Handheld electronic device

• US 8,284,163 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Lazaridis, Mihal, Griffin, Jason T., Fyke, Steven Henry
• Primary Examiner(s): Shankar, Vijay
• Application Number:
  US12/696,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20100134417A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-169
• US Class Current: 345/167
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• 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 1/169 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 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user

Abstract

A handheld electronic device includes an input apparatus, an output apparatus, and a processor apparatus. The input apparatus includes a reduced keyboard and roller ball input. The roller ball input includes a movable portion that is substantially continuously rotatable with respect to a housing of the device and is rotatable about more than one axis providing input. The processor apparatus includes a disambiguation routine that can output various proposed interpretations of inputs from the reduced keyboard. The roller ball input advantageously provides various inputs to the handheld electronic device without requiring significant user attention, which enables a user to direct greater amount of attention to the output from the disambiguation routine and other aspects of the device. The roller ball input can be configured to additionally be translatable to provide an input, and additionally and/or alternatively the roller ball input can provide a tactile or other feedback to a user.

Claims

1. A handheld electronic device comprising:

a processor apparatus comprising a processor and a memory;

a first input device communicatively coupled with the processor apparatus and adapted to generate first inputs upon actuation;

an output apparatus communicatively coupled with the processor apparatus, the output apparatus including a display;

a second input device communicatively coupled with the processor and adapted to generate a number of second inputs upon actuation;

the processor apparatus being adapted to receive the first inputs outputted from the first input device and the second inputs outputted from the second input device;

a housing;

the memory having stored therein a routine that is executable on the processor upon detection of a number of the first inputs, the routine being adapted to;

output to the display a number of primary output items;

move an indicator through the number of primary output items on the display responsive to the second inputs outputted from the second input device; and

generate secondary output items in response to the second inputs outputted from the second input device.

2. The handheld electronic device of claim 1, wherein the second input device comprises a movable portion that is translatable with respect to the housing to provide a selection input.

3. The handheld electronic device of claim 1, wherein the second input device comprises a movable portion that provides a tactile feedback to a user.

4. The handheld electronic device of claim 3, wherein the tactile feedback is one of a click or a pulse.

5. The handheld electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the secondary output items comprise proposed linguistic elements.

6. The handheld electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the secondary output items are based upon a selected primary output item.

7. The handheld electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the indicator moves to the secondary output items when the processor receives additional inputs from the second input device.

8. The handheld electronic device of claim 1, wherein the housing includes a first portion and a second portion movably connected together.

9. The handheld electronic device of claim 8, wherein one of the display and the second input device is disposed on the first portion, and wherein the other of the display and the second input device is disposed on the second portion.

10. The handheld electronic device of claim 1, wherein the first input device is a keypad having a plurality of keys, a majority of the plurality of keys having a plurality of letters associated therewith, and wherein the plurality of letters are arranged in a substantially QWERTY configuration.

11. The handheld electronic device of claim 1, wherein the routine comprises a disambiguation routine.

12. The handheld electronic device of claim 1, wherein the second input device is one of a trackball, trackpad or a rollerball.

13. A method comprising;

providing a processor apparatus comprising a processor and a memory on a handheld electronic device;

providing a first input device, wherein the first input device is communicatively coupled with the processor apparatus;

generating first inputs upon activation of the first input device;

providing an output apparatus communicatively coupled with the processor apparatus, the output apparatus including a display;

generating a number of second inputs upon activation of a second input device;

adapting the processor apparatus to receive the first inputs outputted from the first input device and the second inputs outputted from the second input device;

providing a routine that is stored in a memory, the routine being executable on the processor upon detecting a number of the first inputs, the routine being adapted to;

output to the display a number of primary output items;

move an indicator through the number of primary output items on the display responsive to the received second inputs outputted from the second input device and

generate secondary output items in response to the second inputs outputted from the second input device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second input device comprises a movable portion that is translatable with respect to the housing to provide a selection input.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the second input device comprises a movable portion that is capable of providing a tactile feedback to a user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the tactile feedback is one of a click or a pulse.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the secondary output items comprise proposed linguistic elements.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the indicator moves to the secondary output items in response to inputs outputted from the second input device.