has an upper area 212 (which can correspond to an up arrow), right area 214 (which can correspond to a right arrow), a lower area 216 (which can correspond to a down arrow), a left area 218 (which can correspond to a left arrow), and a select or okay button 220 in the center thereof. In other embodiments, select button 220 may be positioned elsewhere, such as directly below the navigation arrows or wheel. Table 1 below gives an example of when the user intended to select the letter G, the letter that was actually entered, and the action to correct the entry using navigation wheel/selector 204.
Note that in Table 1, an incorrectly entered letter Y requires two actions due to the staggered positioning between the top and middle rows of virtual keyboard 206. The assumption is that pressing lower area 216 of wheel/selector 204 moves the entry from the letter Y to the letter H or from letter Y to letter G. In other words, if a letter was selected from the top row of virtual keyboard 206, the down arrow moves the selection to the right. Other devices or embodiments may move the selection differently when there is not a direct right, left, up, or down relationship between adjacent keys.
Once the selection is at the desired letter, number, or symbol, the desired may be selected by pressing select button 220 or simply waiting a predetermined amount of time (e.g., two seconds) without doing anything. As seen from
Device 300 may perform specific operations by processor 304 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in system memory component 306, according to steps described above with respect to
Logic may be encoded in a computer readable medium, which may refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to processor 304 for execution based on signals from input component 316 and/or selection component 318. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Some common forms of computer readable media include floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer is adapted to read.
Device 300 may transmit and receive messages, data, information and instructions, including one or more programs (e.g., application code) through communication link 320 and communication interface 310. Received program code may be executed by processor 304. For example, once the user finishes selection through input component 316 and/or selection component 318, information may be either processed by processing component 304 or transmitted to other components through communication link 320.
In the embodiment shown, a user access virtual keyboard 404 for display on the screen of device 406. Virtual keyboard 404 includes a series of keys 422 that can be presented to the user in any order, although typically arranged in a QWERTY format or sequentially. Keyboard 404 may also display symbols, numbers, different case letters, etc. by the user selecting a key, either on the display or on the control.
In use, the user points control 402 toward virtual keyboard 404 and more particularly to a specific key 422 on keyboard 404. Once a specific key is selected (such as shown by the key being highlighted or an arrow or cursor being moved over the key), the user may press select control 418 to display the selection on screen 420. If the selected entry is not what the user intended, the user may simply shift or move a finger (such as the thumb) slightly to press up arrow control 410, right arrow control 412, down arrow control 414, or left arrow control 416 and move the selection to an adjacent key. If that adjacent key is still not the desired key, the user continues pressing the appropriate direction controls until the desired key is reached. Once that happens, the user enters that key by any suitable means, such as pressing select key 418 or waiting a predetermined amount of time without pressing a direction control. The positioning of the direction controls and the select control enables the user to quickly and easily correct a mistakenly entered key without looking away from display device 406 or significantly moving the user's hand or fingers on the device.
Components of control 402 also include a system memory component 514 (e.g., RAM) and a static storage component 516 (e.g., ROM). Control 402 performs specific operations by processor 512 and other components by executing one or more sequences of instructions contained in system memory component 514. Logic may be encoded in a computer readable medium, which may refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to processor 512 for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. In various implementations, non-volatile media includes optical or magnetic disks, volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as system memory component 514, and transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, including wires that comprise bus 502. In one example, transmission media may take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio wave, optical, and infrared data communications.
It should be understood that the invention can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The description is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. It should be understood that the invention can be practiced with modification and alteration and that the invention be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof. For example, although the description focused on two types of controls, different configurations of controls, remotes, or devices may be used to practice the invention. In addition, directional arrows are shown as left, right, up, and down. Other directional arrows may also be suitable, such as diagonal arrows or arrows used with three-dimensional controls. Furthermore, the select control is shown in the middle of the arrows; however, the select control may also be placed in other locations of a control, such as the underside or a top or side location easily accessible by the user.