MINIATURE CHARACTER INPUT MECHANISM

• US 20110069012A1
• Filed: 09/22/2009
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: MARTENSSON, Joakim
• Granted Patent: US 8,264,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• 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 device includes a touch screen with a maximum of nine distinct touch areas, displays an input interface on the touch screen, where the input interface includes a scrollable character wheel, receives selections of characters from the character wheel, and displays the selected characters on the user interface. The receiving of selections includes detecting a scrolling up or down of the character wheel to position a character in a particular location, and detecting a pressing action on the character in the particular location. The input interface provides a way for a user to enter a phone number and place a call using only nine distinct touch areas.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a touch screen;

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

a processor to execute instructions in the memory to;

display an input interface on the touch screen, where the input interface includes a scrollable character wheel,

receive one or more selections of characters from the character wheel, and

display the selected characters on the user interface.

2. The device of claim 1, where the user interface further includes control buttons, where the control buttons comprise one or more of:

a save button that saves the selected characters in the memory,

a delete button that deletes a last character of the selected characters,

a call button that places a call using the selected characters, and

a return button that terminates display of the user interface.

3. The device of claim 1, where the user interface comprises a three by three grid of input fields.

4. The device of claim 1, where the scrollable character wheel includes characters of a telephone keypad.

5. The device of claim 1, where the receiving one or more selections of characters include:

detecting a scrolling up or down of the scrollable character wheel to position a character in a particular location; and

detecting a pressing action on the character in the particular location.

6. The device of claim 5, where the detecting a scrolling up or down includes one of detecting a dragging motion, detecting a flicking motion, or detecting a sustained pressure motion.

7. The device of claim 6, where the dragging motion scrolls the scrollable character wheel by a first particular number of characters and where the flicking motion scrolls the scrollable character wheel by a second particular number of characters.

8. The device of claim 1, where the processor is further to:

detect a selection of one of the displayed selected characters to edit, based on a horizontal dragging motion associated with the displayed selected characters.

9. The device of claim 1, where the scrollable character wheel comprises one or more character wheels, and where each of the one or more character wheels includes a subset of letters of an alphabet.

10. The device of claim 1, where the device comprises a mobile communication device.

11. A method performed by an electronic device, the method comprising:

providing, using a processor of the electronic device, a user interface on a touch screen of the electronic device, where the user interface includes a scrollable character wheel;

receiving, using the processor, a selection of a character from the scrollable character wheel; and

displaying, using the processor, the selected character in the user interface.

12. The method of claim 11, where the receiving a selection of a character comprises:

detecting a scrolling up or down of the scrollable character wheel to position a character in a particular location; and

detecting a pressing action on the character in the particular location.

13. The method of claim 12, where the detecting a scrolling up or down includes one of detecting a dragging motion, detecting a flicking motion, or detecting a sustained pressure motion.

14. The method of claim 11, where the receiving a selection of a character and displaying the selected character are repeated multiple times to input a phone number into the electronic device.

15. The method of claim 14, where the user interface includes a send button, the method further comprising:

detecting a selection of the call button; and

placing a telephone call using the entered phone number.

16. The method of claim 11, where the receiving a selection of a character and displaying the selected character are repeated multiple times to display a set of displayed character, the method further comprising:

detecting a first horizontal dragging action associated with the displayed set of characters;

detecting a selection of one of the displayed set of characters;

detecting a selection of a character from the scrollable character wheel to replace the selected one of the displayed set of characters; and

detecting a second horizontal dragging action to resume entry of characters.

17. The method of claim 11, where the user interface includes a maximum of nine distinct touch areas.

18. The method of claim 11, where the scrollable character wheel comprises multiple letter wheels, each of the multiple letter wheels including a subset of characters of an alphabet, the method further comprising:

detecting a horizontal dragging motion to select one of the letter wheels, the selected letter wheel becoming the scrollable character wheel.

19. The method of claim 11, where the input interface includes a character wheel icon and where receiving the selection of a character comprises:

detecting a pressure applied to the character wheel icon;

moving the scrollable character wheel while the pressure is applied to the character wheel icon;

detecting that the pressure is no longer applied to the character wheel icon;

stopping movement of the scrollable character wheel when the pressure is no longer applied to the character wheel icon; and

detecting a pressing action on a character located in a particular position of the scrollable character wheel.

20. A computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by one or more processors of an electronic device, the computer-readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions to provide a user interface on a touch screen of the electronic device, where the user interface includes a scrollable character wheel and a call button;

one or more instructions to detect a scrolling up or down the scrollable character wheel to position a character in a particular location;

one or more instructions to detect a pressing action on the character in the particular location;

one or more instructions to display the selected character in the user interface;

one or more instructions to repeat the detecting a scrolling up or down, the detecting a pressing action, and the displaying the selected character multiple times, to receive a phone number;

one or more instructions to detect a selection of the call button; and

one or more instructions to place a telephone call using the entered phone number.