Hand-held electronic device with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs

• US 6,611,255 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2002
• Issued: 08/26/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Major, Harry R., Lazaridis, Mihal, Griffin, Jason T., Holmes, John A., Little, Herb A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shankar, Vijay
• Assistant Examiner(s): Said, Mansour M.
• Application Number:
  US10/167,202
• Publication Number:
  US 20020158847A1
• Time in Patent Office: 441 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/157, 345/168, 345/169, 345/140, 345/160, 345/170, 345/171, 400/489, 400/472, 400/486, 400/479, 341/20, 341/22, 341/21, 341/23
• US Class Current: 345/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1662 Details related to the integrated keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1664 Arrangements for ergonomically adjusting the disposition of keys of the integrated keyboard
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1671 Special purpose buttons or auxiliary keyboards, e.g. retractable mini keypads, keypads or buttons that remain accessible at closed laptop G06F1/1666 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0216 Arrangements for ergonomically adjusting the disposition of keys of a keyboard for keyboards integrated in a laptop computer G06F1/1664
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0219 Special purpose keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 2225/022 other then row-column disposition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/23 Construction or mounting of dials or of equivalent devices; Means for facilitating the use thereof by improving visibility H04M1/22

Abstract

A hand-held electronic device with a keyboard optimized for use with the thumbs is disclosed. In order to operate within the limited space available on a hand-held electronic device, the present invention optimizes the placement and shape of the keys, preferably using keys that are oval or oblong in shape, and that are placed at angles designed to facilitate thumb-typing.

Claims

1. A hand-held messaging device, comprising:

a keyboard that is horizontally positioned symmetrically between a left edge and a right edge of a face of the hand-held messaging device and having a plurality of keys arranged in a plurality of rows across the face, wherein each row of keys is arranged in a concave pattern;

a display that is vertically positioned between the keyboard and a top edge of the face and horizontally positioned symmetrically between the left edge and the right edge of the face;

an auxiliary input device; and

a processor coupled to the keyboard, the auxiliary input device and the display that controls the operation of the hand-held messaging device.

2. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein each row of keys is arranged in a concave-down pattern.

3. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein each row of keys is arranged along an arc.

4. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of keys of the keyboard is oblong.

5. The hand-held messaging device of claim 4, wherein the oblong key is tilted at an angle from a vertical axis extending through a center of the key.

6. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of keys of the keyboard are oblong.

7. The hand-held messaging device of claim 6, wherein a first portion of the oblong keys are tilted at a negative angle from vertical and a second portion of the oblong keys are tilted at a positive angle from vertical.

8. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of keys of the keyboard is oval.

9. The hand-held messaging device of claim 8, wherein the oval key is tilted at an angle from a vertical axis extending through a center of the key.

10. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of keys each have a shape that is contoured for optimal typing with a user'"'"'s thumbs.

11. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein each key of the keyboard is aligned along a vertical axis with a key from an adjacent row.

12. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein the keyboard includes three (3) rows of keys, wherein each of the three rows of keys includes a first set of keys that are arranged in a pattern having a positive slope from vertical and a second set of keys that are arranged in a pattern having a negative slope from vertical.

13. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein the keyboard includes twenty-six (26) letter keys.

14. The hand-held messaging device of claim 13, wherein the twenty-six (26) letter keys are arranged in the format of a QWERTY-style keyboard.

15. The hand-held messaging device of claim 14, further comprising:

a row of functional keys that are horizontally positioned symmetrically or substantially symmetrically between a left edge and a right edge of the face of the hand-held messaging device and vertically positioned between the keyboard and a bottom edge of the hand-held messaging device.

16. The hand-held messaging device of claim 15, wherein the row of functional keys includes a space bar.

17. The hand-held messaging device of claim 15, wherein the row of functional keys includes an alt key, and wherein at least one letter key has an associated alternate character that may be input to the processor by simultaneously depressing the letter key and the alt key.

18. The hand-held messaging device of claim 15, wherein the row of functional keys includes a shift key.

19. The hand-held messaging device of claim 15, wherein the row of functional keys includes a menu key.

20. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one additional functional key positioned above the keyboard.

21. The hand-held messaging device of claim 20, wherein the additional functional key is a backspace key.

22. The hand-held messaging device of claim 20, wherein the additional functional key is a home key.

23. The hand-held messaging device of claim 20, wherein the additional functional key is an escape key.

24. The hand-held messaging device of claim 20, wherein the additional functional key is a menu key.

25. The hand-held messaging device of claim 20, wherein the additional functional key is a delete key.

26. The hand-held messaging device of claim 20, wherein the additional functional key is a cursor-left key.

27. The hand-held messaging device of claim 20, wherein the additional functional key is a cursor-right key.

28. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary input device is a thumb-wheel.

29. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, further comprising:

a wireless radio subsystem coupled to the processor that transmits and receives electronic messages from a wireless network; and

a memory device coupled to the processor that stores electronic messages received from the wireless network.

30. The hand-held messaging device of claim 29, further comprising:

application software executing on the processor, wherein the application software includes an electronic messaging application that receives electronic messages that are wirelessly redirected to the hand-held messaging device from a redirection software application executing on a corporate server.

31. The hand-held messaging device of claim 30, wherein the application software includes a calendar application.

32. The hand-held messaging device of claim 1, further comprising:

a rechargeable battery coupled to the processor that supplies power to the hand-held messaging device.

33. A hand-held messaging device, comprising:

a device housing having a face, a bottom surface, and a plurality of connecting surfaces for connecting the face to the bottom surface;

a display mounted within the face of the device housing and horizontally positioned symmetrically between a left edge of the face and a right edge of the face;

a keyboard mounted within the face of the device housing in a position between the display and a bottom edge of the face, wherein the keyboard comprises a QWERTY-style keyboard having a plurality of keys arranged in a plurality of rows across the face;

wherein each row of keys is arranged in a concave pattern and is distributed symmetrically across the face of the housing, wherein the keyboard includes a plurality of letter keys and at least one specialized key;

an auxiliary input device mounted within the housing; and

a processor coupled to the keyboard, the auxiliary input device and the display that controls the operation of the hand-held messaging device.

34. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein each row of keys is arranged in a concave-down pattern.

35. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein each row of keys is arranged along an arc.

36. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the plurality of keys are oblong.

37. The hand-held messaging device of claim 36, wherein the oblong shaped keys are tilted with respect to a vertical reference through the face of the device housing.

38. The hand-held messaging device of claim 36, wherein the oblong shaped keys are oval shaped.

39. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the specialized key is a line feed key.

40. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the specialized key is a backspace key.

41. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the keyboard further comprises a row of functional keys.

42. The hand-held messaging device of claim 41, wherein the row of functional keys includes at least a space bar key, an alt key, and a shift key.

43. The hand-held messaging device of claim 41, wherein the row of functional keys includes at least a space bar key, a shift key, and a menu key.

44. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the hand-held device is a two-way pager, a personal digital assistant or an electronic organizer.

45. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the auxiliary input device is mounted within one of the connecting surfaces.

46. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the auxiliary input device is a thumbwheel.

47. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, wherein the auxiliary input device includes a directional input component for navigating a plurality of menu items presented on the display and a selector switch for selecting a menu item from the plurality of menu items.

48. The hand-held messaging device of claim 33, further comprising:

a transceiver for transmitting and receiving messages.

49. The hand-held messaging device of claim 48, further comprising:

a first antenna for receiving messages; and

a second antenna for transmitting messages.

50. The hand-held messaging device of claim 49, wherein the transceiver further comprises:

a receiver, coupled to the first antenna, for demodulating the received messages; and

a transmitter, coupled to the second antenna, for generating a modulated message.

51. The hand-held messaging device of claim 50, wherein the transceiver further comprises:

a digital signal processor coupled to the transmitter and the receiver for processing demodulated messages from the receiver, and for providing modulation information to the transmitter.

52. A wireless e-mail device, comprising:

a device housing having a face and a left and right side surface coupled to the face;

a display mounted within the face;

a transceiver for receiving e-mail messages from a wireless network and for transmitting e-mail messages generated on the wireless e-mail device to the wireless network;

a keyboard that is horizontally positioned symmetrically between the left side surface and the right side surface and having a plurality of keys arranged in a plurality of rows across the race, wherein each row of keys is arranged in a concave pattern;

an auxiliary input device mounted within the device housing; and

a processor coupled to the keyboard, the auxiliary input device and the display that controls the operation of the wireless e-mail device.

53. The wireless e-mail device of claim 52, wherein the auxiliary input device is a thumbwheel.

54. The wireless e-mail device of claim 52, wherein the auxiliary input device includes a directional input component for navigating a plurality of menu items presented on the display and a selector switch for selecting a menu item form the plurality of menu items.

55. The wireless e-mail device of claim 52, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver.

56. The wireless e-mail device of claim 52, further comprising:

a memory for storing an operating system and a plurality of application programs that are executed by the processor to control the operation of the wireless e-mail device.

57. The wireless e-mail device of claim 56, wherein the operating system assigns a plurality of characters to at least one of the plurality of keys, and wherein the wireless e-mail device includes an auxiliary input device that is used to select one of the plurality of characters by holding down the at least one key and selecting the one of the plurality of characters using the auxiliary input device.

58. The wireless e-mail device of claim 56, wherein the memory stores a database associating a plurality of first character phrases with a plurality of second character phrases, and wherein the operating system detects one of the plurality of first character phrases input by a user of the wireless e-mail device using the keyboard and substitutes the associated second character phase on the display.

59. The wireless e-mail device of claim 56, wherein the memory is a flash memory.

60. The wireless e-mail device of claim 56, further comprising a digital signal processor coupled between the processor and the transceiver.

61. The wireless e-mail device of claim 56, wherein the plurality of application programs include a messaging application for generating e-mail messages and a calendar application.

62. The wireless e-mail device of claim 61, wherein the plurality of application programs further include an address book application.

63. The wireless e-mail device of claim 52, further comprising a serial port for coupling the wireless e-mail device to a host computer.

64. The wireless e-mail device of claim 52, further comprising a power supply system including a rechargeable battery and an external charger input for receiving a source of electrical charge to recharge the rechargeable battery.

65. The wireless e-mail device of claim 64, wherein the rechargeable battery is a lithium battery.

66. The wireless e-mail device of claim 64, wherein the power supply subsystem further includes a voltage regulator coupled to the rechargeable battery for generating a regulated supply voltage for powering the device.

67. The wireless e-mail device of claim 64, wherein the power supply subsystem further includes connections to a microprocessor for monitoring the operation of the power supply subsystem.

68. A hand-held messaging device, comprising:

a device housing having a face;

a display mounted within the face;

a keyboard mounted within the face of the device housing in a position between the display and a bottom edge of the face, wherein the keyboard comprises a QWERTY-style keyboard having a plurality of keys arranged in a plurality of rows across the face, wherein each row of keys is arranged in a concave pattern and is distributed symmetrically across the face of the housings wherein the keyboard includes a plurality of letter keys and at least one specialized key;

an auxiliary input device mounted within the device housing;

means for receiving e-mail messages from a wireless network and for transmitting e-mail messages generated on the hand-held messaging device to the wireless network.