Virtual Keyboard with Segmented Button Sizes for Mobile Text Input
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile text input on electronic devices is often slow, inaccurate, and inconvenient due to the compromise on button size for compactness, leading to increased dexterity requirements and reduced usability.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of touch-sensitive selection buttons that utilize distinct gestures for activation, with primary and interleaved buttons, where primary buttons are actuated by tap and interleaved buttons by unique gestures, and a processor-based system that interprets these inputs to provide word suggestions, improving input accuracy and speed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If button size is reduced to achieve compactness, then device portability is improved, but text input accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual keyboard is segmented into multiple rows with different button sizes. Larger buttons are placed in commonly accessed positions (lower rows) while smaller buttons are placed in less frequently accessed positions (upper rows), allowing the device to maintain compact overall size while providing adequately sized buttons for frequent operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the virtual keyboard have different button sizes tailored to their specific functions and usage frequencies. The buttons are not uniformly sized but rather have local quality variations that optimize both compactness and input accuracy for each specific button's purpose.
2Volume of moving object
If button size is reduced to achieve compactness, then device portability is improved, but typing speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard is divided into segments with varying button sizes that correspond to typing frequency requirements. Frequently typed characters have larger buttons that can be accessed quickly and accurately, while less frequent characters use smaller buttons, maintaining overall compactness while preserving typing speed for common operations.
3Volume of moving object
If button size is reduced to achieve compactness, then device portability is improved, but dexterity requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual keyboard implements local quality by providing larger buttons in regions that require less dexterity (lower rows) and smaller buttons in regions that can be accessed with more precision (upper rows). This differentiation reduces the overall dexterity requirement by ensuring that frequently used buttons are sufficiently large and easy to activate.
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus, methods and systems are disclosed for interacting with an electronic device, including inputting letters. One embodiment of the apparatus includes buttons and a text output field displayed on a touch-sensitive display screen. Each button is assigned one or more letters. The text output field displays text and tentative letter selection indicators. In one embodiment of the method, the device records button actuations that ambiguously identify letter selections. With each actuation, a tentative letter selection indicator becomes appended to the end of the contents of the text output field. Upon activation of a button such as a spacebar button, or in response to an event such as expiration of a time period, a language algorithm disambiguates the recorded ambiguously identified letter selections and returns a word suggestion. The returned word replaces a sequence of appended tentative letter selection indicators displayed in the text output field.