COMMUNICATION TERMINAL

• US 20080101701A1
• Filed: 10/31/2006
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Rainisto, Roope
• Granted Patent: US 7,817,858 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/187
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/32 Digital ink

Abstract

It is shown how to select and insert a non-textual, e.g. a smiley, into an application such as a chat application in a communication terminal. A smiley insertion area in the form of a hand writing input area is displayed under the control of a user interface application. After recording that a stylus, or similar device, has been used in drawing on the touch sensitive display, the drawing is matched in an interpretation process against a pattern library consisting of smileys and other non-textual symbols. After a successful match, the smiley symbol is appended to the text that is being input.

Claims

1. A method of controlling input of non-textual symbols in a communication terminal during input of textual symbols to a symbol processing application, said terminal comprising control and communication circuitry and a touch sensitive display, the method comprising:

detecting that a non-textual symbol is to be appended to the textual symbol input,

displaying a hand writing input area,

detecting handwriting input signals in the displayed hand writing input area,

interpreting the handwriting input signals, and

depending on the interpretation, displaying at least one candidate non-textual symbol and providing the at least one candidate non-textual symbol to the symbol processing application.

2. The method of claim 1, where the detection that a non-textual symbol is to be appended is a result of an analysis of already input symbols.

3. The method of claim 1, where the detection that a non-textual symbol is to be appended is a result of a detection of a user action.

4. The method of claim 1, where the displaying of a hand writing input area comprises displaying a non-textual guiding pattern.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the displaying of the guiding pattern comprises displaying a generic smiley symbol.

6. The method of claim 1, where, if the interpretation results in plural candidate non-textual symbols, displaying the plurality of candidate non-textual symbols and detecting a user selection of one candidate non-textual symbol among the displayed plurality of candidate non-textual symbols prior to providing the selected non-textual symbol to the symbol processing application.

7. The method of claim 1, where the detection of handwriting input signals, the interpretation of the handwriting input signals and displaying candidate non-textual symbols is performed essentially concurrently.

8. The method of claim 1, where the interpretation of the handwriting input signals comprises use of associations between user specified patterns and user selected non-textual symbols.

9. The method of claim 1, where the interpretation of the handwriting input signals comprises use of a selected pattern library, the selection being dependent on the symbol processing application.

10. The method of claim 1, where the interpretation of the handwriting input signals comprises creation of at least one non-textual symbol, the creation being based on the detected handwriting input signals, and providing the created non-textual symbol as a candidate non-textual symbol.

11. The method of claim 1, where the symbol processing application is a messaging application.

13. A computer program comprising computer program code that, when executed in a processor, performs the method according to claim 1

12. A communication device comprising control and communication circuitry and a touch sensitive display configured such that the communication device is capable of:

detecting that a non-textual symbol is to be appended to the textual symbol input,

displaying a hand writing input area,

detecting handwriting input signals in the displayed hand writing input area,

interpreting the handwriting input signals, and

depending on the interpretation, displaying at least one candidate non-textual symbol and providing the at least one candidate non-textual symbol to a symbol processing application.