KR100519766B1 - Method and apparatus for constituting the flexible virtual keyboard - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for constructing a flexible virtual keyboard. The flexible virtual keyboard configuration method of the present invention includes the steps of: (a) determining whether the accumulated number of clicks of the entire key exceeds a predetermined multiple of a predetermined threshold; (b) if the number of clicks exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold value, rearranging positions of the keys according to the accumulated number of clicks of each key, and outputting the rearranged virtual keyboard; (c) examining whether the key has been clicked; And (d) outputting the clicked key on the screen, and accumulating by increasing the click count of the clicked key and the click count of all keys.

Description

Method and apparatus for configuring flexible virtual keyboard {Method and apparatus for constituting the flexible virtual keyboard}

The present invention relates to a virtual keyboard configuration method and apparatus. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for configuring a flexible virtual keyboard that can adjust the arrangement of keys of the virtual keyboard according to the number of times of use of the user.

Recently, as the use of small mobile devices such as PDAs has spread, input means are required when a physical keyboard cannot be used, and a virtual keyboard implemented by software is provided as such input means. However, as shown in FIG. 1, the arrangement of keys of a conventional virtual keyboard is limited to a specific arrangement of keys, such as Qwerty or Dvorak, and a user can use a fixed position on the virtual keyboard by using an input tool such as a mouse and a pen. Click on a character in the text to enter it.

However, the conventional key arrangement of Qwerty or Dvorak has a key arrangement suitable for using a keyboard with both hands. Therefore, when inputting using an input tool such as a pen, a key to be input every time is input. You spend a lot of time looking for it.

In addition, unlike the conventional physical keyboard, the conventional virtual keyboard reflects the user's use characteristics (when the user uses a large number of specific characters), even though each key does not exist in a physically fixed position. It did not provide a virtual keyboard suitable for the usage environment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a method and apparatus for constructing a virtual keyboard in which each key is optimally arranged for a user to improve an input speed by reflecting a user's usage characteristics and a user's environment.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of constructing a flexible virtual keyboard, comprising: (a) determining whether a accumulated number of clicks of an entire key exceeds a predetermined multiple of a predetermined threshold value; (b) if the number of clicks exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold value, rearranging positions of the keys according to the accumulated number of clicks of each key, and outputting the rearranged virtual keyboard; (c) examining whether the key has been clicked; And (d) outputting the clicked key on the screen, and accumulating by increasing the click count of the clicked key and the click count of all keys.

Also, in the step (b) of the flexible virtual keyboard construction method of the present invention, it is preferable to arrange a predetermined number of keys having the highest accumulated number of clicks on a portion of the virtual keyboard.

Also, in the step (b) of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration method of the present invention, it is preferable to arrange a predetermined number of keys having the highest accumulated number of clicks in the upper row of the virtual keyboard.

In the step (b) of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration method of the present invention, it is preferable that a predetermined number of keys are arranged from left to right according to the accumulated number of clicks.

In the step (b) of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration method of the present invention, it is preferable that a predetermined number of keys are arranged from left to right in alphabetical order.

In addition, step (a) of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration method of the present invention, if the accumulated number of clicks of the total key exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold value, the step of storing the predetermined multiple by one increase. desirable.

Also, step (d) of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration method of the present invention preferably includes displaying on the virtual keyboard that the user clicked a specific key.

On the other hand, the flexible virtual keyboard configuration apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, the input unit for receiving a clicked key from the user; A counting unit which accumulates and accumulates the number of clicks of input keys and the number of clicks of all keys; A comparison unit that determines whether the number of clicks of the accumulated total keys exceeds a predetermined multiple of a predetermined threshold value; A key arrangement resetting unit for rearranging positions of keys of the virtual keyboard according to the accumulated number of clicks of each key when the number of clicks of all keys exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold value; And an output unit for outputting the virtual keyboard and the clicked key whose key arrangement is reset.

In addition, it is preferable that the key arrangement resetting portion of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration device of the present invention arranges a predetermined number of keys having the highest accumulated number of clicks in a portion of the virtual keyboard.

In addition, it is preferable that the key arrangement resetting portion of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration device of the present invention arranges a predetermined number of keys having the highest accumulated number of clicks in the upper row of the virtual keyboard.

Further, it is preferable that the key arrangement resetting portion of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration device of the present invention arranges a predetermined number of keys from left to right in accordance with the accumulated number of clicks.

In addition, it is preferable that the key arrangement resetting portion of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration device of the present invention arranges a predetermined number of keys from left to right in alphabetical order.

In addition, the comparison unit of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration device of the present invention, if the accumulated number of clicks of the total key exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold, it is preferable to store the predetermined multiple by one.

In addition, the output unit of the flexible virtual keyboard configuration device of the present invention, it is preferable to display on the virtual keyboard that the user clicked a particular key.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a virtual keyboard construction apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the apparatus for configuring a virtual keyboard of the present invention includes an input unit 210 that receives a key input from a user, a counting unit 220 that accumulates and increments the number of clicks of an input key and the number of clicks of all keys, and accumulates A comparator 230 that determines whether the number of clicks of the total key has exceeded a predetermined multiple of the threshold value, and when the number of clicks of the entire key exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold value, the accumulated click of each key Key array reset 240 for rearranging the positions of the keys of the virtual keyboard according to the number of times, and an output unit 250 for outputting the virtual keyboard and the clicked keys whose key arrangement is reset.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention to be described below, a case of inputting English using a virtual keyboard is described as an example. However, the present invention may be applied to a case of inputting other characters than English.

When the user first drives the virtual keyboard according to the present invention, the virtual keyboard as shown in FIG. 4 is output to the display device. Referring to the key arrangement of the virtual keyboard illustrated in FIG. 4, unlike the key arrangement of the conventional virtual keyboard, each key is arranged in units of rows, and the predetermined rows are arranged from the upper row to the lower row and from the left to the right of the same row. You can see that each key is arranged in order. In this embodiment, each key is arranged in alphabetical order.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a virtual keyboard configuration method according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, a method of configuring a virtual keyboard in the apparatus for configuring a virtual keyboard of the present invention will be described.

When the virtual keyboard according to the present invention is driven, the comparator 230 determines whether to reset the key arrangement by comparing the number of total key clicks accumulated until the virtual keyboard is used with a multiple of a predetermined threshold. (S300).

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each click of the key accumulates the number of clicks of each key and the number of clicks of the entire key, and resets the key arrangement whenever the number of clicks of the entire key exceeds a multiple of the threshold. do. For example, if the threshold value is set to 4000 and the initial multiple is set to 1, the comparator 230 decides to reset the arrangement of each key when the number of clicks of the entire key exceeds 4000 times the multiple of the threshold value. After that, the drainage is increased by 1 and the drainage is stored. Then, the comparison unit 230 determines to reset the arrangement of each key when the number of clicks of the entire key exceeds 8000, which is a multiple of 4000 times, which is a threshold value, and then resets the arrangement of keys to the current double for the next key array reset. Store the value 3 times by increasing the stored value by 1.

When the comparator 230 determines to reset the key arrangement in operation S300, the key arrangement reset unit aligns the accumulated click counts of each key to reset the arrangement of the keys (S310). As described above, the present invention accumulates not only the number of clicks of all keys but also the number of clicks of each key when the user clicks each key, so that the key arrangement reset 240 generates each key according to the accumulated number of clicks. Sort it. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, each key is sorted in descending order of accumulated clicks, but it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the sorting method.

The key arrangement reset 240 resets the key arrangement of the virtual keyboard according to the order of the sorted keys (S320). In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the key array reset 240 arranges a predetermined number of keys having the highest accumulated click count among the keys arranged in descending order according to the accumulated click count from the left of the upper row of the virtual keyboard, Keys other than the predetermined number of keys arranged above are rearranged in the order arranged on the first virtual keyboard.

When the accumulated number of clicks of the ten keys arranged in the key arrangement resetting unit 240 is as shown in Table 1 below, the structure of the rearranged keys of the virtual keyboard is illustrated in FIG. 3A.

text a d f e o s h w i collection 1050 850 600 450 400 350 300 275 250

On the other hand, the key array reset 240 displays the rearranged virtual keyboard to the user through the output unit 250, and proceeds to the step of receiving a key input. However, the resetting of the key array of the virtual keyboard according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention is performed only before the user receives a key click through the virtual keyboard by driving the virtual keyboard to use the virtual keyboard. Note that even if the accumulated total number of key clicks exceeds a multiple of the threshold, resetting of the key arrangement is not performed. This is because changing the arrangement of keys of the virtual keyboard during use may cause inconvenience and confusion for the user since the total number of clicks has exceeded a multiple of the threshold value while the user is using the virtual keyboard.

Meanwhile, in operation S300, the comparator 230 determines not to reset the key sequence, and thus the virtual keyboard having the previously used key arrangement is output to the user, or the virtual keyboard having the reset key arrangement is output to the user. In response to receiving a signal from the outside, the input unit 210 checks whether a key click of the virtual keyboard has occurred, and if it is determined that the key click has occurred, the input unit 210 counts information about the clicked key 220 and the output unit 250. Output to (S330).

The output unit 250 highlights and displays to the user that the key intended by the user is clicked (S340). For example, the input unit 210 expands and outputs the index of the clicked key through the output unit 250 so that the user knows whether the key clicked by the user is recognized, or the peripheral key area in the area of the clicked key. Outputs a different color than.

Thereafter, the output unit 250 outputs the clicked key to a predetermined position, that is, the position where the current cursor is located (S350).

Meanwhile, the counting unit 220 receiving the key clicked from the input unit 210 accumulates by increasing the number of clicks of the clicked key by one, and accumulates by increasing the number of clicks of all the keys by one (S360). When the cumulative number of the keys accumulated in the counting unit 220 and the total cumulative number of times are currently terminated in the use of the virtual keyboard, and then the virtual keyboard is driven and performed from the above-described step S300, the comparison unit 230 It is output to and used to decide whether to reset the key layout of the virtual keyboard.

Meanwhile, when the above-described step S340 to step S360 are performed on the generated key click, the new key click received by the input unit 210 is performed again from the step S330.

On the other hand, if the signal received by the input unit 210 in step S330 is not a key click, it is checked whether the signal is a program end signal for terminating the virtual keyboard driving, and if not a program end signal to receive a key click signal In order to perform the process again from step S330, if the program termination signal, the driving of the virtual keyboard is terminated.

So far, the method and apparatus for configuring a flexible virtual keyboard according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention have been described. In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3A, the keys are arranged from the left to the right of the same row in the order of increasing the number of accumulated key clicks. However, as shown in FIG. 5B, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a predetermined number of keys having a high cumulative number of clicks may be collected and arranged in one area such as the left or right side of the virtual keyboard.

In addition, the present invention can be applied to a virtual keyboard for inputting data using two hands, as shown in FIG. 5C. In other words, a flexible virtual keyboard can be constructed by separating the virtual keyboard into two areas, a right hand area and a left hand area, and placing the keys having the most accumulated click counts in each area in the upper row or a predetermined area of each area. have.

The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like, which are also implemented in the form of a carrier wave (for example, transmission over the Internet). It also includes. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

The present invention provides a virtual keyboard that is optimally arranged for each user by arranging keys frequently used by the user in a position where the user can easily find by reflecting the user's usage characteristics and environment, thereby improving the user's input speed. There is an effect that can be made, in particular, there is an effect of providing a convenience in the case of having to enter a character using only one hand due to disorders.

1 is a diagram showing an arrangement of a conventional virtual keyboard.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an apparatus for configuring a virtual keyboard according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a virtual keyboard configuration method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of an initial virtual keyboard of the present invention.

5A-5C illustrate an arrangement of a virtual keyboard constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Claims (21)

(a) determining whether the accumulated number of clicks of the entire key exceeds a predetermined multiple of the predetermined threshold; (b) if the number of clicks exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold, rearranging positions of keys according to the accumulated number of clicks of each key, and outputting the rearranged virtual keyboard; (c) examining whether the key has been clicked; And (d) outputting the clicked key on the screen, and increasing and accumulating the click count of the clicked key and the click count of all keys. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) A method of constructing a flexible virtual keyboard, comprising arranging a predetermined number of keys having the highest accumulated number of clicks on a portion of the virtual keyboard. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) A method of constructing a flexible virtual keyboard, comprising arranging a predetermined number of keys having the highest accumulated number of clicks in an upper row of the virtual keyboard. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein step (b) And arranging the predetermined number of keys from left to right in accordance with the accumulated number of clicks. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein step (b) And arranging the predetermined number of keys from left to right in alphabetical order. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) And if the accumulated number of clicks of the entire key exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold, increasing the predetermined multiple by one and storing the virtual keyboard. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) And displaying on the virtual keyboard that the user has clicked on a particular key. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) And expanding the index of the specific key clicked by the user to be larger than the index of the other key to indicate to the user that the specific key has been clicked. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) And outputting a predetermined color to a specific key clicked by the user to indicate to the user that the specific key has been clicked. 10. A recording medium having a computer-readable method for recording the virtual keyboard of any one of claims 1 to 3 and 6 to 9, and recorded in executable program code. A recording medium having a computer-readable method of writing the virtual keyboard of claim 4, recorded in executable program code. A recording medium readable by a computer, the recording method of which comprises the virtual keyboard configuration method of claim 5, recorded in executable program code. An input unit to receive a clicked key from a user; A counting unit for accumulating and accumulating the number of clicks of the input key and the number of clicks of all keys; A comparison unit that determines whether the number of clicks of the accumulated total keys exceeds a predetermined multiple of a predetermined threshold value; A key arrangement resetting unit for rearranging positions of keys of a virtual keyboard according to the accumulated number of clicks of each key when the number of clicks of the entire key exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold value; And And an output unit for outputting the reset virtual keyboard and the clicked key. The method of claim 13, wherein the key array reset unit And a predetermined number of keys having the highest cumulative number of clicks arranged on a portion of the virtual keyboard. The method of claim 13, wherein the key array reset unit A flexible virtual keyboard configuration apparatus, wherein a predetermined number of keys having the most accumulated clicks are arranged in an upper row of the virtual keyboard. The method of claim 14 or 15, wherein the key sequence reset unit And arranging the predetermined number of keys from left to right in accordance with the accumulated number of clicks. The method of claim 14 or 15, wherein the key sequence reset unit And arranging the predetermined number of keys from left to right in alphabetical order. The method of claim 13, wherein the comparison unit And if the accumulated number of clicks of the entire key exceeds a predetermined multiple of the threshold, increases the predetermined multiple by one and stores the virtual keyboard. The method of claim 13, wherein the output unit And displaying on the virtual keyboard that the user has clicked on a particular key. The method of claim 13, wherein the output unit And expanding the index of the specific key clicked by the user to be larger than the index of the other key to indicate to the user that the specific key has been clicked. The method of claim 13, wherein the output unit And outputting a predetermined color to a specific key clicked by the user to indicate to the user that the specific key has been clicked.