Bezel Area Keyboard UI for Small Touch Screens
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wearable user terminal devices with small touch screens face challenges in text input due to the small size of the keyboard UI, leading to slower input speeds and increased errors, as well as compromised readability when both the keyboard and text are displayed simultaneously.
Innovation Solution
A user terminal device that allows text input through user interactions with the bezel area, where the controller adjusts the keyboard UI properties such as size, transparency, and input mode based on bezel area interactions, enabling easier text selection and manipulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the keyboard UI size is increased on a small touch screen, then text input speed improves, but the readability of displayed text is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes the bezel area (the dimensional space surrounding the touch screen) to store and display keyboard UI elements. When text input speed is prioritized, the keyboard is displayed in the bezel area rather than on the touch screen, allowing full keyboard visibility without compromising the readability of text displayed on the touch screen. This spatial separation resolves the contradiction by moving the keyboard to an adjacent dimensional space.
Solution Approach 2:
The display area is segmented into two functional zones: the touch screen for text display and reading, and the bezel area for keyboard UI presentation. This segmentation allows each zone to optimize its function independently - the touch screen maintains high readability for content consumption while the bezel provides a full-sized keyboard interface for efficient text input.
2Ease of operation
If the keyboard UI is displayed on the small touch screen, then text input functionality is provided, but the size of individual text keys becomes small leading to increased input errors
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard UI is relocated from the constrained two-dimensional touch screen space to the surrounding bezel area, which provides substantially more display real estate. This dimensional relocation enables individual text keys to be rendered at a larger, more accessible size that reduces mis-taps and improves input accuracy while maintaining full keyboard functionality.
3Adaptability or versatility
If both keyboard UI and text are displayed simultaneously on the small touch screen, then text input and reading are enabled, but the overall readability is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The solution displays the keyboard UI in the bezel area while text is displayed on the touch screen, utilizing two different spatial dimensions. This arrangement enables simultaneous text input and reading capabilities without the readability compromise that would result from overlaying both elements on the limited touch screen real estate.
Data Source
Figure 1~3a
Figure 3b~4a
Figure 4b~5a
AI summary
A user terminal device and a controlling method thereof are provided. The user terminal device includes a touch screen configured to display a keyboard user interface (UI), a detector disposed at a bezel area of the user terminal device and configured to detect a user interaction, and a controller configured to, in response to detecting the user interaction at the bezel area of the user terminal device, change properties of the keyboard UI according to the user interaction detected at the bezel area.