System for reconfiguring a keyboard configuration in response to an event status information related to a computer's location determined by using triangulation technique

• US 5,867,729 A
• Filed: 08/21/1997
• Issued: 02/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toshiba America Information Systems Incorporated (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba America Information Systems Incorporated (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Swonk, Glenn L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Le Hien
• Application Number:
  US08/915,734
• Time in Patent Office: 530 Days
• Field of Search: 395/828, 395/830, 395/887, 395/186, 395/500, 395/651, 395/281, 395/750.05, 395/703, 395/836, 345/172, 345/168, 345/329, 345/352, 345/333, 345/354, 345/326, 364/709.16, 361/690, 600/523
• US Class Current: 710/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/023 Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as alphanumeric codes, operand codes or instruction codes

Abstract

A computer system includes a computer having an event detecting interface for detecting when an event occurs. Based on the occurrence of the event, a keyboard assignment scheme is dynamically reconfigured to an appropriate configuration. The computer also includes a user interface for sensing when a key combination of at least one standard key and a non-standard key of a keyboard is depressed and a look-up table for storing a plurality of key combinations and one or more applications corresponding to each key combination of the active configuration. A non-standard key application control in the computer determines the application corresponding to the depressed key combination according to the active configuration. If the depressed key combination corresponds to one application, the non-standard key application control launches the application via an application program interface. If the depressed key combination corresponds to a plurality of separate applications, the user is presented with a pop-up list to select an application for launching. In addition, the user can define the available configurations by communicating with the non-standard key application control via user dialogs to add or edit configurations thereby selecting the applications launched when a key combination in the defined configuration is depressed.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically configuring a physical keyboard connected to a computer based on a location of the computer, said method comprising the steps of:

determining the location of the computer using triangulation;

assigning a keyboard configuration associated with the keyboard based on the location of the computer; and

automatically reconfiguring said keyboard configuration based on the location of the computer to provide a different keyboard configuration,

an appearance of the keyboard not being dependent upon said keyboard configuration.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of detecting docking/undocking of the computer, wherein said step of automatically reconfiguring further includes automatically reconfiguring said keyboard configuration based on the docking/undocking of the computer.

3. The method of claim 1 further including the step of detecting insertion/removal of a disk, wherein said step of automatically reconfiguring further includes automatically reconfiguring said keyboard configuration based on the insertion/removal of the disk.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

binding a key combination to an action based on the selected keyboard configuration; and

storing in a look-up table, the key combination and information for executing said action of the selected keyboard configuration.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said action is an application and said information for executing said action is information for launching said application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining the location of the computer is performed using a global positioning system device.

7. In a computer system comprising a display, a physical keyboard having a set of keys, and a computer coupled to the keyboard, a method for defining a plurality of keyboard configurations, wherein one of said keyboard configurations is selected based on a location of the computer, said method comprising the steps of:

prompting a user to select a first keyboard configuration and an action for binding to a key combination for said first keyboard configuration;

first storing in a first configuration memory area, responsive to a user'"'"'s selection, the key combination and information for executing the user-selected action for said first keyboard configuration;

prompting a user to select a second keyboard configuration and an action for binding to a key combination for said second keyboard configuration;

second storing in a second configuration memory area, responsive to the user'"'"'s selection, the key combination and information for executing the user-selected action for said second keyboard configuration;

determining the location of the computer using triangulation; and

third storing one of said first and second keyboard configurations in a keyboard look-up table based on the location of the computer

an appearance of the keyboard not being dependent upon said keyboard configurations.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each step of prompting comprises displaying an ADD/EDIT dialog box on said display.

9. The method of claim 7, further including the step of prompting a user to enable event detection, wherein said step of determining the location of the computer is responsive to enabled event detection.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said action is an application, said information for executing an application is information for launching an application.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein each step of prompting responds to the depression of said key combination when said respective configuration memory area does not contain an action corresponding to said key combination.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each step of prompting comprises invoking an ADD/EDIT dialog using said display to enable the user to select the application for binding to said key combination.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said step of invoking an ADD/EDIT dialog includes enabling the user to select any application from a listing of applications.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

each step of prompting is responsive to a user'"'"'s request to edit an existing configuration; and

first and second storing comprises replacing information for executing the existing action for a key combination of the existing configuration in said respective configuration memory area with information for launching an application of the key combination of a configuration newly selected by the user.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said first and second steps of storing comprise storing in said first and second configuration memory areas said key combination and information for launching a plurality of applications of said first and second keyboard configurations, respectively.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of determining the location of the computer is performed using a global positioning system device.

17. A computer system comprising a physical keyboard having a set of keys and a computer coupled to said keyboard, said computer comprising:

an event detecting interface for determining a location of the computer using triangulation and generating event status information;

configuration memory for storing a plurality of different keyboard configurations represented by a keyboard configuration information, wherein each keyboard configuration includes key binding with a plurality of key combinations being bound to a different action and information for executing the action;

a configuration interface, responsive to said event status information, for retrieving keyboard configuration information according to the location of the computer from said configuration memory;

key application control, configured to receive the keyboard configuration information, for automatically changing an active keyboard configuration to a keyboard configuration associated with the location of keyboard, an appearance of the keyboard not being dependent upon the keyboard configurations; and

a look-up table, responsive to said key application control, for storing said keyboard configuration.

18. The computer system according to claim 17, further comprising a docking port, coupled to said event detecting interface, for connecting said computer to a network, wherein said event detecting interface further detects a docking state of said computer.

19. The computer system according to claim 17, wherein said information for executing the action comprises information for launching an application.

20. The computer system according to claim 17, further comprising:

a user interface, coupled to said keyboard, for sensing depression of a key combination, wherein said key application control determines from said look-up table the information for executing the action corresponding to the depressed key combination sensed by said user interface; and

an operating environment for executing the action based upon the determined information.

21. The computer system according to claim 20, wherein said information for executing the action comprises information for launching an application.

22. The computer system according to claim 21, further comprising:

a pop-up list database for storing information for launching a plurality of applications corresponding at least one of said key combinations of the keyboard configuration associated with the location of the computer; and

a display for displaying a pop-up list of applications stored in said pop-up list database for selection by the user, wherein said operating environment launches the application selected by the user from said pop-up list.

23. The computer system of claim 17, wherein said event detecting interface is configured to determine the location of the computer using a global positioning system device.

24. The computer system of claim 17, wherein said event detecting interface further detects a docking/undocking event.

25. In a computer system comprising a display, a physical keyboard having a set of keys, and a computer coupled to the keyboard, wherein an action is executed responsive to a depression of a key combination on the keyboard, a method for dynamically configuring the keyboard, said method comprising the steps of:

determining a location of the computer using triangulation;

generating event status information based on the location of the computer; and

automatically reconfiguring said keyboard responsive to the event status information to provide a different keyboard configuration, an appearance of the keyboard not being dependent upon the keyboard configuration.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said step of determining the location of the computer is performed using a global positioning system device.

27. The method of claim 25, further including the step of detecting a docking/undocking event, wherein the step of automatically reconfiguring further includes automatically reconfiguring said keyboard configuration based on the docking/undocking event.

28. The method of claim 25, further including the step of detecting insertion/removal of a peripheral element, wherein the step of automatically reconfiguring further includes automatically reconfiguring said keyboard configuration based on the insertion/removal of the peripheral element.