SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ALPHANUMERIC NAVIGATION AND INPUT

• US 20100293457A1
• Filed: 05/15/2009
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: United Video Properties Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Gemstar Development Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Peterson, Brian Craig
• Application Number:
  US12/466,585
• Publication Number:
  US 20100293457A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/261
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• 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 3/04886 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: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739

Abstract

Systems and methods for supporting user input in a media guidance application is provided. A visual keypad including a non-alphanumeric pane with at least one non-alphanumeric or function button may rotate, or orbit, around some or all of the core alphabet block. The non-alphanumeric pane may be redisplayed or repositioned closer or adjacent to the current cursor position within the visual keypad. Enhanced user input features, such as automatic string completion, automatic next character selection, automatic cursor movement, and automatic character removal, may be combined with the non-alphanumeric pane.

Claims

1. A method for supporting user input in a media guidance application implemented at least partially on user equipment, comprising:

displaying a visual keypad comprising;

a plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the plurality of first user-selectable buttons corresponding to at least some of the letters of the alphabet;

a function pane comprising at least one second user-selectable button, the at least one second user-selectable button corresponding to a function related to the user input; and

a user-navigable cursor;

receiving a user request to move the user-navigable cursor to a first new cursor position within the visual keypad; and

in response to receiving the user request, displaying the function pane in a new location, the new location closer to the first new cursor position.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the function pane in a new location comprises rotating the function pane about the perimeter of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the function pane in a new location comprises displaying the function pane adjacent to the new cursor position.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying the function pane adjacent to the new cursor position comprises shifting at least some of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons to new locations in the visual keypad.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the function pane comprises an undocked frame or undocked window.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a user selection of one of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons; and

in response to receiving the user selection, building a candidate string list or tree.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein building a candidate string list or tree comprises accessing information from a program schedule database.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising displaying an interactive list of strings in the candidate string list or tree.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising computing a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein computing a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree comprises accessing a user profile comprising user monitoring information.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein computing a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree comprises accessing a user profile comprising user favorites information.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein computing a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree comprises accessing a user profile comprising user demographic information.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein computing a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree comprises computing a weighted sum of a plurality of terms, the plurality of terms comprising a user monitoring term, a user favorites term, and a user demographics term.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein at least one weight in the weighted sum is user-configurable.

15. The method of claim 9 further comprising automatically completing at least part of the user input based, at least in part, on the string with the greatest likelihood metric.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a user selection of one of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons; and

in response to receiving the user selection;

accessing an n-gram table; and

determining the most likely next character or characters for the user input based, at least in part, on the accessed n-gram table.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising automatically completing at least part of the user input using the most likely next character or characters.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising automatically moving the user-navigable cursor to a second new cursor position within the visual keypad, the second new cursor position corresponding to the most likely next character.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the n-gram table is based on a subset of the English language, the subset comprising only words included in the program schedule database.

20. The method of claim 6 further comprising, in response to receiving the user selection, disabling at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one disabled button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

21. The method of claim 6 further comprising, in response to receiving the user selection, visually distinguishing at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one visually distinguished button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

22. The method of claim 6 further comprising, in response to receiving the user selection, increasing the size of at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one increased sized button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

23. The method of claim 6 further comprising, in response to receiving the user selection, removing at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one removed button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising redisplaying the visual keypad without the at least one removed button.

25. A system for supporting user input in a media guidance application implemented at least partially on user equipment, comprising:

a user input interface;

a display device; and

control circuitry configured to;

display, on the display device, a visual keypad comprising;

a plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the plurality of first user-selectable buttons corresponding to at least some of the letters of the alphabet;

a function pane comprising at least one second user-selectable button, the at least one second user-selectable button corresponding to a function related to the user input; and

a user-navigable cursor;

receive, from the user input interface, a user request to move the user-navigable cursor to a first new cursor position within the visual keypad; and

in response to receiving the user request, display the function pane in a new location, the new location closer to the first new cursor position.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the control circuitry is configured to rotate the function pane about the perimeter of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the control circuitry is configured to display the function pane adjacent to the new cursor position.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the control circuitry is configured to shift at least some of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons to new locations in the visual keypad.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the function pane comprises an undocked frame or undocked window.

30. The system of claim 25, the control circuitry is further configured to:

receive a user selection of one of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons; and

in response to receiving the user selection, build a candidate string list or tree.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the control circuitry is configured to build the candidate string list or tree by accessing information from a program schedule database.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to display an interactive list of strings in the candidate string list or tree.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to compute a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the control circuitry is configured to compute a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree by accessing a user profile comprising user monitoring information.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the control circuitry is configured to compute a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list tree by accessing a user profile comprising user favorites information.

36. The system of claim 33, wherein the control circuitry is configured to compute a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree by accessing a user profile comprising user demographic information.

37. The system of claim 33, wherein the control circuitry is configured to compute a likelihood metric for each of the strings in the candidate string list or tree by computing a weighted sum of a plurality of terms, the plurality of terms comprising a user monitoring term, a user favorites term, and a user demographics term.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein at least one weight in the weighted sum is user-configurable.

39. The system of claim 33 further comprising automatically completing at least part of the user input based, at least in part, on the string with the greatest likelihood metric.

40. The system of claim 25, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

receive a user selection of one of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons; and

in response to receiving the user selection;

access an n-gram table; and

determine the most likely next character or characters for the user input based, at least in part, on the accessed n-gram table.

41. The system of claim 40 further comprising automatically completing at least part of the user input using the most likely next character or characters.

42. The system of claim 40 further comprising automatically moving the user-navigable cursor to a second new cursor position within the visual keypad, the second new cursor position corresponding to the most likely next character.

43. The system of claim 40 wherein the n-gram table is based on a subset of the English language, the subset comprising only words included in the program schedule database.

44. The system of claim 25, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, in response to receiving the user selection, disable at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one disabled button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

45. The system of claim 25 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, in response to receiving the user selection, visually distinguish at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one visually distinguished button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

46. The system of claim 25 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, in response to receiving the user selection, increase the size of at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one increased sized button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

47. The system of claim 25, wherein the control circuitry is configured to, in response to receiving the user selection, remove at least one button of the plurality of first user-selectable buttons, the at least one removed button based, at least in part, on the candidate string list or tree.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the control circuitry is configured to redisplay the visual keypad without the at least one removed button.