DYNAMICALLY CUSTOMIZABLE TOUCH SCREEN KEYBOARD FOR ADAPTING TO USER PHYSIOLOGY

• US 20130019191A1
• Filed: 07/11/2011
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Arnold, Ryan S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,448,724 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/765
• 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 touch screen keyboard is dynamically customizable to modify the active regions of one or more keys in the keyboard to adapt the keyboard to a user'"'"'s unique physiology. The active regions may be modified in response to monitoring user input directed to the keys in the keyboard so that the keyboard automatically adapts to the user'"'"'s physiology. In addition, while the locations and/or sizes of the active regions may be modified to adapt to a user'"'"'s physiology, in some instances the shapes of the active regions may also be distorted such that the resulting active regions are irregular in nature.

Claims

1. A method of configuring a touch screen keyboard, the method comprising:

displaying a keyboard including a plurality of keys on a touch screen display, each key including an active region that activates such key in response to user input directed to the touch screen display within such active region;

monitoring user input directed to the plurality of keys; and

dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard by modifying a shape of the active region of at least one of the plurality of keys in response to the monitored user input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the user input includes monitoring user input during regular usage of the keyboard.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region comprises resizing the active region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region comprises distorting the shape of the active region into an irregular shape.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region further includes moving a centroid of the shape of the active region.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region includes enlarging the active region along a direction of a vector extending from a centroid of the shape of the active region to a position of user input directed to the active region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of keys includes a displayed visual element based upon the active region thereof, and wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard further includes modifying a shape of the displayed visual element based upon the modified shape of the active region.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region of at least one of the plurality of keys includes modifying the shape of the active region of a first key among the plurality of keys in response to monitored user input directed to the active region for the first key, and wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard further includes modifying the active region of a second key among the plurality of keys and disposed adjacent the first key to accommodate the modification of the shape of the active region of the first key.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein modifying the active region of the second key includes at least one of moving the active region of the second key and resizing the active region of the second key.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein modifying the active region of the second key includes distorting the shape of the active region of the second key into an irregular shape.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein modifying the active region of the second key includes compressing the active region along a direction of a vector extending from a centroid of the shape of the active region of the first key to a position of user input directed to the active region.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of keys are initially defined with active regions having generally rectangular shapes, and wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes distorting the shapes of the active regions of at least a subset of the plurality of keys such that the active regions of the keys in the subset are non-rectangular.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes:

determining a distance between a between a coordinate of a key press by a user and a centroid defined for an active region of a first key among the plurality of keys during user selection of the first key; and

modifying the shape of the active region of the first key in response to the distance exceeding a threshold.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising modifying the threshold in response to user input.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying the threshold includes increasing the threshold once a user has customized the touch screen keyboard to the user'"'"'s liking to restrict future customizations of the touch screen keyboard.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes generating a first keyboard profile, the method further comprising:

dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard in response to monitored user input to generate a second keyboard profile; and

switching between the first and second keyboard profiles.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of a first key among the plurality of keys in response to monitored user input directed to the active region for a second key among the plurality of keys and disposed adjacent to the first key.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of a first key among the plurality of keys in response to monitored user input directed to a correction key.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of the first key among the plurality of keys in response to detecting user input directed to a second key among the plurality of keys that is adjacent to the first key, thereafter detecting user input directed to the correction key, and thereafter detecting user input directed to the first key.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of a first key among the plurality of keys in response to detection of a misspelled word.

21. A method of configuring a touch screen keyboard, the method comprising:

displaying a keyboard including a plurality of keys on a touch screen display, each key including an active region that activates such key in response to user input directed to the touch screen display within such active region; and

dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard by distorting shapes of the active regions of multiple keys from among the plurality of keys into irregular shapes to adapt to a user'"'"'s physiology.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising monitoring user input directed to the plurality of keys, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard is performed in response to the monitored user input.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

program code configured to be executed by the at least one processor to display a keyboard including a plurality of keys on a touch screen display, each key including an active region that activates such key in response to user input directed to the touch screen display within such active region, the program code further configured to monitor user input directed to the plurality of keys, and dynamically customize the touch screen keyboard by modifying a shape of the active region of at least one of the plurality of keys in response to the monitored user input.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the program code is configured to monitor user input during regular usage of the keyboard, and wherein the program code is configured to modify the shape of the active region by performing at least one of resizing the active region and distorting the shape of the active region.

25. A program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium; and

program code resident on the computer readable medium and configured upon execution to display a keyboard including a plurality of keys on a touch screen display, each key including an active region that activates such key in response to user input directed to the touch screen display within such active region, the program code further configured to monitor user input directed to the plurality of keys, and dynamically customize the touch screen keyboard by modifying a shape of the active region of at least one of the plurality of keys in response to the monitored user input.