Software keyboard for computer devices

• US 20040212595A1
• Filed: 04/28/2003
• Published: 10/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Zhou, Debiao
• Application Number:
  US10/424,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20040212595A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/168
• 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

A system and techniques are disclosed to provide a movable, resizable, and configurable software keyboard for computer devices. The system provides an application-programming interface for other applications to systematically customize and display one or more software keyboards in a particular context.

Claims

1. An article comprising a machine-readable medium storing machine-readable instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to:

provide a keyboard customization application to configure a user-customized configuration file; and

generate a user-customized software keyboard on a display in response to a request using the user-customized configuration file as input.

2. The article of claim 1 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to provide one or more key palettes from the keyboard customization application comprising one or more keys for selection in the user-customized software keyboard.

3. The article of claim 1 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to provide a key customization area from the keyboard customization application for modifying at least one individual key font type, key font size, and key font shape for selection in the user-customized software keyboard.

4. The article of claim 1 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to provide a key formula area from the keyboard customization application for specifying one or more instructions to be associated with a user-defined key.

5. The article of claim 1 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to provide a keyboard layout area from the keyboard customization application for arranging a position of one or more individual keys in the user-customized keyboard.

6. The article of claim 1 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to:

determine a target computer device name using a user-entered device name as input;

calculate a total number of keyboard keys using one or more keys in a keyboard layout area as input;

calculate a keyboard size using a physical coordinate position value of one or more keys in the keyboard layout area as input;

calculate a relative key coordinate value for one or more keys in the keyboard layout area using as input the physical coordinate position value associated with one or more keys and the keyboard size;

access at least one of a key font attribute, a key size attribute and a key shape attribute associated with one or more keys in the keyboard layout area; and

store the target computer device name, the total number of keyboard keys, the keyboard size, the relative key coordinate for one or more keys, and at least one of the key font type for one or more keys, the key font size for one or more keys, and the key font shape for one or more keys in the user-customized configuration file.

7. The article of claim 6 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to:

access the user-customized configuration file using as input the request and a directory location of the user-customized configuration file in response to receiving a request to display a user-customized software keyboard;

calculate a physical address on the display for one or more keys using as input one or more relative key coordinates, a target computer device name and a total number of keyboard keys; and

render the software keyboard on the display using as input the physical address for one or more keys., a key font type for one or more keys, a key font size for one or more keys, and a key font shape for one or more keys.

8. An article comprising a machine-readable medium storing machine-readable instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to:

provide an application programming interface to configure an application-customized software keyboard on a display; and

generate an application-customized software keyboard in response to a request using as input an application programming interface.

9. The article of claim 8 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to provide one or more functions from the application programming interface to establish a connection with a keyboard adaptation process.

10. The article of claim 8 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to provide one or more functions from the application programming interface to generate the application-customized software keyboard in a computer memory.

11. The article of claim 8 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to:

generate a keyboard object using as input an instruction from a requester and a set of keyboard parameters;

store the keyboard object in a computer memory; and

send a memory location of the keyboard object in the computer memory to the requester.

12. The article of claim 8 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to render the application-customized software keyboard on the display in response to a request for a keyboard service using as input one or more functions from the application programming interface.

13. The article of claim 12 including instructions that, when applied to the machine, cause the machine to render the application-customized software keyboard on the display using the keyboard service in response to a request from the application programming interface comprising a memory address pointer, a keyboard display coordinate value, and a computer graphic library.

14. A system comprising:

a computer network;

a directory coupled to the network, the directory storing a user-customized configuration file and an application programming interface;

a display device;

a service delivery device coupled to the network, the service delivery device including a processor and memory storing instructions that, in response to receiving a first type of request for access to a service, cause the processor to;

provide a keyboard customization application to configure a user-customized configuration file; and

generate a user-customized software keyboard on the display in response to a request using the user-customized configuration file as input;

wherein the memory further stores instructions that, in response to a second type of request for access to a service, cause the processor to;

generate an application-customized software keyboard on the display device using the application programming interface as input.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the first type of request, cause the processor to provide one or more key palettes from the keyboard customization application comprising one or more keys for selection in the user-customized software keyboard.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the first type of request, cause the processor to provide a key customization area from the keyboard customization application for modifying individual key font type, key font size, and key font shape for selection in the user-customized software keyboard.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the first type of request, cause the processor to provide a key formula area from the keyboard customization application for specifying one or more instructions to be associated with a user-defined key.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the first type of request, cause the processor to provide a keyboard layout area from the keyboard customization application for arranging a position of one or more individual keys in the user-customized keyboard.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the first type of request, cause the processor to:

determine a target computer device name using as input a user-entered device name;

calculate a total number of keyboard keys using as input one or more keys in a keyboard layout area;

calculate a keyboard size using as input a physical coordinate position value of one or more keys in the keyboard layout area;

calculate a relative key coordinate value for one or more keys in the keyboard layout area using as input the physical coordinate position value associated with one or more keys and the keyboard size;

access a key font attribute, a key size attribute and a key shape attribute associated with one or more keys in the keyboard layout area; and

store the target computer device name, the total number of keyboard keys, the keyboard size, the relative key coordinate for one or more keys, the key font type for one or more keys, the key font size for one or more keys, and the key font shape for one or more keys in the user-customized configuration file.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the first type of request, cause the processor to:

access the user-customized configuration file using as input the first type of request and a directory location of the user-customized configuration file in response to receiving a request to display a user-customized software keyboard;

calculate a physical address on the display for one or more keys using as input one or more relative key coordinates, a target computer device name and a total number of keyboard keys;

render the software keyboard on the display using as input the physical address for one or more keys, a key font type for one or more keys, a key font size for one or more keys, and a key font shape for one or more keys.

21. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the second type of request, cause the processor to provide one or more functions from the application programming interface to establish a connection with a keyboard adaptation process.

22. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the second type of request, cause the processor to provide one or more functions from the application programming interface to generate the application-customized software keyboard in a computer memory.

23. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the second type of request, cause the processor to:

generate a keyboard object using as input an instruction from a requester and a set of keyboard parameters;

store the keyboard object in a computer memory; and

send a memory location of the keyboard object in the computer memory to the requester.

24. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the second type of request, cause the processor to render the application-customized software keyboard on the display in response to a request for a keyboard service using as input one or more functions from the application programming interface.

25. The system of claim 14 wherein the memory stores instructions that, in response to receiving the second type of request, cause the processor to render the application-customized software keyboard on the display using a keyboard service in response to a request from the application programming interface comprising a memory address pointer, a keyboard display coordinate value, and a computer graphic library.

26. A system comprising:

a directory storing a user-customized configuration file and an application programming interface;

a server coupled to the directory, the server adapted to;

provide a keyboard customization application to configure a user-customized configuration file;

generate a user-customized software keyboard on a display in response to a request using as input the user-customized configuration file;

provide an application programming interface to configure an application-customized software keyboard on a display; and

generate the application-customized software keyboard in response to a request using as input the application programming interface.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the server is adapted to provide one or more functions from the application programming interface to establish a connection with a keyboard adaptation process.

29. The system of claim 26 wherein the server is adapted to render the application-customized software keyboard on the display in response to a request for a keyboard service using as input one or more functions from the application programming interface.

30. The system of claim 26 wherein the server is adapted to render the application-customized software keyboard on the display using a keyboard service in response to a request from the application programming interface comprising a memory address pointer, a keyboard display coordinate value, and a computer graphic library.

28. The system of clain 26 wherein the server is adapted to:

generate a keyboard object using as input an instruction from a requester and a set of keyboard parameters;

store the keyboard object in a computer memory; and

send a memory location of the keyboard object in the computer memory to the requester.

31. A method comprising:

providing a keyboard customization application to configure a user-customized configuration file; and

generating a user-customized software keyboard on a display in response to a request using the user-customized configuration file as input.

32. The method of claim 31 including providing the keyboard customization application provides with one or more key palettes comprising one or more keys for selection in the user-customized software keyboard.

33. The method of claim 31 including providing the keyboard customization application with a key customization area for modifying at least one of individual key font type, key font size, and key font shape for selection in the user-customized software keyboard.

34. The method of claim 31 including providing the keyboard customization application with a key formula area for specifying one or more instructions to be associated with a user-defined key.

35. The method of claim 31 including providing the keyboard customization application with a keyboard layout area for arranging a position of one or more individual keys in the user-customized keyboard.

36. The method of claim 31 wherein generating a user-customized configuration file comprises:

determining a target computer device name using as input a user-entered device name;

calculating a total number of keyboard keys using as input one or more keys in a keyboard layout area;

calculating a keyboard size using as input a physical coordinate position value of one or more keys in the keyboard layout area;

calculating a relative key coordinate value for one or more keys in the keyboard layout area using as input the physical coordinate position value associated with one or more keys and the keyboard size;

accessing at least one of a key font attribute, a key size attribute and a key shape attribute associated with one or more keys in the keyboard layout area; and

storing the target computer device name, the total number of keyboard keys, the keyboard size, the relative key coordinate for one or more keys, at least one of the key font type for one or more keys, the key font size for one or more keys, and the key font shape for one or more keys in the user-customized configuration file.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein generating the user-customized software keyboard comprises:

receiving a request to display a user-customized software keyboard;

accessing the user-customized configuration file using as input the request and a directory location of the user-customized configuration file;

calculating a physical address on the display for one or more keys using as input one or more relative key coordinates, a target computer device name and a total number of keyboard keys; and

rendering the software keyboard on the display using as input the physical address for one or more keys, the key font type for one or more keys, the key font size for one or more keys, and the key font shape for one or more keys.

38. A method comprising:

providing an application programming interface to configure an application-customized software keyboard on a display; and

generating an application-customized software keyboard in response to a request using as input an application programming interface.

39. The method of claim 38 including providing the application programming interface with one or more functions to establish a connection with a keyboard adaptation process.

40. The method of claim 38 including providing the application programming interface with one or more functions to request a keyboard adaptation process to generate the application-customized software keyboard in a computer memory.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the keyboard adaptation process comprises:

receiving an instruction from a requester to generate a keyboard object and a set of keyboard parameters;

generating the keyboard object using as input the set of instructions;

storing the keyboard object in a computer memory; and

sending a memory location of the keyboard object in the computer memory to the requester.

42. The method of claim 38 including providing the application programming interface with one or more functions to request a keyboard service to render the application-customized software keyboard on the display.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the keyboard service process comprises:

receiving an instruction from a requester to display the application-customized software keyboard and a set of keyboard parameters comprising a memory address pointer and keyboard display coordinate values; and

displaying the application-customized software keyboard using as input the memory address pointer, the keyboard display coordinate values, and a computer graphics library.