ACTIVATING VIRTUAL KEYS OF A TOUCH-SCREEN VIRTUAL KEYBOARD

• US 20070247442A1
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Christie, Greg, Ording, Bas, Andre, Bartley
• Granted Patent: US 7,900,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04186 Touch location disambiguation
• 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

Abstract

A method of operating a touch screen to activate one of a plurality of virtual keys is provided. A touch location is determined based on location data pertaining to touch input on the touch screen, wherein the touch input is intended to activate one of the plurality of virtual keys. Each of the plurality of virtual keys has a set of at least one key location corresponding to it. For each of the virtual keys, a parameter (such as physical distance) is determined for that virtual key that relates the touch location and the set of at least one key location corresponding to that virtual key. The determined parameters are processed to determine one of the virtual keys. For example, the determined one virtual key may be the virtual key with a key location (or more than one key location, on average) being closest to the touch location. A signal is generated indicating activation of the determined one of the virtual keys.

Claims

1. A method of processing input from a touch screen, the method comprising:

displaying on the touch screen a plurality of GUI items, each item having a displayed extent;

processing one or more touch inputs to activate one or more of the plurality of GUI items, wherein one or more touch inputs activating an activated GUI item need not be within the displayed extent of the activated GUI item.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more touch inputs activating the activated GUI item are within the displayed extent of another GUI item.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein processing one or more touch inputs to activate one or more of the plurality of GUI items further comprises:

generating a virtual key shape for each of the plurality of GUI items, wherein the virtual key shape does not exactly correspond to the displayed extent of the GUI item;

detecting a touch within the virtual key shape for an activated GUI item; and

activating the activated GUI item.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein processing one or more touch inputs to activate one or more of the plurality of GUI items further comprises:

determining a distance from the one or more touch inputs to one or more key locations corresponding to each of the plurality of GUI items;

applying a weighting to each of the determined distance; and

activating an activated GUI item having one or more key locations that are a shortest weighted distance from the one or more touch inputs.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the weightings for each determined distance are all equal.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the weightings are determined dynamically.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

adding a key location to the activated GUI item, the added key location corresponding to the location of the one or more touch inputs.