PRESENTING BUTTONS FOR CONTROLLING AN APPLICATION

• US 20120220372A1
• Filed: 02/10/2012
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: CHEUNG, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, COMAN, Tudor, STAIKOS, Matthew Nicholaos, WINKLER, Michael Thomas, PANTONY, Joshua Rodney
• Granted Patent: US 10,908,812 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• 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

Content of an application is presented for display. A virtual controller module receives information relating to keyboard characters for controlling operation of the application. The the virtual controller module presents, based on the received information, a first set of buttons for display, where the buttons are to control operation of the application, and where the buttons are mapped to corresponding ones of the keyboard characters.

Claims

1. A method of an electronic device, comprising:

presenting content of an application for display;

receiving, by a virtual controller module, information relating to keyboard characters for controlling operation of the application; and

presenting, by the virtual controller module based on the received information, a first set of buttons for display, wherein the buttons are to overlay the displayed content of the application and are actuatable to control operation of the application, and wherein the buttons are mapped to corresponding ones of the keyboard characters.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the first set of buttons in a touch sensitive display screen of the electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of buttons are displayed without displaying keys not used for controlling the operation of the application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first set of buttons comprises an up button, a down button, a left button, and a right button.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is a game application, and wherein presenting the first set of buttons comprises presenting game control buttons to control game playing according to the displayed content of the game application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the first set of buttons is by the virtual controller module that is separate from both the application and an operating system of the electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting content of a second application for display;

receiving, by the virtual controller module, second information relating to keyboard characters used by the second application for controlling operation of the second application; and

presenting, by the virtual controller module based on the received second information, a second set of buttons for display that are actuatable to control operation of the second application, wherein the second set of buttons are to overlay the displayed content of the second application, wherein the second set of buttons are mapped to corresponding ones of the keyboard characters for controlling operation of the second application, and wherein the second set of buttons is different from the first set of buttons.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

controlling, by the virtual controller module, a layout of the first set of buttons on a display screen that also displays the displayed content of the application, wherein the layout is customizable using the virtual controller module.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mapping, based on the information relating to the keyboard characters, the first set of buttons to the keyboard characters.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the mapping is performed in response to one of:

(1) user input at the electronic device, and metadata or tag information that defines a configuration mapping virtual buttons to respective keyboard characters.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the content is performed by a web browser.

12. An article comprising at least one machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution cause an electronic device to:

present content of a rich Internet application;

receive information relating to keyboard characters for controlling operation of the rich Internet application; and

present, by a virtual controller module based on the received information, a first set of buttons, wherein the first set of buttons are for controlling operation of the rich Internet application, and

wherein the first set of buttons are mapped to corresponding ones of the keyboard characters.

13. The article of claim 12, wherein presenting the first set of buttons comprises overlaying a portion of the first set of buttons with collocated portions of the content.

14. The article of claim 12, wherein presenting the content of the rich Internet application comprises presenting the content of the rich Internet application that is executed by a web browser.

15. The article of claim 12, wherein presenting the first set of buttons comprises presenting the first set of buttons that are actuatable by a user to interact with the content.

16. The article of claim 12, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the electronic device to further display the first set of buttons in a touch sensitive display screen of the electronic device, wherein the first set of buttons are displayed without displaying keys not used for controlling the operation of rich Internet application.

17. The article of claim 12, wherein the rich Internet application is a browser-based game application, and wherein presenting the first set of buttons comprises presenting game control buttons to control game playing according to the displayed content of the game application.

18. The article of claim 12, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the electronic device to further:

present content of a second rich Internet application;

receive second information relating to input characters used by the second rich Internet application for controlling operation of the second application; and

present, by the virtual controller module based on the received second information, a second set of buttons for controlling operation of the second rich Internet application, wherein the second set of buttons are mapped to corresponding ones of the input characters for controlling operation of the second rich Internet application, and wherein the second set of buttons is different from the first set of buttons.

19. The article of claim 12, wherein the rich Internet application is designed for a device having a physical keyboard, and wherein touch events relating to the buttons of the first set simulate events relating to actuation of corresponding keys of the physical keyboard.

20. The article of claim 12, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the electronic device to further retrieve the virtual controller module from a remote site over a network for loading in the electronic device.

21. An electronic device, comprising:

at least one processor;

a display device having a touch-sensitive display screen;

a web browser executable on the at least one processor to present, for display in the touch-sensitive display screen, content of plural applications; and

a virtual controller module executable on the at least one processor to cause display of different sets of control buttons that overlay respective displayed content of the plural applications, wherein each of the different sets of control buttons is used for providing user interaction with a respective one of the plural applications.

22. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the virtual controller module is executable to further:

receive information from the plural applications regarding respective sets of keyboard characters used by corresponding ones of the plural applications to provide user interaction with the plural applications, wherein the set of keyboard characters for a first of the plural applications is different from the set of keyboard characters for a second of the plural applications.

23. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the at least one processor is configured to retrieve the virtual controller module from a remote site over a network for loading in the electronic device.

24. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the plural applications comprise game applications, and wherein the different sets of control buttons comprise different sets of game control buttons to allow for user interaction with game content presented by the respective game applications.

25. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein each of the plural applications is designed for a computer having a physical keyboard, and touch events relating to the control buttons of each set simulate events relating to corresponding keys of the physical keyboard of the computer.

26. A server, comprising:

storage media to store an application and mapping information to map virtual control buttons to keyboard characters, where the keyboard characters are to control operation of the application; and

at least one processor to;

receive, from an electronic device over a network, a request for content corresponding to the application; and

in response to the request, send the application and the mapping information to the electronic device, where the sent application is to cause the electronic device to present the content for display at the electronic device, and the mapping information is to cause the electronic device to display the virtual control buttons that overlay the displayed content of the application.