SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A THUMB-OPTIMIZED TOUCH-SCREEN USER INTERFACE

• US 20090303187A1
• Filed: 07/21/2006
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Move Mobile Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Move Mobile Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Pallakoff, Matt
• Granted Patent: US 8,542,196 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• 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 virtual thumb-board solution is provided that fits on a pocket-size device or even palm-size device and uses the standard keyboard layout with straight rows of keys, which is achieved while making the virtual thumb-board accurate, fast, and comfortable. And thumb-optimized virtual User Interface solutions are provided that make information searching and UI navigation on pocket-size hand-held devices exceptionally fast and intuitive.

Claims

1. A method of receiving user input on a touch-screen display housed in a portable device, the method comprising:

providing a virtual selectable item configured to comprise a graphic target area displayed on said touchscreen with a visible indication of its edges, and an active area associated with the graphic target area, the active area configured to include the entire graphic target area and extend, in at least some directions, beyond the graphic target area, said active area including no visible indicator of its edges where they do not coincide with the edges of the graphic target area, at least when said virtual selectable item is not registering a touch engagement;

registering touch engagement of said virtual selectable item in response to detecting an engagement event having corresponding positioning information that is located within said active area, but may be located outside of the graphic target area displayed on said touchscreen.

2. The method of claim 1 in which said virtual selectable item is part of a virtual keyboard having a plurality of additional virtual selectable items.

3. The method of claim 2, in which the dimensions of said active area is between about 9 mm and 10 mm wide and tall.

4. The method of claim 2, in which the dimensions of said graphic target area is less than 8 mm wide and tall.

5. The method of claim 1, in which the dimensions of said active area is at least 9 mm tall and said active area extends at least 1 mm above or below the corresponding edge of said graphic target area.

6. The method of claim 1, in which the dimensions of said active area is at least 9 mm wide and said active area extends at least 1 mm to the left or right of the corresponding edge of said graphic target area.

7. The method of claim 1, in which said at least one active area extends outside of its corresponding graphic target area by at least 1.5 mm on all sides.

8. The method of claim 1, in which for each point in said graphic target area that is within 20 mm of the right side of the touch-screen display, the associated active area extends right of such point at least about 1.5 mm and extends above such point at least about 2 mm, but only to the extent that this would not make the active area extend outside of the display.

9. The method of claim 1, in which for each point in said graphic target area that is within 20 mm of the left side of the touch-screen display, the corresponding active area extends left of such point at least about 1.5 mm, and extends above such point at least about 2 mm, but only to the extent that this would not make the active area extend outside of the display.

10. The method of claim 1, in which for at least one of said active areas of said virtual selectable items, said associated active area is offset to extend more towards the proximal vertical display edge than the distal vertical display edge, as measured from the center of the corresponding graphic target area, the amount of said active area offset depending on the virtual selectable item'"'"'s position on the display.

11. The method of claim 1, in which said device and the touch-screen display are comprised in a housing frame and in which for each point in said graphic target area that is within about 25 mm of the bottom of the device frame or within about 20 mm of the bottom of the touch-screen display, and at least about 45 mm away from the lower-left or lower-right corner of the device frame or at least about 40 mm from the lower-left or lower-right corner of the display, the associated active area extends at least about 5.2 mm below and at least about 3.8 mm above the vertical center of said graphic target area as measured at a horizontal location of said point, but only to the extent that this would not make the active area extend outside of the display.

12. The method of claim 1, in which said device and the touch-screen display are comprised in a housing frame and in which for each point in said graphic target area that is within about 25 mm of the left of the device frame or within 20 mm of the left side of the display, and at least about 25 mm from the bottom of the device frame or at least about 20 mm from the bottom of the display, the corresponding active area extends at least about 5.2 mm above and at least about 3.8 mm below the vertical center of the graphic target area as measured at a horizontal location of said point;

and that active area extends at least about 5.2 mm to the left and at least about 3.8 mm to the right of the horizontal center of the graphic target area as measured at a vertical location of said point, but only to the extent that this would not make the active area extend outside of the display.

13. The method of claim 1, in which said device and the touch-screen display are comprised in a housing frame and in which for each point in said graphic target area that is within about 25 mm of the right of the device frame or within 20 mm of the right side of the display, and at least about 25 mm away from the bottom of the device frame or at least about 20 mm away from the bottom of the display, the associated active area extends at least about 5.2 mm above and at least about 3.8 mm below the vertical center of the graphic target area as measured at a horizontal location of said point;

and that active area extends at least about 5.2 mm to the right and at least about 3.8 mm to the left of the horizontal center of the graphic target area as measured at a vertical location of said point, but only to the extent that this would not make the active area extend outside of the display.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said device and the touch-screen display are comprised in a housing frame and in which for each point in said graphic target area that is within about 25 mm of the top of the device frame or within 20 mm of the top of the display, the associated active area extends at least about 5.2 mm below and at least about 3.8 mm above the vertical center of the graphic target area as measured at that a horizontal location of said point, but only to the extent that this would not make the active area extend outside the display; and

wherein if said point is also within 25 mm of one vertical side of the device frame or within 20 mm of one vertical side of the display, then the associated active area also extends at least about 5.2 mm toward that side and at least about 3.8 mm toward the other side from a horizontal center of the graphic target area as measured at a vertical location of said point, but only to the extent that this would not make the active area extend outside of the display.

15. The method of claim 1, in which said device and the touch-screen display are comprised in a housing frame and in which for each point in said graphic target area that is not either

(a) within about 25 mm of the bottom of the device frame or within about 20 mm of the bottom of the touch-screen display, and at least about 45 mm away from the lower-left or lower-right corner of the device frame or at least about 40 mm from the lower-left or lower-right corner of the display;

(b) within about 25 mm of the left of the device frame or within 20 mm of the left side of the display, and at least about 25 mm from the bottom of the device frame or at least about 20 mm from the bottom of the display;

(c) within about 25 mm of the right of the device frame or within 20 mm of the right side of the display, and at least about 25 mm away from the bottom of the device frame or at least about 20 mm away from the bottom of the display;

or

(d) within about 25 mm of the top of the device frame or within 20 mm of the top of the display or within 25 mm of one vertical side of the device frame or within 20 mm of one vertical side of the display;

then the corresponding active area extends at least about 4.5 mm in all directions from the corresponding point that is not in one of said display regions.

16. The method of claim 2, in which said virtual keyboard is a continuous virtual keyboard and the virtual keyboard is no wider than about 130 mm.

17. The method of claim 1, in which said engagement delay time is between about 0.05 second and about 0.19 second, and said predetermined engagement force level is at most about 80 grams.

18. The method of claim 1, in which said engagement delay time is between about 0.08 second and about 0.14 second, and said predetermined engagement force level is between about 25 grams and about 55 grams.

19. The method of claim 1, in which each of at least two of said virtual selectable items has a corresponding active area that comprises points that are at least about 5.75 mm from the center of that graphic target area and at least about 2 mm outside from any point in said corresponding graphic target area.

20. The method of claim 1, in which for at least one of said active areas of said virtual selectable items, said active area is offset to extend more towards the proximal horizontal display edge, as measured from the center of the corresponding graphic target area, than the distal horizontal display edge, the amount and direction of said offset depending on the virtual selectable item'"'"'s position on the display.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least two of said virtual selectable items, in which one of said at least two virtual selectable items has a corresponding active area that comprises points that extend further left than right from its graphic target center, and another of said at least two virtual selectable items has a corresponding active area that comprises points that extend further right than left from its graphic target center.

22. The method of claim 1, in which registering the touch engagement of said particular virtual selectable item of said virtual selectable item requires said sufficient engagement delay time to occur.

23. The method of claim 1, in which the shape of said active area is configured to be thumb optimized.

24. The method of claim 1 in which detecting an engagement even further comprises:

providing an engagement signal that indicates the touch-screen has been engaged with at least a predetermined engagement force level;

measuring an amount of time elapsed from when said engagement signal becomes active after detecting said sufficient engagement force;

registering an engagement event if said engagement signal continues to be active after a sufficient engagement delay time has occurred for the touch-screen positioning information to be useful in registering intended engagement of the touch-screen; and

locating at least the approximate coordinates on the touch-screen where force is applied at the time the engagement event is registered and providing said coordinates as the positioning information of the engagement event.

25. The method of claim 24, in which said sufficient engagement delay time is at least in part based on the amount of time typically required for a user'"'"'s thumb to initially engage the touch-screen and the time when the thumb sufficiently settles for the touch-screen positioning information to be useful in registering the intended engagement of the touch-screen.

26. A method of receiving input on a hand-held device having a touch-screen display, the method comprising:

providing an engagement signal that indicates the touch-screen has been engaged with at least a predetermined engagement force level;

measuring an amount of time elapsed from when said engagement signal becomes active after detecting said sufficient engagement force;

registering an engagement event if said engagement signal continues to be active after a sufficient engagement delay time has occurred for the touch-screen positioning information to be useful in registering intended engagement of the touch-screen; and

locating at least the approximate coordinates on the touch-screen where force is applied at the time the engagement event is registered.

27. The method of claim 26, in which said sufficient engagement delay time is at least in part based on the amount of time typically required for the user'"'"'s thumb to initially engage the touch-screen and the time when the thumb sufficiently settles for the touch-screen positioning information to be useful in registering the intended engagement of the touch-screen.

28. The method of claim 26, in which said sufficient engagement delay time is at least about 50 milliseconds.

29. The method of claim 26, in which said sufficient engagement delay time is between about 80 milliseconds and about 140 milliseconds, inclusive.

30. The method of claim 29, in which said predetermined engagement force level is less than about 80 grams.

31. The method of claim 30, in which said device and the touch-screen display are comprised in a housing frame and the horizontal width of said housing is between about 90 mm to about 135 mm wide, inclusive, at an intended user grip latitude for thumb-typing on a virtual keyboard provided on said touch-screen display, said virtual keyboard adapted to receive inputs in the form of a plurality of sequential ones of said engagement event.

32. The method of claim 31, in which said virtual keyboard is a continuous virtual keyboard and the virtual keyboard is no wider than about 130 mm.

33. The method of claim 31, in which said predetermined engagement force level is between about 25 grams and about 55 grams.

34. The method of claim 26, further comprising displaying a split virtual keyboard in which each half of the split virtual keyboard is no wider than about 65 mm.

35. The method of claim 26, in which said sufficient engagement delay time is between about 50 milliseconds and about 190 milliseconds, inclusive.

36. The method of claim 26, in which said predetermined engagement force level is at least in part based on an estimated minimum amount of force required to detect a user'"'"'s thumb actively engaging the touch-screen to “

click”

on a displayed item without requiring the user press uncomfortably hard with his or her thumb, said predetermined engagement force level being also sufficiently high such that the touch-screen contact detection unit does not signal detection of unintended, incidental user contact of the touch-screen'"'"'s active surface.

37. The method of claim 26, in which said predetermined engagement force level is less than about 55 grams.

38. The method of claim 26, wherein the engagement delay time is configured in a manner derived from experiments relating to the design of the hand-held device so as to minimize the gap between a touch-down point and a settle-point for thumb-presses at more than two locations on the display, without said engagement delay time growing so large as to hinder fast typing.

39. The device of claim 26, further comprising an audible feedback tone generator, which is configured to produce an audible signal to the user when said engagement event is registered.

40. The method of claim 26, in which the touch-screen display is comprised in a housing frame, which housing frame is configured to enable said device to be pocket-sized while still being comfortably sized for the user'"'"'s hands when the user uses his or her thumbs to select virtual selectable items on said display.

41. A user interface (UI) system on a hand-held device including a touchscreen, said UI comprising a virtual wheel control displayed by the touch-screen display, said virtual wheel control being configured to comprise a graphic target area and an active area, said active area being configured to extend beyond said graphic target area such that at least one of said active areas comprises touch-screen points that, with respect to the graphic target area of said virtual wheel control, are either directly above, to the left, or to the right, or below the respective side of said virtual wheel control area, said device being configured to register touch engagement of said virtual wheel control.

42. The UI system of claim 41, in which said active area of said virtual wheel control extends out at least about 5 mm above the top edge of said graphic target area, and extends out at least 5 mm from the side edge of said graphic target area that is closest to a vertical display side in a direction towards that vertical display side, and extends out at least about 3 mm from the rest of the outer graphic target area edges.

43. The UI system of claim 41, in which said active area of said virtual wheel control extends out between about 2 mm and 6 mm above the top edge of said graphic target area, and extends out between about 2 mm and 6 mm from the side edge of said graphic target area that is closest to a vertical display side in a direction towards that vertical display side, and extends out between about 0 mm and 2 mm from the rest of the outer graphic target area edges.

44. The UI system of claim 41, further comprising a virtual wheel control engagement delay filtering unit, which is configured to register a virtual wheel control engagement event if said virtual wheel control continues to be engaged after a sufficient virtual wheel engagement delay time has occurred for virtual wheel control engagement information to be useful in registering intended engagement of said virtual wheel control.

45. The UI system of claim 44, in which said sufficient virtual wheel engagement delay time is between about 0.05 and 0.19 second.

46. A thumb-driven virtual user interface system for selecting virtual selectable items on a Web page displayed on a touch-screen display of a portable device, in which a thumb-optimized virtual wheel control according to claim 41 is used to roll the Web page focus back or forth through said selectable items, and in which the user can use his or her thumb to press on a virtual selectable item to select the desired item to focus on.