Disambiguation of user intent on a touchscreen keyboard

• US 9,207,794 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2013
• Issued: 12/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Truong, Steven Chi
• Primary Examiner(s): Yodichkas, Aneeta
• Application Number:
  US14/144,455
• Publication Number:
  US 20150185886A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 345173-175
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04808 Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• 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

Various aspects of the subject technology relate to disambiguating user intent on a touch-sensitive input device. A system is configured to detect an initial number of touch events on a touchscreen device where each touch event corresponds to a finger of a user. The system determines whether the initial touch events on the touchscreen device are resting fingers based on at least one rest heuristic and attributes the initial number of touch events to resting fingers on the touchscreen device based on the determination. The rest heuristic may include, for example, whether the number of initial touch events on the touchscreen device exceeds a threshold number of touch events or whether the initial touch events are detected for a threshold duration.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

detecting an initial number of touch events on a touch-sensitive input device, each touch event corresponding to a finger of a user;

attributing the initial number of touch events to a resting state of fingers on the touch-sensitive input device when the initial number of touch events exceeds a threshold number of touch events;

tracking the locations of the initial number of touch events on the touch-sensitive input device;

determining that at least one of the initial number of touch events is no longer detected;

detecting, subsequent to the determining that the at least one touch event is no longer detected, a new touch event;

determining a threshold distance of movement based on user data of an account associated with the touch-sensitive input device;

determining whether a location of the new touch event is within the determined threshold distance of movement from the tracked location of the at least one touch event no longer detected;

attributing the new touch event to a keystroke when the location of the new touch event is within the determined threshold distance; and

attributing the new touch event to a non-typing touch event when the location of the new touch event is not within the determined threshold distance.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining whether the initial number of touch events are detected for a threshold duration, wherein the attributing of the initial number of touch events to resting fingers is further based on the initial number of touch events being detected for the threshold duration.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise calibrating the threshold duration based on typing data associated with the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise attributing the initial number of touch events to a typing state of fingers on the touch-sensitive input device, when the initial number of touch events does not exceed the threshold number of touch events.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

tracking the locations of the initial number of touch events on the touch-sensitive input device;

determining that at least one of the initial number of touch events is no longer detected;

determining that the at least one touch event that is no longer detected is attributable to a hand of the user;

detecting, subsequent to the determining that the at least one touch event is no longer detected, a new touch event that occurs for at least a predefined period of time; and

attributing the new touch event to a long-press action in response to the detecting of the new touch event.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise determining whether a location of the new touch event is within a threshold distance of the location of the at least one touch event no longer detected, wherein the new touch event is attributed to the long-press action based on the new touch event being within the threshold distance.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the threshold number of touch events is six.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the touch-sensitive input device is a touchscreen device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the threshold distance comprises calibrating a predetermined threshold based on a physical measurement from the user logged into the user account.

10. A method comprising:

detecting an initial number of touch events on a touch-sensitive input device, each touch event corresponding to a finger of a user;

determining whether the initial number of touch events are detected for a threshold period of time, the threshold period of time based on user typing data for the user;

determining a threshold distance of movement based on user data stored in connection with an account associated with the touch-sensitive input device; and

attributing the initial number of touch events to a resting state of fingers on the touch-sensitive input device based on the threshold period of time and the threshold distance of movement.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining whether the initial number of touch events on the touch-sensitive input device exceeds a threshold number of touch events, wherein the attributing of the initial number of touch events is further based on the initial number of touch events exceeding the threshold number of touch events.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

tracking the locations of the initial number of touch events on the touch-sensitive input device;

determining that at least one of the initial number of touch events is no longer detected;

detecting, subsequent to the determining that the at least one touch event is no longer detected, a new touch event;

determining whether a location of the new touch event is within the threshold distance of movement from the location of the at least one touch event no longer detected; and

attributing the new touch event to a typing state of a finger when the location of the new touch event is within the threshold distance.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

tracking the locations of the initial number of touch events on the touch-sensitive input device;

determining that at least one of the initial number of touch events is no longer detected;

determining that the at least one touch event that is no longer detected is attributable to a hand;

detecting, subsequent to the determining that the at least one touch event is no longer detected, a new touch event that occurs for at least a defined period of time; and

attributing the new touch event to a long-press action in response to the detecting of the new touch event.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the touch-sensitive input device is a touch-sensitive display.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the threshold distance comprises calibrating a predetermined threshold based on a physical measurement from the user logged into the user account.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

detecting an initial number of touch events on a touchscreen device, each touch event corresponding to a finger of a user;

determining a threshold distance of movement based on user data associated with an account of the touchscreen device;

determining whether the initial number of touch events on the touchscreen device are resting fingers based on at least one rest heuristic and the determined threshold distance of movement, the at least one rest heuristic comprising a threshold period of time based on at least user typing data; and

attributing the initial number of touch events to a resting state of fingers on the touchscreen device based on the determination.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the determining of whether the initial number of touch events are resting fingers based on at least one rest heuristic comprises determining whether the initial number of touch events on the touchscreen device exceeds a threshold number of touch events, wherein the initial number of touch events are attributed to the resting state of fingers on the touchscreen device when the initial number of touch events exceeds the threshold number of touch events.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the determining of whether the initial number of touch events are resting fingers based on at least one rest heuristic comprises determining whether the initial number of touch events are detected for a threshold period of time, wherein the attributing of the initial number of touch events to the resting state of fingers is based on the initial number of touch events being detected for the threshold duration.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

tracking the locations of the initial number of touch events on the touchscreen device;

determining that at least one of the initial number of touch events is no longer detected;

detecting, subsequent to the determining that the at least one touch event is no longer detected, a new touch event;

determining whether a location of the new touch event is within the threshold distance of movement from the location of the at least one touch event no longer detected; and

attributing the new touch event to a typing state of a finger when the location of the new touch event is within the threshold distance.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

tracking the locations of the initial number of touch events on the touchscreen device;

determining that at least one of the initial number of touch events is no longer detected;

determining that the at least one touch event that is no longer detected is attributable to a hand;

detecting, subsequent to the determining that the at least one touch event is no longer detected, a new touch event that occurs for at least a defined period of time; and

attributing the new touch event to a long-press action in response to the detecting of the new touch event.