ERGONOMIC MOTION DETECTION FOR RECEIVING CHARACTER INPUT TO ELECTRONIC DEVICES

• US 20120268389A1
• Filed: 04/21/2011
• Published: 10/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inpris Innovative Products Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Inpris Innovative Products Ltd.
• Inventors: Yaron, Nissan, Yaron, Ben Etzion
• Granted Patent: US 9,261,972 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• 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

Sliding and non-sliding touch input to an electronic device may be selected so that the motions associated with a character to input are intuitive and thus easy to remember. The motions for the contacts of the touch input may be selected ergonomically in a way enabling touch-typing, thus increasing user comfort for longer periods of use. Multiple repositionable finger contact regions are maintained on a contact surface in an arrangement that is easily accessible for the user'"'"'s fingertips. Each available input character is associated with a unique finger contact or set of simultaneously-entered contacts, each contact being either sliding or non-sliding contact, and the sliding contacts having a direction associated with the character. One example touch surface is a touch screen. Another example touch surface is the table upon which the electronic device sets and thus separate from the electronic device and freeing space on the device for other use.

Claims

1. A touch screen assembly for a user to enter characters into an electronic device, the touch screen assembly comprising:

a processor;

a touch screen having a touch-sensitive surface; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

maintain multiple repositionable finger contact regions on the touch-sensitive surface, each finger contact region associated with a separate finger of a user'"'"'s hand and positioned relative to the other finger contact regions in an ergonomic arrangement enabling the user to simultaneously contact all finger contact regions with the associated fingers without moving the heal of the user'"'"'s hand on or from a surface of the touch screen assembly or a surface maintained stationary with respect to the touch screen assembly;

receive an indication of finger contact on at least one of the finger contact regions;

receive an indication, for each finger contact, of which region received the finger contact and whether the finger contact was a sliding or a non-sliding contact;

receive an indication of the direction of the sliding contact for each sliding contact; and

maintain an association of each character of a complete alphabet with a unique finger contact or a unique set of simultaneously-entered two or more finger contacts;

wherein the processor uses the association of characters to finger contacts to recognize character input based on the indicated regions of finger contacts and the indications of sliding/non-sliding contact.

2. The touch screen assembly of claim 1, wherein, to set locations for the finger contact regions, the touch-sensitive surface senses simultaneous finger contact of multiple fingers and locates the finger contact regions at the points of contact.

3. The touch screen assembly of claim 1, wherein the touch screen displays an image for each finger contact region, each image indicating the location of the associated finger contact region.

4. The touch screen assembly of claim 3, wherein the touch screen displays images of the characters of the alphabet, and, in response to a finger contact on the touch-sensitive surface at an image of a character, the touch screen indicates the associated unique finger contact or the associated unique set of simultaneously-entered two or more finger contacts.

5. The touch screen assembly of claim 3, wherein the touch screen displays images of the characters of the alphabet, and, in response to one or more finger contacts on the touch-sensitive surface at the finger contact regions that are associated with a character of the alphabet, the touch screen indicates the associated character.

6. The touch screen assembly of claim 1, wherein, for each character associated with a sliding contact, the processor recognizes a single non-curved motion as the sliding contact.

7. A method of analyzing human gestures to recognize character input to an electronic device, the method comprising:

discerning one or more finger contacts on one or more multiple finger contact regions on a first surface, each finger contact region associated with a separate finger of a user'"'"'s hand and positioned relative to the other finger contact regions in an ergonomic arrangement enabling the user to simultaneously contact all finger contact regions with the associated fingers without moving the heal of the user'"'"'s hand on or from a second surface that is maintained stationary with respect to the first surface;

determining for each finger contact which finger contact region received the finger contact and whether the finger contact was a sliding or a non-sliding contact, the sliding contact not requiring the user to move the heal of the user'"'"'s hand on or from the second surface;

determining the direction of the sliding contact for each sliding contact;

maintaining an association of each character of a complete alphabet with a unique finger contact or a unique set of simultaneously-discerned two or more finger contacts; and

using the association of characters to finger contacts to recognize character input based on the indicated regions of finger contacts and the indications of sliding/on-sliding contact.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first surface is a touch-sensitive surface of a touch screen.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

setting locations for the finger contact regions by sensing simultaneous finger contact of multiple fingers and locating the finger contact regions at the points of contact.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

displaying an image for each finger contact region, each image indicating the location of the associated finger contact region on the first surface.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

displaying images of the characters of the alphabet; and

in response to sensing a finger contact on the first surface at an image of a character, indicating the associated unique finger contact or the associated unique set of simultaneously-entered two or more finger contacts.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

displaying images of the characters of the alphabet; and

in response to one or more finger contacts on the first surface at the finger contact regions that are associated with a character of the alphabet, indicating the associated character.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein, for each character associated with a sliding contact, a single non-curved motion is recognized as the sliding contact.

14. A machine readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a processor of an electronic device to discern input characters by:

receiving an indication of finger contact on one or more finger contact regions on a first surface, each finger contact region associated with a separate finger of a user'"'"'s hand and positioned relative to the other finger contact regions in an ergonomic arrangement enabling the user to simultaneously contact all finger contact regions with the associated fingers without moving the heal of the user'"'"'s hand on or from a second surface that is maintained stationary with respect to first surface;

receiving an indication for each contacted region of which region or regions received a finger contact and whether the finger contact was a sliding or a non-sliding contact, the sliding contact not requiring the user to move the heal of the user'"'"'s hand on or from the second surface;

receiving an indication of the direction of the sliding contact for each sliding contact;

maintaining an association of each character of a complete alphabet with a unique finger contact or a unique set of simultaneously-entered two or more finger contacts; and

using the association of characters to finger contacts to recognize character input based on the indicated regions of finger contacts and the indications of sliding/non-sliding contact.

15. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein the first surface is a touch-sensitive surface of a touch screen.

16. The storage medium of claim 14, the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to discern input characters by:

setting locations for the finger contact regions by sensing simultaneous finger contact of multiple fingers and locating the finger contact regions at the points of contact.

17. The storage medium of claim 14, the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to discern input characters by:

displaying an image for each finger contact region, each image indicating the location of the associated finger contact region on the touch screen.

18. The storage medium of claim 17, the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to discern input characters by:

displaying images of the characters of the alphabet; and

in response to sensing a finger contact on the touch-sensitive surface at an image of a character, set of indicating the associated unique finger contact or the associated unique simultaneously-entered two or more finger contacts.

19. The storage medium of claim 17, the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to discern input characters by:

displaying images of the characters of the alphabet; and

in response to one or more finger contacts on the touch-sensitive surface at the finger contact regions that are associated with a character of the alphabet, indicating the associated character.

20. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein, for each character associated with a sliding contact, a single non-curved motion is recognized as the sliding contact.