Block-based navigation of a virtual keyboard

• US 9,134,809 B1
• Filed: 03/21/2011
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mak, Mingchi Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Snyder, Adam J
• Application Number:
  US13/052,948
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 345/173, 345/168
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0202 Constructional details or processes of manufacture of the input device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0221 Arrangements for reducing keyboard size for transport or storage, e.g. foldable keyboards, keyboards with collapsible keys G06F3/0216 takes precedence; for keyboards integrated in a laptop computer G06F1/1666
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0426 tracking fingers with respect to a virtual keyboard projected or printed on the surface virtual keyboards on touch screens G06F3/04886
• 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

Some implementations provide a virtual keyboard having a plurality of keys grouped into a plurality of blocks of multiple keys. For instance, a first type of keyboard control input may navigate a focus of the keyboard from a first block of keys to a second block of keys as a shortcut for quickly traversing a number of keys. A second type of keyboard control input may navigate the focus from a first key to an adjacent key. Navigation of the focus to a target block may result in the focus being centrally located within the target block so that the keys in the target block can be accessed with a minimal number of additional control inputs. Further, in some implementations, one or more suggested words maybe displayed based, at least in part, the keys contained within a block in which the focus is currently located.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a display;

one or more processors operatively coupled to the display;

a keyboard component executed on the one or more processors for presenting a virtual keyboard on the display, the virtual keyboard including a plurality of selectable keys, the keys being grouped into a plurality of contiguous blocks, each block including a plurality of adjacently positioned keys;

a first control separate from the display, the first control activatable for producing a first type of keyboard control input for navigating a focus between a key of a first block of the plurality of contiguous blocks to a centrally located key of a second block of the plurality of contiguous blocks; and

a second control, separate from the display and the first control, the second control activatable for producing a second type of keyboard control input for navigating the focus between individual keys of the blocks;

wherein the keyboard component is configured to present one or more suggested words based, at least in part, on the plurality of selectable keys contained in a particular block in which the focus is currently located.

2. The device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a third control separate from the display and the first control, the third control activatable for producing a third type of keyboard control input for selecting a particular key from the virtual keyboard.

3. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the keyboard component is further configured to present one or more suggested words based, at least in part, on one or more keys previously selected from the virtual keyboard.

4. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein, in response to a fourth type of keyboard control input, the keyboard component is configured to move the focus of the virtual keyboard between the plurality of keys and the one or more suggested words.

5. The device as recited in claim 4, wherein the fourth type of keyboard control input is produced using the first control in combination with the second control.

6. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the blocks divide the plurality of keys into multiple groups of multiple keys presented in a field of view of the virtual keyboard.

7. The device as recited in claim 6, wherein the blocks in the field of view are visually distinguished from each other by at least one of:

outlining;

different coloration;

or highlighting.

8. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the virtual keyboard includes a key representing a spacebar; and

the key representing the spacebar extends across multiple blocks of the plurality of contiguous blocks.

9. The device as recited in claim 8, wherein the key representing the spacebar extends into contact with each block of the plurality of contiguous blocks visible in a field of view of the virtual keyboard.

10. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein the virtual keyboard includes multiple layouts, each layout being divided into multiple contiguous blocks of keys, each layout being selectable for presentation on the display by selection of a corresponding tab of multiple tabs presented with the plurality of keys.

11. The device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a remote controller including at least the first control and the second control for providing at least the first type of keyboard control input and the second type of keyboard control input, respectively, for remotely navigating the focus of the virtual keyboard presented on the display.

12. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the first control comprises at least one first physical button on the device; and

the second control comprises at least one second physical button on the device.

13. A method comprising:

under control of an electronic device including a non-transitory computer-readable medium configured with specific computer-readable instructions,

presenting a keyboard on a display, the keyboard including a plurality of keys, the plurality of keys divided into multiple blocks comprising multiple keys, the multiple blocks being presented in a keyboard field of view; and

navigating a focus of the keyboard from a first block of the multiple blocks to a second block of the multiple blocks at least partly in response to a first type of keyboard control input received from a first physical control separate from the display;

navigating the focus of the keyboard from a first key in the second block to an adjacent key in response to a second type of keyboard control input received from a second physical control different from the first physical control;

navigating the focus of the keyboard from the adjacent key to one or more suggested words in response to a third type of keyboard control input received from the at least one of the first or second physical controls, wherein each of the one or more suggested words corresponds to one or more items for acquisition; and

activating a browsing function to allow for acquisition of at least one of the one or more items in response to a fourth type of keyboard control input received from a combination of the first physical control and the second physical control.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the keyboard includes a key representing a spacebar extending across multiple blocks, the method further comprising navigating the focus of the keyboard from a current key to the spacebar in response to the second type of keyboard control input.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising, in response to receiving a keyboard control input of a fourth type from the second physical control, selecting as an input to a user interface of the device, an individual key at which the focus of the keyboard is currently located.

16. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the navigating the focus of the keyboard from the first block to the second block results in the focus being positioned on a key that is centrally located in the second block.

17. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more suggested words are presented on the display based, at least in part, on one or more keys previously selected from the keyboard.

18. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more suggested words are presented on the display based, at least in part, on one or more keys contained in a particular block in which the focus of the keyboard is currently located.

19. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein a first subset of the multiple blocks is presented in the keyboard field of view and a second subset of the multiple blocks is outside of the keyboard field of view, the method further comprising, when the second block is outside of the keyboard field of view, moving the second block into the keyboard field of view in response to the keyboard control input of the first type received from the at least of the first or second physical controls.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media maintaining computer-readable instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

dividing a virtual keyboard having a plurality of keys into a plurality of blocks, the blocks each including multiple contiguous keys;

presenting, on a display, in a keyboard field of view, at least some of the plurality of blocks;

navigating a focus of the virtual keyboard from a first block of the plurality of blocks in the keyboard field of view to a second block of the plurality of blocks at least partly in response to a first type of keyboard control input received from at least one control that is separate from the display, wherein the navigating the focus from the first block to the second block causes the focus to transition from a key in the first block to a centrally located key in the second block; and

presenting, on the display, one or more suggested words based at least in part on the plurality of keys in the second block of the plurality of blocks.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, wherein the keyboard control input is a first type of keyboard control input, the operations further comprising navigating the focus of the virtual keyboard from a first key to an adjacent key in response to a second type of keyboard control input received from the at least one control that is separate from the display.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, wherein dividing the virtual keyboard into a plurality of blocks further comprises arranging the keys in the plurality of blocks based, at least in part, on a determined frequency at which the keys have previously been selected by a user.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, wherein a first subset of the plurality of blocks is presented in the keyboard field of view and a second subset of the plurality of blocks is outside of the keyboard field of view, the operations further comprising, when the second block is outside of the keyboard field of view, moving the second block into the keyboard field of view in response to the keyboard control input.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, wherein a first subset of the plurality of blocks is presented laid out in the keyboard field of view and a second subset of the plurality of blocks is displayed as stacked blocks on at least one side the first subset, the operations further comprising, when the second block is one of the stacked blocks, moving the second block into the first subset in response to the keyboard control input and adding a block from the first subset to the stacked blocks.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, the operations further comprising selecting an individual key over which the focus is located in response to a third type of keyboard control input received from the at least one control that is separate from the display.

26. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, the operations further comprising selecting one of the one or more suggested words at least partly in response to a fourth type of keyboard control input received from the at least one control that is separate from the display, wherein the each of the one or more suggested words corresponds to an item for acquisition and the selection activates a browsing function to allow for acquisition of the item from an online merchant.