One-row keyboard and approximate typing

• US 20060088356A1
• Filed: 08/15/2005
• Published: 04/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 5 examples, Inc.
• Original Assignee: 5 examples, Inc.
• Inventors: Jawerth, Bjorn, Mehta, Viraj
• Granted Patent: US 7,387,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 400/472
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/162 changing, e.g. reversing, the face orientation of the screen with a two degrees of freedom mechanism, e.g. for folding into tablet PC like position or orienting towards the direction opposite to the user to show to a second user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1622 with enclosures rotating around an axis perpendicular to the plane they define or with ball-joint coupling, e.g. PDA with display enclosure orientation changeable between portrait and landscape by rotation with respect to a coplanar body enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1666 Arrangements for reducing the size of the integrated keyboard for transport, e.g. foldable keyboards, keyboards with collapsible keys G06F1/1664 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1671 Special purpose buttons or auxiliary keyboards, e.g. retractable mini keypads, keypads or buttons that remain accessible at closed laptop G06F1/1666 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0221 Arrangements for reducing keyboard size for transport or storage, e.g. foldable keyboards, keyboards with collapsible keys G06F3/0216 takes precedence; for keyboards integrated in a laptop computer G06F1/1666
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 13/86 characterised by the casing, e.g. sealed casings or casings reducible in size
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2223/05 composed of hingedly connected sections
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/021 using combined folding and rotation motions combined with translation movement H04M1/0235
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0214 Foldable telephones, i.e. with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position combined with translation movement H04M1/0235
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0225 Rotatable telephones, i.e. the body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis perpendicular to the plane they define in closed position combined with translation movement H04M1/0235
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0235 Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0247 comprising more than two body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/23 Construction or mounting of dials or of equivalent devices; Means for facilitating the use thereof by improving visibility H04M1/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/18 including more than one keyboard unit

Abstract

In one aspect, the present invention comprises an apparatus for character entry on an electronic device, comprising: a keyboard with one row of keys; and an electronic display device in communication with the keyboard; wherein one or more keys on the keyboard has a correspondence with a plurality of characters, and wherein the correspondence enables QWERTY-based typing. In another aspect, the invention comprises an apparatus for character entry on an electronic device, comprising: a keyboard with a plurality of keys; and an electronic display device in communication with the keyboard; wherein one or more keys on the keyboard has a correspondence with a plurality of characters, and wherein, for each of the one or more keys, the plurality of characters comprises: (a) a home row character associated with a particular finger when touch typing; and (b) a non-home-row character associated with the particular finger when touch typing.

Claims

1. An apparatus for character entry on an electronic device, comprising:

a keyboard with one row of keys; and

an electronic display device in communication with said keyboard;

wherein one or more keys on said keyboard has a correspondence with a plurality of characters, and

wherein said correspondence enables QWERTY-based typing.

7. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein said apparatus is operable to identify words and other valid character combinations typed by a user based on a signature dictionary.

2. An apparatus for character entry on an electronic device, comprising:

a keyboard with a plurality of keys; and

an electronic display device in communication with said keyboard;

wherein one or more keys on said keyboard has a correspondence with a plurality of characters, and

wherein, for each of said one or more keys, said plurality of characters comprises;

(a) a home row character associated with a particular finger when touch typing; and

(b) a non-home-row character associated with said particular finger when touch typing.

3. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein said apparatus is operable to apply natural language processing and approximate typing algorithms to increase accuracy of recognition and display of typed words and other valid character combinations.

4. An apparatus as in claim 3, wherein said apparatus is operable to apply natural language processing and approximate typing algorithms to reduce average typing ambiguity by more than 5% over T9.

5. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein said apparatus is operable to identify words and other valid character combinations typed by users based on modeling character and symbol combinations as paths on N-ary trees.

6. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein said apparatus is operable to identify words and other valid character combinations typed by users based on a dictionary modeled as a set of valid paths on an N-ary tree.

8. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein said apparatus is operable to:

receive ambiguous keyboard input;

disambiguate said input; and

provide predictions based on said input.

9. An apparatus as in claim 8, wherein said predictions are based on identifying a maximum likelihood of a word or other valid character combinations intended to be typed.

10. An apparatus as in claim 9, wherein said maximum likelihood is identified based on calculating one or more products of probabilities, wherein each of said products comprises:

a probability of a character combination, given an intended signature; and

a probability for a signature being the intended one, given actual input.

13. An apparatus as in claim 2, operable to identify typed words and other valid character combinations based on one or more cost functions, similarity measures, probability models, or combinations thereof that measure how well typed character sequences approximate intended character sequences.

14. An apparatus as in claim 13, wherein at least one cost function is based on an edit distance that provides a coarse model of a user'"'"'s typing and errors.

15. An apparatus as in claim 2, operable to display a likely valid character combination based on keystrokes entered by a user.

16. An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on parts of speech classification.

17. An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on context-based disambiguation.

18. An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on natural language processing techniques.

19. An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on ordering with respect to one or more cost functions.

20. An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on auto-completion and auto-correction software.

21. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein said keyboard is a virtual keyboard displayed on said display device.

11. An apparatus for character entry on an electronic device, comprising:

a keyboard with a plurality of keys; and

an electronic display device in communication with said keyboard;

wherein each of one or more keys represents an equivalence class of characters, and

wherein characters are assigned to equivalence classes according to touch typing assignments to fingers.

12. An apparatus as in claim 11, operable to identify typed words and other valid character combinations based on approximate typing algorithms comprising pattern recognition algorithms.

22. A method for disambiguation of human input for text entry, comprising:

receiving a plurality of discrete input signals; and

dynamically mapping said input signals to output signals;

wherein one or more of said input signals represents an equivalence class of characters, and

wherein said output signals are determined based on approximate typing algorithms comprising pattern recognition algorithms.

23. A method for disambiguation of human input for text entry, comprising:

receiving a plurality of discrete input signals; and

dynamically mapping said input signals to output signals;

wherein one or more of said input signals represents an equivalence class of characters, and

wherein said output signals are determined based on one or more cost functions, similarity measures, probability models, or combinations thereof that measure how well input character sequences approximate intended character sequences.

24. A method as in claim 23, wherein at least one cost function is based on an edit distance that provides a coarse model of a user'"'"'s input process and errors.

25. A method for disambiguation of human input for text entry, comprising:

receiving a plurality of discrete input signals; and

dynamically mapping said input signals to output signals;

wherein one or more of said input signals represents an equivalence class of characters,

wherein said output signals include a likely valid character combination, and

wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on parts of speech classification.

26. A method for disambiguation of human input for text entry, comprising:

receiving a plurality of discrete input signals; and

dynamically mapping said input signals to output signals;

wherein one or more of said input signals represents an equivalence class of characters,

wherein said output signals include a likely valid character combination, and

wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on context-based disambiguation.

27. A method for disambiguation of human input for text entry, comprising:

receiving a plurality of discrete input signals; and

dynamically mapping said input signals to output signals;

wherein one or more of said input signals represents an equivalence class of characters,

wherein said output signals include a likely valid character combination, and

wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on natural language processing techniques.

28. A method for disambiguation of human input for text entry, comprising:

receiving a plurality of discrete input signals; and

dynamically mapping said input signals to output signals;

wherein one or more of said input signals represents an equivalence class of characters,

wherein said output signals include a likely valid character combination, and

wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on ordering with respect to one or more cost functions.

29. A method for disambiguation of human input for text entry, comprising:

receiving a plurality of discrete input signals; and

dynamically mapping said input signals to output signals;

wherein one or more of said input signals represents an equivalence class of characters,

wherein said output signals include a likely valid character combination, and

wherein said likely valid character combination is identified based at least in part on auto-completion and auto-correction software.