MULTIDIRECTIONAL SWIPE KEY FOR VIRTUAL KEYBOARD

• US 20140306899A1
• Filed: 04/10/2013
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barnes & Noble College Booksellers LLC (Barnes & Noble Education, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nook Digital, LLC (f/k/a Barnesandnoble.com LLC) (Bahwan CyberTek Pvt Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hicks, Kourtny M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,146,672 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• 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

Techniques are disclosed for providing a multidirectional swipe key for a virtual keyboard of a touch sensitive computing device. The multidirectional swipe key can be used to translate one or more swipe gestures started from the key into cursor movement (or directional input). The characteristics of the multidirectional swipe key gestures, such as the swipe direction and/or swipe length, may affect the resulting cursor movement (or directional input). The multidirectional swipe key may be configured such that held swipe gestures cause continual cursor movement (or directional input). The multidirectional swipe key may also be configured such that dragging the gesture to make a longer swipe accelerates cursor movement (or directional input) and vice versa.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a display for displaying content to a user;

a touch sensitive surface for allowing user input; and

a user interface including a virtual keyboard, the virtual keyboard including a multidirectional swipe key, wherein a swipe gesture started on the multidirectional swipe key causes directional input determined by the direction of the swipe gesture.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the display is a touch screen display that includes the touch sensitive surface.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the directional input is based on at least one of the swipe gesture length, swipe gesture speed, whether the swipe gesture is held, and whether the swipe gesture is dragged.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein a directional pad pop-up is displayed after making contact with the multidirectional swipe key or after a press-and-hold on the multidirectional swipe key for a predetermined duration.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein the directional pad pop-up continues to be displayed and allow for additional swipe gestures for additional directional input until the directional pad pop-up display is exited.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the direction of the swipe gesture is relative to the starting contact point with the multidirectional swipe key.

7. The device of claim 6 wherein dragging the swipe gesture farther away from the starting contact point accelerates directional input.

8. The device of claim 1 wherein the directional input is cursor movement which tracks the direction of the swipe gesture.

9. The device of claim 1 wherein the swipe gesture is translated into upward, rightward, downward, and/or leftward directional input.

10. The device of claim 1 wherein the device is a smart phone, eReader, or tablet computer.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the multidirectional swipe key is user-configurable.

12. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a display having a touch screen interface and for displaying content to a user; and

a user interface including a virtual keyboard having a multidirectional swipe key that is configured to cause cursor movement determined by the direction of a swipe gesture started on the multidirectional swipe key, wherein holding the swipe gesture causes continual cursor movement.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein dragging the swipe gesture farther away from the starting contact point made with the multidirectional swipe key accelerates the continual cursor movement.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein a highlight activation action used in combination with the swipe gesture causes highlighting in combination with the cursor movement.

15. The device of claim 12 wherein the swipe gesture is translated into upward, rightward, downward, and/or leftward cursor movement.

16. A computer program product comprising a plurality of instructions non-transiently encoded thereon to facilitate operation of an electronic device according to the following process, the process comprising:

display a multidirectional swipe key;

in response to user input via the multidirectional swipe key, determine a desired directional input, wherein the user input includes a swipe gesture started from the multidirectional swipe key to indicate the desired directional input; and

navigate in accordance with the desired directional input.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein holding the gesture causes continual directional input in the direction indicated by the swipe gesture.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein dragging the swipe gesture farther away from the starting contact point made with the multidirectional swipe key accelerates the directional input.

19. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the directional input tracks the direction of the swipe gesture.

20. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein a directional pad pop-up is displayed after making contact with the multidirectional swipe key or after a press-and-hold on the multidirectional swipe key for a predetermined duration.