Apparatus and method for providing adaptive on-screen keyboard

• US 8,345,008 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2008
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Hyun-jeong, Park, Joon-ah, Chang, Wook
• Primary Examiner(s): Lao, Lun-Yi
• Assistant Examiner(s): MERKOULOVA, OLGA VLADIMIROVNA
• Application Number:
  US12/076,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20090146957A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,743 Days
• Field of Search: 345/168, 345/173, 345/169, 345/639, 345/156, 345/157, 345/158, 345/163, 345/159, 345/174, 340/5.4, 340/5.54, 715/773
• US Class Current: 345/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0418 for error correction or compensation, e.g. based on parallax, calibration or alignment
• 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

An apparatus and method for providing an adaptive on-screen keyboard are provided. The apparatus includes a sensor for detecting touch action of a user from a touch screen, a pattern recognizer for recognizing a touch pattern of the user using the detected touch action of the user, a rearrangement processor for reconstructing the key arrangement of the on-screen keyboard to be provided through the touch screen on the basis of the recognized touch pattern of the user, and a display for displaying the on-screen keyboard on the basis of information on the reconstructed key arrangement. Thus, the apparatus can increase the convenience of use when the user makes use of the on-screen keyboard.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing an adaptive on-screen keyboard, comprising:

a sensor for detecting at least one contact corresponding to a touch action of a user from a touch screen;

a pattern recognizer for recognizing at least one first key of the on-screen keyboard corresponding to each contact;

a rearrangement processor for reconstructing a key arrangement of the on-screen keyboard based on an obtained curve passing a midpoint of the at least one contact and mapping the at least one first key to a region defined by the obtained curve; and

a display for displaying the adaptive on-screen keyboard on the basis of information on the reconstructed key arrangement.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensor detects a position and an area of the at least one contact corresponding to the touch action of the user using a multi-touch sensor.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the pattern recognizer recognizes a touch pattern of the user by checking to which key of which region each contact corresponds using the position and area of the detected at least one contact.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the rearrangement processor adjusts positions and sizes of multiple keys constituting the on-screen keyboard on the basis of the detected position and area of the at least one contact, and reconstructs the key arrangement to be adapted to a touch pattern of the user.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a storage, which stores information on both a touch pattern of the user including the detected position and area of the at least one contact, and the key arrangement corresponding to the touch pattern of the user,

wherein the rearrangement processor stores the information on the touch pattern of the user and the information on the reconstructed key arrangement in the storage, and reflects the stored results in the key arrangement afterwards.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, if an instruction for requesting the user to touch at least one reference finger on a touch screen is presented, the sensor detects at least one contact touched by the user in response to the instruction.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, if an instruction for requesting the user to input a predetermined word is presented, the sensor detects at least one contact touched by the user in response to the instruction.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the rearrangement processor maps at least one second key of the on-screen keyboard to a remaining region other than the region defined by the obtained curve.

9. A method for providing an adaptive on-screen keyboard, comprising:

detecting touch action of a user from a touch screen;

extracting at least one contact from the detected touch action of the user;

recognizing at least one first key of the on-screen keyboard corresponding to each contact;

reconstructing a key arrangement of the on-screen keyboard based on an obtained curve passing a midpoint of the at least one contact and mapping the at least one first key to a region defined by the obtained curve; and

displaying the on-screen keyboard on the basis of information on the reconstructed key arrangement.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the detecting of the touch action includes detecting the at least one contact by presenting an instruction for requesting the user to touch at least one reference finger, and allowing the user to touch the at least one reference finger on the touch screen in response to the instruction.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the detecting of the touch action includes detecting the at least one contact by presenting an instruction for requesting the user to input a predetermined word, and allowing the user to input the predetermined word on the touch screen in response to the instruction.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the recognizing includes checking to which key of which region each contact corresponds using a detected position and area of the at least one contact, and recognizing a touch pattern of the user.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the reconstructing of the key arrangement includes adjusting positions and sizes of multiple keys constituting each on-screen keyboard on the basis of a detected position and area of the at least one contact, and reconstructing the key arrangement so as to be adapted to a touch pattern of the user.