TWI488104B - Electronic apparatus and method for controlling the same - Google Patents

Description

Electronic device and method of controlling electronic device

The present invention relates generally to an electronic device and a method of controlling the electronic device, and more particularly to a technique for dynamically displaying a virtual keyboard on a touch screen of an electronic device.

In recent years, handheld devices such as mobile phones or tablets have become more sophisticated and more diverse in function. Due to the diverse functions of these devices, these devices have become one of the necessities of life, and users perform activities ranging from simple telephone communication to various social activities and commercial transactions on the Internet.

At present, there are a variety of handheld devices equipped with a touch display unit such as a touch screen, and the user can input through the touch screen. Most of the existing hand-held device input methods are mostly keyboards, and the interface is as shown in Fig. 1, and the design concept is set with reference to the physical keyboard. For example, the virtual keyboard in Figure 1 shows an American keyboard, sorted using QWERT. The advantage of this design approach is that most users are accustomed to this sort of keystrokes, which can be entered using familiar operating methods.

On the other hand, this type of keyboard configuration still has many limitations on the input method. For example, it is not easy to switch between capitalization or language.

Moreover, the location of such a virtual keyboard is fixed and occupies a significant proportion of the display. For example, as shown by the block indicated by the dotted line in FIGS. 2A to 2C, the 2A to 2C drawings respectively show the screen display area 21 without the keyboard, the screen display area 23 when the virtual keyboard is vertically displayed, and the horizontal display of the virtual keyboard. The screen displays area 25. The change in the proportion and shape of the visible portion of the screen can be clearly observed. That is, when the virtual keyboard is displayed, the proportion of the screen that the user can control is reduced, especially in the screen display area 25 when the virtual keyboard is horizontally displayed, the range that the user can manipulate may be only a few lines of text.

Therefore, there is a need for a technique for dynamically displaying a virtual keyboard on a touch screen of an electronic device to solve the above problems.

A method for controlling an electronic device, wherein the electronic device has a touch screen, the method comprising: displaying a text input block and a first virtual button on the touch screen; when the first virtual button is touched, Taking the first virtual button as a center, displaying a first layer button with a predetermined distance as a radius, and displaying an English letter input button on the first layer button; when the touch drag moves to the above English letter When the button is input, a second layer button is displayed on the periphery of the first layer button, and a plurality of English letter icons are arranged on the second layer button; when the touch drag moves to the second layer button When one of the English alphabet icons is the first English letter, a third layer button is displayed on the periphery of the second layer button, and a plurality of English word options including the first English letter are displayed on the third layer button; When the touch drag moves to one of the first English words in the English word option, the first English word is input into the text input block.

An electronic device comprising: a touch screen for displaying a picture and receiving a touch input; a control device for controlling the touch screen to display a text input block and a first virtual button, when the first virtual When the button is touched, the first virtual button is centered on the first virtual button, and the first layer button with a preset distance as a radius is displayed, and an English letter input button is arranged on the first layer button; when the above touch When dragging and moving to the above-mentioned English alphabet input selection button, a second layer button is displayed on the periphery of the first layer button, and a plurality of English alphabet icons are arranged on the second layer button; when the touch drag moves to the above a first layer of the above-mentioned English alphabet icon on the second layer button, a third layer button is displayed on the periphery of the second layer button, and the first layer of the button is arranged on the third layer button. a plurality of English word options; when the touch touch moves to one of the above English word options, the first English word is input into the text input Block.

21‧‧‧Screen display area

23‧‧‧Screen display area

25‧‧‧Screen display area

10‧‧‧Electronic devices

11‧‧‧Touch display unit

13‧‧‧ storage unit

15‧‧‧Control unit

500‧‧‧ screen

510‧‧‧Text input block

520‧‧‧Text input block

55‧‧‧ cursor

56‧‧‧ operation button

56a‧‧‧Expand button

56b‧‧‧Mobile button

530‧‧‧Option block

540‧‧‧ Login button

561~566‧‧‧ button

58‧‧‧Contact area

80‧‧‧Contact area

81‧‧‧ icon

90‧‧‧Contact area

91‧‧‧Back button

The disclosure of the present invention can be more completely understood by reading the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows the keyboard configuration of the existing hand-held device.

The 2A~2C diagram shows a schematic diagram of the keyboard configuration of the existing handheld device occupying the display screen.

Figure 3 is a block diagram showing an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing a method of starting display of an input keyboard in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 shows an example of a display screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a flow chart showing the operation of the input keyboard in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 shows an example of a display screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 8 shows an example of a display screen in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 9 shows an example of a display screen in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a block diagram showing an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be, for example, a personal computer and a portable electronic device, such as a personal digital assistant, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a mobile Internet device (MID), or the like. Electronic device.

The electronic device 10 includes at least a touch display unit 11, a storage unit 13, and a control unit 15.

The touch display unit 11 can be a touch display unit, which is a display unit combined with a touch sensing device (not shown). The touch sensing device has a touch surface including at least one dimension sensor for detecting contact and movement of an input tool such as a finger or a stylus on its surface. The touch display unit 11 can display related materials, and/or related icons and interfaces, and the like. In addition, the touch display unit 11 can also receive input from the user and transmit the relevant input to the control unit 15 for subsequent processing.

The storage unit 13 stores various user information, setting data, and code information in the electronic device 10.

The control unit 15 is used to execute the control electronic device of the present case. The details of the above method are as follows.

4 is a flow chart showing a method of controlling an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The method of controlling an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied to a handheld device such as a personal digital assistant, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a mobile internet device, or the like. In this embodiment, the electronic device may have a touch display unit similar to a touch screen.

In Fig. 4, the left half of the drawing is the step performed by the user end, and the right half of the drawing is the step performed by the device side. Fig. 5 shows an example of a display screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step S451, the electronic device displays a screen, and the screen includes at least one character input block. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the screen 500 includes a character input block 510 and a character input block 520 into which characters can be input.

In step S401, the user operates the electronic device such that a cursor is displayed in the character input block in the screen. For example, in FIG. 5, the cursor 55 is displayed in the text input block 510.

In step S453, after the electronic device displays the cursor in the character input block according to the user operation in step S401, an operation button is displayed on the screen. The operation button may be a virtual button on the touch screen; and the operation button includes an expansion button and a moving button (see FIG. 5).

Referring to Fig. 5, a circular operation button 56 is displayed on the screen 500, wherein a portion of the operation button 56 is an expansion button 56a and the other portion is a movement button 56b. The appearance of the above-mentioned expansion button and the movement button can be changed to various styles, and is not limited thereto.

Further, in the fifth diagram, in addition to the character input block 510 and the character input block 520 in which characters can be input, the screen 500 can display the option block 530 and the login button 540 in which characters cannot be input. In order to avoid interfering with the user browsing the screen, the operation button 56 may not necessarily be displayed all the time, but may be dynamically displayed according to the user's operation. For example, when the cursor 55 is displayed in the text input block 510 or the text input block 520, the electronic device displays the operation button 56. Among them, the operation button 56 is divided into two parts, as the expansion button 56b and the movement button 56a, respectively. In the fifth figure, the operation button 56 is shown as a circle, but the operation button 56 can be any shape, and is not limited thereto. In addition, the operation button 56 may be displayed as a translucent circular area, wherein the expansion button 56b and the movement button 56a may be displayed in different colors or patterns so that the user can easily recognize the expansion button 56b and the movement button 56a. According to the present embodiment, the moving button 56a can be displayed as a translucent green semicircle; and the unfolding button 56b can be displayed as a translucent red semicircle. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the unfolding button 56b and the moving button 56a can be designed as images of any shape, color, and pattern.

In step S403, the user touches the movement button 56a displayed on the touch screen with a finger or a stylus pen or the like, and performs a drag movement operation on the movement button 56a.

In step S455, the device side moves the position displayed by the operation button 56 according to the touch movement operation of the touch, so that the position displayed by the operation button 56 coincides with the drag movement of the touch.

In S405, when the user wants to input information, the expand button 56b is touched (pressed). According to the embodiment, when the user drags and moves to the desired position by pressing the moving button 56a, it is not necessary to leave the finger off the touch screen surface, To point the handle to the screen press, so that the unfolding button 56b and the moving button 56a are simultaneously touched, the input keyboard can be displayed on the touch screen. For example, when the expansion button 56b and the movement button 56a are pressed, the first layer button having a radius of a predetermined distance is displayed with the operation button 56 as a center, and a plurality of function buttons are displayed on the first layer button. The present invention is not limited to the above operation, and can be applied to the present invention as long as it allows the user to conveniently specify the display position of the input keyboard and conveniently causes the input keyboard to start displaying.

After the input keyboard is started to be displayed according to the flow of FIG. 4, the user can start the input operation, and the input keyboard that starts to be displayed in step S457 can be dynamically displayed according to the user's operation, and the display process is as follows. Figure 6 and Figure 7.

Referring to FIG. 6, in step S651, when the user presses the expand button 56b (or simultaneously presses the expand button 56b and the move button 56a), the device side displays the input keyboard on which the first layer button has been expanded on the touch screen.

As shown in Fig. 7, after the user's drag movement operation in step S403, the display position of the operation button 56 is moved from the lower right corner of the screen to a position closer to the center of the screen, and the input keyboard has expanded the first layer button. The first layer button includes six virtual buttons 561~566, which can be various function buttons. For example, the button 561 is an English alphabet input selection button; the button 562 is a Chinese phonetic symbol input selection button; the button 563 is a numeric input button; the button 564 is a punctuation input button; the button 565 is a space input button; and the button 566 is a back button. The configuration of the above button is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

Further, in the center of the circular input keyboard in Fig. 7, the contact area 58 indicated by the mesh pattern indicates the position touched by the user's finger. according to According to the embodiment, the unfolding button 56b and the moving button 56a which are originally displayed may not be displayed anymore, that is, the unfolding button 56b and the moving button 56a may not be displayed in the input keyboard in which the first layer button has been expanded.

In step S601, the user moves the touch of the finger to one of the virtual buttons 561 to 566 included in the first layer button. For example, according to this embodiment, the user moves the touch of the finger to the English alphabet input selector 561.

In step S653, when it is detected that the user drags the touch of the finger to a virtual button of the first layer button, the device end displays a wake-up indication on the virtual button that is touched to remind the user. The virtual button is currently being touched. For example, the virtual button that is touched is marked in a color, flashing, or framed manner.

If the user determines that a virtual button currently being touched (for example, the English alphabet input selection button 561) is to be selected, then in step S603, the finger is pressed on the English alphabet input selection button 561 and pushed back and forth in a short distance. The above operation mode is merely an example, and in fact, any pre-agreed operation mode can be adopted, and the user can input the instruction of "determine selection" into the device. The above operation mode can be defined by the user.

When receiving the user's confirmation of the selected instruction (for example, the manner in the above step S603), the device side displays the second layer button on the periphery of the first layer button (step S655). For example, when it is detected that the user drags the touch of the finger to the English alphabet input button 561, the device side displays a second layer button including a plurality of English alphabet icons on the periphery of the first layer button.

As shown in Fig. 8, the display on the periphery of the first layer button is included The second layer of buttons for multiple English alphabet icons. According to the embodiment, the first layer button originally displayed may not be displayed anymore, that is, the first layer button may not be displayed in the input keyboard in which the second layer button has been expanded. Furthermore, since there are 26 English letters, if all 26 English letters are displayed in the second layer button, the letter icon of each letter may be too small to be operated. According to the present embodiment, letters "B", "C", ... are sequentially displayed in the counterclockwise direction from the first letter "A". Other letter icons that are not displayed on the screen can be moved from the position adjacent to the first letter "A" (labeled as icon 81 in Fig. 8) as the finger slides on the first layer button. The order appears, at this time, the alphabetic icon in the previous order disappears in order to give the display space to the newly appearing letter icon. The above display modes are merely examples, and various designs and changes can be actually made according to needs.

In addition, the center of the circular input keyboard, the contact area 80 marked as a grid pattern, indicates the position touched by the user's finger.

In step S605, the user drags the touch of the finger to one of the English alphabet icons on the second layer button. For example, the user drags the touch of the finger to the English letter "A" in the above-mentioned English alphabet icon on the second layer button. At this time, the confirmation mode described in step S603 may be used to confirm the English alphabet icon to be selected by the user, and details are not described herein again.

When the touch drag moves to one of the above-mentioned English alphabet icons on the second layer button (for example, the English letter icon A), the device side displays a third layer button on the periphery of the second layer button (step S657), And a plurality of English word options including the above-mentioned English letter A are displayed on the third layer button.

As shown in Fig. 9, a third layer button including a plurality of English word options is displayed on the periphery of the second layer button. According to this embodiment, the second layer button originally displayed may not be displayed anymore, that is, the second layer button may not be displayed in the input keyboard on which the third layer button has been expanded.

The order in which the plurality of English word options are displayed in the third layer button can be variously designed and changed depending on actual needs. For example, the alphabetical order may be arranged, or the frequency input by the user may be arranged, and the English words that have been input are arranged in front.

Furthermore, in the third layer button, the back button 91 can also be displayed, so that the user can return to the second layer button to select the next English letter or re-select a different English letter. If the user touches the back button 91, the device side can make the third layer button disappear and display the second layer button.

In step S607, the user moves the finger touch and drag to one of the English word options.

In step S659, the above-mentioned English word selected by the user is input to the position where the cursor 55 is located in the character input block 510.

In the above embodiment, the process of inputting an English word and a picture are illustrated by taking an example of displaying an English letter input button on the first layer button. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the user can input Chinese characters using the Chinese phonetic symbol input button displayed on the first layer button as shown in FIG. 7; use the numeric input button to input numbers; use punctuation Use the symbol input selector to enter punctuation; use the space input button to enter a space; and use the back button to erase an already entered message or perform other operations.

For example, in the process according to Figure 4, the input keyboard starts to be displayed. After that, the user can input the Chinese phonetic symbol input button in the first layer button to input Chinese characters. Since the manner in which the keyboard is expanded is similar to the flow of inputting the English word described above, the text is described here, and a detailed screen diagram is omitted. First, the user moves the touch of the finger to the Chinese phonetic symbol input selection button 562. When the device detects that the user drags the touch of the finger to the Chinese phonetic symbol input button 562, the device displays a second layer button including a plurality of phonetic symbol icons on the periphery of the first layer button. Then, the user drags the touch of the finger to a phonetic symbol (for example, "ㄅ") in the phonetic symbol icon on the second layer button. When the touch touch moves to one of the phonetic symbol icons on the second layer button (for example, the phonetic symbol icon ㄅ), the device side displays the third layer button on the periphery of the second layer button, and in the above The three-layer button is configured to display a plurality of Chinese characters selected above the above-mentioned phonetic symbols. When the user moves the finger touch and drag to one of the above Chinese characters, the device inputs the above-mentioned Chinese character selected by the user into the place where the cursor 55 is located in the text input block 510.

In addition, the device side may further display a fourth layer button to speed up the user's input operation. For example, according to the Chinese character selected by the user, the next Chinese character that may be input is guessed, and the candidate Chinese character is displayed in the fourth layer button for the user to select; or the terminology that may be input is guessed, and The candidate terms are displayed in the fourth layer button for the user to select.

Any modifications and refinements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and the scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

S401~S457‧‧‧Steps

Claims (8)

A method for controlling an electronic device, wherein the electronic device has a touch screen, the method comprising: displaying a text input block, a first virtual button and a second virtual button on the touch screen, wherein the second virtual The button is disposed adjacent to the first virtual button; when the first virtual button is touched, the first virtual button is centered on the first virtual button, and the first layer button with a predetermined distance as a radius is displayed, and in the above One layer of buttons is configured to display an English letter input button; when the touch and drag moves to the above-mentioned English letter input button, a second layer button is displayed on the periphery of the first layer button, and on the second layer button Configuring to display a plurality of English alphabet icons; when the touch moves to one of the first English letters of the above-mentioned English alphabet icon on the second layer button, a third layer button is displayed on the periphery of the second layer button, and Configuring, on the third layer button, a plurality of English word options including the first English letter; and moving the touch to the touch When the first English word is one of the English word options, the first English word is input into the character input block; when the second virtual button is touched, the first move is performed according to the drag operation of the touch A virtual button and the position of the second virtual button are displayed such that the positions displayed by the first virtual button and the second virtual button coincide with the drag movement of the touch. The method of controlling an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein when the first virtual button is not touched, only the second virtual button is touched. At the time of touch, the operation of moving the position of the first virtual button and the second virtual button is performed. The method for controlling an electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising: when the touch drag moves to one of the first English letters of the above-mentioned English alphabet icon, and then dragging and moving to the English alphabet icon; a second English letter, a third layer button is displayed on the periphery of the second layer button, and a plurality of the first English letters and the second English letter are sequentially displayed on the third layer button. English word options. The method for controlling an electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising: displaying a Chinese phonetic symbol input button on the first layer button; and when the touch drag moves to the Chinese phonetic symbol input button Displaying a second layer button on the periphery of the first layer button, and displaying a plurality of phonetic symbol icons on the second layer button; and moving the touch drag to one of the above phonetic symbols In the case of a phonetic symbol, a third layer button is displayed on the periphery of the second layer button, and a plurality of Chinese character options in which the first phonetic symbol is vowel is displayed on the third layer button. The method for controlling an electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising: displaying a punctuation input button on the first layer button; and when the touch drag moves to the punctuation input button, The second layer of buttons is configured to display a plurality of punctuation icons; When the touch drag moves to one of the first punctuation marks in the punctuation icon, the punctuation symbol represented by the first punctuation icon is input into the character input block. An electronic device comprising: a touch screen for displaying a picture and receiving a touch input; and a control device for controlling the touch screen to display a text input block, a first virtual button and a second virtual a button, wherein the second virtual button is disposed adjacent to the first virtual button, and when the first virtual button is touched, the first virtual button is centered, and the first radius is displayed as a radius a layer button, and configured to display an alphabet input button on the first layer button; when the touch drag moves to the English letter input button, a second layer button is displayed on the periphery of the first layer button, and And displaying a plurality of English alphabet icons on the second layer button; when the touch drag moves to one of the first English letters of the English alphabet icon on the second layer button, displaying on the periphery of the second layer button a third layer button, and configured on the third layer button to display a plurality of English word options headed by the first English letter; When moving to one of the above English word options, the first English word is input into the character input block, and when the second virtual button is touched, moving according to the touch moving operation of the touch The positions of the first virtual button and the second virtual button are displayed such that the positions displayed by the first virtual button and the second virtual button coincide with the drag movement of the touch. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the control device is: When detecting that the touch drag moves to one of the first English letters in the above-mentioned English alphabet icon, and then drags and moves to one of the above-mentioned English alphabet icons, the second touch letter is controlled, so that the touch screen is controlled so that A layer 3 button is displayed on the periphery of the second layer button, and a plurality of English word options including the first English letter and the second English letter are sequentially arranged on the third layer button. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the control device controls the touch screen to display a Chinese phonetic symbol input button on the first layer button; when the touch is detected When dragging and moving to the Chinese phonetic symbol input selection button, controlling the touch screen to display a second layer button on the periphery of the first layer button, and displaying a plurality of phonetic symbol icons on the second layer button; And when detecting that the touch drag moves to one of the first phonetic symbols in the phonetic symbol illustration, controlling the touch screen to display a third layer button on the periphery of the second layer button, and The third layer button is configured to display a plurality of Chinese characters with the first phonetic symbol as the vowel.