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US 2004/0201576 A1Published application
Software multi-tap input system and method
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsTetsurou Shimada, Kenji Furuuchi
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AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsTetsurou Shimada, Kenji Furuuchi
Estimating the term…
A software multi-tap input method requires only two taps to input most characters. This is especially beneficial for languages where existing multi-tap methods require on average more than two strokes per character, and where handwriting recognition is currently an unacceptable alternative. The described system employs a touch-screen input that contains a selection of displayed “buttons” substantially fewer in number than the number of potential characters in the language of interest. An input area contains an array of symbols, each symbol being associated with a group of candidate characters. A candidate area contains an array of characters associated with a most recently selected group symbol in the input area. To select a particular character, a user pushes a group symbol in the input area and then selects the desired character in the candidate area.
A method for facilitating user input of a character to an electronic device having a touch screen display, the method comprising:
A mobile electronic device comprising a touch screen for display of information and receipt of user input, wherein the touch screen comprises a display of a first area within which a plurality of user-selectable group keys are displayed, each group key being associated with a respective character group, each character group comprising at least one character, and a second area comprising a group of user-selectable character keys, each character key being correlated to a character in a character group, whereby user selection of a group key in the first area causes the characters of the character group associated with the selected group key to be displayed in the second area on respective character keys, and whereby user selection of a character key causes entry in the electronic device of the character associated with the selected character key.
A method for receiving and processing user input of a character corresponding to a selected language to an electronic device having a hardware keyboard and a graphical user interface comprising a touch screen display, wherein the hardware keyboard comprises substantially fewer keys for character entry than the number of characters in the selected language, each key being associated with a character group comprising at least one character in the selected language, the method comprising:
A system for facilitating user input of a character corresponding to a selected language to an electronic device having a hardware keyboard and a graphical user interface comprising a touch screen display, wherein a selected plurality of keys of the hardware keyboard are each associated with a respective character group comprising at least one character in the selected language, the system comprising:
An apparatus for input of a character to an electronic device, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.