Virtual Keyboard Segmentation and Word Prediction for Mobile Data Entry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile devices face challenges with text entry due to their small size, leading to cumbersome keyboards that hinder data entry speed and accuracy, especially when entering words not in the database or symbols other than letters.
Innovation Solution
A data entry system with a virtual keypad that uses a limited number of keys to represent multiple characters, allowing for ambiguous and precise input signals, and incorporates a word prediction system to assist users in typing, including a Spelling Help feature and the ability to enter text on virtual content like pictures or videos.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a full keyboard is displayed on the screen, then all characters are accessible, but the keyboard occupies a large portion of the screen and hinders application use
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard is segmented into multiple pages, with each page containing a subset of keys. Users can navigate between pages to access different character sets, thereby reducing the screen occupation of any single keyboard view while maintaining access to all characters.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a temporal dimension through page navigation, allowing characters to be accessed sequentially across multiple screens rather than all at once. This transforms the spatial problem into a time-based access model, reducing immediate screen occupation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If key size is reduced to fit more keys on the screen, then more characters are accessible, but data entry becomes slow and cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the keyboard into multiple pages with larger individual keys, the system maintains key size suitable for fast input while distributing character coverage across multiple views. This allows larger keys (faster input) on each page while providing access to more characters through page navigation.
3Ease of operation
If a limited key set is used, then the keyboard is more manageable on mobile devices, but text entry accuracy decreases due to ambiguous key associations
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by predicting the user's intended word based on the sequence of key presses and the context of previously entered text. This prediction mechanism compensates for the ambiguity of limited keys by proactively suggesting the correct word before the user completes the input sequence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the system provides real-time suggestions and corrections based on the input sequence. This feedback loop helps resolve ambiguity by guiding the user toward the intended input and allowing correction of mistakes, thereby maintaining accuracy despite limited key differentiation.
4Area of stationary object
If the screen is freed from keyboard interface, then more application space is available, but text entry functionality is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard functionality is segmented into compact, on-demand pages that occupy minimal screen space. When needed, a small portion of the screen displays the keyboard; when not in use, the full screen is available for applications, thus balancing display space and text entry capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system comprising an on-screen QWERTY keyboard having a left zone to which the four left letters of each of the rows of letters of said keyboard are assigned, and a right zone to which the rest of the letters of said keyboard are assigned and wherein an interaction provided with any of said zones is related by a processor to one or more of the letters assigned to the interacted zone, and wherein said processor is adapted to execute a word predictive software for predicting one or more words from a database of words upon detection of a sequence of interactions with said zones.