Gestures for special characters

• US 9,058,104 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2012
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: St. Clair, Luke
• Primary Examiner(s): Boddie, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Okebato, Sahlu
• Application Number:
  US13/558,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20140028568A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 345169-173
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• 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 one embodiment, a method includes displaying a keyboard on a touch-screen of a computing device; in response to a touch gesture within a display area of the touch-screen, the touch gesture comprising one or more paths that comprise two or more points on the touch-screen, determining a particular one of a plurality of characters corresponding to the touch gesture; and entering the particular one of the characters as user input to the computing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying to a user, by a computing device, a keyboard on a touch-screen of the computing device;

receiving, at the computing device, a suggestion to turn on a touch-gesture feature, wherein the suggestion is sent to the user when a number of the user'"'"'s social contacts in a social-networking system who have the touch-gesture feature turned on exceeds a threshold number;

enabling the touch-gesture feature based on information associated with the user'"'"'s social contacts and a received user response to the suggestion;

determining, based on information associated with the user'"'"'s social contacts in a social-networking system, that a touch-gesture feature should be turned on and enabling the touch-gesture feature;

in response to detection of a touch gesture within a display area of the touch-screen, the touch gesture comprising one or more paths that comprise two or more points on the touch-screen, determining, by the computing device, a particular one of a plurality of characters corresponding to the one or more paths of the touch gesture independent of a location of the touch gesture on the touch-screen; and

entering, by the computing device, the particular one of the characters as user input to the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular character is a comma, em dash, en dash, parenthesis, caret, slash, tilde, quotation mark, or question mark.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular character is an Arabic, Chinese, Hangul, Hindi, or Kanji character.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the particular one of the characters comprises:

determining a diacritical mark corresponding to the touch gesture; and

modifying, with the diacritical mark, a character entered with the keyboard immediately before the touch gesture.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the touch gesture occurs at or near a location within the display area displaying a character entered with the keyboard immediately before the touch gesture.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the touch gesture occurs at or near a location within the display area displaying the keyboard.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user'"'"'s social contacts comprises whether a number of the user'"'"'s social contacts who have the touch-gesture feature turned on exceeds a threshold number.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the enabling of the touch-gesture feature is further based on a user preference file associated with the user.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the received user response comprises a confirmation.

7. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

display to a user a keyboard on a touch-screen of a computing device;

receive a suggestion to turn on a touch-gesture feature, wherein the suggestion is sent to the user when a number of the user'"'"'s social contacts in a social-networking system who have the touch-gesture feature turned on exceeds a threshold number;

enable the touch-gesture feature based on information associated with the user'"'"'s social contacts and a received user response to the suggestion;

in response to detection of a touch gesture within a display area of the touch-screen, the touch gesture comprising one or more paths that comprise two or more points on the touch-screen, determine a particular one of a plurality of characters corresponding to the one or more paths of the touch gesture independent of a location of the touch gesture on the touch-screen; and

enter the particular one of the characters as user input to the computing device.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein the particular character is a comma, em dash, en dash, parenthesis, caret, slash, tilde, quotation mark, or question mark.

9. The media of claim 7, wherein the particular character is an Arabic, Chinese, Hangul, Hindi, or Kanji character.

10. The media of claim 7, wherein to determine the particular one of the characters, the software is operable when executed to:

determine a diacritical mark corresponding to the touch gesture; and

modify, with the diacritical mark, a character entered with the keyboard immediately before the touch gesture.

11. The media of claim 7, wherein the touch gesture occurs at or near a location within the display area displaying a character entered with the keyboard immediately before the touch gesture.

12. The media of claim 7, wherein the touch gesture occurs at or near a location within the display area displaying the keyboard.

13. A device comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media coupled to the processors and embodying software that is operable when executed by the processors to;

display to a user a keyboard on a touch-screen of the device;

receive a suggestion to turn on a touch-gesture feature, wherein the suggestion is sent to the user when a number of the user'"'"'s social contacts in a social-networking system who have the touch-gesture feature turned on exceeds a threshold number;

enable the touch-gesture feature based on information associated with the user'"'"'s social contacts and a received user response to the suggestion;

in response to detection of a touch gesture within a display area of the touch-screen, the touch gesture comprising one or more paths that comprise two or more points on the touch-screen, determine a particular one of a plurality of characters corresponding to the one or more paths of the touch gesture independent of a location of the touch gesture on the touch-screen; and

enter the particular one of the characters as user input to the device.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the particular character is a comma, em dash, en dash, parenthesis, caret, slash, tilde, quotation mark, or question mark.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein to determine the particular one of the characters, the software is operable when executed by the processors to:

determine a diacritical mark corresponding to the touch gesture; and

modify, with the diacritical mark, a character entered with the keyboard immediately before the touch gesture.

16. The device of claim 13, wherein the touch gesture occurs at or near a location within the display area displaying a character entered with the keyboard immediately before the touch gesture.