Dynamic Soft Keyboard Key Resizing for Mobile Text Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current text input methods on mobile devices, such as hard and soft keyboards, are cumbersome, especially for elderly and visually handicapped users due to the small size of keys, leading to frequent mistyping and inefficient input.
Innovation Solution
A dynamically generated visually assistive soft keyboard that adjusts key size, position, and color based on statistical probabilities of character sequences, optimizing keyboard layout to enhance input efficiency and accessibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a soft keyboard is used to provide visual display of all alternatives, then character input accuracy is improved, but key size becomes small leading to mistyping and reduced ease of operation
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard dynamically adjusts key sizes based on prediction values, making frequently predicted keys larger and easier to hit while maintaining display of all alternatives. This resolves the contradiction by making the keyboard adaptive rather than static, allowing both accuracy and ease of operation to coexist through real-time reconfiguration.
Solution Approach 2:
Different keys have different sizes based on their prediction values, with high-probability keys being larger and low-probability keys being smaller. This local differentiation allows users to easily hit likely keys while still having access to all character alternatives, resolving the contradiction between accuracy and ease of operation.
2Ease of operation
If key size is increased to improve ease of operation, then mistyping is reduced, but keyboard space utilization deteriorates and fewer keys fit on screen
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard implements non-uniform key sizing where only high-probability keys are enlarged while low-probability keys remain compact. This allows the system to improve ease of operation for likely keys without sacrificing overall keyboard space utilization, as the enlargement is localized to specific keys rather than applied uniformly.
Solution Approach 2:
Key sizes are dynamically adjusted based on prediction values rather than being fixed. This allows the keyboard to optimize space utilization by shrinking unlikely keys while expanding likely keys, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and space utilization through adaptive reconfiguration.
3Device complexity
If triple tap is used on hard keyboard to input one character, then device simplicity is maintained, but input speed becomes slow and productivity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by predicting which keys the user is likely to press next and visually highlighting them before the user actually presses them. This allows users to input text faster by tapping fewer keys while maintaining device simplicity, as the prediction reduces the number of required taps without adding physical complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The keyboard provides visual feedback by highlighting predicted keys, allowing users to confirm or correct predictions before finalizing input. This feedback mechanism increases input speed by reducing unnecessary taps while maintaining the simplicity of the touchscreen interface, resolving the contradiction between device simplicity and productivity.
4Measurement precision
If careful positioning of finger is required on soft keyboard to prevent mistyping, then character input accuracy is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates especially for elderly and visually handicapped users
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard applies local quality enhancement by making high-probability keys visually distinct and larger, reducing the need for careful positioning. Users can rely on visual cues rather than precise finger placement, improving ease of operation while maintaining accuracy through the highlighted predictions.
Solution Approach 2:
The keyboard dynamically adjusts visual properties of keys based on prediction values, making likely keys more prominent. This dynamic enhancement reduces the need for careful positioning by providing visual guidance, resolving the contradiction between accuracy and ease of operation for users with visual or motor difficulties.
Data Source
AI summary
Devices and methods are disclosed which relate to improving the efficiency of text input by dynamically generating a visually assistive virtual keyboard. Exemplary variations display a soft keyboard on a touchscreen of a text-entry device. The touchscreen works with the soft keyboard as a form of text input. Keyboard logic on the text-entry device is programmed to change the visual appearance of each key within the soft keyboard based on the prior entry. The keyboard logic assigns a prediction value to each key based on a statistical probability that the key will be entered next. The touchscreen displays a visually enhanced keyboard based on these prediction values. Enhancements include resizing keys relative to their prediction value, rearranging the keys a distance from the previous key entered inverse to its prediction value, etc.