Touch-Sensitive Display Virtual Keyboard for Portable Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Portable electronic devices with touch-sensitive displays face challenges in optimizing limited space for user input and output, as traditional mechanical keyboards often occupy valuable space, limiting the size and functionality of these devices.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a keyboard with keys associated only with alphabetical characters and functions, excluding numerical characters, and using a touch-sensitive display to provide additional characters and functions, allowing for reduced keyboard height and increased display area by displaying virtual options for numerical, punctuation, and symbol inputs on the touch-sensitive screen.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a traditional mechanical keyboard includes numerical characters and all punctuation symbols, then complete character input capability is provided, but the keyboard height increases and display area decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The touch-sensitive display serves multiple functions: it displays information and also provides virtual keyboard capabilities for character input. By integrating both display and input functions into a single component, the patent eliminates the need for a separate full-function mechanical keyboard, thereby increasing display area while maintaining complete character input capability through the virtual keyboard overlay.
2Length of stationary object
If the keyboard is reduced in height to increase display area, then portability and device size are improved, but numerical and punctuation input capabilities are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical keyboard system with an electronic touch-sensitive display that provides virtual keyboard functionality. This substitution allows the physical keyboard height to be reduced or eliminated entirely, improving portability and device size, while the touch-sensitive interface provides versatile character input capabilities including numerical and punctuation symbols through software-based virtual keyboards.
3Ease of operation
If a full QWERTY keyboard with all characters is included, then comprehensive typing capability is achieved, but valuable space is consumed limiting device portability
Solution Approach 1:
The touch-sensitive display integrates both display and input functions, allowing the device to maintain comprehensive typing capability while eliminating the need for a separate mechanical keyboard structure. This multi-functional approach significantly reduces device volume and improves portability while preserving full typing capabilities through the virtual interface.
Data Source
AI summary
According to one aspect, a portable electronic device includes a body having a front face, a touch-sensitive display exposed at the front face of the body, a keyboard at the front face, the keyboard associated with a first plurality of characters excluding numerical characters, such that keys of the keyboard are each associated with a respective single one of the first plurality of characters, a memory, and a processor. The processor is coupled to the touch-sensitive display, the keyboard, and the memory to execute a program stored in the memory to cause the portable electronic device to display a second plurality of characters utilizing the touch-sensitive display in response to receipt of an input to display the second plurality of characters.