Multi-window keyboard

• US 10,802,709 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2016
• Issued: 10/13/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Won, Sung Joon
• Primary Examiner(s): Ulrich, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US15/091,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20170102871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,651 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• 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 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Examples of the present disclosure describe systems and methods associated with a multi-window soft input keyboard application. A multi-window soft input keyboard application is displayed. The soft input keyboard application is used to provide application command control for one or more applications. The soft input keyboard application may comprise a first application window that displays two or more user interface elements for services of the soft input keyboard application. In examples, the first application window displays/updates based on the detected foreground application. The user interface elements are usable for application command control of the detected foreground application. An exemplary soft input keyboard application may further comprise a second application window that displays a soft input keyboard. Display of the second application window may update including replacing display of the soft input keyboard based on selection of a user interface element of the first application window. Other examples are also described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying, on a display connected with a processing device, a foreground application;

displaying, on the display, a soft input keyboard application that interfaces with the foreground application;

displaying, in a first application window of the soft input keyboard application, a plurality of user interface elements, wherein one or more of the plurality of user interface elements correspond to at least one application installed on the processing device, wherein the at least one application installed on the processing device is different from the foreground application;

receiving input into an input field of a foreground application, wherein the input field is displayed adjacent to the first application window;

based on the received input, identifying, by the soft input keyboard application, a service, from a plurality of services, to retrieve results data for the received input;

updating the display to include, in the first application window of the soft input keyboard application, content from the results data, wherein the first application window is displayed concurrently with the input field and an alphanumeric keyboard in a second application window and the content from the results data does not occlude the input field;

receiving a selection of at least a portion of the content in the first application window; and

updating the display to include display of the selected content within the foreground application.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising detecting the foreground application from a plurality of executing applications, and wherein content selected from the first application window is transmitted to the detected foreground application.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein an action of selection of the content is at least one selected from a group consisting of:

a touch input, a voice command, a text input, input received into the processing device, and input received through a device connected with the processing device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the service is at least one selected from a group consisting of:

a clipboard service, a location service, a calendar service, a search service, a translation service, a lazy typer service, a linking service, and a messaging service.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of user interface elements of the first application window update in response to detection of a change to the foreground application.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first application window is at least one of vertically scrollable and horizontally scrollable and the first application window further comprises a feature enabling searching of the plurality of user interface elements.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the display of the content in the first application window updates based on processing of a current thread in the foreground application.

8. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory, operatively connected with the at least one processor, that stores computer-executable instructions, which when executed on the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to;

display, on a display screen connected with the system, a foreground application,

display, on the display screen, a soft input keyboard application that interfaces with the foreground application,

prior to receiving input via the soft keyboard application, display a plurality of user interface elements in a first application window of the soft input keyboard application, wherein a first user interface element of the plurality of user interface elements is based on a context displayed in the foreground application and a second user interface element of the plurality of user interface elements is based on an application installed on the system, wherein the application installed on the system is different from the foreground application;

receive a selection of the second user interface element,

update the display screen to include, in a second application window of the soft input keyboard application, content for the selected user interface element and a search input element,

receive search terms in the search input element,

display, within the second application window, content matching the search terms from the application installed on the system,

receive a selection of the content in the second application window,

update the display of the foreground application based on the selection of the content,

subsequent to updating the display of the foreground application, display, in the second application window of the soft input keyboard application, a set of alphanumeric keys for providing input into the foreground application,

display an input field for providing input into the foreground application;

based on input received in the input field via the alphanumeric keys, identify, by the soft input keyboard application, a service to retrieve results data for the received input,

display in the first application window, concurrently with the foreground application, the input field, and the alphanumeric keys, a result from the results data for the received input,

receive a selection of the result, and

insert the selected result into the foreground application.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to detect the foreground application from a plurality of executing applications, and wherein content selected from the second application window is transmitted to the detected foreground application.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein an action of selection of the user interface element and an action of selection of the content is at least one selected from a group consisting of:

a touch input, a voice command, a text input, input received into the processing device, and input received through a device connected with the processing device.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein the user interface element is a shortcut to at least one selected from a group consisting of:

a clipboard service, a location service, a calendar service, a search service, a translation service, a lazy typer service, a linking service, and a messaging service.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of user interface elements of the first application window update in response to detection of a change to the foreground application.

13. The system according to claim 8, wherein the first application window is at least one of vertically scrollable and horizontally scrollable and the first application window further comprises a feature enabling searching of the plurality of user interface elements.

14. The system according to claim 8, wherein the second application window is at least one of vertically scrollable and horizontally scrollable, and wherein the second application window dynamically updates in response to a change in a selected user interface element.

15. The system according to claim 8, wherein the display of the content in the second application window updates based on processing of a current thread in the foreground application.

16. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

displaying, on a display connected with a processing device, a foreground application;

displaying, on the display, a soft input keyboard application that interfaces with the foreground application;

displaying, in a first application window of the soft input keyboard application, a plurality of user interface elements including a first user interface element corresponding to a first service and a second user interface element corresponding to a second service;

displaying, in a second application window of the soft input keyboard application, a set of alphanumeric keys for providing input into the foreground application;

displaying, concurrently with the first application window and the second application window, an input field for providing input into the foreground application;

receiving, by the soft input keyboard application, input data into the input field via selection of the alphanumeric keys;

based on the received input data, identifying, by the keyboard application, a service to retrieve results data for the received input;

receiving, by the soft input keyboard application, a result from the identified service for the input data;

displaying the received result in the first application window concurrently with the input data in the input field and the display of the alphanumeric keys in the second application window;

receiving a selection of the displayed result in the first application window; and

based on receiving the selection of the displayed result, providing the result to the input field.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the identified service is at least one selected from a group consisting of:

a clipboard service, a location service, a calendar service, a search service, a translation service, a lazy typer service, a linking service, and a messaging service.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the identified service is a linking service and the received result is a link to a document.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the received input includes a delimiter and identifying the service is based on the delimiter.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the first application window is displayed adjacent to the second application window;

the input field is displayed adjacent to the first application window; and

the displayed result is displayed as a selectable user interface element.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first application window has a fixed size such that displaying the received result in the first application window does not change the size of the first application window.