VIRTUAL KEYBOARD

PRIORITY DATA

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/255,302, filed October 27, 2009.

[0002] The present invention generally relates to user interfaces used in connection with mobile devices and the like, and more particularly relates to virtual or "soft" keyboards used in connection with such devices.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Touchscreen displays have become an increasingly popular type of input/output device for mobile computing devices such as smartphones, e- book readers, table computers, and the like. In some cases, particularly in cases where a small footprint is desirable, two separate touchscreen displays are incorporated into corresponding enclosure assemblies, which can then be manipulated in some way by the user to reveal the displays during use. For example, the displays may be held together by a hinge mechanism such that they open like a book, as in a pair of side-by-side displays having a portrait orientation. Similarly, the displays may be configured to slide laterally with respect to each other and used in a landscape orientation.

[0004] Regardless of the nature of the displays and the details of their mechanical connection, it is typically desirable to provide a virtual or "soft" keyboard on one of the touchscreen displays so that a user can enter text. Such text entry will usually be required, for example, in connection with e-mail, word processing, and web browsing software.

[0005] In the case of side-by-side touchscreen displays, it is possible to dedicate one side of the touchscreen display for the virtual keyboard; however, such a design is undesirable in that the resulting virtual keys are typically very small and difficult to use accurately without allocating a large percentage of the screen to the keyboard. Furthermore, requiring the user to type on one side of the screen requires the user to hold the device in an unbalanced way.

[0006] Accordingly, there is a need for improved virtual keyboards. Other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background. BRIEF SUMMARY

[0007] A mobile device in accordance with one embodiment of the invention generally includes a first housing assembly having a first touchscreen display, a second housing assembly having a second touchscreen display, wherein the second housing assembly is adjacent to and moveably coupled to the first housing assembly; and a processor configured to cause the display of a virtual keyboard (e.g., a QWERTY keyboard) partitioned between the first touchscreen display and the second touchscreen display.

[0008] A method of providing keyboard input in accordance with another embodiment includes: providing first and second touchscreen displays moveably coupled to each other; displaying, in response to a request for the keyboard input, a set of user interface components composing a virtual keyboard on the first and second touchscreen displays simultaneously such that the virtual keyboard is split between the first and second touchscreen displays; and receiving keystroke information from at least one of the first and second touchscreen displays via the virtual keyboard.

[0009] A computer program product in accordance with another embodiment comprises a computer-usable medium having a computer- readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for generating a user interface. The user interface method includes receiving a request for keyboard input; sending, in response to the request, commands for displaying a set of user interface components composing a virtual keyboard on a first touchscreen display and a second touchscreen display simultaneously such that the virtual keyboard is split between the first and second touchscreen displays; and receiving keystroke information from at least one of the first and second touchscreen displays via the virtual keyboard.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] A more complete understanding of the present invention may be derived by referring to the detailed description and claims when considered in conjunction with the following figures, wherein like reference numbers refer to similar elements throughout the figures.

[oon] FIG. l is a conceptual overview of a mobile device in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

[0012] FIGS. 2A-2C depict the articulation of a hinged mobile device in accordance with one embodiment;

[0013] FIGS. 3A-3D depict the articulation of a mobile device in accordance with an alternate embodiment;

[0014] FIG. 4 is a conceptual block diagram of an exemplary mobile device;

[0015] FIG. 5 is depicts an exemplary mobile device being operated by a user;

[0016] FIG. 6 depicts a virtual keyboard layout in accordance with one embodiment;

[0017] FIG. 7 depicts a virtual keyboard layout in accordance with an alternate embodiment; and

[0018] FIG. 8 depicts a virtual keyboard layout in accordance with an alternate embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] The following discussion generally relates to the use of a virtual keyboard (e.g., a QWERTY keyboard) that is split between two side-by-side touchscreen displays such that, when held by a user, the left side of the keyboard can be manipulated with one digit (e.g., the user's left thumb), and the right side of the keyboard can be manipulated with another digit (e.g., the user's right thumb). [0020] In that regard, the following detailed description is merely illustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary or the following detailed description. For the purposes of conciseness, conventional techniques and principles related to user interface components, touchscreen displays, mobile computing devices, and the like, need not be described herein.

[0021] Referring now to FIG. 1, a mobile device 100 in accordance with an example embodiment generally includes two side-by-side, adjacent housing assemblies 112 and 122, each including respective touchscreen displays (or simply "displays") 114 and 124, where housing assemblies 112 and 122 are moveably coupled to each other as described in further detail below.

[0022] Touchscreen displays 114 and 124 may have any suitable rectilinear or curvilinear shape, and may be oriented in any desired fashion. The illustrated embodiment, without loss of generality, depicts two rectangular regions oriented in a portrait orientation (i.e., with respect to a user holding the device); however, the present invention comprehends any range of shapes, sizes, and orientations.

[0023] In accordance with one aspect, suitable hardware and/or software components within mobile device 100 are configured to cause the display of a virtual keyboard 130 to be partitioned between (or "split between") touchscreen display 114 and touchscreen display 124. Such a user interface scheme allows a user, for example, to hold and manipulate one half (no) of mobile device 100 with his left hand, while holding and manipulating the other half (120) with his right hand and using his respective thumbs to interact with virtual keyboard 130. In this way, the user interacts with device 100 as though it were a book, a particularly intuitive and desirable type of interaction.

[0024] More particularly, in the illustrated embodiment, virtual keyboard 130 is partitioned between two typing regions: typing region 131 within touchscreen display 114, and typing region 132 within second touchscreen display 124. As shown, typing region 131 and typing region 132 together substantially exhibit reflexional symmetry with respect to a symmetry axis 101 lying between the touchscreen displays 114 and 124. However, the range of embodiments are not so limited.

[0025] Device halves 110 and 120 may articulate with respect to each other an any number of ways. In one embodiment, for example, housing assemblies 112 and 122 are moveably coupled to each other such that housing assembly 112 rotates with respect to housing assembly 122 about symmetry axis 101, thus generally simulating the opening of a book. The resulting articulation is depicted in the series of illustrations shown in FIGS. 2A-2B, in which device halves 110 and 120 rotate from an open position to a closed position via a hinge mechanism 201.

[0026] Referring also to FIG. 5, a book-style embodiment allows one or more fingers 521 of left hand 501 to comfortably support left half 110 while left thumb 510 interacts with typing region 131 of keyboard 130. At the same time, while finger or fingers 522 of right hand 502 support right half 120, the right thumb 512 may be used to interact with typing region 132. The geometry of device 100 and virtual keyboard 130 may be designed with a view toward a user with nominally sized hands with nominally sized thumbs, using conventional ergonomic data available to those skilled in the art.

[0027] In an alternate embodiment, depicted in FIGS. 3A-3D, device halves 110 and 120 are configured to articulate such that they slide together and apart as shown. In general, embodiments of the present invention may be used in connection with any desired articulation scheme.

[0028] Virtual keyboard 130 includes any number of user interface elements (e.g., buttons) configured to simulate a keyboard of any type or alphabet, ranging from Roman letters used in connection with English and other languages, to pictographic symbols used in connection with Kanji and other such language systems.

[0029] In a particular embodiment, virtual keyboard 130 is configured to simulate a QWERTY keyboard— i.e., the widely used keyboard whose top row begins with the letters 'Q', 'W, Έ', 'R', T, and T. Various QWERTY embodiments are shown in FIGS. 6-8. [0030] In FIG. 6, for example, virtual keyboard 130 includes a number of substantially parallel rows (e.g., four rows) of user interface elements or virtual keys 602 are provided. Other commonly used keys such as one or more number/punctuation keys 616, two space keys 611 (which can be considered a single space key split between displays), and one or more return keys 614. Any number of other function and character keys may also be included.

[0031] FIG. 7 depicts an alternate embodiment where, rather than aligning virtual keys 602 in a regular pattern vertically as shown in FIG. 6, each row is staggered slightly to more closely resemble the traditional QWERTY keyboard.

[0032] FIG. 8 depicts yet another alternate embodiment, in which the virtual keys 602 within each region 131 and 132 are rotated at a non-zero angle with respect to symmetry axis 101. Such an embodiment might be a desirable configuration for thumb manipulation by some users.

[0033] Keyboard 130 may be split between regions 131 and 132 in a variety of ways. As shown in FIGS. 6-8, however, it may be particularly advantageous to partitioned the keys such that the T, 'G', and 'V keys are provided on the first touchscreen display, and Ύ', Ή', and 'B' keys are provided on the second touchscreen display.

[0034] Referring again to FIG. 1, while typing regions 131 and 132 may be displayed at any suitable location and take up any desired area within their respective touchscreen displays 114 and 124, in a particular embodiment, typing region 131 is located at one end of touchscreen display 114 (the bottom end, in this figure), and region 132 is similarly located at the corresponding end of touchscreen display 124. In order to allow the greatest area for interaction (and thereby allowing larger button graphics), it is desirable for regions 131 and 132 to extend to the full extent of displays 114 and 124, as shown. That is, three sides of rectangular region 131 are collinear with respective sides of touchscreen display 114, and likewise for typing region 132.

[0035] In the illustrated embodiment, touchscreen displays 114 and 124 each have a height di and a width d ₂ . Similarly, each typing region 131 and 132 has a width d ₃ and a height d ₂ . The values of di, d ₂ , and d ₃ may be selected depending upon applicable design standards, such as desired size, font size, button size, etc. In a particular embodiment, d2 is selected such that each typing region 131 and 132 is approximately 25% to 33% of the area of their respective touchscreen displays 114 and 124.

[0036] The virtual keyboard system described above may be implemented in a variety of mobile devices 100, including, for example, cellular phones (or "smartphones"), GPS systems, e-book readers, tablet computers, netbook computers, point-of-sale devices, gaming devices, and any other apparatus that may include more than one touchscreen display. In general, however, such devices are typically special-purpose or general-purpose computing devices including one or more microprocessors, memory components, and the like as is known in the art.

[0037] Referring to FIG. 4, for example, a typical mobile device 100 will generally include one or more microprocessors 402, one or more memory devices 404 (e.g., flash memory, hard drives, MicroSD cards, etc.), a power module 406 (e.g., batteries, charging circuits, etc.), a peripheral interface 408, one or more external ports 412 (e.g., USB, Firewire, etc.), an RF transceiver module 414 (e.g., in accordance with IEEE 802.11, Zigbee, etc.), an audio module 416, and one or more sensors such as acceleration sensors 418 (e.g., three-axis sensors), orientation sensors 420, and proximity sensors 422, an 10 controller 410, touchscreen displays 114 and 124, and additional I/O components (buttons, LEDs, etc.). In any given embodiment, more or fewer such electronic components may be present.

[0038] In general, a computer program product in accordance with one embodiment comprises a computer usable medium (e.g., memory 404, an optical drive, a USB drive, or the like) having computer-readable program code embodied therein, wherein the computer-readable program code is adapted to be executed by processor 402 (working in connection with an operating system) to implement a method for generating a user interface as described above. In this regard, the program code may be implemented in any desired language, and may be implemented as machine code, assembly code, byte code, interpretable source code or the like (e.g., via C, C++, Java, Actionscript, Objective-C, Javascript, CSS, XML, etc.).

[0039] Virtual keyboard 130 may be displayed in response to a user generated event (e.g., pressing a real or virtual button provided for that purpose), or in response to a software request. That is, in the event a particular piece of software requires text input (such as an e-mail address, website URL, calendar date, notepad text, etc.), keyboard 130 may be presented to the user so that the required text may be entered.

[0040] Touchscreen displays 114 and 124 may include a variety of display types known in the art for receiving input from a stylus and/or human finger while at the same time displaying graphical images. Examples of such displays include capacitive displays, resistive displays, surface acoustic wave (SAW) displays, optical imaging displays, and the like. Displays 114 and 124 may also provide haptic feedback to the user— e.g., a clicking response or keypress feel in response to a keystroke.

[0041] While at least one example embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the example embodiment or embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient and edifying road map for implementing the described embodiment or embodiments. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope of the invention and the legal equivalents thereof.