System and method for controlling virtual keyboard of an electronic device

• US 8,584,032 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2011
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mobile Drive Netherlands BV
• Original Assignee: Chi Mei Communication Systems Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Lin, Chin-Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): Sax, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOI, DAVID E
• Application Number:
  US13/273,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20120272175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 715/773, 715/263, 345/157, 345/173
• US Class Current: 715/773
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0487 using specific features provided by the input device, e.g. functions controlled by the rotation of a mouse with dual sensing arrangements, or of the nature of the input device, e.g. tap gestures based on pressure sensed by a digitiser
• 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

In a system and method for controlling a virtual keyboard of an electronic device, the virtual keyboard is generated and displayed on a touch screen of the electronic device. The method sets an angle threshold value, a movement amplitude and a movement direction of the virtual keyboard for each tilting angle of the electronic device. When the electronic device is in an edit mode and displays a middle keyboard area of the virtual keyboard, the method records an initial tilting angle and read the tilting angle of the electronic device. The method calibrates the read tilting angle to acquire actual tilting angle according to the initial tilting angle, and confirms the movement amplitude and movement direction of the virtual keyboard according to the actual tilting angle. The virtual keyboard is controlled to move according to the confirmed movement amplitude and towards the confirmed movement direction.

Claims

1. A computerized method of an mobile electronic device comprising a touch screen, the method comprising:

generating a virtual keyboard including a plurality of virtual keys to display on the touch screen according to a display resolution of the touch screen, a size of the virtual keyboard being at three times of the display resolution, and the virtual keyboard being divided into nine keyboard areas, each of the keyboard areas being displayed one at a time, wherein each area occupies the entire touch screen;

setting an angle threshold value of the electronic device to determine whether the virtual keyboard should be controlled to move;

setting a movement amplitude and a movement direction of the virtual keyboard for a tilting angle of the electronic device according to the angle threshold value;

recording an initial tilting angle when the electronic device is in an edit mode and the touch screen displays a middle keyboard area of the virtual keyboard, and reading the tilting angle of the electronic device at a predetermined time interval;

calibrating the read tilting angle to acquire an actual tilting angle according to the initial tilting angle;

confirming the movement amplitude and movement direction of the virtual keyboard according to the actual tilting angle and the angle threshold value, wherein the movement amplitude is set as horizontal pixels of the display resolution and the movement direction is set to be left or right, upon the condition that the tilting angle is greater than the angle threshold value or less than a negative angle threshold value and wherein the movement amplitude is set as vertical pixels of the display resolution and the movement direction of the virtual keyboard is set to be down or up, upon the condition that the tilting angle is greater than the angle threshold value or less than the negative angle threshold value; and

controlling the virtual keyboard to move for displaying another keyboard area of the virtual keyboard according to the confirmed movement amplitude and towards the confirmed movement direction, wherein the movement amplitude and movement direction of each of the nine keyboard areas thus is based on the tilting angle and the angle threshold value.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tilting angle is measured using a gyroscope or accelerometer of the electronic device according to a predetermined reference orientation of the electronic device, the predetermined reference orientation is defined by setting a vertex of right corner of the touch screen as an origin, a horizontal direction of the touch screen as an x-axis, a vertical direction of the touch screen as a z-axis, and a direction perpendicular to the touch screen as a y-axis.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the tilting angle of the electronic device comprises:

a left and right tilting angle α

that is a positive value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to left, and is a negative value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to right;

a back and forth tilting angle β

that is a positive value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to forth, and is a negative value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to back.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3,

the movement amplitudes are set as the horizontal pixels corresponding to the tilting angle A, and the vertical pixels corresponding to the tilting angle B, and the movement direction is set as upper left, lower left, upper right or lower right, upon the condition that both of the tilting angle A and the tilting angle B are greater than the angle threshold value or less than the negative angle threshold value.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the actual tilting angle is calibrated by subtracting the initial tilting angle from the corresponding read tilting angle.

6. A non-transitory storage medium storing a set of instructions, the set of instructions capable of being executed by a processor of an mobile electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform a method for controlling a virtual keyboard of the electronic device, the method comprising:

generating the virtual keyboard including a plurality of virtual keys to display on the touch screen according to a display resolution of the touch screen, a size of the virtual keyboard being at three times of the display resolution, and the virtual keyboard being divided into nine keyboard areas, each of the keyboard areas being displayed one at a time, wherein each area occupies the entire touch screen;

setting an angle threshold value of the electronic device to determine whether the virtual keyboard should be controlled to move;

setting a movement amplitude and a movement direction of the virtual keyboard for each tilting angle of the electronic device according to the angle threshold value;

recording an initial tilting angle when the electronic device is in an edit mode and the touch screen displays a middle keyboard area of the virtual keyboard, and reading the tilting angle of the electronic device at a predetermined time interval;

calibrating the read tilting angle to acquire an actual tilting angle according to the initial tilting angle;

confirming the movement amplitude and movement direction of the virtual keyboard according to the actual tilting angle and the angle threshold value, wherein the movement amplitude is set as horizontal pixels of the display resolution and the movement direction is set to be left or right, upon the condition that the tilting angle is greater than the angle threshold value or less than a negative angle threshold value and wherein the movement amplitude is set as vertical pixels of the display resolution and the movement direction of the virtual keyboard is set to be down or up, upon the condition that the tilting angle is greater than the angle threshold value or less than the negative angle threshold value; and

controlling the virtual keyboard to move for displaying another keyboard area of the virtual keyboard according to the confirmed movement amplitude and towards the confirmed movement direction, wherein the movement amplitude and movement direction of each of the nine keyboard areas thus is based on the tilting angle and the angle threshold value.

7. The storage medium as claimed in claim 6, wherein the tilting angle is measured using a gyroscope or accelerometer of the electronic device according to a predetermined reference orientation of the electronic device, the predetermined reference orientation is defined by setting a vertex of right corner of the touch screen as an origin, a horizontal direction of the touch screen as an x-axis, a vertical direction of the touch screen as a z-axis, and a direction perpendicular to the touch screen as a y-axis.

8. The storage medium as claimed in claim 7, wherein the tilting angle of the electronic device comprises:

a left and right tilting angle α

that is a positive value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to left, and is a negative value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to right;

a back and forth tilting angle β

that is a positive value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to forth, and is a negative value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to back.

9. The storage medium as claimed in claim 7,

the movement amplitudes are set as the horizontal pixels corresponding to the tilting angle A, and the vertical pixels corresponding to the tilting angle B, and the movement direction is set as upper left, lower left, upper right or lower right, upon the condition that both of the tilting angle A and the tilting angle B are greater than the angle threshold value or less than the negative angle threshold value.

10. The storage medium as claimed in claim 7, wherein the actual tilting angle is calibrated by subtracting the initial tilting angle from the corresponding read tilting angle.

11. An mobile electronic device, comprising:

a storage system;

a touch screen;

at least one processor; and

one or more programs that are stored in the storage system and are executed by the at least one processor, the one or more programs comprising;

a generation module operable to generate a virtual keyboard including a plurality of virtual keys to display on the touch screen according to a display resolution of the touch screen, a size of the virtual keyboard being at three times of the display resolution, and the virtual keyboard being divided into nine keyboard areas, each of the keyboard areas being displayed one at a time, wherein each area occupies the entire touch screen;

a first setting module operable to set an angle threshold value of the electronic device to determines whether the virtual keyboard should be controlled to move;

a second setting module operable to set a movement amplitude and a movement direction of the virtual keyboard for each tilting angle of the electronic device according to the angle threshold value;

a reading module operable to record an initial tilting angle when the electronic device is in an edit mode and the touch screen displays a middle keyboard area of the virtual keyboard, and read the tilting angle of the electronic device at a predetermined time interval;

a calibration module operable to calibrate the read tilting angle to acquire an actual tilting angle according to the initial tilting angle;

a confirmation module operable to confirm the movement amplitude and movement direction of the virtual keyboard according to the actual tilting angle and the angle threshold value, wherein the movement amplitude is set as horizontal pixels of the display resolution and the movement direction is set to be left or right, upon the condition that the tilting angle is greater than the angle threshold value or less than a negative angle threshold value and wherein the movement amplitude is set as vertical pixels of the display resolution and the movement direction of the virtual keyboard is set to be down or up, upon the condition that the tilting angle is greater than the angle threshold value or less than the negative angle threshold value; and

a control module operable to control the virtual keyboard to move for displaying another keyboard area of the virtual keyboard according to the confirmed movement amplitude and towards the confirmed movement direction, wherein the movement amplitude and movement direction of each of the nine keyboard areas thus is based on the tilting angle and the angle threshold value.

12. The electronic device as claimed in claim 11, wherein the tilting angle is measured using a gyroscope or accelerometer of the electronic device according to a predetermined reference orientation of the electronic device, the predetermined reference orientation is defined by setting a vertex of right corner of the touch screen as an origin, a horizontal direction of the touch screen as an x-axis, a vertical direction of the touch screen as a z-axis, and a direction perpendicular to the touch screen as a y-axis.

13. The electronic device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the tilting angle of the electronic device comprises:

a left and right tilting angle α

that is a positive value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to left, and is a negative value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to right;

a back and forth tilting angle β

that is a positive value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to forth, and is a negative value when the electronic device tilts from the reference orientation to back.

14. The electronic device as claimed in claim 13,

the movement amplitudes are set as the horizontal pixels corresponding to the tilting angle A, and the vertical pixels corresponding to the tilting angle B, and the movement direction is set as upper left, lower left, upper right or lower right, upon the condition that both of the tilting angle A and the tilting angle B are greater than the angle threshold value or less than the negative angle threshold value.

15. The electronic device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the actual tilting angle is calibrated by subtracting the initial tilting angle from the corresponding read tilting angle.