Virtual Keyboard Management for Customized Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional virtual keyboard systems in embedded equipment, such as copying machines and multifunction peripherals, lack the ability to provide customized and flexible data input options for different input items, leading to cumbersome user operations.
Innovation Solution
A virtual keyboard system that allows for the registration, selection, and display of specific virtual keyboards associated with each input item on an application window, enabling users to input data using the most suitable keyboard for the task at hand, with features like storage, registration, deletion, and display management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single virtual keyboard is associated with each input item, then the system structure is simple, but the system cannot provide customized keyboards for different input items or applications
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual keyboard management information serves as a universal mapping mechanism that can associate different virtual keyboards with different input items across multiple applications. This allows the system to provide customized keyboards for various input scenarios while using a unified management structure, thereby achieving adaptability without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces virtual keyboard management information as an intermediary layer between input items and virtual keyboards. This intermediary stores and manages the associations, allowing flexible customization of keyboard assignments without requiring direct complex interactions between applications and keyboards, thus resolving the contradiction between versatility and complexity.
2Ease of operation
If multiple virtual keyboards are associated with input items, then data input flexibility is improved, but the management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically selects and displays the appropriate virtual keyboard based on the current input item and the stored associations in virtual keyboard management information. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for users to manually manage multiple keyboards or make complex selections, thereby improving ease of operation while keeping the management interface simple despite the underlying flexibility.
3Ease of operation
If automatic keyboard switching is implemented, then user operations are simplified, but the system cannot switch keyboards for respective input items or applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements automatic keyboard switching with fine-grained control at the level of individual input items and applications. Each input item can have its own associated virtual keyboard defined in the management information, allowing the system to automatically select the most appropriate keyboard for each specific context. This local quality approach enables both operational simplicity and high adaptability simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
In a device that uses a virtual keyboard, an input field and a virtual keyboard used upon data input to that field are registered in association with each other. Upon data input, the associated virtual keyboard is used. When no associated virtual keyboard is available, a virtual keyboard of the system is used.