Method and apparatus for accelerated entry of symbols on reduced keypad

Abstract

This invention teaches that a single key can support a multiplicity of ordered groups, and that only a subset of each group needs to be visually represented on the face of a key, and that either multi-tap or predictive methods, or both, can be used to input members of each of the groups, and that auxiliary keys are a convenient and effective method to select ordered groups, and to perform the multi-tap function. The objects of this invention: limited multi-tap depth, reduced keystrokes per symbol, unified focus, discoverability, graduated discoverability, power, compact presentation, and seamless integration of multi-tap and predictive text methods, can all be achieved by judicious application of the teachings of this invention.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to the design of typeable devices, and more particularly to devices that utilize a reduced keyboard to accelerate the input of symbols. Background technique [0002] A standard desktop computer keyboard includes 100 or more keys. A keyboard can be used to encode far more symbols than it has keys, including letters, capital letters, accented letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and function symbols (such as for cursor movement, character deletion, or quick access to the Internet) encoding symbols). Therefore, often many keys need to encode more than one symbol. As the number of different functions that computer keyboards are required to perform has increased, so has the number of keys on a typical keyboard, resulting in keyboards that have recently grown in size (up to the size of a turkey plate). [0003] The constraint of encoding many symbols on a small number of keys becomes even stricter when we refer to reduced key...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

In particular, on a telephone keypad with a small number of keys, it can be difficult to label a key even with all the symbols it needs to encode

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