Dynamic soft keyboard

• US 10,394,446 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2016
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Geidl, Erik M., LeProwse, Shawn R., LeGrow, Ian C., Townsend, Reed L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yi, Rinna
• Application Number:
  US15/375,830
• Publication Number:
  US 20170147204A1
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0426 tracking fingers with respect to a virtual keyboard projected or printed on the surface virtual keyboards on touch screens G06F3/04886
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus

Abstract

In accordance with one or more aspects of a dynamic soft keyboard, a user input is received via a soft keyboard having multiple keys. Information describing a current input environment for the soft keyboard is obtained, and a determination is made as to which one or more keys of the multiple keys was intended to be selected by the user input. This determination is made based at least in part on the current input environment.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage hardware devices having stored thereon multiple instructions to display a dynamic soft keyboard that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive an indication of a user input on a screen;

obtain information describing a current input environment comprising at least a current type of data being input by a user based on the user input on the screen;

determine, based at least on the current input environment comprising at least the current type of data being input by the user, a layout of a soft keyboard, wherein the soft keyboard includes multiple keys each having a corresponding hit target comprising locations on the soft keyboard that identify for a particular key on the soft keyboard the user intended to select;

display the soft keyboard with the determined layout on the screen;

receive a user selection of a key via the soft keyboard on the screen;

predict, based at least on the user selection, which one or more keys of the multiple keys are intended to be selected by the user; and

alter a hit target of the predicted one or more keys by increasing a size of the hit target of the predicted one or more keys while also decreasing a size of a hit target of one or more keys that are adjacent to the predicted one or more keys.

2. One or more computer storage hardware devices as recited in claim 1, the indication of the user input comprising a set of one or more coordinates indicating one or more locations of the soft keyboard selected by the user.

3. One or more computer storage hardware devices as recited in claim 1, the information describing the current input environment further comprising information describing a physical description of how the device is being used.

4. One or more computer storage hardware devices as recited in claim 3, the information describing the physical description of how the device is being used comprising information indicating whether the device is stationary or moving.

5. One or more computer storage hardware devices as recited in claim 1, the information describing the current input environment further comprising a dictionary for a language typically used by the user.

6. One or more computer storage hardware devices as recited in claim 1, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to change which characters, numbers, or symbols correspond to which of the multiple keys based at least in part on the current input environment.

7. One or more computer storage hardware devices as recited in claim 1, the multiple instructions further causing the one or more processors to change a layout of the soft keyboard from a QWERTY layout to a numeric pad layout based at least in part on the current input environment.

8. One or more computer storage hardware devices as recited in claim 1, the screen including a touch screen on which the soft keyboard is displayed.

9. A method implemented in a device, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a user input on a screen;

obtaining information describing a current input environment comprising at least a current type of data being input by a user based on the user input on the screen;

determining, based at least on the current input environment comprising at least the current type of data being input by the user, a layout of a soft keyboard, wherein the soft keyboard includes multiple keys each having a corresponding hit target comprising locations on the soft keyboard that identify for a particular key on the soft keyboard the user intended to select;

displaying the soft keyboard with the determined layout on the screen;

receiving a user selection of a key via the soft keyboard on the screen;

predicting, based at least on the user selection, which one or more keys of the multiple keys are intended to be selected by the user; and

altering a hit target of the predicted one or more keys by increasing a size of the hit target of the predicted one or more keys while also decreasing a size of a hit target of one or more keys that are adjacent to the predicted one or more keys.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, the indication of the user input comprising a set of one or more coordinates indicating one or more locations of the soft keyboard selected by the user.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, the information describing the current input environment further comprising information describing a physical description of how the device is being used.

12. The method as recited in claim 9, the information describing the physical description of how the device is being used comprising information indicating whether the device is stationary or moving.

13. The method as recited in claim 9, the information describing the current input environment further comprising a dictionary for a language typically used by the user.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising changing which characters, numbers, or symbols correspond to which of the multiple keys based at least in part on the current input environment.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising changing a layout of the soft keyboard from a QWERTY layout to a numeric pad layout based at least in part on the current input environment.

16. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors;

a predictive keyboard engine;

one or more modules coupled to provide, to the predictive keyboard engine, information describing a current input environment for a soft keyboard; and

the predictive keyboard engine being configured to, based at least in part on the information describing the current input environment;

receive an indication of a user input on a screen;

obtain information describing a current input environment comprising at least a current type of data being input by a user based on the user input on the screen;

determine, based at least on the current input environment comprising at least the current type of data being input by the user, a layout of a soft keyboard, wherein the soft keyboard includes multiple keys each having a corresponding hit target comprising locations on the soft keyboard that identify for a particular key on the soft keyboard the user intended to select;

display the soft keyboard with the determined layout on the screen;

receive a user selection of a key via the soft keyboard on the screen;

predict, based at least on the user selection, which one or more keys of the multiple keys are intended to be selected by the user; and

alter a hit target of the predicted one or more keys by increasing a size of the hit target of the predicted one or more keys while also decreasing a size of a hit target of one or more keys that are adjacent to the predicted one or more keys.

17. The computing device as recited in claim 16, the information describing the current input environment further comprising information describing a physical description of how the computing device is being used.

18. The computing device as recited in claim 17, the information describing the physical description of how the computing device is being used comprising information indicating whether the computing device is stationary or moving.

19. The computing device as recited in claim 16, the predictive keyboard engine being further configured to change a layout of the soft keyboard from a QWERTY layout to a numeric pad layout based at least in part on the current input environment.

20. The computing device as recited in claim 16, the screen comprising a touch screen on which the soft keyboard is displayed.