Fast two-stroke input selection

Abstract

Method comprising: - Accepting writing strokes on an input surface of an electronic device; - identifying, using a processor of the electronic device, characters in the writing strokes; - determining, using the processor of the electronic device, that the identified characters include a selection indicator pair of two characters; - associating, using the processor of the electronic device, the selection indicator pair with writing strokes included by the two characters of the selection indicator pair; - Selecting, using the processor of the electronic device, the writing strokes associated with the selection indicator pair.

Description

BackgroundElectronic devices such as laptops, tablets, and smart phones are used in conjunction with input interfaces, e.g., a touch screen or digitizer. Users are offered an opportunity to provide handwritten inputs to the device, e.g., writing strokes that form letters, words, numbers, and other characters or symbols (referred to herein simply as writing strokes or characters).While confidential identifications of tags, including handwritten inputs, have evolved rapidly, the use of writing strokes has remained somewhat more difficult. A particularly difficult point that remains is selecting the content using handwriting inputs.Brief SummaryIn summary, a method provides an aspect comprising: accepting write strokes on an input surface of an electronic device; determining, using a processor of the electronic device, that the write strokes include a selection indicator pair; associating, using a processor of the electronic device, the selection indicator pair with content; and selecting, using a processor of the electronic device, the content associated with the selection indicator pair.Another aspect provides an electronic device comprising: an input surface; a processor operatively coupled to the input surface; a storage device comprising instructions executable by the processor to: accept write strokes through the input surface; determine that the write strokes include a selection indicator pair; associate the selection indicator pair with content; and select the content associated with the selection indicator pair.Another aspect provides a product comprising: a storage device having code stored therein, the code executable by a processor and comprising: code that accepts write strokes on an input surface of the electronic device; code that determines, using a processor of the electronic device, that the write strokes include a selection indicator pair; code that associates the write strokes with the content using a processor of the electronic device; and code that selects, using a processor of the electronic device, the content associated with the selection indicator pair.The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those familiar with the art will recognize that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting.For a better understanding of the embodiments, together with other and further features and advantages thereof, reference is made to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The scope of the invention is set forth in the appended claims.Brief Description of the Different Views of the DrawingsFig. 1 shows an example of an information handling apparatus circuit. Fig. 2 shows another example of an information handling apparatus circuit. FIG. 3 shows an example of a two-stroke input selection.Detailed DescriptionIt will be readily understood that the components of the embodiments as generally described herein and shown in the Figures may be arranged and constructed in a wide variety of different configurations, in addition to the described exemplary embodiments. Thus, the following detailed description of example embodiments as represented in the figures is not suitable to limit the scope of the embodiments as claimed, but is only suitable to illustrate example embodiments.Reference throughout this specification to "a single embodiment" or "an embodiment" (or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, or character described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the occurrence of phrases "in a single embodiment" or "in an embodiment" or the like at different places in this specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characters may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, a variety of specific details are provided to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, one of ordinary skill in the relevant art will recognize that the various embodiments may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with or without methods, components, materials, etc. In other examples, known structures, materials, or methods are not shown or described in detail to avoid confusion.A user may input handwriting input ("writing strokes" including letters, numbers, symbols, and other characters) via an input surface, e.g., on a touch screen. A user may enter the writing strokes onto the input surface using a fingertip, a stylus, or a stylus, or a combination thereof. While input systems, e.g., input method editors (IMEs) and application programs that support handwriting inputs and gestures, are effective and accurate with respect to the identification of characters and thus the identification of words and even phrases / paragraphs, there remains a difficulty in trusted user experience with physical paper. In one example, editing input write strokes remains difficult. Current technology limits the user to use special methods, e.g., a circle around the content that is selected (e.g., for formatting, copying, cutting, etc., of the circled by writing strokes) (whether handwriting or not). While this works well for small size content selection, it remains left to the user to work using conventional methods (e.g., keyboard or cursor based selection) when more than one or two words are to be selected.Accordingly, one embodiment provides for rapid two-stroke selection of content. The two-stroke selection allows the user to include any amount of content. One embodiment allows a user to draw a pair of strokes (referred to herein as a selection indicator pair) with all content selected between the characters of the selection indicator pair.The selection indicator pair may take a variety of forms. For example, two-stroke gestures may include pairs such as a bracket pair, e.g., "["and"] "or" ("and")", single-point angle characters such as "<" and ">", or other desired characters, e.g., box character symbols such as "└" and "┐". A selection indicator pair may include appropriate characters (e.g., left and right brackets) or non-appropriate pairs (e.g., left square bracket "["and right bent bracket" }"). It should be noted that these are non-limiting examples based on characters representing the appearance of physically written bracket symbols, such as those commonly used on physical paper.All of these character pairs can be easily recognized using handwriting or gesture recognition technology which can then take appropriate action (e.g., text selection followed by an cut or copy action, a formatting action, a display of a user interface, etc., shown by omission and / or further user input). For text selection, the rule for handling two stroke selection may mean the same as a shift + double click in a WINDOWS operating environment. In this example, the location of the two strokes of the selection indicator pair corresponds to the cursor position of a double click function.For selection of handwriting content (writing stroke), writing layout information may be required to provide accurate selection. That is, if a user desires to place a first of the characters of the selection indicator pair in a single line text and a second of the characters of the selection indicator pair in a different line of text, an indication is required such that the lines of text are logically associated (e.g., vertical lines of a paragraph or a subsequent paragraph) and thus connected by the selection indicator pair. There are existing technologies concerning write stroke layout analyses to identify a paragraph, list, line, sentence, word, table and letter format or other formats. For example, MICROSOFT Corp. has applied such technology in applications using handwriting, such as the MICROSOFT ONEENOTE and MICROSOFT POWERPOINT applications. There are additional technologies available to perform handwriting layout analyses. With such technologies, the write stroke layout information for assistance can be identified and used in determining which write strokes are affected and therefore should be selected using a two stroke indicator.The selection action using the selection indicator pair beyond lines (a paragraph, of successive pages, etc.) may also function in a similar manner as a shift + double click used in a WINDOWS operating system to highlight / select text over multiple words, lines, paragraphs, and pages. For example, if two brackets of a selection indicator pair are in the same row, only that row of write strokes is selected between the brackets. If two brackets of a pair of selection indicators in the same paragraph extend over several lines of write strokes, all lines between the brackets in that paragraph are selected. Similarly, formatting associations between the locations of a selection indicator pair (which may include more than two write strokes) and tables, graphics, etc. may be used to select these content types.With the input selection methods offered by an embodiment, it is very easy to select a wide range of content. This is particularly true when the user must go beyond a single page to select the content of interest, in situations where a circle or conventional technique fails. While various examples using lines (sentences, paragraphs, subsequent paragraphs, etc.) are set forth herein, it should be appreciated that table selection (and selection in similarly formatted documents or document portions) may be accomplished using similar techniques. For example, for a table selection, based on the location of the two write bars that make up the selection indicator pair, a cell, column, or row of content in a table may be automatically identified and selected.The illustrated exemplary embodiments are best understood by reference to the figures. The following description is intended as an example only and simply illustrates certain example embodiments.While various other circuits, circuits, or components are used in information handling devices with respect to a smartphone and / or tablet circuit 100, an example shown in FIG. 1 includes a system on chip design found, for example, in tablets or other mobile computing platforms. Software and processor(s) are combined into a single chip 110. Internal buses and the like depend on different merchants, but essentially all peripheral devices (120) may be mounted on a single chip 110. Processors include internal arithmetic units, registers, cache memories, buses, ON / OFF ports, etc., as are well known in the art. The circuit 100 combines the processor, the memory controller, and an ON / OFF control node together into a single chip 110. Also, such systems 100 do not typically use SATA or PCI or LPC interfaces. Common interfaces include, for example, SDIO and I2C.There is power management chip(s) 130, e.g., a battery management unit, BMU, that supplies power, for example, via a rechargeable battery 140 that is recharged by connection to a power source (not shown). In at least one design, a single chip, such as 110, is used to provide BIOS-like functionality and DRAM memory.The system 100 typically includes one or more of a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver 150 and a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver 160 for connecting to various networks, such as telecommunications networks (WAN), and wireless internet equipment, e.g., access points offering a Wi-Fi® connection. Additionally, devices 120 are typically included, such as short-range wireless communication devices such as a BLUETOOTH radio, a BLUETOOTH LE radio, a near field communication device, etc., as further described herein. The system 100 often includes a touch screen 170 for data input and display / playback that captures, for example, handwritten writing strokes provided by a fingertip, stylus, or stylus, or both. The system 100 also typically includes various storage devices, e.g., flash memory 180 and SDRAM 190.FIG. 2 is a block diagram of another example of information handling device circuitry, circuitry, or components. The example shown in FIG. 2 may correspond to computer systems such as those of the THINKPAD series of personal computers sold by Lenovo (US) Inc. of Morrisville, NC, or other devices. As is apparent from the description herein, embodiments may include other features or only some features of the features of the example shown in FIG. 2.The example of FIG. 2 includes a so-called chipset 210 (a group of integrated circuits or chips that cooperate, chipsets) with an architecture that may vary depending on the manufacturer (e.g., INTEL, AMD, ARM, etc.). INTEL is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. AMD is a registered trademark of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in the United States and other countries. ARM is an unregistered trademark of the ARM Holding plc in the United States and other countries. The architecture of chipset 210 includes a core and memory control group 220 and an ON / OFF control node 250 that exchanges information (e.g., data, signals, instructions, etc.) via a direct management interface (DMI) 242 or a Loink controller 244. In FIG. 2, the DMI 242 is a chip-to-chip interface (sometimes referred to as a connection between a "north bridge" and a "south bridge"). The core and memory control group 220 includes one or more processors 222 (e.g., single or multi-core) and a memory control node 226 that exchange information via a front side bus (FSB) 224; it should be noted that the components of the group 220 may be integrated on a chip replacing the conventional "northbridge" architecture. One or more processors 222 include internal arithmetic units, registers, cache memories, buses, ON / OFF ports, etc., as are well known in the art.In FIG. 2, memory control node 226 interfaces with memory 240 (e.g., to provide support for some type of RAM memory, which may be referred to as a "system memory" or "memory"). The memory control node 226 further includes a low voltage differential signal (LVDS) interface 232 for a display device 292 (e.g., a CRT, a flat panel display, a touch screen, etc.). A block 238 includes some technologies that may be supported via the LVDS interface 232 (e.g., Serial Digital Video, HDMI / DVI, display port). The storage control node 226 also includes a PCI Express (PCI-E) interface 234, which may support discrete graphics 236.In FIG. 2, the ON / OFF control node 250 includes a SATA interface 251 (e.g., for HDDs, SDDs, etc. 280), a PCI-E interface 252 (e.g., for wireless links 282), a USB interface 253 (e.g., for devices 284 such as a digitizer, a keyboard, a mouse, cameras, phones, microphones, memory, other connected devices, etc.), a network interface 254 (e.g., LAN), a GPIO interface 255, an LPC interface 270 (for ASICs 271, a TPM 272, a super-on / off control node 273, a firmware node 274, BIOS support 275 as well as various types of memory 276 such as ROM 277, flash 278 and NVRAM 279), power management interface 261, clock generator interface 262, audio interface 263 (for example for speakers 294), TCO interface 264, system management bus interface 265, and SPI flash 266, which may include BIOS 268 and boot code 290. The ON / OFF control node 250 may include gigabit Ethernet support.Once the system is powered up, it may be configured to execute boot code 290 for the BIOS interface 268 as stored in the SPI flash 266, and thereafter process data under the control of one or more operating systems and application software (stored in system memory 240, for example). An operating system may be stored in any of a variety of locations and may be accessed, for example, in accordance with the instructions of the BIOS 268. As described herein, a device may include fewer or more features than those shown in the system of FIG. 2.An information handling device circuit as illustrated in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2, for example, can be generally used in devices such as tablets, smartphones, and personal computer devices. In some cases, certain device circuits, e.g., those of FIG. 1, will include devices such as a touch screen 170. In other devices, for example a laptop computer, on the other hand, the circuitry (as shown in FIG. 2) may include another input surface, for example a digitizer or similar input surface offering handwriting input capability. An embodiment may be embodied for either these or other devices to enable appropriate manipulation of the user's handwritten writing strokes as described herein.Referring to FIG. 3, an example of an input method editor operating according to various text selection methods is illustrated. In one embodiment, at 301, the user-provided writing strokes (e.g., handwriting input via a stylus provided on a touch screen of a tablet computing device) are accepted, e.g., by processing with an IME or other application. This processing includes identifying the input write strokes by identifying one or more characters in the write strokes at 302. For example, a user may input a sentence, paragraph, or multiple paragraphs or pages of a handwriting input. Further, the accepted write strokes at 301 and the identification thereof at 302 may be multiple times. For example, a user may first input a substantial text and then a selection indicator pair, e.g., brackets provided around the words of a sentence or around phrases of a previously input paragraph. Alternatively, a user may provide only the selection indicator pair at 301 to select a previous input or provided content, e.g., no handwritten text of a word processing document, web page or table entry or graphic, etc.An embodiment determines at 303 whether the characters include a selection indicator pair at 303. If the user provides other handwritten inputs, this may include revaluating a previous input character, e.g., a first of two brackets, used to form a text selection indicator pair connecting a sentence. Alternatively, an embodiment may determine that substantial text has been input followed by providing a selection indicator pair, e.g., brackets, provided to connect the previous input of handwritten write strokes. Further, as described above, an embodiment may determine that the write strokes provided in connection with other content are accepted at 301, e.g., a user provides a selection indicator pair to select selected text of a web page, etc.If no selection indicator pair is detected, e.g., as determined at 303, then one embodiment may continue the process of processing the write strokes, as is conventionally known, namely, input the write strokes as machine text that provides the write strokes as graphical input in an application, etc. However, if it is determined at 303 that two of the characters in the write strokes form a selection indicator pair, an embodiment may process these and / or other write strokes differently, as shown at 304 and 305 of FIG. 3.For example, at 304, an embodiment may associate the content with the characters of the text selection pair. In one embodiment, the text selection indicator pair characters are related to content. For example, a user may connect a logical sentence of the content by inserting a clip before the first character of the first word of the sentence and placing a second clip at or near the end of the logical sentence. When the content includes previous handwritten content, handwriting input technology is again capable of interpreting the write strokes in logical segments or sections, e.g., phrases, paragraphs, etc. Thus, one embodiment is capable of using the location information about the insertion of the characters recognized as a selection warning indicator pair to identify write strokes associated therewith, e.g., associated by the selection indicator pair characters.The associated content may then be selected at 305. Thus, a user may connect a sentence, paragraph, or portions thereof even if they lie on different pages within the document when that content is selected. Thus, the selection indicator pair may connect multiple vertical lines of handwritten writing strokes or other content. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, with respect to selection of handwritten content, the letter-write strokes may be selected and / or a machine text representation may be selected, or both.In one embodiment, associating at 304 includes determining that the selection indicator pair connects the content (e.g., one or more write strokes) by referring to screen coordinates of the selection indicator pair with respect to the respective characters. The selection indicator pair may include a pair of brackets, a pair of boundaries, a pair of individual point angle marks, a pair of question marks, or a pair of block drawing marks. Other suitable characters may be similarly used to connect the text in a visible, distinguishable manner (for the user), such that an embodiment may be associated with the pair. As described herein, the selection indicator pair may be composed of the same or different characters.For example, an embodiment may use a user interface to confirm a selection action using a display screen of the electronic device. Thus, a user may be given the opportunity to confirm that a selection indicator pair has been actually entered (e.g., opposite a standard, for brackets not needed for selection, etc.), an opportunity to confirm that the selection of the arrangement of the selection indicator pair has been accurately identified, and / or an opportunity to improve the identification and / or location of the selection indicator pair. It will be appreciated that this may be achieved via a GUI provided on a screen, for example (such as via a GUI displayed on a touch screen of a device). Moreover, an embodiment within the interface may provide a variety of editing or other options for handling the selected content (e.g., copying, cropping, replacing, formatting (e.g., underline, italic writing, color changing, highlighting, etc.)).An embodiment therefore provides a technical improvement for a user input interface by simplifying more a content to be selected using handwriting input. This improves the operation of the apparatus even in terms of user-friendliness, the speed at which the content can be selected using the selection based on writing strokes (for editing and the like), as well as expanding the size and type of content, particularly with respect to the selection of handwriting input which can be selected in lines (namely using a handwritten writing stroke selection pair).As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, various aspects may be included in a system, method, or device program product. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of an entire hardware embodiment or an embodiment including software, all of which are commonly referred to herein as "circuitry", "module", or "system". Furthermore, aspects may take the form of a device program product embodied in one or more device readable media having device readable program codes embodied therein.It should be noted that the various functions described herein may be performed using instructions stored on a device readable storage medium, such as a non-signal storage device, executed by a processor. A storage device may be, for example, an electronic, magnetic, electromagnetic, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Larger specified examples of a storage medium include the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a portable copepact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a storage device is not a signal, and a "non-transitory" includes all media other than signal media.Program code may execute operations written in any combination of one or more program languages. The program code may execute entirely on a single device, partly on a single device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on a single device and partly on another device, or entirely on another device. In some cases, the devices may be connected by any connection or network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made by other devices (for example, the Internet using an Internet Service Provider), by wireless connection, e.g., near field communication, or by a fixed wire connection, such as via a USB connection.Example embodiments are described herein with reference to the figures illustrating example methods, apparatus, and program products according to various example embodiments. It will be understood that the actions and functionality may be performed, at least in part, by program instructions. These program instructions may be provided by a processor of a general purpose information processing device, a special purpose information processing device, or other programmable data processing devices to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via a processor of the device, perform the specified functions / acts of the device employed.It is meaningful to note that while certain blocks are used in the figures and a particular arrangement of the blocks is illustrated, these are not limiting examples. In certain contexts, two or more blocks may be combined, a block may be divided into two or more blocks, or certain blocks may be reordered or reordered as appropriate, as the expressly presented examples are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be interpreted as limiting.As used herein, the singular "a" and "an" may be construed as including a plurality such as "one or more" unless otherwise clearly shown.This disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The exemplary embodiments are chosen and described in order to explain the principles and practical application, and to enable others skilled in the art to understand the disclosure of the various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.Thus, it is to be understood that although illustrated exemplary embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, this specification is not limiting, and that various other changes and modifications thereof may be employed by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure.

Claims

A method comprising: - accepting write strokes on an input surface of an electronic device; - identifying, using a processor of the electronic device, characters in the write strokes; - determining, using the processor of the electronic device, that the identified characters include a selection indicator pair of two characters; - associating, using the processor of the electronic device, the selection indicator pair with write strokes involved by the two characters of the selection indicator pair; - selecting, using the processor of the electronic device, the write strokes associated with the selection indicator pair.The method of claim 1, further comprising interpreting the write strokes bounded by the two characters of the selection indicator pair into text segments.The method of claim 1, wherein each of the two characters of the selection indicator pair is selected from the group consisting of a bracket, a bracket pair, a single pointing angle marker, a question character, and a blockgraphic character.The method of claim 1, wherein the pair of selection indicators is composed of different characters.The method of claim 1, wherein the selection indicator pair includes multiple vertical lines of the content.The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of vertical lines belong to a single paragraph.The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of vertical rows pass through a plurality of pages.The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a display of the selected write strokes.The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, using a display screen of an electronic device, a user interface for confirming a selection action.An electronic device comprising: an input surface; a processor operatively coupled to the input surface; a storage device comprising instructions executable by a processor for performing a method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.An article of manufacture comprising: a storage device having code stored therein, the code executable by a processor to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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