Touch-Sensitive Keyboard for Syllabic Character Entry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for entering syllabic or logographic characters on electronic devices are cumbersome and inefficient, requiring users to move between a keyboard and a separate touchpad, leading to physical and cognitive burdens and increased energy consumption, especially in battery-operated devices.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a touch-sensitive keyboard that allows users to enter characters by activating keys or drawing on the keyboard, with the option to select candidate characters displayed after drawing, reducing the need for separate touchpad interactions and enhancing user interface efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a separate touchpad is used for character entry, then character input capability is provided, but user operation becomes cumbersome and time-consuming due to hand movement between keyboard and touchpad
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the keyboard and touchpad into a single integrated touch-sensitive keyboard surface. Users can draw characters directly on the keyboard using a stylus or finger, eliminating the need to move between separate devices. This merging of functions directly resolves the contradiction by providing ease of operation through unified interface while reducing time loss by eliminating hand movement between separate input devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The keyboard is designed to serve multiple functions: traditional character input via key presses and character drawing via touchpad-like gestures on the same surface. This multi-functionality allows the single device to replace both keyboard and separate touchpad, improving ease of operation and reducing the time required for character entry by consolidating input methods in one location.
2Ease of operation
If a separate touchpad is used for character entry, then character input capability is provided, but cognitive burden on user increases due to switching between input modes
Solution Approach 1:
By merging the keyboard and touchpad into a single integrated surface, the system eliminates the cognitive switching burden between different input modes. Users interact with a unified interface where both key pressing and character drawing are available simultaneously on the same surface, reducing the mental effort required to manage multiple input devices and their respective modes.
Solution Approach 2:
The keyboard's multi-functional design allows it to handle both traditional typing and character drawing operations. This universality simplifies the user experience by providing a single device that performs multiple input functions, thereby reducing cognitive burden compared to managing separate keyboard and touchpad systems with different operational paradigms.
3Productivity
If existing character entry methods are used, then character input is achieved, but energy consumption increases especially in battery-operated devices
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated touch-sensitive keyboard eliminates the need for users to physically move between separate input devices, reducing the overall time spent on character entry. This time reduction directly translates to lower energy consumption in battery-operated devices, as the system needs to maintain input functionality for a shorter duration, thereby improving productivity while conserving energy.
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-functional keyboard reduces the total operational time required for character entry by consolidating input methods. This efficiency gain leads to decreased energy consumption, as the system can complete character input tasks faster compared to using separate keyboard and touchpad sequentially, thus improving productivity while reducing the use of energy by the moving object.
Data Source
AI summary
A device with a display and a touch-sensitive keyboard with one or more character keys: displays a text entry area; detects a first input on the touch-sensitive keyboard; in accordance with a determination that the first input corresponds to activation of a character key, enters a first character corresponding to the character key into the text entry area; in accordance with a determination that the first input corresponds to a character drawn on the touch-sensitive keyboard: determines one or more candidate characters for the drawn character, and displays a candidate character selection interface that includes at least one of the candidate characters; while displaying the candidate character selection interface, detects a second input that selects a respective candidate character within the candidate character selection interface; and in response to detecting the second input, enters the selected respective candidate character into the text entry area.