System and method for accepting disparate types of user input

• US 20040071344A1
• Filed: 02/28/2001
• Published: 04/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vong, William H., Switzer, David, Lui, Charlton E., Thacker, Charles P., Lampson, Butler W., Keely, Leroy B., Mathews, James E.
• Granted Patent: US 6,788,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/256 of results relating to different input data, e.g. multimodal recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A user interface allows a user to input handwritten, key-press, and spoken text in a seamless, synchronized manner. A text input panel accepts soft keyboard presses and handwritten words, characters, and gestures. A text recognizer/synchronizer integrates textual input from various sources while recognizing and preserving the order in which a user entered text via the soft keyboard, via handwriting, and/or by speaking. Synchronized text may be displayed in a stage area of the text input panel before being passed to an operating system message router and/or an application program. While in handwriting recognition mode, various permutations and combinations of a word recognition area, a character recognition area, and a keybar/keypad may optionally be displayed.

Claims

1. A system for accepting disparate types of computer user input, the system comprising:

a user interface including a handwriting recognition area and a soft keyboard;

a handwriting recognizer for recognizing handwritten text input by a user via the handwriting recognition area; and

a text synchronizer for synchronizing text input by a user via the handwriting recognition area and via the soft keyboard by recognizing and preserving an order in which a user inputs text via the handwriting recognition area and the soft keyboard.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the user interface further includes a speech recognizer; and

the text synchronizer recognizes and preserves an order in which the user inputs text via the speech recognizer, via the handwriting recognition area, and via the soft keyboard.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the handwriting recognition area includes a word recognition area.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the handwriting recognition area includes a character recognition area.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the character recognition area operates in a character recognition mode selected from the group consisting of:

recognition of lowercase letters, recognition of uppercase letters, and recognition of characters other than letters.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the character recognition area includes separate areas for recognizing lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and characters other than letters and numbers, respectively.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a plurality of tabs for switching from one to at least one other of the soft keyboard, the word recognizer, and the character recognizer.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a keybar or keypad having at least one key selected from the group consisting of:

left arrow, right arrow, backspace, delete, space, end, home, enter, tab, and escape.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a symbol pad having at least one key for entering symbols that are characters other than letters and numbers.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the handwriting recognition area includes a gesture area For recognizing handwritten gestures or abbreviations.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a stage area for displaying a preview of recognized text input by the user.

12. A method of accepting disparate types of computer user input, the method comprising:

recognizing handwritten user input to provide recognized handwritten user input;

recognizing soft keyboard presses to provide recognized soft keyboard presses;

integrating text input by a user by synchronizing the recognized handwritten user input and the recognized soft keyboard presses.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

recognizing spoken user input to provide recognized spoken user input; and

integrating text input by a user by synchronizing the recognized spoken user input, the recognized handwritten user input, and the recognized soft keyboard presses.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

displaying a preview of the recognized text input by a user.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

passing the recognized text to an operating system message router.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

passing the recognized text to an application program.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

recognizing words inked by a user onto a word recognition area.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

recognizing characters inked by a user onto a character recognition area.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

recognizing gestures inked by a user onto the character recognition area.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

recognizing gestures inked by a user onto the word recognition area.

21. A text input panel for accepting disparate types of computer user input, the text input panel comprising:

a keyboard tab that, when selected, activates a soft keyboard for accepting soft keyboard presses;

a word recognizer tab that, when selected, activates a word recognizer area for accepting user input in the form of handwritten words; and

a character recognizer tab that, when selected, activates a character recognizer area for accepting user input in the form of handwritten characters.

22. The text input panel of claim 21 wherein the text input panel includes a tab for alternately hiding and displaying the text input panel.

23. The text input panel of claim 21 wherein the text input panel is displayed translucently such that a user can see through the text input panel.