System and method for accepting disparate types of user input

• US 20050025363A1
• Filed: 08/30/2004
• Published: 02/03/2005
• 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 7,418,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/187
• 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 and a plurality of tabs, wherein responsive to user selection of one of the tabs, switching from displaying one of the soft keyboard and the handwriting recognition area;

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 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.

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

4. 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.

5. The text input panel of claim 4 wherein the text input panel includes a tab for alternately hiding and displaying the text input panel.

6. The text input panel of claim 4 wherein the text input panel is displayed translucently such that a user can see through the text input panel.