TECHNIQUES FOR PREVENTING TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS ON SOFTWARE KEYBOARDS

• US 20140164973A1
• Filed: 12/07/2012
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Greenzeiger, Michael Froimowitz, Sanghavi, Mehul Kirtikant, Phulari, Ravindra Marotirao
• Granted Patent: US 9,411,510 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/773
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation

Abstract

Techniques for preventing typographical errors on digital soft keyboards are implemented by a computing device with a touch-screen display. According to one technique, a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard is displayed on the touch-screen display. Each soft key covers an area of the touch-screen display. One or more occurrences of a particular typographical error in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key in addition to or instead of an intended soft key are detected. In response, an activation region of the intended soft key is changed to decrease the probability of the user making the same typographical error in the future.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-screen display;

displaying a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display;

detecting occurrence of a particular error in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key instead of an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

based at least in part on having detected occurrence of the particular error, changing an activation region of the intended soft key;

wherein changing the activation region includes performing at least one of;

increasing how much of the touch-screen display is covered by the activation region,

changing a peripheral shape of the activation region, or

shifting position of the activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the activation region includes increasing how much of the touch-screen display covered by the activation region.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the activation region includes changing the peripheral shape of the activation region.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the activation region includes shifting position of the activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the activation region includes causing the activation region to extend beyond the area covered by the intended soft key.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the activation region of the intended soft key includes enlarging the activation region of the intended soft key along an axis of the activation region in a direction of the adjacent soft key.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the activation region of the intended soft key includes enlarging the activation region equally in at least two different directions.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based at least in part on having detected occurrence of the particular error;

changing an activation region of the adjacent soft key to cover a smaller area of the touch-screen display than the area covered by the adjacent soft key.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjacent soft key is associated with a temporal offset;

and wherein the method further comprises;

based at least in part on having detected occurrence of the particular error;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the adjacent soft key by increasing the temporal offset associated with the adjacent soft key.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the intended soft key is associated with a temporal offset that is greater than zero;

and wherein the method further comprises;

based at least in part on having detected occurrence of the particular error;

increasing activation sensitivity of the intended soft key by decreasing the temporal offset associated with the intended soft key.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the intended soft key is mapped to a first symbol;

the adjacent soft key is mapped to a second symbol; and

detecting occurrence of the particular error includes detecting when, after the user selects the adjacent soft key to cause the second symbol to be displayed, the user replaces the second symbol with the first symbol.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the intended soft key is mapped to a first symbol;

the adjacent soft key is mapped to a second symbol; and

detecting occurrence of the particular error includes detecting when the user accepts a suggested word that replaces the second symbol with the first symbol.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the activation region of the intended soft key is performed after detecting a predefined number of occurrences of the particular error.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the user'"'"'s erroneous selection of the adjacent soft key is associated with a touch location based on location data pertaining to touch input on the touch-screen display;

determining a distance parameter relating to the touch location and location of the intended soft key; and

changing the activation region of the intended soft key is based, at least in part, on the distance parameter.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein, after changing the activation region of the intended soft key, at least a portion of the activation region of the intended soft key overlaps the adjacent soft key on the touch-screen display.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the activation region of the intended soft key is performed by modifying a keyboard profile, of a plurality of keyboard profiles, used by the computing device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the activation region of the intended soft key is performed only after detecting a predefined number of occurrences of the particular error;

and wherein the method further comprises;

after a predefined period of time has lapsed, automatically increasing the number of occurrences of the particular error that are required to occur before the activation region of the intended soft key is changed.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the activation region of the intended soft key is performed only after detecting a predefined number of occurrences of the particular error;

and wherein the method further comprises;

allowing the user to specify one of a plurality of sensitivity levels; and

wherein the predefined number of occurrences of the particular error that must occur before the activation region of the intended soft key is changed is based, at least in part, on the sensitivity level selected by the user.

29. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device with a touch-screen display, cause the device to perform the method of claim 1.

19. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-screen display;

displaying a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display;

detecting occurrence of a particular error in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key in addition to an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

based at least in part on having detected occurrence of the particular error, changing an activation region of the intended soft key;

wherein changing the activation region includes performing at least one of;

increasing how much of the touch-screen display is covered by the activation region,

changing a peripheral shape of the activation region, or

shifting position of the activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein detecting occurrence of the particular error includes detecting that the erroneous selection of the adjacent soft key and the selection of the intended soft key are substantially concurrent selections.

30. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device with a touch-screen display, cause the device to perform the method of claim 19.

21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-screen display;

displaying a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display;

detecting multiple occurrences of a particular error in which a user erroneously selects a first soft key of the plurality of soft keys immediately followed by an erroneous selection of a second soft key of the plurality of soft keys;

wherein, for each of the multiple occurrences of the particular error, the user intended to select the second soft key followed by a selection of the first soft key;

based at least in part on having detected the multiple occurrences of the particular error, performing at least one of;

changing an activation sensitivity of the first soft key, or

changing an activation sensitivity of the second soft key.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

based, at least in part, on having detected the multiple occurrences of the particular error, changing an activation sensitivity of the first soft key.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein changing the activation sensitivity of the first soft key includes increasing an amount of time after which a selection of the first soft key is initiated that the first soft key can be selected.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

based at least in part on having detected the multiple occurrences of the particular error, changing an activation sensitivity of the second soft key.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein changing the activation sensitivity of the second soft key includes increasing an amount of time after which a selection of the second soft key is initiated that the second soft key can be selected.

31. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device with a touch-screen display, cause the device to perform the method of claim 21.

26. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-screen display;

displaying a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, the soft keyboard having a plurality of soft keys;

detecting at least one input-affecting factor from;

identity of a user of the computing device,

a physical orientation of the computing device,

lighting conditions in which the computing device is being used,

a time of day, or

whether the computing device is moving;

in response to detecting the input-affecting factor, performing the steps of

automatically selecting a keyboard profile of a plurality of keyboard profiles based on the input-affecting factor; and

using the selected keyboard profile to determine which of the soft keys of the soft keyboard are selected by the user.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of keyboard profiles specifies an activation region for one or more soft keys of the plurality of soft keys of the soft keyboard.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of keyboard profiles differs from the others of the plurality of keyboard profiles with respect to the activation region of at least one soft key of the plurality of soft keys.

32. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device with a touch-screen display, cause the device to perform the method of claim 26.