Input system and its input method

• US 9,207,776 B2
• Filed: 05/15/2009
• Issued: 12/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hangzhou Kind-Tao Technologies Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Hangzhou Kind-Tao Technologies Company Limited
• Inventors: Jiang, Hongming
• Primary Examiner(s): BAUTISTA, XIOMARA L
• Application Number:
  US12/992,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20110071818A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,398 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items

Abstract

A man-machine interface is disclosed. The circle is divided into several angle cells. The required inputted content is placed in the cells, the inputted option direction of motion is detected in real time, the content which the user want to input is forecasted and inputted according to the content in the angle cell directed by the extension line of the direction of motion.

Claims

1. A method for a user to input content into an electronic device using an input system, the input system comprising a circle ring and a database,

the circle ring comprising an outer circle and an inside circle, a first input area is on the circle ring and between the outer circle and the inside circle, the first input area comprising a plurality of keys, wherein each key of the plurality of keys is an angular cell comprising at least one morpheme;

a second input area is inside the inside circle, the second input area is empty or includes only punctuation marks, and wherein the second input area is divided into a plurality of zones;

the method comprising;

the user continuously sliding or pressing along a slide path towards the angular cell of each of a plurality of morphemes of the input content until a final morpheme is completed, the system comparing all possible combinations of the plurality of morphemes with the database;

detecting at the system in real time positional information of a starting point, a turning point, a finishing point of the slide path, pause durations and magnitude of pressure, to assist in prediction and judgment of the content to be input into the electronic device;

determining at the system word length of an input word based on the positional information of the starting point of the slide path;

determining at the system a second input word a third input word and a fourth input word in a phrase or a sentence based on a pause duration of the starting point of the slide path; and

inputting from the system into the electronic device only one possible combination of the plurality of morphemes or high frequency combination of the plurality of morphemes.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, content to be input is placed in the angular cells of the first input area, the input content comprising a morpheme, categories, icons, file folders, files, program;

the morpheme comprising a letter, character, number, Chinese radical, Chinese stroke;

the morpheme according to a sequence of an alphabet.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein, at least one angular cell comprises only one morpheme;

and at least one other angular cell comprises more than one morpheme.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein, five letters “

A, E, I, O, T”

are separately placed in one angular cell;

or five vowel letters “

A, E, I, O, U”

are separately placed in one angular cell;

or five Japanese Kana are placed together in one angular cell according to a sequence of Japanese syllabary.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the input method comprises:

sliding along a first slide path from the first input area to the second input area, wherein a starting point of the first slide path is on the first input area and a finishing point of the first slide path is on the second input area, and wherein the input system inputs a combination of content in a first angular cell corresponding to the starting point and content in a second angular cell toward which the first slide path extends; and

wherein, if the content in the first and second angular cells is numbers, the input system inputs a starting number in the second angular cell;

sliding along a second slide path from the second input area toward the first input area, wherein a starting point and a finishing point of the second slide path are each in the second input area, and wherein the input system inputs content in an angular cell toward which the second slide path extends;

sliding along a third slide path from the second input area directly to the first input area, wherein a starting point of the third slide path is on the second input area and a finishing point of the third slide path is on the first input area, and wherein the input system inputs a word or phrase initial with a morpheme of an angular cell at the finishing point;

sliding outward from the circle ring, wherein the input system inputs a capital letter or letter variant, or a shortcut input word;

sliding outward from the circle ring and then sliding back, wherein the input system inputs a letter variant, or shortcut input word or phrase;

sliding between two adjacent angular cells, wherein the input system inputs a combination of morphemes in the two adjacent angular cells;

sliding within an angular cell selecting a morpheme in a multi-morpheme angular cell;

sliding within an angular cell shortcut input word in a single-morpheme angular cell;

two fingers retracting inward from the circle ring, wherein the input system inputs a combination of morphemes in two starting angular cells;

two fingers extending outward in opposite directions along an extension line, wherein the input system inputs a combination of morphemes in two angular cells that the extension line points to;

two fingers revolving on the circle ring revolving or switching interface.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein, content in angular cell that current slide direction points to changes in real time, an incremental morpheme string is prompted hierarchically for user to select and continue;

once slide direction doesn'"'"'t point to the angular cell any more, content in the angular cell returns to initial state.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further includes:

when words are input, different contents are prompted depending on ordinal number of angular cells in input;

when first and second angular cells are input, prompts prefixes;

when second and third angular cells are input, prompts letter strings initiated with morpheme in the angular cell;

when third and further angular cells are input, prompts suffixes;

system prompts alphabetic variants during input of Latin language.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein, after user stop sliding and leave interface, system directly input word and add a space or punctuation symbol after word.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further includes:

an expansion and enlargement function, wherein morphemes in one angular cell along a slide direction expand and enlarge to adjacent angular cells for a user to select; and

wherein, after expansion and enlargement, each morpheme occupies an angular cell separately.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein, morphemes in an expandable angular cell expand in three types:

firstly, expand towards both sides, centering on a central morpheme in the expandable angular cell;

secondly, expand towards both sides, centering on a frequency morpheme in the expandable angular cell;

thirdly, expand towards both sides, centering on slide direction.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further includes:

angular cells enlargement function, wherein each angle of adjacent angular cells pointed by the slide path enlarge for user to select.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further provides an icon-based input method, wherein, when an icon is clicked, the input system displays a circle ring comprising a plurality of icons;

continuous sliding select icons of an operating system, comprising;

clicking on a “

Start”

icon of the operating system, wherein the input system displays a circle ring comprising a plurality icons of the operating system;

sliding towards one of the icons of the operating system, wherein the one of the icons of the operating system is further expanded to display more icons;

sliding and selecting a folder, and further sliding to select a file.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further provides shortcut input of time according to position information of the starting point;

wherein, when the first input area is a number circle ring, the second input area comprises a month zone, a week zone, an hour zone, and a minute zone.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further provides an assistant initial morpheme screening method, comprising:

inputting an initial morpheme separately, and consecutively sliding from a second morpheme to a last morpheme;

wherein the input system filters out meaningful combinations from all possible combinations.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the possible combinations display on the first input area for the user to select.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein, selecting a morpheme in an angular cell according to a corresponding starting point zone information of the second input area;

wherein each zone sequence number of the second input area corresponds to a morpheme sequence number in an angular cell;

or, wherein a morpheme in an angular cell is selected according to starting point zone information of the second input area relative to a pointed angular cell;

wherein the zone near an angular cell corresponds to the middle morpheme in an angular cell, and wherein the zone on both sides of an angular cell corresponds to an edge morpheme in an angular cell.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method automatically recognizes input language type or forms according to zone information of the second input area;

each zone of the second input area corresponds to one language type or different forms of a same language.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method automatically identifies demarcation points of input content at different levels according to the position of the starting point, demarcation points comprising positions in phrases or sentences, achieve smart input of phrase or sentence, the starting point in one zone of the second input area corresponds to the phrase or sentence input.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the first input area is a tetragon.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method judges an accent of a word according to the position of the turning point outside the first input area, and wherein a morpheme at the turning point is an accent morpheme;

or the method judges long vowels according to the pause period of the turning point, and wherein a morpheme at the turning point is a long vowel.

21. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method judges tones according to zone information of starting point;

and wherein each zone of the second input area corresponds to different tone.

22. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method judges structural information of morpheme elements in Chinese and Korean, according to zone information of the starting point;

structural information comprising structural of strokes, components, or phonetics in Chinese characters and Korean; and

wherein each zone of the second input area corresponds to different structural position information.

23. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method judges the word length of the input word according to a position of the starting point;

wherein if the starting point is in the first input area, the input system determines that the word length of the input word is less than or equal to a setting number;

wherein if the starting point is in the second input area, the input system determines that the word length of the input word is greater than the setting number; and

wherein, each zone of the second input area corresponds to different word length.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method judges part of speech of input content according to the position of zone information, wherein each zone of the second input area corresponds to different part of speech.

25. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further includes an operation performed with multiple fingers;

multiple fingers click to achieve function of Space, Enter, and Syntax keys;

when multiple fingers slide towards different directions, the input system switches between different input interfaces;

or achieves function of CapsLock key, Backspace key, and Enter key;

or achieves selection of prompted content;

or achieves selection of recently input content;

or achieves selection of verb tense.

26. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further includes operation with a plurality of circle rings.

27. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further provides phonetic input.

28. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method judges concept categories of input content according to zone information, wherein each zone of the second input area corresponds to different kind of concept category.

29. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method provides a Syntax button function;

wherein a Syntax key is on top of the circle ring, or wherein when two fingers click the second input area the input system achieves function of the Syntax key; and

wherein when the input system detects action of the Syntax key, it inputs a corresponding syntax word according to part of speech of currently input word.

30. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a square frame outside of the circle ring, wherein the input system comprises four corner zones between the circle ring and the square frame, and wherein these four corner zones are a third input area.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein, CapsLock, Space, Backspace and Enter keys are arranged within the four corner zones;

in addition, starting from the third input area, sliding towards different directions, to select words, phrases, or sentences prompted by the input system;

or selecting words, phrases, or sentences that the user has input before;

or switching between different input interfaces;

or achieving function of Esc key, Tab key, cursor keys (Up, Down, Left, Right), PgUp key and PgDn key, Home key, and End key;

or achieving editing function of copy, cut, paste, delete, undo, and redo;

or achieving function of upper case conversion of initial letter or all letters of previous word, or upper case conversion of initial letter of next word;

or achieving direct deletion of a previous word or sentence, or direct deletion of a next word or sentence.

32. The method according to claim 1, method further includes:

when the user inputs a word that doesn'"'"'t exist in the database, the user input morphemes one by one;

after the user finishes the input, the input system adds the word into the system database automatically.

33. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further includes detecting a swaying direction.

34. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method further includes switching between different input interfaces by swaying the electronic device.

35. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the method provides three methods for the user to confirm input content in the angular cell:

when the user points to an angular cell, the system directly inputs the angular cell without any prompt, and then the user continues to point to a next angular cell;

or, the system directly inputs the angular cell and display the angular cell in a different manner to indicate that input of the angular cell was done;

or, the system doesn'"'"'t input and displays the angular cell in a different manner and waits for user confirmation;

wherein the user confirms by further sliding in a slide direction; and

wherein the system directly inputs the angular cell and displays the angular cell in another different manner.