Virtual keyboard

• US 7,034,806 B2
• Filed: 01/13/1998
• Issued: 04/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nakagawa, Katsuya
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Jimmy H.
• Application Number:
  US09/006,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20010040554A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,024 Days
• Field of Search: 345/168, 345173-178, 341/22, 341/23, 341/26
• US Class Current: 345/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact
• 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

The present invention provides virtual keyboard which can be used at the same number of operations as on a conventional keyboard and can allow a natural input operation at a minimized load. The virtual keyboard comprises a liquid crystal display for displaying thereon a keyboard having special keys and general keys, a transparent pressure-sensitive panel superimposed on the display and a computing portion that, when a special key and a general key on a pressure-sensitive panel are pushed at a time, detects the coordinate of a middle point between the two pushed positions from outputs of the pressure-sensitive panel, calculates a general key position from the special key point and the middle point and outputs a code corresponding to that position.

Claims

1. A virtual keyboard comprising:

a display for displaying a keyboard;

a transparent pressure-sensitive panel disposed on the display; and

a processor for receiving information of positions detected and sent in a time sequence from the pressure sensitive panel when a special key is first pushed and thereafter when both of the special key and a general key are pushed at the same time, identifying a position of the pushed general key according to the received position information and outputting a code corresponding to the combination of the pushed special key and the general key corresponding to the identified position.

2. A virtual keyboard as defined in claim 1, wherein one of the received position information, when both of the special key and the general key are pushed at the same time, is a furthest returning position from the special key and wherein the position of the general key is determined by doubling a distance between a start position and the furthest returning position.

3. A virtual keyboard as defined in claim 1, wherein a distance between a position of the first pushed key and a furthest returning position, when both of the special key and the general key are pushed at the same time, that are of the information of positions detected in a time sequence is doubled to identify the position of the general key.

4. The virtual keyboard of claim 1, wherein the transparent pressure-sensitive panel is of a type where a position in each of the x and y directions is determined using a divided resistance technique.

5. The virtual keyboard of claim 1, wherein the transparent pressure-sensitive panel includes:

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a first direction;

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a second direction, the first and second directions being at an angle with respect to each other; and

two pairs of electrodes where the plurality of resistance wires in the first direction extend between and are electrically coupled to one of the pair of electrodes and the plurality of resistance wires in the second direction extend between and are electrically coupled to the other of the pair of electrodes.

6. A virtual keyboard comprising:

a display that displays a keyboard;

a transparent pressure-sensitive panel disposed on the display; and

a processor that receives information of positions detected and sent in a time sequence from the pressure sensitive panel when a special key is first pushed and thereafter when both of the special key and a general key are pushed at the same time, that identifies the pushed general key by determining a position of the pushed general key according to the received position information of the first pushed key and the pushed combination of the special key and the general key and that outputs a code corresponding to the combination of the pushed special key and the identified general key.

7. A virtual keyboard as defined in claim 6, wherein:

one of the received position information, when both of the special key and the general key are pushed at the same time, is a furthest returning position from the special key in the information of positions detected in a time sequence, and

the position of the general key is determined by doubling a distance between a start position and the furthest position.

8. A virtual keyboard as defined in claim 6, wherein a distance between a position of the first pushed key and a furthest returning position, when both of the special key and the general key are pushed at the same time, that are of the information of positions detected in a time sequence is doubled to identify the position of the general key.

9. A virtual keyboard comprising:

a display for displaying a keyboard;

a transparent pressure-sensitive panel disposed on the display; and

a processor;

wherein the processor is configured and arranged;

(1) to receive information of positions detected and sent in a time sequence from the pressure sensitive panel, the position information provided including when a special key is first pushed and thereafter when both of the special key and one of a plurality of general keys are pushed at the same time,

(2) to determine a target position using the received position information of when the special key is pushed and when both of the special key and said one general key are pushed, and

(3) to determine which of the plurality of general keys corresponds to the determined target position.

10. The virtual keyboard of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured and arranged (4) to output a code corresponding to the combination of the pushed special key and the determined general key.

11. The virtual keyboard of claim 9, wherein to determine the target position the processor is configured and arranged to determine the position of the pushed special key, to determine a furthest returning position using the position information detected and sent in a time sequence when both the special key and the general key are pushed, and to calculate a distance between the special key and the furthest returning position.

12. The virtual keyboard of claim 11, wherein to determine the target position the processor is further configured and arranged to calculate a position using the determined position of the pushed special key and doubling the calculated distance between the special key and furthest returning position.

13. The virtual keyboard of claim 9, wherein the transparent pressure-sensitive panel is of a type where a position in each of the x and y directions is determined using a divided resistance technique.

14. The virtual keyboard of claim 9, wherein the transparent pressure-sensitive panel includes:

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a first direction;

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a second direction, the first and second directions being at an angle with respect to each other; and

two pairs of electrodes where the plurality of resistance wires in the first direction extend between and are electrically coupled to one of the pair of electrodes and the plurality of resistance wires in the second direction extend between and are electrically coupled to the other of the pair of electrodes.

15. A virtual keyboard comprising:

a display for displaying a keyboard;

a transparent pressure-sensitive panel disposed on the display; and

a processor;

wherein the processor is configured and arranged to;

(1) receive information of positions detected and sent in a time sequence from the pressure sensitive panel, the position information provided including when a special key is first pushed and thereafter when both of the special key and one of a plurality of general keys are pushed at the same time,

(2) determine a target position using the received position information of when the special key is pushed and when both of the special key and said one general key are pushed, including to determine the position of the pushed special key, to determine a furthest returning position using the position information detected and sent in a time sequence when both the special key and the general key are pushed, and to calculate a distance between the special key and the furthest returning position,

(3) determine which of the plurality of general keys corresponds to the determined target position, and

(4) output a code corresponding to the combination of the pushed special key and the determined general key.

16. The virtual keyboard of claim 15, to determine the target position the processor is further configured and arranged to calculate the target position using the determined position of the pushed special key and doubling the calculated distance between the special key and furthest returning position.

17. The virtual keyboard of claim 16, wherein the detected positions in a time sequence are established using a coordinate system, and wherein the position being calculated is calculated using each of coordinate position(s) of the pushed special key and doubling a calculated distance for each coordinate axis of the coordinate system, the calculated distance being representative of the distance between the special key and the furthest returning position.

18. The virtual keyboard of claim 15, wherein the transparent pressure-sensitive panel is of a type where a position in each of the x and y directions is determined using a divided resistance technique.

19. The virtual keyboard of claim 15, wherein the transparent pressure-sensitive panel includes:

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a first direction;

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a second direction, the first and second directions being at an angle with respect to each other; and

two pairs of electrodes where the plurality of resistance wires in the first direction extend between and are electrically coupled to one of the pair of electrodes and the plurality of resistance wires in the second direction extend between and are electrically coupled to the other of the pair of electrodes.

20. A method for determining one of a plurality of general keys of a virtual keyboard being pushed in combination with a special key being pushed at the same time, comprising the steps of:

pushing the special key;

pushing both of the special key and the one of the plurality of general keys;

releasing both of the special key and one of the plurality of general keys;

detecting positions in a time sequence from a pressure sensitive panel of the virtual keyboard, the detected positions including when the special key is first pushed and thereafter when both of the special key and the one of the plurality of general keys are pushed at the same time,

determining a target position using the detected positions of when the special key is pushed and when both of the special key and the one of the plurality of general keys are pushed, and

determining which of the plurality of general keys corresponds to the determined target position.

21. The method of claim 20, further including the step of outputting a code corresponding to the combination of the pushed special key and the determined general key.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein said determining the target position includes:

determining a position of the pushed special key when only the special key is being pushed;

determining a furthest returning position using the detected position information when both the special key and the one of the plurality of general keys are pushed at the same time; and

calculating a distance between the special key and the furthest returning position.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said determining the target position further includes calculating a target position using the determined position of the pushed special key and doubling the calculated distance between the special key and furthest returning position.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein each of the positions detected and sent in a time sequence from the pressure-sensitive panel is detected using a divided resistance technique.

25. The virtual keyboard of claim 20, wherein the pressure-sensitive panel includes:

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a first direction;

a plurality of resistance wires being arranged to extend in a second direction, the first and second directions being at an angle with respect to each other; and

two pairs of electrodes where the plurality of resistance wires in the first direction extend between and are electrically coupled to one of the pair of electrodes and the plurality of resistance wires in the second direction extend between and are electrically coupled to the other of the pair of electrodes.