Techniques for preventing typographical errors on soft keyboards

• US 9,411,510 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2012
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Greenzeiger, Michael Froimowitz, Phulari, Ravindra Marotirao, Sanghavi, Mehul Kirtikant
• Primary Examiner(s): BARRETT, RYAN S
• Application Number:
  US13/707,869
• Publication Number:
  US 20140164973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,341 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation

Abstract

Techniques for preventing typographical errors on digital soft keyboards are implemented by a computing device with a touch-screen display. According to one technique, a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard is displayed on the touch-screen display. Each soft key covers an area of the touch-screen display. One or more occurrences of a particular typographical error in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key in addition to or instead of an intended soft key are detected. In response, an activation region of the intended soft key is changed to decrease the probability of the user making the same typographical error in the future.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-screen display;

displaying a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display and having a respective activation region;

while a first input-affecting context is detected, detecting occurrence of a first set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key instead of an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

while a second input-affecting context is detected, detecting occurrence of a second set of one or more errors in which the user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key instead of an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

after detecting occurrence of the first set of one or more errors and the second set of one or more errors, preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard, wherein preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard includes;

determining whether an input-affecting context is detected;

in accordance with a determination that the first input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected; and

in accordance with a determination that the second input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected; and

wherein changing the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes performing at least one of;

increasing how much of the touch-screen display is covered by the respective activation region,

changing a peripheral shape of the respective activation region, or

shifting position of the respective activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the respective activation region for the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes increasing how much of the touch-screen display covered by the activation region.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the respective activation region for the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes changing the peripheral shape of the activation region.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the respective activation region for the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes shifting position of the activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the respective activation region for the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes causing the respective activation region to extend beyond the area covered by the intended soft key.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the respective activation region for the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes enlarging the respective activation region of the soft key along an axis of the activation region in a direction of an adjacent soft key for which an error was detected under the detected input affecting factor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the respective activation region for the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes enlarging the respective activation region equally in at least two different directions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes performing changing an activation region of a second soft key adjacent to the soft key to cover a smaller area of the touch-screen display than the area covered by the second soft key on the touch-screen display.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the intended soft key is mapped to a first symbol;

the adjacent soft key is mapped to a second symbol; and

detecting occurrence of an error includes detecting when, after the user selects the adjacent soft key to cause the second symbol to be displayed, the user replaces the second symbol with the first symbol.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the intended soft key is mapped to a first symbol;

the adjacent soft key is mapped to a second symbol; and

detecting occurrence of an error includes detecting when the user accepts a suggested word that replaces the second symbol with the first symbol.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard is performed after detecting a predefined number of occurrences of an error associated with the soft key.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

after a predefined period of time has lapsed, automatically increasing the number of occurrences of the error associated with the soft key that are required to occur before changing the respective activation region of the soft key.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

allowing the user to specify one of a plurality of sensitivity levels; and

wherein the predefined number of occurrences of the error associated with the soft key that must occur before changing the respective activation region of the soft key is based, at least in part, on the sensitivity level selected by the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the erroneous selection of the adjacent soft key by the user is associated with a touch location based on location data pertaining to touch input on the touch-screen display, the changing of the respective activation region for the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard further comprising:

determining, for one or more erroneous selections of adjacent soft keys to the soft key, a distance parameter relating to the touch location and location of the soft key; and

changing the respective activation region of the soft key based, at least in part, on the distance parameter.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein, after changing the respective activation region of the soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard, at least a portion of the respective activation region of the soft key overlaps an adjacent soft key on the touch-screen display.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein in accordance with a determination that the first input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of the one or more soft keys is performed for a first keyboard profile activated while the first input-affecting context is detected, and wherein in accordance with a determination that the second input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of the one or more soft keys is performed for a second keyboard profile activated while the second input-affecting context is detected.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein a detected input-affecting context comprises from one or more of:

lighting conditions in which the computing device is being used,

a time of day, or

movement of the computing device.

18. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-screen display;

displaying a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display and having a respective activation region;

while a first input-affecting context is detected, detecting occurrence of a first set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key in addition to an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

while a second input-affecting context is detected, detecting occurrence of a second set of one or more errors in which the user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key in addition to an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

after detecting occurrence of the first set of one or more errors and the second set of one or more errors, preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard, wherein preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard includes;

determining whether an input-affecting context is detected;

in accordance with a determination that the first input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected; and

in accordance with a determination that the second input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected; and

wherein changing the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes performing at least one of;

increasing how much of the touch-screen display is covered by the respective activation region,

changing a peripheral shape of the respective activation region, or

shifting position of the respective activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein detecting occurrence of an error in the first set and second set of errors includes detecting that the erroneous selection of the adjacent soft key and the selection of the intended soft key are substantially concurrent selections.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein a detected input-affecting context comprises from one or more of:

lighting conditions in which the computing device is being used,

a time of day, or

movement of the computing device.

21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a computing device with a touch-screen display;

displaying a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display and having a respective activation region with an activation sensitivity;

while a first input-affecting context is detected, detecting occurrence of a first set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects a first soft key of the plurality of soft keys immediately followed by an erroneous selection of a second soft key of the plurality of soft keys based on the user indicating an intended selection of the second soft key followed by an intended selection of the first soft key;

while a second input-affecting context is detected, detecting occurrence of a second set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects a third soft key of the plurality of soft keys immediately followed by an erroneous selection of a fourth soft key of the plurality of soft keys based on the user indicating an intended selection of the fourth soft key followed by an intended selection of the third soft key;

after detecting occurrence of the first set of one or more errors and the second set of one or more errors, preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard, wherein preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard includes;

determining whether an input-affecting context is detected;

in accordance with a determination that the first input-affecting context is detected, changing the activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of at least one of the first soft key and the second soft key based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected; and

in accordance with a determination that the second input-affecting context is detected, changing the activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of at least one of the third soft key and the fourth soft key based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected;

wherein changing the activation sensitivity of the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes performing at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of the soft key by increasing a temporal offset associated with the soft key;

or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of the soft key by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the soft key.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the first soft key is based, at least in part, on having detected multiple occurrences of the user erroneously selecting the first soft key immediately followed by the erroneous selection of the second soft key in the first set of errors.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the first soft key includes increasing an amount of time after which a selection of the first soft key is initiated that the first soft key can be selected by increasing a temporal offset associated with the first soft key.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the second soft key is based at least in part on having detected multiple occurrences of the user erroneously selecting the first soft key immediately followed by the erroneous selection of the second soft key in the first set of errors.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the second soft key includes increasing an amount of time after which a selection of the second soft key is initiated that the second soft key can be selected by increasing a temporal offset associated with the second soft key.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein a detected input-affecting context comprises from one or more of:

lighting conditions in which the computing device is being used,

a time of day, or

movement of the computing device.

27. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device with a touch-screen display, cause the device to:

display a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display and having a respective activation region;

while a first input-affecting context is detected, detect occurrence of a first set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key instead of an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

while a second input-affecting context is detected, detect occurrence of a second set of one or more errors in which the user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key instead of an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

after detecting occurrence of the first set of one or more errors and the second set of one or more errors, prepare to receive input via the soft keyboard, wherein preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard includes;

determining whether an input-affecting context is detected;

in accordance with a determination that the first input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected; and

in accordance with a determination that the second input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected; and

wherein changing the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes performing at least one of;

increasing how much of the touch-screen display is covered by the respective activation region,

changing a peripheral shape of the respective activation region, or

shifting position of the respective activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 27, wherein:

the intended soft key is mapped to a first symbol;

the adjacent soft key is mapped to a second symbol; and

detecting occurrence of an error includes detecting when, after the user selects the adjacent soft key to cause the second symbol to be displayed, the user replaces the second symbol with the first symbol.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 27, wherein:

the intended soft key is mapped to a first symbol;

the adjacent soft key is mapped to a second symbol; and

detecting occurrence of an error includes detecting when the user accepts a suggested word that replaces the second symbol with the first symbol.

30. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device with a touch-screen display, cause the device to:

display a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display and having a respective activation region;

while a first input-affecting context is detected, detect occurrence of a first set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key in addition to an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

while a second input-affecting context is detected, detect occurrence of a second set of one or more errors in which the user erroneously selects an adjacent soft key in addition to an intended soft key on the soft keyboard;

after detecting occurrence of the first set of one or more errors and the second set of one or more errors, prepare to receive input via the soft keyboard, wherein preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard includes;

determining whether an input-affecting context is detected;

in accordance with a determination that the first input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected; and

in accordance with a determination that the second input-affecting context is detected, changing the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, and at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by increasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected, or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation regions of one or more soft keys by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the one or more soft keys based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected; and

wherein changing the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes performing at least one of;

increasing how much of the touch-screen display is covered by the respective activation region,

changing a peripheral shape of the respective activation region, or

shifting position of the respective activation region relative to the touch-screen display.

31. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device with a touch-screen display, cause the device to:

display a plurality of soft keys of a soft keyboard on the touch-screen display, each soft key of the plurality of soft keys covering an area of the touch-screen display and having a respective activation region with an activation sensitivity;

while a first input-affecting context is detected, detect occurrence of a first set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects a first soft key of the plurality of soft keys immediately followed by an erroneous selection of a second soft key of the plurality of soft keys based on the user indicating an intended selection of the second soft key followed by an intended selection of the first soft key;

while a second input-affecting context is detected, detect occurrence of a second set of one or more errors in which a user erroneously selects a third soft key of the plurality of soft keys immediately followed by an erroneous selection of a fourth soft key of the plurality of soft keys based on the user indicating an intended selection of the fourth soft key followed by an intended selection of the third soft key;

after detecting occurrence of the first set of one or more errors and the second set of one or more errors, prepare to receive input via the soft keyboard, wherein preparing to receive input via the soft keyboard includes;

determining whether an input-affecting context is detected;

in accordance with a determination that the first input-affecting context is detected, changing the activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of at least one of the first soft key and the second soft key based at least in part on the first set of errors that were detected while the first input-affecting context was detected; and

in accordance with a determination that the second input-affecting context is detected, changing the activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of at least one of the third soft key and the fourth soft key based at least in part on the second set of errors that were detected while the second input-affecting context was detected;

wherein changing the activation sensitivity of the respective activation region for a soft key in the one or more soft keys of the soft keyboard includes performing at least one of;

decreasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of the soft key by increasing a temporal offset associated with the soft key;

or

increasing activation sensitivity of the respective activation region of the soft key by decreasing a temporal offset associated with the soft key.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the first soft key is based, at least in part, on having detected multiple occurrences of the user erroneously selecting the first soft key immediately followed by the erroneous selection of the second soft key in the first set of errors, and wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the first soft key includes increasing an amount of time after which a selection of the first soft key is initiated that the first soft key can be selected by increasing a temporal offset associated with the first soft key.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the second soft key is based, at least in part, on having detected multiple occurrences of the user erroneously selecting the first soft key immediately followed by the erroneous selection of the second soft key in the first set of errors, and wherein changing the activation sensitivity for the respective activation region of the second soft key includes increasing an amount of time after which a selection of the second soft key is initiated that the second soft key can be selected by increasing a temporal offset associated with the second soft key.