SWIPE GESTURES FOR TOUCH SCREEN KEYBOARDS

• US 20080316183A1
• Filed: 06/22/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lamiraux, Henri, Westerman, Wayne Carl, Dreisbach, Matthew Evan
• Granted Patent: US 8,059,101 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 3/04883 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

Systems, methods, and devices for interpreting manual swipe gestures as input in connection with touch-sensitive user interfaces that include virtual keyboards are disclosed herein. These allow for a user entering text using the virtual keyboard to perform certain functions using swipes across the key area rather than tapping particular keys. For example, leftward, rightward, upward, and downward swipes can be assigned to inserting a space, backspacing, shifting (as for typing capital letters), and inserting a carriage return and/or new line. Various other mappings are also described. The described techniques can be used in conjunction with a variety of devices, including handheld devices that include touch-screen interfaces, such as desktop computers, tablet computers, notebook computers, handheld computers, personal digital assistants, media players, mobile telephones, and combinations thereof.

Claims

29. A computer system having a processor operatively coupled to a memory and a multi-touch interface, the multi-touch interface comprising a virtual keyboard area in which taps of a touch object generate text input, the computer system being adapted to:

detect a swipe gesture across the virtual keyboard;

determine a direction of the swipe gesture; and

perform a predetermined function determined by the direction of the swipe gesture without regard to an initial touchdown point of the swipe gesture.

30. The computer system of claim 29 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

31. The computer system of claim 29 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

32. The computer system of claim 29 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

37. The computer system of claim 29 wherein the computer system determines the direction of the swipe gesture by:

comparing a magnitude of a vertical displacement of the swipe gesture to a magnitude of a horizontal displacement of the swipe gesture; and

determining a vertical direction for the swipe gesture if the vertical displacement is greater than the horizontal displacement;

or

determining a horizontal direction for the swipe gesture if the vertical displacement is less than the horizontal displacement.

38. The computer system of claim 37 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

39. The computer system of claim 37 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

40. The computer system of claim 37 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

41. The computer system of claim 29 wherein the predetermined function comprises at least one of spacing, erasing, or punctuation insertion.

42. The computer system of claim 41 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

43. The computer system of claim 41 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

44. The computer system of claim 41 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

45. The computer system of claim 29 wherein a rightward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a space, an auto-completion, or display of an auto-completion menu.

46. The computer system of claim 45 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

47. The computer system of claim 45 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

48. The computer system of claim 45 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

49. The computer system of claim 29 wherein a leftward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a character deletion, a word deletion, or a line deletion.

50. The computer system of claim 49 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

51. The computer system of claim 49 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

52. The computer system of claim 49 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

53. The computer system of claim 29 wherein a downward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a carriage return, a new line, inserting punctuation, or an alternate keyboard.

54. The computer system of claim 53 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

55. The computer system of claim 53 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

56. The computer system of claim 53 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

57. The computer system of claim 29 wherein an upward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a shift, a caps lock, or an alternate keyboard.

58. The computer system of claim 57 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

59. The computer system of claim 57 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

60. The computer system of claim 57 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

61. A computer system having a multi-touch interface, the multi-touch interface comprising a virtual keyboard area in which taps of a touch object generate text input, the computer system further comprising:

a touch image processor that receives touch image data from the multi-touch interface and generates finger path tracking events;

a keyboard tap recognizer that process the finger path tracking events to generate key tap events;

a keyboard slide recognizer that generates keyboard swipe events;

a keyboard input manager that receives the key tap events and the keyboard swipe events and generates one or more of text events for an application running on the computer system and feedback popup graphics to be displayed on a display of the computer system.

62. The computer system of claim 61 wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.

63. The computer system of claim 61 wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.

64. The computer system of claim 61 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

65. A mobile telephone having a processor operatively coupled to a memory and a multi-touch interface, the multi-touch interface comprising a virtual keyboard area in which taps of a touch object generate text input, the computer system being adapted to:

detect a swipe gesture across the virtual keyboard;

determine a direction of the swipe gesture; and

perform a predetermined function determined by the direction of the swipe gesture without regard to an initial touchdown point of the swipe gesture.

66. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

67. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein the computer system detects a swipe gesture across the virtual keyboard by:

acquiring touch image data from the touch-sensitive device;

processing the image to generate one or more finger path events;

determining a displacement of the one or more finger path events; and

detecting a swipe gesture if the displacement exceeds a predetermined threshold.

68. The mobile telephone of claim 67 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

69. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein the computer system determines the direction of the swipe gesture by:

comparing a magnitude of a vertical displacement of the swipe gesture to a magnitude of a horizontal displacement of the swipe gesture; and

determining a vertical direction for the swipe gesture if the vertical displacement is greater than the horizontal displacement;

or

determining a horizontal direction for the swipe gesture if the vertical displacement is less than the horizontal displacement.

70. The mobile telephone of claim 69 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

71. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein the predetermined function comprises at least one of spacing, erasing, or punctuation insertion.

72. The mobile telephone of claim 71 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

73. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein a rightward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a space, an auto-completion, or display of an auto-completion menu.

74. The mobile telephone of claim 73 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

75. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein a leftward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a character deletion, a word deletion, or a line deletion.

76. The mobile telephone of claim 75 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

77. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein a downward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a carriage return, a new line, inserting punctuation, or an alternate keyboard.

78. The mobile telephone of claim 77 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

79. The mobile telephone of claim 65 wherein an upward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a shift, a caps lock, or an alternate keyboard.

80. The computer system of claim 79 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.

81-1. The mobile telephone of claim 81 wherein the multi-touch interface is a touch screen.