Soft keyboard with size changeable keys for a smart phone

• US 9,489,128 B1
• Filed: 04/20/2012
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Wei
• Primary Examiner(s): Yodichkas, Aneeta
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fox, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US13/452,459
• Time in Patent Office: 1,663 Days
• Field of Search: 715/773
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• 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 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

An approach for a soft keyboard with size changeable keys for a smart phone is provided. Depending on a prior input to the keyboard, one or more keys on the soft keyboard can be increased in size. When an additional input to the keyboard is entered, the keys of increased size are re-sized to their original sizes, and depending on the additional input to the keyboard, one or more keys on the soft keyboard can be increased in size.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one memory configured to store computer-executable instructions;

at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to;

receive an input to a soft keyboard associated with a mobile device;

determine one or more likely words based at least in part on the input;

receive a prediction of one or more predicted keyboard inputs, wherein the prediction is based at least in part on contextual data associated with an application associated with the mobile device;

determine a first total number of keys in a first row of the soft keyboard;

determine a second total number of keys in a second row of the soft keyboard;

determine a first number of keys in the first row associated with the one or more predicted keyboard inputs;

determine a second number of keys in the second row associated with the one or more predicted keyboard inputs;

determine that the first number of keys does not exceed a pre-determined limit, wherein the pre-determined limit defines a maximum number of keys per row that are increased in size, wherein the pre-determined limit is less than a total number of keys in a particular row of the soft keyboard, and wherein the pre-determined limit for a particular row is determined independent of keys that are increased in size in a different row;

determine that the second number of keys does not exceed the pre-determined limit; and

increase a size of one or more keys in the first row and the second row of the soft keyboard corresponding to the one or more predicted keyboard inputs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a smart phone, a mobile phone, a messaging device, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a television, a set-top box, a game console, or a touch screen device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise computer-executable instructions to:

compare the input to previous user input or to a dictionary.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising computer-executable instructions to:

limit the number of the one or more keys with an increased size to a predefined number of keys.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising computer-executable instructions to:

detect completion of a word; and

store the word when the completion is detected.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising computer-executable instructions to:

limit the number of the one or more keys to a predefined number based at least in part on the proximity of the one or more keys to each other.

7. A method, comprising:

determining, in response to receiving an input to a soft keyboard of a mobile device, one or more predicted keyboard inputs based at least in part on contextual data associated with an application associated with the mobile device;

determining a first total number of keys in a first row of the soft keyboard;

determining a second total number of keys in a second row of the soft keyboard;

determining a first number of keys in the first row associated with the one or more predicted keyboard inputs;

determining that the first number of keys does not exceed a pre-determined limit, wherein the pre-determined limit defines a maximum number of keys per row that are increased in size, wherein the pre-determined limit is less than a total number of keys in a particular row of the keyboard, and wherein the pre-determined limit for a particular row is determined independent of keys that are increased in size in a different row;

determining that the second number of keys does not exceed the pre-determined limit; and

increasing, on the soft keyboard, a size of one or more keys or characters in the first row and the second row corresponding to the one or more predicted keyboard inputs, wherein the number of the one or more keys is limited to a predefined number based at least in part on the proximity of the one or more keys to each other.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the keyboard comprises a soft keyboard output to a display screen of a processor-based device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein determining, in response to receiving an input to the soft keyboard, one or more predicted keyboard inputs comprises:

comparing the input to previously stored data;

determining a ranking of frequently typed words in order of frequency;

based at least in part on the comparison, selecting one or more candidate words, wherein the selected one or more candidate words comprises a top ranked word of the ranking; and

selecting from the one or more candidate words at least one predicted keyboard input.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein determining, in response to receiving an input to the soft keyboard, one or more predicted keyboard inputs comprises determining the one or more predicted keyboard inputs at a processor-based device associated with the keyboard or at a processor-based device remote from the keyboard.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the previously stored data comprises historical data or dictionary data.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

changing the size of any previously increased sized keys or characters on the soft keyboard to an original size.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing a plurality of inputs in a database.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

detecting a word boundary input; and

storing the plurality of inputs when the word boundary input is detected.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the pre-determined limit for a particular row is determined independent of keys that are increased in size in a different row.

16. A system, comprising:

at least one memory configured to store computer-executable instructions;

at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to;

receive an input to a soft keyboard associated with a user device;

determine, in response to receiving the input, one or more predicted keyboard inputs based at least in part on contextual data associated with an application associated with the user device;

determine a first total number of keys in a first row of the soft keyboard;

determine a second total number of keys in a second row of the soft keyboard;

determine a first number of keys in the first row associated with the one or more predicted keyboard inputs;

determine a second number of keys in the second row associated with the one or more predicted keyboard inputs;

determine that the first number of keys does not exceed a pre-determined limit, wherein the pre-determined limit defines a maximum number of keys that are increased in size, wherein the pre-determined limit is less than a total number of keys in a particular row of the keyboard, and wherein the pre-determined limit for a particular row is determined independent of keys that are increased in size in a different row;

determine that the second number of keys does not exceed the pre-determined limit; and

transmit the one or more predicted keyboard inputs to the user device, wherein the one or more predicted keyboard inputs are used to increase a size of one or more keys in the first row and the second row of the soft keyboard on the user device corresponding to the one or more predicted keyboard inputs.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions to determine, in response to receiving the input, one or more predicted keyboard inputs comprises computer-executable instructions to:

compare the input and previous inputs on the keyboard to previously stored data; and

based at least in part on the comparison, return one or more probable characters.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the previously stored data comprises historical data or dictionary data.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the input is stored in a database.

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising computer-executable instructions to:

detect a word boundary input; and

store a plurality of inputs when the word boundary input is detected.

21. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, configure the at least one processor to:

receive, in response to receiving an input to a soft keyboard associated with a user device, a prediction of one or more keyboard inputs based at least in part on contextual data associated with an application associated with the user device;

determine a first total number of keys in a first row of the soft keyboard;

determine a second total number of keys in a second row of the soft keyboard;

determine a first number of keys in the first row associated with the one or more predicted keyboard inputs;

determine a second number of keys in the second row associated with the one or more predicted keyboard inputs;

determine that the first number of keys does not exceed a pre-determined limit, wherein the pre-determined limit defines a maximum number of keys per row that are increased in size, wherein the pre-determined limit is less than a total number of keys in a particular row of the keyboard, and wherein the pre-determined limit for a particular row is determined independent of keys that are increased in size in a different row;

determine that the second number of keys does not exceed the pre-determined limit; and

increase a size of one or more keys in the first row and the second row of the soft keyboard corresponding to the one or more predicted keyboard inputs.

22. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein the computer-executable instructions to configure the processor to receive, in response to receiving an input to a keyboard associated with a mobile device, a prediction of one or more keyboard inputs comprises computer-executable instructions configured to:

compare the input to previous user input or to a dictionary.

23. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein the previous user input or dictionary are stored in a memory associated with the user device.

24. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein the previous user input comprise prior user input to the mobile device.

25. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 22, wherein the dictionary comprises a previously stored set of words on the mobile device.

26. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 21, further comprising computer-executable instructions to:

limit the number of the one or more keys to a predefined number based at least in part on the proximity of the one or more keys to each other.