Dynamically customizable touch screen keyboard for adapting to user physiology

• US 9,448,724 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2011
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Arnold, Ryan S.
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Burwell, Joseph R
• Application Number:
  US13/179,857
• Publication Number:
  US 20130019191A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,898 Days
• Field of Search: 715/765
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

A touch screen keyboard is dynamically customizable to modify the active regions of one or more keys in the keyboard to adapt the keyboard to a user'"'"'s unique physiology. The active regions may be modified in response to monitoring user input directed to the keys in the keyboard so that the keyboard automatically adapts to the user'"'"'s physiology. In addition, while the locations and/or sizes of the active regions may be modified to adapt to a user'"'"'s physiology, in some instances the shapes of the active regions may also be distorted such that the resulting active regions are irregular in nature.

Claims

1. A method of configuring a touch screen keyboard, the method comprising:

displaying a touch screen keyboard including a plurality of keys on a touch screen display, each key including an active region that activates such key in response to user input directed to the touch screen display within such active region, wherein displaying the touch screen keyboard includes arranging the plurality of keys into an array having a predetermined arrangement;

monitoring user input directed to the plurality of keys, including determining a position of a touch associated with a first key press;

determining a first key among the plurality of keys that is pressed based upon the position of the touch and the active region of at least one of the plurality of keys;

determining a direction from a centroid of the active region of the first key to the position of the touch; and

dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard while maintaining the predetermined arrangement of the plurality of keys by modifying a shape of the active region of the first key in response to the monitored user input and based upon the position of the touch relative to the active region of the first key, wherein modifying the shape of the active region of the first key includes enlarging the active region of the first key in the determined direction while maintaining a relative arrangement of the first key to any adjacent key among the plurality of keys in the predetermined arrangement;

wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes determining a distance between a coordinate of a key press by a user and a centroid defined for an active region of the first key during user selection of the first key and modifying the shape of the active region of the first key in response to the distance exceeding a threshold; and

wherein the method further includes modifying the threshold in response to user input by increasing the threshold once a user has customized the touch screen keyboard to the user'"'"'s liking to restrict future customizations of the touch screen keyboard.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the user input includes monitoring user input during regular usage of the touch screen keyboard.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region comprises resizing the active region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region comprises distorting the shape of the active region into an irregular shape.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the shape of the active region further includes moving a centroid of the shape of the active region.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of keys includes a displayed visual element based upon the active region thereof, and wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard further includes modifying a shape of the displayed visual element based upon the modified shape of the active region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard further includes modifying the active region of a second key among the plurality of keys and disposed adjacent the first key in the predetermined arrangement to accommodate the modification of the shape of the active region of the first key.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein modifying the active region of the second key includes at least one of moving the active region of the second key and resizing the active region of the second key.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein modifying the active region of the second key includes distorting the shape of the active region of the second key into an irregular shape.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein modifying the active region of the second key includes compressing the active region along the determined direction while maintaining a relative arrangement of the first and second keys in the predetermined arrangement.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of keys are initially defined with active regions having generally rectangular shapes, and wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes distorting the shapes of the active regions of at least a subset of the plurality of keys such that the active regions of the keys in the subset are non-rectangular.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input to modify the threshold includes user input to discontinue customization of the touch screen keyboard.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes generating a first keyboard profile, the method further comprising:

dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard in response to monitored user input to generate a second keyboard profile; and

switching between the first and second keyboard profiles.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of the first key in response to monitored user input directed to the active region for a second key among the plurality of keys and disposed adjacent to the first key in the predetermined arrangement.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of the first key in response to monitored user input directed to a correction key.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein monitoring user input directed to the plurality of keys includes monitoring user input directed to the plurality of keys to detect a predetermined sequence of user input directed to a second key among the plurality of keys that is adjacent to the first key in the predetermined arrangement, followed by user input directed to a correction key, followed by user input directed to the first key, and wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of the first key in response to detecting the predetermined sequence.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically customizing the touch screen keyboard includes modifying the active region of the first key in response to detection of a misspelled word.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

program code configured to be executed by the at least one processor to display a touch screen keyboard including a plurality of keys on a touch screen display, each key including an active region that activates such key in response to user input directed to the touch screen display within such active region, the program code configured to arrange the plurality of keys in the touch screen keyboard into an array having a predetermined arrangement, the program code further configured to monitor user input directed to the plurality of keys by determining a position of a touch associated with a first key press, determine a first key among the plurality of keys that is pressed based upon the position of the touch and the active region of at least one of the plurality of keys, determine a direction from a centroid of the active region of the first key to the position of the touch, and dynamically customize the touch screen keyboard while maintaining the predetermined arrangement of the plurality of keys by modifying a shape of the active region of the first key in response to the monitored user input and position of the touch relative to the active region of the first key, and wherein the program code is configured to modify the shape of the active region of the first key by enlarging the active region of the first key in the determined direction while maintaining a relative arrangement of the first key to any adjacent key among the plurality of keys in the predetermined arrangement;

wherein the program code is further configured to dynamically customize the touch screen keyboard by determining a distance between a coordinate of a key press by a user and a centroid defined for an active region of the first key during user selection of the first key and modifying the shape of the active region of the first key in response to the distance exceeding a threshold; and

wherein the program code is further configured to modify the threshold in response to user input by increasing the threshold once a user has customized the touch screen keyboard to the user'"'"'s liking to restrict future customizations of the touch screen keyboard.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the program code is configured to monitor user input during regular usage of the touch screen keyboard, and wherein the program code is configured to modify the shape of the active region by performing at least one of resizing the active region and distorting the shape of the active region.