WO2006028313A1

WO2006028313A1 - Keypad glove apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2006028313A1
Application number: PCT/KR2004/002894
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kwang-Seok Hong; Jeong-Hoon Shin
Original assignee: Kwang-Seok Hong; Jeong-Hoon Shin
Priority date: 2004-09-08
Filing date: 2004-11-09
Publication date: 2006-03-16
Also published as: KR20060022984A

Abstract

Provided is a keypad glove apparatus which includes a keypad glove apparatus comprising a key pad glove that includes key switches on locations of each of the phalanges of fingers of one hand of the user, wherein one or more of the predetermined symbols are allocated on each of the key switches, a plurality of touching sensors mounted on a respective fingers of the other hand of the user, each of which is operated a corresponding row of key switches, wherein a row indicates a row of phalanges spanning across multiple fingers, and a microcontroller unit that outputs recognition signals of a corresponding key switch when a key switch contacted by the predetermined touching sensor is included in a predesigned key switch row designed to be matched with the corresponding touching sensor.

Description

KEYPAD GLOVE APPARATUS

Technical Field The present invention relates to a keypad glove apparatus, and more particularly, to a keypad glove apparatus that has the functions to reduce the probability of inputting incorrect numbers or characters by detecting errors during operation and can input numbers or characters easily during operation.

Background Art

The developmental direction for next generation personal computers (PC) is miniaturization and light weight of each component for targeting a portable type such as the wearing type for pursuing the conveniences for the users of the digital devices and a variety of models have been developed. A keypad glove apparatus which is a device for inputting data or numbers into a digital device is one of peripheral devices to be used for a PC and computer-applied products which are produced in miniaturization and light in weight. The keypad glove apparatus has been developed in a stage for practical use in mobile phones.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a glove used for a conventional keypad glove apparatus.

The keypad glove 10 has a keypad having an arrangement of 3x4 as on a typical mobile phone, and key switches are disposed on each of the fingers (fore inger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger). A desired letter or number is inputted as the same principle as in an ordinary keypad of a matrix key by pressing the key switch with the thumb.

However, it sometimes occurs that incorrect numbers are inputted due to the unintentional touching of the keypad when pressing a desired number or character with the thumb of a user who is wearing the keypad glove 10.

Although it is not depicted in FIG. 1 , symbols, such as a number and one or more characters are allocated to each section of keypad glove 10 corresponding to a digital bone (phalanx) of the second through fifth fingers of the hand. Therefore, to select a number or a character allocated in the corresponding phalanx, the user must press repeatedly the corresponding phalanx with the thumb as many times as the order of a corresponding number or character of the corresponding phalanx. To input a sentence in the Korean language "^Ur⁰] ^T' using the keypad glove depicted in FIG. 3 according to the method of inputting characters of a mobile phone of Pantech & Curitel corporation assuming that the keypad glove depicted in FIG. 3, on which characters and a number are allocated on each of the phalanges, can be inputted numbers and characters by pressing the phalanges of various fingers with the thumb as in a conventional keypad, the number of keys on the keypad to be inputted by the user are "9*01100#80#77^*333^*0^*7333*0*7333^*0*7", that is, the user must press the keypad 35 times in total.

This is very complicated for the user when compared to using a conventional computer keypad since the number of times of pressing the keypad by the user increases significantly for inputting the same sentence, and the inputting speed of the characters is delayed as much as the increasing times of pressing the keypad.

Disclosure of the Invention

The present invention provides a keypad glove apparatus that can increase an inputting speed of numbers and characters, can be used easily, and can increase the recognition rate with respect to the operation of inputting characters by the users.

According to the present invention, there is provided a keypad glove apparatus comprising a keypad glove apparatus comprising a key pad glove that includes key switches on locations of each of the phalanges of fingers of one hand of the user, wherein one or more of the predetermined symbols are allocated on each of the key switches; a plurality of touching sensors mounted on a respective fingers of the other hand of the user, each of which is operated a corresponding row of key switches, wherein a row indicates a row of phalanges spanning across multiple fingers; and a microcontroller unit that outputs recognition signals of a corresponding key switch when a key switch contacted by the predetermined touching sensor is included in a predesigned key switch row designed to be matched with the corresponding touching sensor.

Also, the keypad glove has a key arrangement of 3x4.

The present invention provides a keypad glove apparatus that can correctly input characters or numbers without errors using a touching sensor which is predesigned to recognize a corresponding correct character or number even if two adjacent key switches are pressed simultaneously. Therefore, the character recognition rate with respect to the inputting operation by users is high and the inputting speed is increased due to a simple inputting operation. Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a glove used for a conventional keypad glove apparatus; FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing illustrating a keypad glove apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing illustrating a keypad glove apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Best mode for carrying out the Invention

The present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing illustrating a keypad glove apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates inputting numbers using both hands.

A keypad glove 20 that is worn on the left hand of a user includes a key switch to which specific numbers are allocated at a location corresponding to each of the phalanges of the fingers (fore finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger). The arrangement of the symbols allocated to the key switch may vary according to the type of service.

The touching sensors 22 that can be mounted on each of the fingers of the right hand are operated corresponding to three rows of key switches disposed on each of the equivalent finger phalanx rows 1a', 2a' and 3a' in the keypad glove 20 corresponding to each of the fingers of the right hand. That is, the numbers 1 , 4, and 7 and symbol * allocated on the first phalanx row 1 a' of the keypad glove 20 are designed to be detected when the first phalanx row 1 a' is contacted by the fore finger 1a that wears the touching sensor 22, and the numbers 2, 5, 8, and 0 allocated on the second phalanx row 2a' of the keypad glove 20 are designed to be detected when the second phalanx row 2a' is contacted by the middle finger 2a that wears the touching sensor 22. Here, the touching sensors 22 can be formed in a glove shape.

Also, the numbers 3, 6, and 9 and symbol # allocated on the third phalanx row 3a' of the keypad glove 20 are designed to be detected when the third phalanx row 3a' is contacted by the ring finger 3a that wears the touching sensor 22. A microcontroller unit 24 receives sensing signals from the keypad glove 20 and the touching sensor 22 and determines whether the inputted signals match the predesigned corresponding signals or not. When the signals are determined as matching the designed signals, the microcontroller unit 24 outputs a recognition signal corresponding to the phalanx of the keypad glove 20.

In case, when the middle finger 2a or ring finger 3a, not the fore finger 1a, presses one of keys of the first phalanx row 1a' which includes 1 , 4, 7, and * in the keypad glove 20, the microcontroller unit 24 does not output a recognition signal since the input signals are not matched to a predesigned signals. Also, when a user presses a middle portion between two phalanges, for example, between 1 and 2, between 2 and 3, between 4 and 5, between 5 and 6 etc., of the keypad glove 20 worn on the left hand using a finger of the right hand that wears the touching sensors 22, the microcontroller unit 24 decides which row of the finger phalanx pressed by the finger of the right hand is effective and recognizes a number allocated on the corresponding phalanx by selecting an effective phalanx between the adjacent phalanges, thereby increasing the inputting speed and recognition rate with respect to the inputting operation by the user.

Also, the microcontroller unit 24 can output a signal corresponding to a symbol selected by pressing the key switch a plurality of times with the corresponding finger of the right hand when multiple symbols are allocated in one key switch.

The keypad glove 30 has a keypad having a 4x3 arrangement as on a typical mobile phone. One or more symbols are allocated to respective sections of the key pad glove 30 corresponding to phalanges of the second through fifth fingers, to each phalanx and the touching sensors 32 worn on each of the fingers of the right hand are operated to select a respective corresponding signals among the one or more symbols allocated to section of the keypad glove 30.

For example, three Korean consonants "^z , ≡ , and tc" are allocated at a location of the first phalanx of a portion corresponding to the fore finger in the keypad glove 30, and the touching sensor 32 of the fore finger 2b can be designed to select c in the first order, the touching sensor 32 of the middle finger 3b can be predesigned to select E in the second order, and the touching sensor 32 of the ring finger 4b can be predesigned to select τz in the third order.

The determination of the order can be applied to all of the digits of the hand 1b through 5b according to a habit or convenience. That is, fingers of 2b through 4b can be used instead of using the fingers 1b through 3b. When the fingers 2b through 4b are used to determine the order, the thumb 1b can be used for a converting mode, that is, for inputting a Korean character and for inputting an English character, by wearing an additional touching sensor 32.

If the user wants to input "tc" using a conventional method, the user must press three times consecutively the location of the first finger section of the fore finger of the left hand, but in the present invention, each of the characters can be inputted by pressing only once using the fingers of the right hand to distinguish between one or more symbols of a particular segment.

That is, if the user wants to input a sentence in Korean

ψ according to the character inputting method of a mobile phone of Pantech & Curitel corp., the key numbers corresponding to the key switch for inputting the required sentence are as follows.

"9(2)*(2)0(2)1 (2)1 (2)0(2)0(2)#(2)8(2)0(2)#(2)7(2)7(2)*(2)3(4)*(2)0(2)*(2)7(2)3(4)*(2)0(2 r(2)7(2)3(4)^*(2)0(2)W(2)^"

Here, the numbers in the parentheses indicate the number of fingers of the right hand that presses a key switch on which a character is allocated, and, in the present embodiment, the fingers of second, third, and forth, that is, the fore finger 2b, the middle finger 3b, and the ring finger 4b, are used as examples. Accordingly, the above Korean sentence is inputted by pressing keypad 29 times which is significantly less than a conventional method of inputting characters. The present embodiment can be applied to an input system in which a plurality of characters and numbers are allocated on one key switch and also can be applied to any language. Also, when the above character inputting method is applied to cases that characters location and arrangement order are predesigned in a different manner according to a terminal model, the number of times of pressing the keypad by the user for inputting characters, there may be minor differences according to the type of models, is effectively reduced regardless of the character system and the numbers of characters and symbols allocated on each key switch.

Claims

1. A keypad glove apparatus comprising: a keypad glove apparatus comprising a key pad glove that includes key switches on locations of each of the phalanges of fingers of one hand of the user, wherein one or more of the predetermined symbols are allocated on each of the key switches; a plurality of touching sensors mounted on a respective fingers of the other hand of the user, each of which is operated a corresponding row of key switches, wherein a row indicates a row of phalanges spanning across multiple fingers; and a microcontroller unit that outputs recognition signals of a corresponding key switch when a key switch contacted by the predetermined touching sensor is included in a predesigned key switch row designed to be matched with the corresponding touching sensor.

2. The keypad glove apparatus of claim 1 , wherein when a finger that wears the touching sensor presses a middle portion between sections on which different symbols are allocated, a symbol recognized by the microcontroller is determined to be a symbol of the one of the sections that comes from a row that is predetermined to math the particular touching srnsor that presses the middle portion between sections.

3. A keypad glove apparatus comprising: a keypad glove that includes key switches located on each of the phalanges of fingers of one hand, wherein more than one predetermined symbols are allocated on each key switch; a plurality of touching sensors mounted on respective fingers on the other hand which are predesigned to select respective corresponding symbols among a series of symbols allocated to a particular key switch; and a microcontroller that outputs recognition signal corresponding to one of a series of symbols allocated to a corresponding key switch, that is selected by being pressed once by a touching sensor corresponding to the one of the symbols.

4. The keypad glove apparatus of claim 3, wherein the keypad glove has a 4x3 key arrangement.