Overlay keyboard for touch screen devices

• US 20100302168A1
• Filed: 05/06/2010
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Headwater Partners II LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Original Assignee: Headwater Partners II LLC (Greg Raleigh)
• Inventors: Giancarlo, Charles H., Raleigh, Gregory G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,558,796 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1662 Details related to the integrated keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0202 Constructional details or processes of manufacture of the input device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0393 Accessories for touch pads or touch screens, e.g. mechanical guides added to touch screens for drawing straight lines, hard keys overlaying touch screens or touch pads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means

Abstract

Keyboard systems and methods are provided herein. In one embodiment, an overlay keyboard for touch screen devices includes a physical keyboard that can be mounted onto a touch screen device (e.g., a corded touch screen device or a touch screen mobile device) that provides a virtual keyboard (e.g., a software displayed touch screen), in which the physical keyboard can be overlaid onto the virtual keyboard of the touch screen device. When no key of the physical keyboard is pressed down, the physical keyboard does not trigger the touch screen of the touch screen device. When a key of the physical keyboard is pressed down, the physical keyboard touches the touch screen on a corresponding key of the virtual keyboard on the touch screen device, thereby causing the touch screen to detect that the corresponding key of the virtual keyboard has been pressed.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a physical keyboard overlay for a touch screen device, the physical keyboard including a plurality of physical keys, wherein the plurality of physical keys of the physical keyboard correspond to a plurality of virtual keys of a virtual keyboard displayed on the touch screen device; and

a mount mechanism, the mount mechanism coupled to the physical keyboard overlay for providing a fixed physical keyboard overlay for the touch screen device.

2. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the touch screen device is selected from one or more of the following:

a touch screen phone, a touch screen laptop, a touch screen notebook, a touch screen entertainment/gaming device, a touch screen music/video device, and a touch screen eBook device.

3. The system recited in claim 2, wherein the touch screen phone is a touch screen mobile phone.

4. The system recited in claim 2, wherein the touch screen phone is a corded touch screen phone

5. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the mount mechanism is integrated with a device cover.

6. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the physical keyboard further includes a plurality of actuators.

7. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the physical keyboard further includes a plurality of conductive probe tips.

8. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the mount mechanism includes one or more of the following:

a device cover, a slip-on mechanism, a flip-on mechanism, and a lock mechanism.

9. The system recited in claim 1, wherein a size of one or more of the plurality of physical keys of the physical keyboard is larger than one or more corresponding soft keys of the virtual keyboard.

10. The system recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a processor configured to;

arrange one or more of plurality of soft keys of the virtual keyboard based on an arrangement of the plurality of physical keys of the physical keyboard.

11. A method, comprising:

mounting a physical keyboard having a plurality of physical keys onto a touch screen device; and

executing a computer program on the touch screen device to display a virtual keyboard on the touch screen of the device so that at least a subset of the physical keys of the physical keyboard are laid over corresponding virtual keys of the virtual keyboard, and where actuation of each of the subset of physical keys of the physical keyboard would trigger a corresponding virtual key of the virtual keyboard.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the touch screen device is selected from one or more of the following:

a touch screen phone, a touch screen laptop, a touch screen notebook, a touch screen entertainment/gaming device, a touch screen music/video device, and a touch screen eBook device.

13. The method recited in claim 12, wherein the touch screen phone is a touch screen phone.

14. The method recited in claim 12, wherein the touch screen phone is a corded touch screen phone.

15. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable storage medium and comprising instructions for:

displaying a virtual keyboard on the touch screen of the device so that at least a subset of a plurality of physical keys of a physical keyboard overlaid on the virtual keyboard correspond to a plurality of virtual keys of the virtual keyboard, and where actuation of each of the subset of physical keys of the physical keyboard would trigger a corresponding virtual key of the virtual keyboard.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the touch screen device is selected from one or more of the following:

a touch screen phone, a touch screen laptop, a touch screen notebook, a touch screen entertainment/gaming device, a touch screen music/video device, and a touch screen eBook device.

17. The computer program product recited in claim 16, wherein the touch screen phone is a touch screen mobile phone.

18. The computer program product recited in claim 17, wherein the touch screen phone is a corded touch screen phone.