WO2007104075A1

WO2007104075A1 - Visual data entry

Info

Publication number: WO2007104075A1
Application number: PCT/AU2007/000150
Authority: WO
Inventors: Manuel Cerilles
Original assignee: Manuel Cerilles
Priority date: 2006-03-15
Filing date: 2007-02-14
Publication date: 2007-09-20

Abstract

The present art is an electronic apparatus for entering characters. A character set is mapped onto a screen icon which is subdivided into parts which are individually and consecutively highlighted. The user selects the highlighted part that contains the target character by pressing a button. A new icon whose parts contain fewer characters is displayed each time a part is selected, until the user can select one character. Efficient tree structures and selection processes enable character input through a few clicks. Alternatively, three buttons can be used to further reduce the number of clicks and wait time. English alphabets, characters of other languages and symbols can be entered. A stylus can be used instead of the buttons. Tactile and speech based presentations of the character sets can also be used. The art is also used for searching through libraries of textual and pictorial objects.

Description

TITLE OF INVENTION:

VISUAL DATA ENTRY

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present art relates to methods and apparatus for entering characters into electronic devices.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(Description convention)

In the description, the following terminology convention is used.

• The English alphabets are the basis of the description, unless otherwise indicated. • The terms "alphabet", "character" and "letter" have the same meaning, unless otherwise indicated.

• In certain cases the phrase "twenty seven characters" is used to refer to the twenty six English characters, plus a symbol (usually a space or an arrow) which is included in the character set to fill in the bottom panes of a standard tree. • The terms "device " and "apparatus " have the same meaning.

• The terms "target character" and "target alphabet" refer to the character that is being entered. f "pressing ", "φcMftg" of the drillinβ button, "selection of the pane", and the like, refers to the entering of one click, unless oth.eγw\se indicated. • It should b,e qssμmφd fhat qnly one drilling button is used, ynle-ss the discusQiqn relates to cases wherein three buttons are used, or to other number of drilling buttons, e.g., when multiple trees are displayed.

• The verbs "display", "present", "appear", "show" and the like are used ' _I1M interchangeably in the wide sense that they cause objects to appear on the screen. In certain cases, "present" is used to refer to panes that are not "highlighted" • ■■■ but are or can be the object of a pane selection process, e.g., when three drilling buttons are used. • The standard three-layer tree is used as the basis for the description, unless otherwise indicated. • "Button" and "key" have the same meaning.

• A "stylus " may be a pen, finger, or any instrument that can tap or write strokes on touch sensitive screens. It also refers to a mouse, wherein, the mouse cursor path is equivalent to a stylus stroke, and a mouse click on a screen object is equivalent to a stylus tap. The phrase "writes a stroke or taps on the screen", or the like, refers to a touch sensitive screen.

• The above are general guidelines, and all terms used in the description should be understood within the context they are used.

BACKGROUND ART

(Previous Arts)

There are various prior arts for entering characters into electronic devices. Their respective characteristics are as follows.

Keyboard: Twenty six keys are used to enter the alphabetic characters. A skilled user can rapidly enter large text using ten fingers. Twenty six keys are difficult to fit into small devices such as mobile phones. For many people it is difficult to master this art. Keypad: Alphabets and space character are mapped onto nine buttons. Each button corresponds to three or four alphabets. One to five clicks (including a delimiter click) are required to enter one character. User's eyes and clicking finger are constantly busy searching for buttons. Occasional users tend to easily forget the key layout and character distribution.

Chording: Multiple fingers simultaneously press a number of keys to enter a character. Four or five buttons are required. Learning the art takes a lot of practice and the user must have dexterous fingers. Graphical keys: Keys contain graphical features that are common to a plurality of characters. User clicks two or more specific buttons for each character. Small number (about six) of keys is required. Difficult to remember the key combinations. Screen keyboard: A stylus is used to tap on a graphical representation of a keyboard on a screen. The representation is usually very small, and it is difficult to find and tap on a specific character.

Handwriting recognition: Various previous arts are designed to recognize free handwriting on an electronic surface, wherein the user handwrites entire characters or words. Recognition success rate varies depending on the art's capability.

(Advantages of the Present Art)

The present art is a novel and innovative data entry art that has operational advantages over the previous arts which are likely to be attractive to many data entry practitioners, especially those who use compact and mobile devices. A skilled user of the present art can enter characters as fast as users of the previous arts. The present art also presents structural advantages from a device design viewpoint because the key space freed up can be used for other purposes, such as for a larger screen or for other control buttons. Compact physical embodiments of the present art can be incorporated into a wide range of small devices such as cameras and watches to enable character input.

The present art is compared to the previous arts based on the following criteria. a) Number of buttons required: The present art uses only one (or three) drilling buttons to enter a character from a set of up to twenty seven characters. This is significantly less than the keys in a keyboard or keypad. b) Amount of physical activity required: In the present art, the clicking finger stays in the same position all the time when one drilling button is used. When one finger is used to click three drilling buttons, there is some lateral movement, but there is none if three fingers are used. In the case of a keypad, the clicking finger has to continuously roam all over the nine buttons. In the case of a keyboard, each often fingers (less for some people) has to click multiple keys. Finger(s) of unskilled and many users of a keypad or keyboard have to perform (waste) significant time roaming while searching for the target keys. c) Ease of use and learning time: The present art's man-machine interface involves less thinking and actions by the user and is easy to learn and use. Using one (or three) key is significantly easier than using nine or twenty seven keys. In the present art, the user does not have to remember any key or character layout. All the user has to do is to look at the (normally) three icons on the screen and click one (or one of three) drilling button. In the previous arts, the user has to train his/her fingers to "remember" specific key locations or layouts and to accurately find individual keys. Many people cannot master this art, and thus they frequently make mistakes, and consequently spend a lot of time making corrections. d) Probability and frequency of error: In the present art, the probability of making finger mistakes is very low. The user has to choose from only three icons at any point of time, and most of the icons contain nine or less characters which allows for bigger character representations given the same space. Thus, there are few "causes" for making errors. A novice user can set the rate of the icon transitions to a lower speed to reduce the instances of selecting wrong characters.

In contrast, the previous arts require continuous and complex eye and finger movements over twenty seven or nine keys or icons. Compact devices contain small (miniature) keys and icons wherein individual keys (and the character in them) are hard to distinguish and individually click. Thus, the previous arts involve many more "causes" for making mistakes. A significant percentage of the users spend a lot of time making corrections. e) In the present art, users can operate one (or even three) button without looking at it. This allows the user to concentrate on the screen. This provides the opportunity to display complementary information (warnings, action prompts, suggestions, results, etc) near the present art's icon, or the icon can be placed near the information. The user can easily notice the complementary information, and act on it as required. Furthermore, it allows new ways of data entry, such as, data entry in dark places (as long as the screen is visible), and remote (e.g., via Bluetooth) clicking wherein the hand is under the table or even in a pocket. f) The present art is suitable for persons who have difficulties operating a keypad or keyboard. With the appropriate drilling button design, any body part (including vocal sounds) can perform the clicking of one drilling button, g) In the case when a stylus is used, the stylus remains in the same general area, such that there are minimal lateral stylus movements. h) By using a word database to limit the number of possible succeeding characters, the succeeding characters (after a few letters of a word) often fit into a one or two-layer tree, which allows one click to enter a succeeding character, i) Inputting speed: A skilled user of the present art (who can anticipate the next icon when the icon transitions are set at a high speed) can be as fast as skilled users of the previous art.

The time required to enter a character depends on the intrinsic characteristics of the art and the user's skill level. In the present art, the length of time that the user has to wait before the target character can be inputted depends on the number of preceding highlighting events (a click is performed during a highlighting effect). Thus, if three highlighting events are required and one highlighting event is set to one-half second, the wait time would be one and a half seconds. The number of highlighting events (shown as a small "t" with a number to its right) for the characters in three trees is shown in Fig. 11, Fig. 19 and Fig. 20. These figures show that the wait time can range from one to nine highlighting events. However, the tree size can be significantly reduced for each succeeding letter in a word by limiting the possible words to those contained in a word database. This results in shorter overall wait time.

Whether the present invention allows faster input speed when compared to the previous arts depends on the skill of the user. If a very skilled keyboard typist can consistently enter one character quicker than one highlighting event, the keyboard would be faster. On the other hand, a person who is not highly skilled may spend a lot of time searching for keys and correcting mistakes, such that the present art may turn out to be faster. hi the case of a keypad, the time required to enter a character involves one to five button clicks plus the time it takes to find and position the clicking finger to the target button. A person who is not highly skilled spends considerable time finding the keys and correcting mistakes.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

(Short Overview of the Present Art) The present art is an apparatus that is used to enter characters into electronic devices. It is particularly useful in the case of electronic devices that have limited surface space for input keys. It is used to enter alphabets, numeric characters, special characters and symbols of different languages. The methods, structures, processes and the other features of the present art are embodied in software programs, electronic circuits, databases and hardware features in the apparatus of the present art.

To demonstrate the basic nature of the present art, an example of how a user enters an English character is explained. An icon that is a representation of a cube 25 is first shown on the screen. The three visible sides of the cube contain the alphabets

"abcdefghi", "jklmnopqr", and "sruvwxyz" plus the space character, respectively. The sides of the cubes are continuously highlighted one after another, to distinguish one side from the other two sides at any point of time. When a user clicks the drilling button when the "abcdefghi" side is highlighted, the current icon is replaced with a new cube icon whose three sides contain, "abc", "def" , "gbi", respectively. The sides of this cube are also continuously highlighted one after another.

When the user clicks the drilling button when the "def side is highlighted, the icon is replaced with a new icon whose three sides contain, "d", "e", "f" , respectively. The sides of this cube are also continuously highlighted one after another. When the user clicks the drilling button when the "f" side is highlighted, the alphabet "f" is entered into the device and added to the text being created. The device then shows the original icon that contains all the alphabets, and the user repeats the same operation to enter the next character. Other examples are illustrated in 26 and Fig. 12.

(Disclosure)

The components of the present art are disclosed below.

The components are comprised of basic components, embodiments and best modes for carrying out the invention.

The basic components are comprised of novel and innovative structures, methods and processes that are efficient methods for implementing the functional elements

(structure, character mapping, presentation, wait time, number of clicks, buttons, etc) of data entry. The embodiments and best modes for carrying out the invention utilize the basic components, using actual character sets in practical operational modes.

1. Data entry apparatus: An electronic device apparatus (see Fig. 14, Fig. 18, Fig. 23) which contains hardware features, software programs, electronic circuits and data bases that contain and execute any combination (including all) of the methods, structures, processes and other features of the present art.

2. Graphical man-machine interface method based on a deductive process: A target character is selected (and inputted into the device) from a larger original set of characters, wherein the device is doing most of the "thinking" and "actions", while the user assumes a reactive and less energetic role. The interface operates such that the apparatus is "effectively asking multiple-choice questions to the user" through graphical icons that are subdivided into parts, wherein each part graphically (effectively) asks the question "is the character you wish to enter in me". The target input process is as follows.

• in each stage of the process, an icon is displayed and its parts are individually and consecutively distinguished from the others through a highlighting effect that loops around the parts, where each part's highlighting event indicates the current question.

• The user effectively answers "yes" to the current question by clicking a drilling button, or effectively answers "no" by not clicking the drilling button before the completion of the highlighting event.

• Each time the drilling button is clicked, the characters in the selected part are further subdivided and displayed as the parts of a new icon, and the question and answer process is repeated.

• Eventually, each displayed part has one character and effectively asks the question "is your target character the character in me",

• and finally, the user clicks the drilling button when the part that contains (only) the target character is highlighted, to input the target character into the device. 3. Character set structuring method based on the mathematical characteristics of the number "3": A set of characters is mapped onto a hierarchical tree of nodes that has the following structure.

• The top node contains "3ⁿ" characters. This node is subdivided into three parts that each contain a third of the characters in the node. Each part links to a lower node (called "middle node").

• Each middle node is subdivided into three parts that each contain a third of the characters in the node. Each middle part links to a lower node.

• The above process is repeated until the parts of the lower nodes (called "bottom nodes") each contain only one character. If "3ⁿ" equals twenty seven, each top node's part contains nine characters, and its child middle node also contains the same nine characters. Each middle node's part contains three characters, and its child bottom node also contains the same three characters. Each bottom node's part contains one character.

This tree (called the "standard tree") that is produced by the above process is shown in Fig. 1. To facilitate later references to this tree, the following identifiers have been assigned to the nodes and their parts. Top node: TOP Top parts: Tl, T2, T3 Middle nodes: Ml, M2, M3 Middle parts: Ml 1, M12, M13, M21, M22, M23, M31, M32, M33

Bottom nodes: BIl₅ B12, B13, B21, B22, B23, B31, B32, B33 Bottom parts: Bi ll, Bl 12, B113, B121, B 122, B123, B131, B132, B133; B211, B212, B213, B221, B222, B223, B231, B232, B233; B311, B312, B313, B321, B322, B323, B331, B332, B333 The number that follows the capital letter indicates which node is the mother node of which child nodes, e.g., Bl 1, B 12 and B13 are the child nodes of Ml. Similarly the same numbers indicates which parts belong to which node, e.g., B 121, B 122, B 123 are parts of B 12.

(Note: These identifiers are also used to identify nodes in smaller and special tree structures, as well as the icons (which correspond to the nodes) and panes (which correspond to the parts) of graphical representations of the tree. These are explained later.)

The twenty six English alphabets and a space character equal twenty seven characters. Therefore these characters can be perfectly mapped onto the nodes of a tree that has "3³" characters. This relationship is utilized in the present art to create novel and innovative structures, methods and processes that enable efficient entering of English alphabets, wherein one to three clicks enter a target character, using only one or three drilling buttons.

4. Character mapping and tree building method for small trees: Some character sets contain less than twenty seven characters, e.g., numeric characters. This type of character set is mapped onto a tree (called "small tree") that is a subset of the "3³" tree, from the bottom layer to the top layer, from the leftmost part to the rightmost part. Nodes that are empty are deleted from the tree. There are three parts in each node, except for the last (or only) node in a layer which contains one to three parts.

The last part of the top layer contains one to nine characters, while the last part in the middle layer contains one to three characters. The procedure for mapping characters and building smaller trees is as follows. {Note: the identifiers used in the standard three-layer tree Fig. 1 are also used for smaller trees.) • The characters are first mapped onto the parts of the bottom nodes.

• If the number of filled bottom parts is less than four, the higher layers do not exist. A one-layer tree that consists of only one bottom node is created. The tree consists of the B 11 node, which contains one or more ofBlll, B112, B113. The character set contains one to three characters. • Otherwise, the characters are mapped onto the parts of the middle nodes. The bottom nodes are linked to corresponding (mother) middle parts that respectively contain the same characters.

• If the number of filled middle parts is less than four, a two-layer tree is created, i.e., the top node does not exist. The tree consists of: Ml, with Ml 1 and one or both of M12 and M13

BIl, with Bl 11, Bl 12 and Bl 13 One or both of B12 and B13, with one or more of B121 to B133. The character set contains four to nine characters.

• Otherwise, the characters are mapped onto the parts of the top node. And the middle nodes are linked to corresponding (mother) top parts that contain the same characters. The tree consists of:

TOP₅ with Tl and one or both of T2 and T3 Ml, with one or both of M2 and M3 Ml 1 to M13, with one or more of M21 to M33 Bl l to B13 with Bll l to B133

One or more of B21 to B33; with one or more of B211 to B333. The character set contains ten to twenty seven characters.

The two-layer tree structure that is created when the number of characters is eight is shown in Fig.2.

5. Special tree structures: Special tree structures that are variations of the above structures are created. Some of them are used to reduce the number of layers in a tree, which in turn reduces the number of clicks required to enter a target character. Others are used to allow the use of a number of drilling buttons, which is other than one or three buttons.

Embodiments of special tree structures are explained in the Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention (One Drilling Button). The following are examples of special tree structures.

• A one-layer tree that contains a single bottom node that contains four or five parts. • A two-layer tree that has an upper node which has four parts that lead to four bottom nodes.

• A multi-layer tree wherein a top part (that contains nine characters) links to a middle node which leads to bottom nodes, and a top part (that has less than six characters) directly leads to a bottom node that has one to five parts. • A tree whose nodes each contain only one part, two parts, four parts, and so on.

(Note: The above basic components involve the structural parts of the present art. The following components are the graphical and operational features of the art.) 6. Graphical representation method for nodes and their parts: The nodes are graphically represented by "icons" that contain parts called "panes". The following functional icon designs (called "icon types") that enable a user to easily see the icon, its panes, the highlighting loop, and the animation effect are disclosed: cube 10, column of boxes 11, row of boxes 12, circles arranged as satellites on a bigger circle 13, cluster of circles 14, circle composed of pies 15, and blades of a rotor 16. Each component of these icons represents a pane. (Note: The present art allows for other icon types to be created.)

Any of the above icon types can become a "miniature icon", in which only the first and last characters or very small graphical representations of the characters in the panes are shown. 36 is an example of a miniature row-of-panes icon.

In certain embodiments, the icons and panes move from one position to another during the drilling of a tree. This is explained later.

The icons displayed during a tree drilling operation niay be all the same icon type. Alternatively, different icon types may be used in different layers, or within a layer. In one embodiment, the top icon is a cube, the middle icons are columns of boxes, and the bottom icons are rows of boxes 26.

The characters contained in a pane may be represented by any graphical representation, that the user can associate with those characters. The representations are designed to suit unique character graphical characteristics, and/or to address device limitations. An example of the latter is the icon shown in 36, wherein only the first and last of the characters in the panes are shown. A non-alphabetic representation may also be used. For example the top panes of a tree may contain graphical representations of an "apple", a "jar" and the "sun" to respectively represent "abcdefghi", "jklmnopqr" and "stuvwxyz, space". These embodiments are suitable for very small display screens.

7. Pane highlighting and animation method: Panes selected using one button are always highlighted (except when there is only one pane in the current node). Panes selected by three drilling buttons may or may not (e.g., the panes of the middle and bottom icons in Fig. 19) be subjected to the highlighting effect. The following is a description of the highlighting effect method. The panes of an icon are subjected to a highlighting effect, which is executed as a "highlighting loop" that is comprised of "highlighting events" that are continuously and consecutively applied on each of the panes. Each event distinguishes one pane from the other panes in the highlighting loop at a point of tune. A loop continues until it is interrupted by a drilling button click. The currently highlighted pane is always visible. The panes that are not currently highlighted may or may not be visible. In the latter case, the panes are shown on the screen one by one. A highlighting event is displayed as an animation effect. A highlighting event is normally set to last during the animation effect that is applied on the pane. In some embodiments, the user may specify a time interval from the end of an animation effect until the next pane is highlighted and its animation effect commences. The user can specify the preceding pane to be either visible or invisible during the interval.

The highlight can loop around the panes in any order. In one instance it rotates from the highest pane, to the middle pane, to the bottom pane, then back to the top pane, and so forth. In another instance, it rotates from the top pane to the middle pane, to the bottom pane, then back to the middle pane, to the top pane, then back to the middle pane, and so forth.

Four animation effects are disclosed. The length of time of the animation effect is set by the user, who can set one time for all animation effects in a tree, or set different times for individual layers, or even for specific panes. (Note: The present art allows for other animation effects to be created.)

• In the "zoom-out" animation effect 17, a translucent "film" starts as a dot in the center of the pane and gradually spreads throughout the pane surface. • In the "pull-down" animation effect 18, a translucent firm progressively covers the pane from top to bottom.

• In the "pane-zoom" animation effect 19, the pane momentarily disappears and then reappears as a dot that gradually expands into the entire pane.

• In the "on-off animation effect, the entire pane instantaneously appears and disappears at the start and end of a highlighting event. There is no indication of when the animation effect is about to end.

The highlighting effect introduces a "time element" in the character inputting process wherein the number of clicks required to enter a character is reduced. This is because each highlighting event is equivalent to one click that the user would have to perform if the highlighting effect were not present.

In some embodiments, when a pane is selected, it glows brightly for an instant (before it disappears), so that the user knows which pane was selected, or which character was inputted in the case of a bottom pane.

7.1 User initiated highlighting effect method: In the method described in the preceding component, the highlighting of the panes of an icon is automatically initiated by the device once the icon is invoked. In this method, the panes of the currently displayed icon are initially not highlighted. The highlighting effect commences once the user presses a two-state drilling button (which can either be in its original (not pressed) state or in its pressed state). The highlighting effect moves from pane to pane while the button is pressed. It loops around the panes if the button is still pressed after the last pane is highlighted. When the user releases the button to its original state (this action equates to another drilling button click), the highlighting effect ceases, and the pane that was last highlighted is selected, which invokes the next icon (and enters the target character if a bottom pane was selected). A user has the option of using this highlighting method, instead of the automatically initiated highlighting effect.

7.2 Panes not highlighted method: If the current icon has only one pane, the pane does not have to be highlighted even when only one drilling button is used, because the device can determine that the single pane is selected when the button is clicked.

When three drilling buttons are used and each of them corresponds to one of the currently presented three panes, there is no need to highlight the panes of that icon, because the device can distinguish which corresponding pane is selected by each button, even when the panes are not highlighted. This method is utilized in the embodiments of the present art wherein icons and panes are stacked over each other. This is explained later.

7.3 Wheel based pane selection method: This method uses a scrolling wheel, like that found on a computer mouse. When the wheel is in its original position, the highlighting effect does not appear on any of the panes. The first wheel turn notch highlights the first pane in the loop. When the wheel is rotated, it moves the highlighting effect from its current position to the adjacent pane(s), wherein one wheel turn notch makes the highlighting effect move by one pane. When the user reverses the direction of the turn, the pane where the wheel reversed direction is selected and the panes of the next icon are displayed (the target character is also inputted if a bottom icon was selected). The panes layout may be any layout (column, row, etc), so long as the highlighting order of the panes are pre-defined. This method is suitable for users who do not want to perform button clicking actions.

8. Tree drilling method: A tree is drilled to input the target character within a tree structure. The drilling direction can go horizontally 1 or vertically 2. The horizontal drilling operation 1 is automatically performed by the device, as a pane highlighting loop. The user just watches it being performed on the screen. The continuous loop gives the user a chance to select the target pane in a succeeding loop (e.g., when the user misses the pane or wishes to take a rest).

The vertical drilling operation 2 is performed by the user by clicking the drilling button when a pane that contains the target character is "presented". A pane is presented when it can be selected by the user by pressing the corresponding drilling button (whether the pane is highlighted or not). A click causes the replacement of the current icon with that of the invoked icon.

Some icon's panes are not highlighted (e.g., the middle and bottom panes shown in Fig. 19). In this case, the device does not do any horizontal drilling operation, but the user can still select individual panes by clicking the drilling buttons that individually correspond to the presented panes, e.g., when three drilling buttons are used.

The user enters the target character by pressing the corresponding drilling button when the bottom pane that contains the target character is highlighted or presented. Examples of drilling processes are illustrated in Fig. 12 and Fig. 13. One or three drilling buttons (or other number of buttons) are used to drill down a tree. The "other number of buttons" is used to drill down special trees whose icons contain two panes, or four panes, or five panes, and so forth, wherein each button corresponds to one of the presented panes of the current icon.

When one drilling button drills a three-layer tree that has twenty seven characters, the number of highlight events up to the inputting of a target character ranges from three to nine. This is shown in Fig. 11, where "t5"represents five events, and so forth. A clicking event is performed within a highlighting event.

(Note: The phrase "a pane is clicked", "a pane is selected" and similar phrases should be interpreted as "the pane that was highlighted and/or presented when the drilling button was clicked".)

8.1 Manual inputting method: In this method, the panes of all layers of the tree are not highlighted. Each icon contains one to three panes. Three buttons are used, wherein each button corresponds to one of the displayed panes. The corresponding pane is selected every time a button is clicked. Three clicks are required to input the target character in a three-layer tree, two clicks in the case of a two-layer tree, and one click in the case of a one-layer tree. Users who do not want to use the highlighting effect can input characters in this mode.

8.2 Memory based input method: The manual inputting method enables this method. After a learning and practice period, it is possible for a user to memorize the click combinations required to enter a specific character, without looking at a screen representation of the panes. (Note: The buttons are numbered Buttonl, Button2, Burton3 which corresponds to the leftmost, middle and rightmost pane in a row of panes.) For example if the alphabets are allocated to a three-layer tree Fig. 10 in their alphabetical order. The "A" character is entered by clicking Button1 three times , "E" is entered by clicking Button1, Button2, Button2, "M" is entered by clicking Button2, Button2, Button1, and so forth. This method is useful in situations wherein the user can not look at representations of the icons and panes on a screen.

8.3 Pseudo single character method: In this, method, a plurality, of characters that are contained in a bottom pane are treated as a "pseudo single character". The length of time the drilling button (that selects the bottom pane) is pressed determines which character among the plurality of characters is inputted. The press time is subdivided into time-slices. When the button is released within the first time-slice, the first character is inputted. A succeeding character is instead inputted when the button is released in a subsequent time-slice.

9. Icon and pane screen presentation method: The presentation of a tree on the screen has two aspects: what is presented, and how they are presented. The representations of icons and panes that have no current functional purpose may or may not be visible. The portion of the tree that is displayed on the screen when it is being drilled consists of any of the following combinations.

• One icon and its panes (without lower icons): 25 and 26 are examples of this, wherein the succeeding icons are consecutively displayed.

• One pane (without its lower icons): This occurs when only the highlighted pane is presented, i.e., the not-highlighted panes are not visible. The panes in a highlighting loop individually appear one after another. An example of this is the bottom panes of 30. • One pane (with its lower icons and panes): An example of this is 5 wherein the highlighted top pane is presented, with its lower icons and their panes. Another example is shown in Fig. 20.

• The entire tree: Examples of this are 8 and 9, and Fig. 10 (if the entire tree hierarchy is displayed). (Note: The present art allows for other combinations to be concurrently displayed.)

When multiple layers of icons are displayed, they may be displayed as a visible hierarchical tree, or as "stacked" layers on top of each other.

The following explanation of the stacked icons method is best explained while looking at the illustrations in Fig. 4. The icons are stacked on the screen 4. Looking at Fig. 4,

• 3 is the top icon whose panes are consecutively highlighted. Only the currently highlighted top pane is visible.

• The currently highlighted (T2) top pane 5 is currently presented. The other top panes are currently hidden. • The top pane representation 5 is also a representation of its child middle icon

5 which contains its panes 6. • Each middle pane 6 is also a representation of its child bottom icon 6, which contains three panes each 7.

In another embodiment, the same tree 8 is displayed in its entirety, where only the top panes are highlighted.

In another embodiment, the same tree 9 is displayed in its entirety, where the top layer and middle layer panes are subjected to the highlighting effect.

The representations of stacked icons and panes that have no functional purpose may or may not be visible. Examples of when an icon or a pane graphical representation has a functional purpose are: when it is highlighted or presented, or acts as a border between sections of the screen (e.g., during stylus stroke character input).

Stacked representations are efficient when three drilling buttons are used. This is explained later. Displaying an entire icon allows the user to see all its panes, as well as the highlighting event transitions from one pane to another. On the other hand, if the panes (without their lower icons) are individually displayed, the pane's character representations can be bigger and thus easier to see (given the same screen area).

(Note: The phrases "the tree is displayed" and similar phrases should be understood as referring to the tree's icon(s) or pane(s) which are actually displayed, unless otherwise indicated. The icon(s) and/or pane(s) that are actually displayed is/are determined from the context of the particular discussion.)

10. Drilling method using one button: One drilling button is used to drill down a tree (whose panes are all highlighted, and no panes are stacked), such that one click selects a highlighted pane in each layer, and the number of drilling button clicks required to select a bottom pane that contains the target character is equal to the number of layers minus the number of nested highlighting loops. When the device has three drilling buttons, the user can switch between one drilling button mode (using one of the three drilling buttons) and three drilling button mode.

11. Drilling button using three buttons: Three drilling buttons are used to drill down a tree (whose icons each contain one to three panes), wherein each drilling button is used to select one of the panes currently presented for selection, and the number of clicks required to input a target character from a tree, is equal to: • m the case of a three-layer tree:

• one click, when the top and middle panes are both highlighted (but not the bottom panes), wherein the middle pane highlighting loop is nested under the top pane highlighting loop.

• two clicks, when the top panes are highlighted, but not the bottom and middle panes, and the middle panes are stacked on their top panes. • two clicks, the middle panes are highlighted, but not the bottom and top panes, and the bottom panes are stacked on their middle panes.

• three clicks, when all the panes are not highlighted, and therefore not stacked. • in the case of a two-layer tree:

• one clicks, when the (not highlighted) bottom panes are stacked on highlighted middle panes.

• two clicks, when all the panes are not highlighted, and therefore not stacked. • one click, in the case of a one-layer tree.

12. Drilling method using three buttons and two clicks: Three drilling buttons are used to perform two clicks to enter a target character from a set of twenty seven characters Fig. 19. Each drilling button selects a corresponding presented pane. The characters are mapped onto a three-layer tree, wherein "abcdefghi", "jklmnopqr", and "stuvwxyz, plus the space character" are mapped onto Tl, T2 and T3, respectively. The top panes are consecutively highlighted wherein one of them is presented at any point of time.

Each top pane is presented with its child middle icon stacked on it. In the case of Fig. 19, the Tl pane is currently presented. It is visually under its child Ml icon whose Ml 1 (contains "abc"), M12 (contains "def" ), and M13 (contains "ghi") panes are also presented. There is no highlighting on the middle panes.

When the target character appears on the screen in a middle pane, the user presses the corresponding drilling button to select that middle pane. This invokes the displaying of the child bottom icon of that pane, which replaces the presented top pane. The panes of the bottom icons are not highlighted. The user inputs the target character into the device by pressing the drilling button that corresponds to the bottom pane that contains the target character.

13. Drilling method using three buttons and one click: Twenty seven characters are mapped onto a three-layer tree. Three drilling buttons are used. Each drilling button is used to select a presented pane. The first two drilling buttons are also used to switch to another top pane. A top pane is displayed with its lower middle icon and bottom icons stacked on it. The top panes are not visible. The middle panes are visible with the bottom icons and their panes stacked over them Fig.20.

The top panes and middle panes are highlighted. The middle pane highlighting loop is nested within the top pane highlighting loop. When a middle pane is subjected to a highlighting event's animation effect, its child bottom icon with its panes undergoes the same animation effect. The user specifies the number of middle pane loops which are performed (nested) before the top pane that contains that loop is replaced by the next top pane. The bottom panes are not highlighted.

The user inputs a target character by pressing the drilling button that corresponds to the bottom pane that contains the target character, when that bottom pane is on a currently highlighted middle pane. Only one click is required to enter a character. When the user wishes to enter a character that is not currently presented, the user either waits for the top pane that contains the target character to appear, or the user can preempt the looping sequence by pressing the first drilling button for a long time to immediately replace the current top pane with the next top pane in the loop, or the user presses the second drilling button for a long time to immediately jump to the top pane that follows the next one.

(Note: The following two components are embodiments of multiple tree structures and operations. Other multiple tree embodiments are described in other components.)

14. Multiple trees concurrently displayed method: A plurality of trees is concurrently displayed on the screen. Embodiments of this method are illustrated in 28, 33 and 35. These embodiments are explained later. This method is useful for cases (wherein the screen is big enough) such as when portions of a large character set are subdivided into multiple trees. Another usage is when English alphabet, numeric, symbol, other language trees are concurrently displayed. The characters inputted hi each tree may be added to the same or different output text boxes on the screen.

15. Tree switching method: A plurality of methods for switching from one tree to another (on the same screen area) is disclosed. This switching method allows a user to consecutively view multiple trees on the same screen area. For example, the user can switch between an English alphabet tree, a numeric characters tree, and a tree that contains European characters. This method can also be utilized to split a character set (e.g., some European languages) that is comprised of more than twenty seven characters. A tree switching event is invoked in one of four ways.

• A separate (non-drilling) button is used to switch between two or more trees. An embodiment of this is illustrated in 34, wherein the three trees shown in 35 are displayed in the same screen area.

• The drilling button is also used for the tree switching operations, wherein it is pressed for a period of time (e.g., more than one seconds) that is longer than the time it normally takes to complete a drilling click (e.g., less than one second). {Note: This is also phrased as a "long press" or "pressing for a long time, or "pressing for a long period' '.) Examples of this are shown hi Fig. 26. When "G", "N" or "J" is selected by a normal click (less than one second), the character is entered. However, when the drilling button is pressed for a long time when "G", "N" or "J" is highlighted, the character is not entered; instead, the alphabetic tree is replaced by the Greek, Numeric or Japanese tree, respectively.

• The selection of a character invokes the replacement of the current tree with a corresponding tree. Examples of this are shown in Fig. 26. When "α" is selected in the numeric, Greek, or Japanese tree, it is replaced by the alphabetic tree. When "J" is selected in the numeric tree, the Japanese tree replaces the numeric tree. When "η" is selected in the Japanese tree, the Japanese tree is replaced by the numeric tree. • A tree is replaced by another specific tree according to a certain programming logic.

Fig. 26 is an illustration of the method of the present art, wherein a very large number of characters are subdivided to multiple character sets according to certain classifications. The character sets are allocated to individual trees. Any of the trees can be invoked from within other tree(s), using the drilling button(s).

(Note: The following component includes embodiments of drilling buttons, and their state transition interpretations.)

16. Methods for interpreting drilling button operations, including a two-state button, a three-state button and a toggle:

A "click" is a user action that invokes a device event or action. In the following discussion, "OP" should be interpreted as "the original state to pressed state transition". Similar interpretations should be applied to the other similar notations. When the button is released, it automatically returns to its original state.

A two-state button can either be in the original (O) or pressed (P) state. In the present art, the operation of a two-state button is interpreted in one of the following ways.

• Double-click mode 20: O-P is one click. P-O is another click. Thus, O-P-0 results in two clicks. The user can select this mode to drill two-layer trees.

• Single-click mode 21: O-P is one click. The succeeding P-O is not a click. The user can select this mode to drill trees that have any number of layers. • Single-click reverse mode: O-P is not a click. P-O is a click.

• Composite-clicks mode of a two-state button: When a two-state button is used to drill a three-layer tree, the pressing actions on the button are alternatively interpreted in two ways. The first O-P is the first click. The succeeding P-O is ignored. The second click is executed by the next O-P. The third click is performed by the succeeding P-O.

A three-state button can be in the original state (O), middle state (M) or fully- pressed states (F). When the button is released, it automatically returns to the original state. The operation of a three-state button is interpreted as follows.

• Single-click mode: 0-M is one click, M-O is ignored, M-F and F-M are ignored if performed. • Double-click mode: 0-M is the first click, M-O is the second click, M-F and

F-M are ignored if performed.

• Two or three-click mode: 0-M is the first click, M-F is the second click if performed, F-M is ignored if performed, M-O is the second click if M-F-M is not performed, or the third click if M-F-M was performed. • One or three-click mode 2: 0-M is the first click, M-F is the second click if performed, F-M is third click if performed, M-O is ignored.

• Number of clicks dependent mode: The transitions interpretation dynamically changes depending on the number of clicks required to select a bottom pane in the tree currently being drilled. ^■ One click required: 0-M is the click, M-O is ignored, M-F and F-M are ignored if performed. .

^■ Two clicks required: 0-M is the first click, M-F is the second click, F-M and M-O are ignored.

^■ Three clicks required: 0-M is the first click, M-F is the second click, F-M is third click, M-O is ignored.

^■ Four clicks required: all transitions are clicks (for special trees), hi the case of a toggle Fig. 9, each flipping transition (left-to-right, right-to-left, front-to-back, back-to-front, as the case may be) of the toggle is interpreted as an individual click. The user can use a toggle to drill trees with any number of layers. {Note: The present art allows for other types of buttons and state transition interpretations to be used)

(Note: The following are embodiments wherein actual character sets are mapped onto trees, including efficient character mapping methods.

17. English characters mapping: The twenty six English alphabets (in alphabetic order) plus the space character are mapped onto a three-layer tree Fig. 10. The "abcdefghi" alphabets are mapped onto the Tl pane, "jklmnopqr" are mapped onto the T2 pane, and "stuvwxyz" and the space character are mapped onto the T3 pane. An example of drilling on this tree is shown in 25.

18. Nine most frequently used English alphabets mapped first: The English alphabets are partly mapped onto a three-layer tree Fig. 11 in the order of their frequency in English texts. The most frequently used nine English alphabets are "etaoinrsh". These alphabets are mapped onto the Tl pane. The rest of the alphabets are mapped onto the T2 and T3 panes in their alphabetic order, such that "bcdfgjklm" are mapped onto the T2 pane, and "pquvwxyz" and the space character are mapped onto the T3 pane. The alphabets are further mapped onto the middle and bottom panes according to the standard allocation method. An example of drilling on this tree is shown in 26. More efficient methods for utilizing the relative usage frequencies of the English characters are explained in the next component.

19. Efficient English alphabets mapping for individual operational modes:

This method creates an optimal mapping order for English alphabets on the standard tree panes. The relative usage frequencies of English alphabets

(ETAOINRSHLCDUMFPGYWBVKJQXZ) are utilized to create optimal character mapping. (Note: The English letter relative usage frequencies may vary depending on the size and nature of the text it is based on.) An arbitrary character, "_", is used to fill the last of the least efficient position(s). The (minimum) length of time required to select an alphabet (i.e., a bottom pane) is equal to the number of "highlight events" and the number of "inter-button gaps" that the finger traverses, until the bottom pane that contains the alphabet is selected. (The pane click operation is performed within the last highlight event.) When a row of three drilling buttons is used, if the finger travels from one button to an adjacent button, it would have traversed one inter-button gap. If it travels from the leftmost to the rightmost (or vice versa) button, it would have traversed two inter-button gaps. It is assumed that all highlight event times are the same, and all inter-button gap traverse times are equal, and one highlight event time is equal to one inter-button gap traverse time. For the purpose of this analysis, the sum of the highlight event and inter-button gap traverse times is called the "total pre-click time" or "total number of pre-click events".

The grid of the alphabet positions (which corresponds to the bottom panes) on the top icon are shown in 49. They are numbered from 1 to 27. The number of pre-click events for each grid position depends on the tree structure, drilling sequence, and the number of buttons.

The mapping order of the alphabets that have the same number of pre-click events can be rearranged within themselves, without significantly altering the efficiency of the alphabet map. This characteristic is utilized to rearrange the alphabet mapping to further increase the efficiency of the map by (as much as possible) placing alphabets that are contained in frequently used English words near each other.

The same method is applied on other tree structures, drilling modes, and character sets (including the alphabets, characters, strokes and other elements that comprise the written text of other languages), as well as, when (two or) three fingers are used. hi the explanation below, specific icon types are described. Other icon types can also be used, so long as the appropriate "drilling button to presented pane correspondence" is performed.

The following are embodiments wherein optimal alphabet mapping layouts are created for individual structures and operational modes of the present art.

19.1 Three-layer tree, three drilling buttons, only top and bottom panes highlighted: The top panes are displayed as a column of panes, which are highlighted. The middle panes are displayed as a row of panes, which are stacked on their mother top panes, and are not highlighted. The bottom panes are also displayed as a row of panes, but are highlighted. Each drilling button corresponds to one of the presented middle or bottom panes.

Using three drilling buttons, the user drills the tree with one finger. The drilling buttons are two-state buttons, wherein all button-press and button-release actions are interpreted as pane clicks. A button-press action selects a middle pane, and the succeeding button-release action selects a bottom pane. Thus, there is no lateral inter-button gap finger motion during the selection of an alphabet.

The number of pre-click events can be inferred from the location of each grid position. For example, at the time the character shown in Grid Number 1 is selected, one vertical highlight and one horizontal highlight events had occurred. In the case of Grid Number 2, three highlight events occurred. In the case of Grid Number 12, five highlight events occurred.

The grid positions can be grouped according to the type and number of pre- click events. The result is as follows. The numbers that follow the colon are the grid position numbers.

1 vertical highlight + 1 horizontal highlight: 1, 4, 7

2 vertical highlights + 1 horizontal highlight: 10, 13, 16 1 vertical highlight + 2 horizontal highlights: 2, 5, 8 3 vertical highlights + 1 horizontal highlight: 19, 22, 25

1 vertical highlight + 3 horizontal highlights: 3, 6, 9

2 vertical highlights + 2 horizontal highlights: 11, 14, 17

2 vertical highlights + 3 horizontal highlights: 12, 15, 18

3 vertical highlights+ 2 horizontal highlights: 20, 23, 26 3 vertical highlights + 3 horizontal highlights: 21, 24, 27

When the English characters are mapped onto the grid positions in the order shown above, according to their relative usage frequencies, the alphabet mapping produced is as follows.

"ERUTSMAHF", "OPWIGBNYV" and the "LKXCJZDQ_" are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes of the tree. This alphabet layout is shown in 50. The above alphabet map is further optimized, by rearranging alphabets that have the same number of pre-click events within themselves, such that alphabets contained in many of the most frequently used English words are (as much as possible) positioned near to each other. One result of this type of rearrangement is the following character map.

"THM ESY ARC", "OFW IGK NPV" and the "UBX LJZ DQ_" are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes of the tree. This arrangement minimizes the eye and finger movements. (Note: Compare the following words with this map: the, of, to, and, is, he, with, as, by, his, but, an, they, who, will, we, you, would These words are among the fifty most frequently used English words:.)

19.2 Three-layer tree, three drilling buttons, only top highlighted: This method is the same as that recited in the preceding component, except that only the top pane is highlighted, and single-click buttons are used (i.e., wherein only the button-press action is interpreted as a click). Because the bottom panes are not highlighted, there is no horizontal highlighting, and the user may have to click two different buttons to select a character, which results in inter-button gap traverse events. Two clicks are required to input an alphabet.

1 vertical highlight + 0 inter-button gap: 1, 5, 9 2 vertical highlights + 0 inter-button gap: 10, 14, 18

1 vertical highlight + 1 inter-button gap: 2, 4, 6, 8 3 vertical highlights + 0 inter-button gap: 19, 23, 27

1 vertical highlight + 2 inter-button gaps: 3, 7

2 vertical highlights + 1 inter-button gap: 11, 13, 15, 17 2 vertical highlights + 2 inter-button gap: 12, 16

3 vertical highlights + 1 inter-button gap: 20, 22, 24, 26 3 vertical highlights + 2 inter-button gaps: 21, 25 When the English characters are mapped onto the grid positions in the order shown above, according to their relative usage frequencies, the alphabet mapping produced is as follows.

"ERMSTHFLA", "OPBGIYVWN" and the "CKZJDQ_XU" are mapped onto the Tl₅ T2 and T3 panes of the tree. This alphabet layout is shown in 51.

The above alphabet map can be further optimized, by rearranging alphabets that have the same number of pre-click events within themselves, such that alphabets contained in frequently used English words are (as much as possible) positioned near to each other.

19.3 Three-layer tree, three drilling buttons, no highlighting:

This method is similar to that recited in Component 19.1. The differences are: (a) no panes are highlighted, (b) single-click buttons are used (i.e., only the button-press action is interpreted as a click), (c) the presented panes are always arranged as a row of panes. Three clicks are required to input an alphabet. The user may have to click up to three different buttons to enter a character, which results in inter-button gap traverse events. The grid positions can be grouped according to the type and number of pre- click events. The result is as follows. The numbers that follow the colon are the grid position numbers.

0 inter-button gap: 1, 14, 27

1 inter-button gap: 2, 4, 11, 13, 15, 17, 24, 26 2 inter-button gaps: 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25

3 inter-button gaps: 6, 8, 20, 22

4 inter-button gaps: 9, 19

When the English characters are mapped onto the grid positions in the order shown above, according to their relative usage frequencies into the grid positions, the alphabet mapping produced is as follows.

"EODFNP_QW", "IUKRTSXBL" and the "MJZGHYVCA" are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes of the tree. This alphabet layout is shown in 52.

In 52, the alphabets of each top pane are subdivided into three three-alphabet strings which are arranged as a column. Each column corresponds to one of the drilling buttons. Other arrangements (e.g., one horizontal string, a cluster, etc) of the character strings may be used so long as they individually correspond to the drilling buttons.

19.4 Three-layer tree, one drilling button, all panes highlighted:

One finger operates on one drilling button to drill a standard tree. Thus, the number of pre-click events is equal to only the number of pre-click highlight events.

All the presented panes are displayed as columns of panes. The panes are highlighted, and not stacked.

The grid positions can be grouped according to the number of pre-click highlight events. The result is as follows. The numbers that follow the colon are the grid position numbers.

3 highlighting events: 1

4 highlightmg events: 2, 4, 10

5 highlighting events: 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 19

6 highlighting events: 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22 7 highlighting events: 9, 15, 17, 21 , 23, 25

8 highlighting events: 18, 24, 26

9 highlighting events: 27

When the English characters are mapped onto the grid positions in order shown above, according to their relative usage frequencies, the alphabet mapping produced is as follows.

"ETIANCRDY", "OSUHMWFBQ" and the "LPVGKXJZJ' are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes of the tree. This alphabet layout is shown in 53.

The above can be further optimized, by rearranging alphabets that have the same number of pre-click events within themselves, such that alphabets contained in frequently used English words are (as much as possible) positioned near to each other. 19.5 Mapping based on user usage statistics: In this mode, the device keeps track of the relative usage frequencies of the alphabets by the user. The user specifies how many (e.g., 1,000) of the most recent words that he/she entered should be included in the statistical data. The alphabets are then mapped onto the grid according to the user's usage frequencies using the methods described above. (Note: This method is useful for persons who have distinct alphabets usage patterns, e.g., persons in countries where English is not the native language, but English alphabets are used to enter text in their language.)

20. User created character set: In this method, the user creates his/her own character set. Two input fields are displayed on the device screen. The user enters into the first input field the characters that he/she wishes to be included hi his/her character set. The user then inputs into the second input field a name that is to be assigned to that character set. When the user presses a button (designated for this purpose), the present art's devibe program uses the characters to generate a standard or small tree. The tree then becomes one of the trees that the user can invoke to perform data entry. This new character tree creation process can be performed on the apparatus of the present art. Alternatively, it can be performed on a separate device (e.g., PC) and then loaded into the apparatus of the present art. The characters can be inputted from existing character sets of the present art, or can be inserted from a character library, or from a keypad (if it exists), or from a PC keyboard (if it exists).

(Note: This method is useful for cases such as when a person is filling out a multi-choice form wherein only (for example) ten characters are used. In this case, the user creates a small tree that includes only those ten characters.)

21. Numeric characters mapping: A set of characters that is comprised of primarily numeric characters is mapped onto a three-layer tree 27. 0123456789, + - / x ( ) $ % space and # . . @ ; ; & " ' are mapped onto Tl, T2 and T3, respectively. 012,

345, and 6789, are mapped onto the Ml 1, M12 and M13 panes, respectively. The rest of the middle panes have three characters each. All the bottom icons have three panes each, except Bl 3 which has four panes that contain 6, 7, S, and 9, respectively. 21.1 Numeric character set on two concurrently displayed trees: A character set that is comprised of primarily numeric characters is mapped onto two two-layer trees 28, wherein the two trees are concurrently displayed, wherein one drilling button is used to drill each tree, such that a total of two drilling buttons are used. Two clicks are required to enter a character.

21.2 Numeric character set on trees displayed on the same screen area: The two trees described in the preceding component are displayed one at a time on the same screen area. One drilling button is used to drill on the currently displayed tree. A second drilling button is used to switch between the two trees. Two clicks are required to enter an alphabet. This method is illustrated in 29.

22. European characters mapping: Twenty six Greek alphabets and the space character are mapped onto a three-layer tree Fig. 15. Alphabets of other European languages are similarly mapped. When a European character set exceeds twenty seven characters, the exceeding characters may be absorbed into an expanded

(special) tree, or mapped onto a separate smaller tree.

(Note: The following six components are embodiments wherein a stylus is used to click panes and buttons shown on touch-sensitive screens. A pen, finger, and the like can also be used if allowed by the writing surface type. A mouse can also be used wherein the mouse cursor path (click) is equivalent to a stylus stroke (tap).)

23. Stylus drilling method using button representations: The stylus taps on graphical representation(s) of the drilling button(s) which are functionally equivalent to the mechanical drilling buttons described in the other components. One tap is interpreted as one click. The drilling button representation(s) are placed in a screen location that is separated from the displayed icon(s) and pane(s).

24. Stylus drilling method where the stylus touches the icons: Twenty seven characters are mapped onto a three-layer tree 30. Its top panes and bottom panes are highlighted. The middle panes are not highlighted. The child middle icon and its panes are stacked over the currently displayed top pane. When a middle pane that contains the target characters appears, the user places the stylus tip on that middle pane (and keeps it there). This causes the currently displayed top pane and middle icon to disappear. They are followed by the first pane of the invoked bottom icon that appears under the stylus tip. The panes of the bottom icon appear under the stylus tip one after another. The user removes the stylus tip from the surface when the bottom pane that contains the target character appears. This invokes the inputting of that character into the device. The user repeats this process for each target character. The stylus does not have to do any lateral movement while entering a character.

(Note: Obviously, if all the nine characters in the displayed top pane are visible and big enough to allow easy tapping, it is quicker for the user to directly tap on the characters. Thus, this method is mostly useful if (because of space limitations) the characters of the panes are either very small and/or are collectively presented by a graphical pictures (e.g., apple) or only the first and last characters of panes are shown, and/or the user does not want to press mechanical drilling buttons or tap on separate graphical drilling buttons.)

25. Continuous stroke method: The user writes a continuous stroke for each word, i.e., the stylus does not leave the surface in between character inputs. Twenty seven characters are mapped onto a three-layer tree. Its top panes are consecutively displayed on the screen. Only the currently highlighted top pane is visible, with its child middle icon and its panes stacked over it. The middle and bottom panes are not highlighted.

A border line (i.e., the edge of the pane's graphical representation) around the currently presented middle panes indicates the "selection area". When a middle pane that contains the target characters appears, the user places the stylus tip on that middle pane, and then moves it out of the selection area, without lifting the stylus. The latter makes the device display the panes of the invoked bottom icon on the selection area. The user returns the stylus tip into the selection area and passes it over the bottom pane that contains the target character, and proceeds to take the stylus tip out of the selection area. The latter causes the inputting of that character. The first top pane is then returned, which allows the user to enter the next character. The user continues this writing process until he/she lifts the stylus from the surface. This action results in the entering of a space character. The stroke executed to write the word "beg" is illustrated in 31. The actual stroke lengths between icons are shorter than those shown because the invoked bottom icon is actually presented over its mother middle pane.

(Note: Tap-lift-tap stylus motions may be performed instead of a continuous stylus stroke.)

25.1 Continuous stroke using short line strokes: The stylus tip is placed on a touch sensitive screen position where it has a clear line of sight to the graphical representation of the target pane. The user clicks a pane by drawing a short line towards the target pane representation (that does not have to reach the pane representation). The present art's device program recognizes the direction of the short line, and accordingly interprets the short line as a click on the pane that the line is aimed at.

25.2 Continuous stroke with panes moving left and right: The panes are arranged as a column of panes that initially appear on the right side (or top part) of the touch sensitive screen. None of the panes are highlighted or stacked. A pane is clicked when the stylus enters its graphical representation, through a continuous stroke of the stylus. Every time a pane is clicked, the next set of panes goes to the opposite part of the screen. Thus, the stylus stroke continuously changes direction between left and right (or up and down). This method requires less stylus travel distance, because there is no need to reposition the stylus to prepare for the next click. The stroke path and panes positions can be in one of two modes. The user selects the current mode. In the following explanation the panes are arranged as a column of panes which moves left-right, but the same method applies to panes that move up-down, and so forth. In the first mode, the vertical positions (referred to here as VPl, VP2, VP3) of the panes are always the same, such that the stylus tip vertically oscillates (i.e., up-down displacement) between the three pane positions.

In the second mode, after the stroke reverses direction, the direction of the stroke (which is headed towards one of the panes in the opposite side) is monitored. When it is established (after the reversing curve) to which pane the stroke is headed towards, that pane is moved to the VP2 position, and the user can then change the stroke path to enter the VP2 position. Thereafter, the next set of panes is again initially shown in their normal positions. This results in minimal vertical oscillations in the stroke.

(Note: Other variations of pane positioning and stroke paths are also allowed, such as when the pane alignment is slanted.) (Note: Tap-lift-tap stylus motions may be performed instead of a continuous stylus stroke.)

25.3 Continuous stroke with panes appearing on the right: The panes are arranged as a column of panes that initially appear on the leftmost edge of the touch sensitive screen. None of the panes are highlighted or stacked. A pane is clicked when the stylus enters its graphical representation, through a continuous stroke of the stylus. Every time a pane is clicked, the next set of panes appears immediately to the right of the preceding panes. This continues until the rightmost edge of the screen is reached, whereupon the next set of panes again appears on the leftmost edge. (Note: Alternatively, the stroke may be made to reverse direction at the rightmost edge.) In this method, there is no need to reposition (except at the rightmost edge) the stylus to prepare for the next click, and the user continuously moves the stylus to the right (just like normal script writing). This method is especially suitable for tablet PCs, and the like. In languages where the script is not written from left to right (e.g., right to left, or from top to bottom), the succeeding panes appear in the script natural writing direction.

The two modes for determining the stroke path and panes positions described in the preceding component also applies to this method. The difference is that the next set of panes is always shown to the right (or the natural writing direction of each language), and thus there is no reversing curve between pane selections (except at the rightmost edge if the pane display direction is reversed there).

(Note: The following two components are suitable for handicapped people.)

26. Tactile data entry: In this method, three moving Braille key tops (where the dots protrude according to the character being represented) are used to present the panes of the icons of a three-layer tree that has twenty-seven characters. The standard

Braille characters that correspond to the alphabetic are assigned to the bottom panes. Special unique Braille characters (that correspond to collective representations of the characters in children bottom panes) are allocated to the (three) top and (nine) middle panes. The panes of the current icon are presented to the user when the corresponding Braille character is created by the moving Braille key top. The user

(e.g., a blind person) identifies the characters in the key tops through finger touch (or any capable body part). The key tops that contain the special Braille characters also acts as the drilling buttons, such that when a key top is pressed the pane it currently corresponds to is selected. The same approach can be applied to trees for numeric characters, symbols and characters of other languages.

27. Sound based data entry: This embodiment is similar to that of the preceding component. The alphabets are allocated to a three-layer tree that has twenty seven characters. Special unique sounds are associated with the (three) top and (nine) middle panes. The standard alphabet pronunciations are allocated to the bottom panes. The user clicks a drilling button whenever he/she hears the sound that corresponds to the pane that contains the target character. Three clicks are required to enter one character. The same approach can be applied to trees for numeric characters, symbols and characters of other languages.

(Note: The following four components use the same character set in different tree structures.) 28. Character mapping and drilling method for entering Japanese characters: When spelled out in English alphabets, most of the hiragana characters are comprised of a consonant (called the "first alphabets"), followed by a succeeding "second character" which is one of the five vowels, or "ya", "yu" or "yo". The consonants that are used as the primary first alphabets are "k", "s", "t", "h", "n", "m", "y", "r", "v" and "w". In this embodiment, a three-layer tree 32 is used. One drilling button is used. The first alphabets (except "v") are mapped onto the Tl pane, and the second alphabets are mapped onto the T2 pane, "v ", space and special characters are mapped onto the T3 pane.

When the superscript " " " {Note: This is not an apostrophe.) follows the second alphabet that follows "k", "s", "t", or "h", these first alphabets are transformed to "g",

"z", "d", or "b", respectively. If the superscript " ° follows the second alphabet that follows "h", this alphabet is transformed to "p".

On their own, the vowels and the small "zu" are also hiragana characters. The entered alphabets are normally converted to hiragana characters in pairs, i.e., every time after a second alphabet follows a first alphabet. However, if a vowel or the small

"zu" follows a second alphabet or a space character or the start of the input process, it is interpreted as a hiragana character on its own.

The space, period, dash, comma, yen and arrow characters are entered independently on their own between the hiragana character inputs. A click on a second button transforms the last series (after a space, period, or at the start of the input process) of entered hiragana characters into kanji character(s). If this button is pressed for a long time, the hiragana characters are converted into the corresponding katakana characters.

28.1 Japanese characters entered with two trees concurrently displayed: The characters in the three top panes of the tree described in the preceding component are respectively mapped onto individual two-layer trees. The first and second trees are concurrently displayed first 33. Each displayed tree is drilled using one drilling button, such that two drilling buttons are used for drilling. A third button transforms the last series (after a space, period, or at the start of the input process) of entered hiragana characters to kanji character(s) when it is clicked. A succeeding click converts the kanji character(s) to katakana characters. When the third button is pressed for a long time, the second tree is replaced by the third tree, or vice versa, depending on which one was displayed.

28.2 Japanese characters entered with three trees displayed on the same screen area: The three two-layer trees described in the preceding component are used. The trees are displayed on the same screen area one at a time 34. One drilling button is used to drill the currently displayed tree. When a second button is clicked, the series of entered hiragana characters (after a space or at the start of the input process) are converted to kanji character(s). A succeeding click of this button results hi the conversion of the kanji character(s) to katakana characters. When it is pressed for a long time, the displayed tree is replaced by the next tree.

28.3 Japanese characters entered with three trees concurrently displayed: The three trees described in the preceding component are used. The trees are concurrently displayed on the screen 35. Each tree is drilled by a separate drilling button, such that three drilling buttons are used. A series of hiragana characters (after a space or at the start of the input process) is converted into kanji character(s) by pressing the first drilling button for a long time. The character(s) are converted to katakana characters by a long press on the third drilling button.

(Note: The following component is an embodiment of a one-layer tree that has one bottom icon with five panes.)

29. Chinese character input: The five stroke symbols used to enter Chinese characters in the Wubi Hua or Five Stroke Chinese input method are mapped onto a one-layer tree that has a single icon that contains five panes Fig. 16. The panes are highlighted. One drilling button is used to successively select symbols. To input a Chinese character, the user enters the symbols that correspond to the first four and last strokes of the character. If the character is comprised of four strokes or less, the strokes are followed by the "O" symbol. The symbols are converted to Chinese character after every fifth symbol, except when the drilling button is pressed for a long time to request immediate conversion to a Chinese character, i.e., a long drilling button press equates to the "0" symbol.

(Note: The following component is used to create more efficient/quick data entry.)

30. Method for limiting the number of possible succeeding alphabets and arranging their mapping order: A word database is used to limit the possible succeeding alphabets by comparing the letters (of the word being inputted) that have been inputted with the words in a word database. The number of possible succeeding characters is used to create the succeeding tree structure.

A word frequency database that contains the relative usage frequencies of words is used to determine the order in which the possible succeeding alphabets are mapped onto the succeeding tree. The alphabets are mapped from the most frequent to the least frequent. The succeeding alphabets of words that are not in the frequency database are mapped after those of the frequent words, in their alphabetic order.

31. Object trees: Objects (including words, pictures, graphics and the like) are mapped onto the trees, wherein any combination of the structures, methods, processes and other features of the present art are applied on those trees. One pane may contain one or more objects. A plurality of object trees and character trees can be operated interchangeably during a data entry operation, wherein they can be concurrently displayed Fig. 28, or they replace each other on the screen. In some embodiments, a

Tree Select button is used to switch the drilling operations from one tree to another. hi some embodiments, characters and words are contained in the panes of the same tree 38.

In some embodiments, a Tree Select button is used to switch the drilling operations from one tree to another. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 Node and Icon Tree: The three-layer hierarchical tree structure of nodes (and parts) and icons (and panes), based on the mathematical characteristics of the number "3".

Fig. 2 Eight Characters Tree: The structure of a tree that consists of eight characters. Fig.3 Drilling Directions: An illustration of horizontal and vertical drilling on a tree. Fig. 4 Stacked Icons: Illustration of a three-layer tree whose icons and panes are stacked over each other.

Fig. 5 Icon Types: Illustrations of graphical designs of different icon types

Fig. 6 Pane Animation Effects: Illustrations of pane animation effects.

Fig. 7 Two-State Button Transitions: Illustrations of transitions between states of a two-state button. Fig. 8 Three-State Button Transitions: Illustrations of transitions between states of a three-state button.

Fig. 9 Toggle State Transitions: Illustration of state transitions of a toggle. Fig. 10 Alphabetic Order Tree: A three-layer tree wherein the English alphabets are mapped onto the icons hi their alphabetical order. Fig. 11 ETAOINRSH Tree: A three-layer tree wherein the most frequently used nine alphabets of the English language are mapped onto the first pane of the top icon, and the rest of the alphabets are mapped onto the other two top panes in their alphabetical order.

Fig. 12 Words Input Example: An example wherein the words "the fox" are entered using a three-layer tree. The drilling process for each alphabet is illustrated.

Fig. 13 Tree Drilling Examples: An illustration of a drilling process involving only cube icons in all layers, and an illustration of a drilling process involving a cube icon in the top layer, a column-of-boxes icon in the middle layer and a row-of- boxes icon in the bottom layer. Fig. 14 Numeric Icons: The top icons of trees that contain predominantly numeric characters, which include a three-layer tree embodiment, a two two-layer tree embodiment where both trees are concurrently displayed, and the same two trees switched between each other on the same screen area. Fig. 15 Greek Characters Tree: The top icon of a three-layer tree that contains twenty six Greek alphabets and the space character.

Fig. 16 Chinese Five-Stroke Icon: The icon of a one-layer tree that contains five symbols used to enter Chinese characters. Fig. 17 Inputting with Stylus: Illustration of stylus input methods. One is a tapping method, and the other is a continuous stroke method. Fig. 18 Japanese Input Icons: The uppermost icons of trees used to enter Japanese characters.

Fig. 19 Three Buttons (2 Clicks): The three-layer tree structure (with stacked icons and panes) that contains twenty seven characters, which is drilled by three drilling buttons. Two clicks are required to enter a target character. Fig. 20 Three Button (1 Click): The three-layer tree structure (with stacked icons and panes) that contains twenty seven characters, which is drilled by three drilling buttons. One click is required to enter a target character. A (long) click is executed to immediately skip to another top pane.

Fig. 21 Best Mode (1 Button) Structure: A complete map of the various tree structures used in the Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention (One Drilling Button).

Fig. 22 Best Mode (3 Buttons) Structure: A complete map of the tree structures used in the Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention (Three Drilling Buttons). Fig. 23 Industrial Applications: Devices that contain icons and drilling buttons of the present art, including a PDA, a mobile phone, and a small input feature (wherein only the first and last characters of the top panes are shown) that can be incorporated into various devices. Fig. 24 Best Mode for Japanese Input: The structure and contents of the multiple trees used to enter Japanese characters.

Fig. 25 Quick Entire Word Input: The tree structures and pane layouts used to enter entire words, which starts with alphabets (of the word) previously inputted followed by one of the characters currently displayed in the character panes. Fig. 26 Tree Switching From Panes: Illustration of switching between trees through the selection of specific characters.

Fig.27 Best Mode for Japanese input - 2: Illustration of another best mode for entering Japanese characters, using one 27-character tree and one 9-character tree. Fig. 28 Word Input Using Two Trees: Illustration of concurrently displayed character tree and word tree, which are used to narrow down the possible words.

Fig. 29 PIM Tree Structure: Multi-tree structure for accessing entries of personal information trees. Fig. 30 Optimal Character Set Mapping: Optimal character set mapping for individual tree structures and drilling modes.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

1. Best Mode: For Drilling a Tree Using One Drilling Button

To illustrate the characteristics of this best mode for carrying out the invention, let us first analyze the following words whose first three letters are "her". These words are contained in a medium size dictionary. her, herald, herb, herbaceous, Herculean, herd, here, hereditament, hereditary, heredity, heresy, heritable, heritage, hermaphrodite, hermetic, hermit, hernia, heroic, heroin, heron, herr, herring, hers, herself, hertz, hertzian Let us assume that a user has already entered the first three letters, "her". A study of the above words reveals that the next alphabet can be limited to "a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "i", "m", "n", "o", "r", "s", "t" or a space character (which ends the word). If the user next enters "b" to produce "herb", the succeeding alphabet can only be a space or "a". If the user instead enters "e" to produce "here", the succeeding alphabet can only be a space or "d" or "s". If the user enters "m" to produce "herm", the succeeding alphabet can only be "a", "e", or "i". This analysis indicates that generally the number of possible succeeding alphabets decreases as more letters in a word are entered. It also indicates that there is a high probability that the number of possible succeeding alphabets is proportional to the size of the data base (i.e., the number of words) that is used to determine the succeeding characters. The above characteristics of the English text are utilized in the present art to create this best mode wherein one drilling button is used. A description of this mode follows.

(Objectives)

To optimize this best mode, the following structural and operational elements are minimized.

• Number of clicks: Determined by the number of layers in the tree, which is determined by the number of characters mapped onto the tree, which in turn is determined by the size of the word database. • Number of panes in icons: Determines the number of highlighting events (wait time) up to when the target alphabet can be inputted.

• Number of characters: Reduced by limiting them to only the possible succeeding characters based on the word database that is used.

This best mode is designed such that the optimal tree and icon structures are generated according to the number of possible succeeding alphabets, when one drilling button is used. The overall structure is illustrated in Fig.21. The structure may look complicated. However, the users do not see nor do they have to be aware of this structure. They only see the current icon.

(Basic features) a) The twenty six English alphabets and the space character are used. {Note: To simplify the description, the term "alphabet" includes the space character unless otherwise indicated.) The alphabets are always mapped onto the panes in a layer in their alphabetical order, wherein the space character is the last alphabet. b) The user can specify how many words to include in the word database. A smaller database generates a lesser number of possible succeeding characters. Thus, it is recommended that the user selects the smallest database which is suitable for his/her data entry purpose. The device checks the text entered by the user, and it remembers words that are not in the word database. These words are added to the word database. c) A two-state button (in single-click mode) is used for drilling the trees. d) When the drilling button is pressed for a long time, the device creates a tree that contains the characters that are not contained in the currently displayed tree. This occurs when the user wishes to enter a word that is not contained in the word database, e) Only one icon is displayed at any point of time. All its panes are visible. f) The panes of a cube icon are highlighted by the zoom-out effect. All the alphabets of the icon are always visible. The highlighting of its panes loops from the front pane to the right-side pane to the top pane of the icon, and then back to the front pane, g) All alphabets of a column-of-boxes icon are always visible, except when a pane momentarily disappears at the start of a highlighting event. A box pane is highlighted by the pane-zoom effect. The highlighting of the panes loops from the uppermost pane to the lowest pane of the icon, and then back to the uppermost pane, h) AU alphabets of a row-of-boxes icon are always visible, except when a pane momentarily disappears at the start of a highlighting event. A box pane is highlighted by the pane-zoom effect. The highlighting of the panes loops from the leftmost pane to rightmost pane, and then back to the left-most pane. i) The user can set the length of time of each highlighting event (which is equal to the length of the animation effect). {Note: A novice user who is still learning the input operations may set the speed to two or more seconds per highlight event. Most users will probably set it to one second. An advanced user may set a faster rate.) j) Backspace, delete and cursor buttons are also present. They are used to correct errors and to edit the text. The current highlighting loop continues while text editing is being performed. Thus, the user can immediately resume character inputting after a text editing operation. k) When a pane in a bottom icon is selected, the device inputs the alphabet shown in that pane. If it is a space character, a new three-layer tree (with the twenty seven alphabets) is generated and its top icon is displayed. If it is an alphabet, the alphabet string (from the start of the input process or after a space character) that has been entered is compared with the word database and the number of possible succeeding alphabets (including the space character) is determined. The next tree structure is then generated based on the number of possible succeeding alphabets, and the first icon of that tree is displayed. {Note: For brevity purposes, the description of this process is omitted in the following explanation of the inputting processes. However, the reader should assume that this process is always executed after an alphabet is inputted into the device.)

(Processes)

The following description is best understood by referring to Fig. 21. The notations in this figure have the following meanings: "A=" on an arrow from the big circle (that contains "Next") indicates the number of possible succeeding alphabets. "C=" indicates the number of clicks (from an uppermost pane up to a bottom pane) required to input a target alphabet in that tree. "Start" indicates the start of a word. "Next" indicates a decision point after the entering of an alphabet. "No." indicates a decision point. The "$" sign represents an alphabet that is not part of the example shown, but would exist if the related number of possible succeeding alphabets existed. The "@" sign represents an alphabet that may or may not exist depending on the number of possible succeeding alphabets. "Missing" indicates the case wherein the device determines the number of missing alphabets when the target character is not in the displayed pane.

The part that is surrounded by dashed lines and which is pointed to when there are thirteen to eighteen possible succeeding characters is NOT one tree, but actually represents THREE trees, one each for when the number of succeeding characters is

"thirteen or fourteen", "fifteen", and "sixteen to eighteen", respectively. These trees were drawn in this way because of lack of space in the drawing sheet.

(Note: The characters shown are for illustrative purposes only, and may or may not reflect actual words.)

a) At the start of an input process or at the start of a word, the process described in the next paragraph is performed. b) When the first alphabet of a word is to be entered, the top (cube) icon of the three- layer tree that contains the twenty seven alphabets is displayed. Three clicks are required to drill from the top icon to the target alphabet. c) The next tree presented to the user for entering the next alphabet depends on the number of possible succeeding alphabets. d) If the number of possible succeeding alphabets ranges from one to five, the alphabets are mapped onto a one-layer tree that has a single bottom icon, whose number of panes equals the number of possible succeeding alphabets. One click is required to input a target alphabet. e) If the number of possible succeeding alphabets is six, the alphabets are mapped onto a two-layer tree, wherein the upper layer has a column-of-boxes icon with two panes, each of which leads to a bottom icon that has three panes. Two clicks are required to input a target alphabet. f) If the number of possible succeeding alphabets ranges from seven to nine, the alphabets are mapped onto a two-layer tree, wherein the top layer has a column-of- boxes icon with three panes that each lead to one bottom icon. The first two bottom icons contain three panes each, while the last bottom icon contains one to three panes. Two clicks are required to input a target alphabet. g) If the number of possible succeeding alphabets ranges from ten to twelve, the alphabets are mapped onto a two-layer tree, wherein the top layer has a column-of- boxes icon with four panes that each lead to a bottom icon. Each of the first three bottom icons contains three panes, while the last bottom icon contains one to three panes. Two clicks are required to input a target alphabet. h) If the number of possible succeeding alphabets ranges from thirteen or fourteen, the alphabets are mapped onto a tree that has three layers from the top icon cube's front side, and two layers from the cube's right-side. The third top pane is blacked out because it does not contain any character. The front top pane always contains nine alphabets. This pane links to a column-of-boxes middle icon that has three panes, each of which is linked to a bottom icon that has three panes each. Three clicks are required to input a target alphabet. The right-side top pane which (contains four or five characters) directly links to a bottom icon that has four or five panes. In this case, two clicks are required to enter a character. This is an example of a special tree structure wherein different tree paths have different number of layers. i) If the number of possible succeeding alphabets is fifteen, the characters are mapped onto a three-layer tree. The sub-tree from the front side of the top icon is the same as that when there are thirteen to fourteen characters, but the right-side (which contains six characters) links to a middle icon that has two panes, each of which leads to a bottom icon that has three panes each. Three clicks are required to enter a character, j) If the number of possible succeeding alphabets ranges from sixteen to eighteen, the characters are mapped onto a three-layer tree. The front and right-side of the top icon each link to a middle icon that has three panes, each of which leads to a bottom icon. The first five bottom icons contain three panes each, while the last one contains one to three panes. Three clicks are required to enter a character. k) When the number of possible succeeding alphabets ranges from nineteen to twenty seven characters, the three-layer tree with twenty seven characters is generated. 1) When the user wishes to enter an alphabet that is not contained in the currently displayed tree (i.e., the word does not exist in the word database), the user presses the drilling button for a long time. This makes the device determine the (missing) alphabets not contained in the current tree, and it generates a tree structure that is based on the number of missing characters, and it maps the missing characters onto that tree. The tree structure is the same as that generated for the same number of possible succeeding characters. The uppermost icon of the generated tree then replaces the current icon. m) After a space character is entered, the three-layer structure that has the twenty seven characters replaces the current icon.

2. Best Mode: For Drilling a Tree Using Three Drilling Buttons

In this best mode, three two-state buttons (in single-click mode) are used to enter characters from a set of twenty seven characters. This best mode is designed such that the optimal tree and icon structures are generated according to the number of possible succeeding alphabets, when three drilling buttons are used. The tree structure and processes of Component 13 of the present art (see above) is used. The number of middle pane loops performed (nested) before the currently displayed top pane (that contains the middle panes) is replaced is set to two. hi the initial tree, "etaoinrsh "bcdfgjklm" and "pquvwxyz" plus the space character are mapped onto the top panes. An illustration of the trees generated during the entering of a word is shown in Fig. 22.

(Note: The characters shown are for illustrative purpose, and may or may not reflect actual words. "@ " indicates a character that may or may not exist, depending on the number of characters in the tree.)

A word database and a word frequency database are used to limit the number of possible succeeding alphabets and their mapping order. The inputting process is as follows.

a) When the first alphabet of a word (which occurs at the start of the input process or after a space) is to be entered, the top panes of the three-layer tree that contains the twenty seven alphabets are consecutively displayed on the screen, with their middle and bottom icons stacked over them. A highlighting loop goes around the middle panes. When the user selects a bottom pane (that is contained in a highlighted middle pane), the character in that bottom pane is inputted. b) After the first letter of the word has been inputted, the device determines the number of possible succeeding alphabets using the word database, and generates the corresponding tree structure. c) If they constitute more than eighteen alphabets, the tree is comprised of one top icon with three panes, which each leads to one middle icon. The first and second middle panes each contain three panes. The third middle icon contains one to three panes. Each middle pane links to one bottom icon. The last bottom icon contains one to three panes. d) If they total ten to eighteen alphabets, the tree is comprised of one top icon with two panes, which each leads to one middle icon. The first middle pane contains three panes. The second middle icon contains one to three panes. Each middle pane links to one bottom icon. The last bottom icon contains one to three panes. e) If they total four to nine alphabets, the tree is comprised of one middle icon with two or three panes. The last middle pane contains one to three characters. The other middle pane(s) each contain three panes. Each middle pane links to one bottom icon. The last bottom icon contains one to three panes. There is no top icon. Thus, the middle icon with its bottom icon(s) stacked on it is continuously visible, until the user selects one of the bottom panes. f) If they total one to three characters, a one-layer tree with one icon that has one to three panes is generated. g) The possible succeeding alphabets are mapped on the tree according to the frequency of the words that contain them, such that the letters of the most frequent words are highlighted first, and therefore can be selected with the least number of preceding highlighting events, h) The same process is repeated after each alphabet, until a space is entered. A space character is followed by the first pane of the icon that contains twenty seven alphabets, and the same process is repeated for the next word. i) When the user wishes to enter a character that is not contained in the currently displayed tree (i.e., the word does not exist in the word database), the user presses the third drilling button for a long time. This makes the device determine the number of (missing) characters not contained in the current tree, and it generates a new tree structure that is based on that number, and it maps the missing characters onto that tree. The tree structure created is the same as that created for the same number of possible succeeding characters. The first pane of the top icon of the generated tree then replaces the current top pane.

Three features of this best mode enable the user to rapidly enter a text, (i) The first visible pane of the initial tree (with the twenty seven characters) contains the most frequently used English letters. Thus, the first letter of many words can be entered within one to three highlighting events, (ii) When the number of possible succeeding alphabets is less than ten, they can all be displayed at the same time. Thus, any of them can be entered within one to three highlighting events, (iii) The possible succeeding alphabets are mapped onto the tree in the order of the frequency of the words that contain them. Optionally, the user can instruct the device to remove the least frequently used words from the word database, such that the number of possible succeeding alphabets after the second letter (or as specified by the user) of a word is always less than ten. This will guarantee that all succeeding letters from the third letter of words (that exist in the database) appear in the next three middle panes or bottom icon that is displayed.

3. Best Mode: For Entering Japanese Characters Using a Mother Tree Whose Characters Invoke Child Trees

This best mode includes an optimized structure for the efficient inputting of Japanese characters. It involves the calling of separate (children) trees from the bottom panes of a (mother) tree. The entire structure of this best mode is illustrated in Fig. 24.

{Note: It is not critical that the reader understands Japanese characters. The Japanese characters are graphical characters, just like Alpha-numeric characters. Thus, their selection and inputting into the device follow the same rules as those for alphanumeric characters.)

The first tree that appears on the screen is the mother tree. Each character in the mother tree calls a child tree (with some exceptions). The mother tree can be structured as a three-layer tree mode or as a two-layer. Three-layer tree structure: The characters "KGSZN ^L" , "HBPTDM IS", " &> V₀ R

Mt>^" are respectively mapped onto the top panes. "KG", "SZ", "N #[", "HBP", "TD", "M IB", " $> Vo ", "R M", and "t>β£" are respectively mapped onto the middle panes. Each of the characters are mapped onto a bottom pane. (Note: "M" means "numeric", "S8" means "symbol", "S" is an hiragana character pronounced " a" , "M" is the first character of "Kanji", " fc" is a hiragana character pronounced "wa", and "M " means English (characters). " S V" is treated a one character.)

Two-layer tree structure: The characters "KGSZN $C" , "HBPTDM IB", " fo V₀ R Mfc>M" are respectively mapped onto the middle panes. The characters "KG", "SZ",

are respectively mapped onto the bottom panes. In the two-layer mode, a plurality of characters (e.g., "KG" in the bottom panes) is treated as a single "pseudo single character", such that they are not further subdivided through a tree drilling operation. Instead, they are individually inputted through an interpretation of the length of time the drilling button is pressed. (This is explained further below.)

The mother tree is drilled using one or three drilling buttons, in different drilling modes. The user decides which mode to use. (Note: These modes illustrate how the different structures and methods of the present art can be used to process the same character set.) Mother tree, three-layer mode, one button: The icons and panes are not stacked over each other, and they are all highlighted. Three clicks are required to select a target character, i.e., one click for each layer.

Mother tree, three-layer mode, three buttons, highlighted bottom panes: The middle icon and panes are stacked over the top panes. The top icon is highlighted, the middle panes are not, and the bottom panes are highlighted. The first click selects a middle pane. The second click selects a bottom pane.

(Note: When two-state double-click buttons are used, the user selects a middle pane by pressing the corresponding drilling button (without releasing it). This action invokes the child icon, and its panes are highlighted. When the user releases the (same) button, the bottom pane that was highlighted at that time is selected. Thus, the user does not have to click another button, and a target character is selected in one press-and-release action on one button.)

Mother tree, three-layer mode, three buttons, bottom panes not highlighted:

The middle icon and panes are stacked over the top panes. The top icon is highlighted, the middle panes are not, and the bottom panes are also not highlighted. Two-state single-click buttons are used. A middle pane is selected by a press-and-release action on the corresponding button. The children panes are presented, without highlighting. The user then clicks the corresponding drilling button to select a bottom pane. Note that in this mode, the drilling button clicked to select the bottom pane may be different from that used to select the middle pane.

Mother tree, two-layer, one button: When one drilling button is used, the bottom icon and panes are not stacked over the middle pane. The middle and bottom panes are highlighted. A target bottom pane is selected through two clicks. The first click selects a middle pane. The second click has two functions. The first one is to select the target bottom pane. The second function is to select one of the characters within the pseudo single character that is contained in the target bottom pane. (The process for doing this is explained below).

Mother tree, two-layer mode, three buttons: When three drilling buttons are used, the bottom icons and panes are stacked over the middle panes; and each button corresponds to one of the three presented bottom panes. The middle panes are highlighted, while the bottom panes are not. Only one click is required to select a target bottom pane (which is¹ displayed on a highlighted middle pane). The second click also has the function of selecting one of the characters contained in the pseudo single character within the selected bottom pane. (The process for doing this is explained below).

Pseudo single character selection: When the user presses a drilling button to select a bottom pane of the mother tree, the time span between the pressing and subsequent releasing of the button determines which of the characters within the pseudo single character (in the selected bottom pane) is inputted. The first of the characters in the pseudo single character is inputted by a short click

(pressed for up to 350 milliseconds), e.g., in the case of the "KG" bottom pane, the "K" character is selected. When the user presses a button for a long time (more than 350 milliseconds), the second character in the presented corresponding bottom pane is instead inputted, e.g., the "IB" character of the "M IB" button is selected. The "HBP" bottom pane is a special case because it has three characters. "H" is inputted by a short click (pressed for up to 350 milliseconds). "B" is instead inputted by a long press that lasts between 351 milliseconds and 700 milliseconds, the "P" character is instead inputted when the button is pressed for more than 700 milliseconds.

The " & V₀ " bottom pane is also a special case because " «j£> V" in its entirety is treated a one character that leads to one child tree, while "₀ " is a period character that is immediately inputted when the button is pressed for 351 to 700 milliseconds. When the button is pressed longer than 700 milliseconds, thereafter, a space character is inputted every 250 milliseconds.

The "R Jf" bottom pane is also a special case. "R" is inputted by a short click. When the button is pressed for between 351 and 700 milliseconds, the series of hiragana characters inputted (since a space character, or a period character or the beginning of the inputting process) is converted into a Kanji character. When this button is continuously pressed even longer (more than 700 milliseconds), a series of Kanji characters and the equivalent katakana character(s) that correspond to the series of inputted hiragana characters is successively displayed. When the user releases the button, the Kanji character or Katakana character(s) that was last displayed is entered into the device.

Child tree processing: Each of the characters (except the "_o " and "^U" characters described above) of the bottom panes of the mother tree invokes a child two-layer tree with one middle icon and three children bottom icons. ("^^*" is an exceptional case, because it invokes a three-layer tree that contains the English alphabets.) The characters in the bottom panes of the child trees are listed below. They are also shown in Fig. 24.

Each bottom pane of the child trees is selected by a short click. But, the "8/9" bottom pane in the numeric character set is an exceptional case. "8" is selected when the pane is selected by a short click. "9" is selected when the button is pressed for a long time (more than 350 milliseconds).

The ">" character in the last bottom pane of the child trees leads to an optional subtree. For example, the user can call a tree of words, addresses, names, and so forth (each word is contained in one bottom pane) which begin with any of the characters in the child tree. This saves a lot of inputting time and effort if the contents of the sub-tree are often entered by the user.

Unless the user invoked a sub-tree (by selected ">" or "V"), the mother tree is displayed on the screen after a bottom pane in a child tree is selected. The user can then enter the next hiragana character. The mother tree is also displayed on the screen after a bottom pane in a sub-tree is selected.

Mother tree characters and characters in the child tree they call:

o : A period character is entered. Space characters are entered if pressed longer.

^^": causes the inputted of the corresponding Kanji or katakana character(s)

M '• invokes a three-layer alphanumeric tree.

4. Best Mode: For Inputting Japanese Characters Using Two Trees

In this best mode for entering Japanese characters, only two trees are used. The primary tree 44 contains the following characters, which are mapped onto a standard three-layer tree:

— .

The secondary tree 45 contains the following characters, which are mapped onto a two-layer tree: A₅I₅U₅E₅O₅ ^,Φ,=fc,>.

The primary tree is first displayed. When K,G,N,S,Z,M,T,D,R,H,B,P or V is selected, the primary tree is replaced by the secondary tree. K,G,N,S,Z,M,T,D,R,H,B,P, V correspond to the "first alphabet" of the English character pair used to enter Japanese characters. The user then selects the "second alphabet" from the secondary tree. The hiragana character that corresponds to the selected English character pair is then inputted. (Note: The ">" can be optionally used to invoke another tree, e.g., a tree that contains numeric characters and symbols.) When any of the

Φ, <£ or — characters is selected, it is immediately inputted. The secondary tree is not invoked.

One or three buttons may be used to perform the drilling operations. A click on a separate button transforms the last series (after a space, period, or at the start of the input process) of entered hiragana characters into kanji character(s). If this button is pressed for a long time, the hiragana characters are converted into the corresponding katakana characters.

S. Best Mode: For Entering Words, Positioned Under Character Panes

In this best mode for quickly inputting entire words, possible words are automatically displayed in panes (called word panes) out of the nine possible panes that do not contain character(s) of the character set. 37, 38 and 39 show examples of the pane contents. Possible words 38 that start with the already inputted leading alphabets (if any) and any of the alphabets in the character panes are automatically displayed under each character pane.

When the number of possible words in a column that have not yet been displayed is less than ten, that number is displayed below the column. This assists the user in making a decision on whether to do a word search or to continue to enter succeeding alphabets. For example if only two other possible words is indicated (one of them is the word the user wants to enter) and the word that the user wishes to enter still has many alphabets to be entered, the user will reduce the number of further clicks by searching and selected the word.

Three drilling buttons are used, such that each button corresponds to one of the three pane columns. When the user presses a drilling button to select a highlighted or presented pane, and if the user releases the button before the highlighting effect of the character pane is completed, that pane is selected, and the next tree icon is displayed (and the target character is inputted if a bottom pane was selected).

If the drilling button is still pressed after the highlight on the selected character pane is finished, the highlighting effect moves down the word panes in the same column. If the button is still pressed after the highlight of the lowest word pane expires, the next set of possible words (that were not displayed) are displayed on the word panes of the same column. The highlight then returns to the highest word pane.

When the button is released, the word that is contained in the last highlighted word pane is inputted, and the top icon of the character tree is again displayed. Let us assume that the highlighting effect duration has been set to 350 milliseconds.

Looking at 38, if the leftmost drilling button is pressed for up to 350 milliseconds before it is released, the "ABC" pane is selected. When it is pressed for more than 350 milliseconds, the highlight moves down the word panes occupied by "and" and "by". If it is still pressed after the highlight of the latter pane expires, the previously invisible "are" and "an" words 40 are displayed on the word panes of the column (and so forth). (Note: the following is based on a medium sized dictionary.)

In 41, the number of possible words that starts with "HE" and any of the characters in the pane is indicated below each pane. (When the number is more than nine, it is not shown in the diagram). 43 shows the number of possible words after "HER" is inputted. These trees illustrate that the number of possible succeeding words (that contain any of the possible succeeding alphabets) varies from many to very few words. This characteristic makes the disclosed best modes for inputting entire words efficient methods for reducing the overall number of clicks required to enter words, because the user can compare the relative efficiencies of searching for a word versus continuing to enter individual characters of the word.

6. Best Mode: For Entering Words, Number on Character Pane Prompts User to Invoke a Word Tree

hi this best mode for quickly inputting entire words, a number in a circle 42 is attached to the right end of each displayed character pane, when the number of possible words is less than ten. This number indicates the possible number of words that starts with the already inputted alphabets (after a space or at the beginning of the input process) followed by any of the characters contained in the pane. When the user clicks the (corresponding) drilling button for a short time (up to 350 milliseconds), the highlighted (or presented) pane is selected.

When the user presses the drilling button for a long time (more than 350 milliseconds) when a character pane with an attached number is highlighted (or presented), a special icon with up to nine word panes is displayed. The number of word panes is equal to the number of possible words, and each word pane contains one word. When the number of word panes is less than four, they constitute a one-layer tree with three bottom panes. If there are more than three word panes, they constitute a two-layer tree with the corresponding number of middle and bottom panes.

One or three drilling buttons are used to select one of the word panes. When only one drilling button is used, the middle pane(s) (if present) and the bottom panes are highlighted. If three drilling buttons are used, the bottom panes are stacked on the highlighted middle panes, but the bottom panes are not highlighted. After a word is selected and thus inputted, the top icon of the tree of the character set currently used is displayed. The maximum value (contained in circles) of the number of possible words attached to the character panes may be changed by the user, e.g., to be "3" or "15", in which case, the number of word panes in the word tree is changed accordingly;

7. Best Mode: For Entering Words, Character and Word Trees are Concurrently Displayed

In this best mode for entering words, a character tree 47 and a word tree 46 are concurrently displayed on the screen. The user drills on the character tree to enter the leading characters of the word that he/she wishes to enter. The word tree contains the possible words that start with the already inputted leading characters followed by any of the characters contained in the currently displayed character pane(s). Each word pane contains one word. The order in which the words are displayed on the word tree is based on the word frequency data base.

When the user finds on the word tree the word he/she wishes to enter, the user clicks the Tree Select button 48 to switch the drilling operations to the word tree. The user then drills the word tree to select the target word. The drilling operation is returned to the character tree after the word is inputted.

The number of words displayed on the word tree dynamically changes, based on the characters already inputted, and the pane drilling progression down the tree structure. If there are more than nine possible words (i.e., more than the number of displayed word panes), the user has four options.

• continue to enter more alphabets to reduce the number of possible words.

• continue to enter additional characters until the possible words is less than ten, such that they are all visible. • revert to the word tree and click the last pane which contains an arrow, which invokes a new tree that contains the next set of possible words.

• continue to enter additional characters until there is only one possible word. In this embodiment, a miniature icon 36 is used to allow maximum space for the word tree. (However, other icons can also be used in other similar embodiments.) A separate Space button is provided to facilitate quick inputting of spaces.

One or three drilling buttons may be used to drill the character and word trees. 8. Best Mode: For Accessing Personal Information Libraries, Using Entry Word Trees

This best mode utilizes the structure and operational characteristics of the present art to implement a novel procedure for accessing personal information, which include (but is not limited to) emails, SMS, MMS, voice mail, names, contacts, companies, pictures, smileys, and so forth. The structure of this best mode is illustrated in Fig. 29, which is the status after an "R" leading character was inputted.

A standard tree that contains English alphabets is used. Its last bottom pane (that contains an arrow) leads to a Directory Tree. The panes of the Directory tree individually leads to emails, SMS, MMS, voice mail, contacts, companies, pictures, smileys and report trees. The concurrent tree structure and process recited in the preceding best mode is used.

The Tree Select button 48 is used to switch the drilling operations between the Character Tree and the Word Tree.

The user enters the first alphabet(s) (from a space character or at the start of the input process) of the keyword (e.g., the senders name, contact name, etc) that is used to access the personal information entry that he/she wishes to access. Each additional leading alphabet reduces the number of candidate entries.

The user then selects the last pane (which contains an arrow) of the character tree, which invokes the Directory Tree. The user then selects the type of personal information. (Note: The "emails" process is described, but the same process applies to the other types.) If "emails" is selected, a word tree that contains the keywords (also referred to as access words) of the candidate email entries is displayed. These keywords start with the previously inputted leading character string. The keywords are mapped onto the word panes in their alphabetic/numeric/symbol order, wherein, alphabetic order has priority over numeric order, which has priority over the symbols order. Graphical objects (e.g., pictures, smileys, etc) are mapped based on the characters in their respective names.

The user then selects one of the keywords to display the contents of the corresponding email. When no leading character was inputted before the before the Directory Tree is invoked, and/or a plurality of entries have the same keyword, the entries (from the entire library) are displayed in their chronological order (in the case of email, SMS, and the like), or in their alphanumeric order (in the case of contact, pictures and the like).

If there are more than nine candidate entries (i.e., more than the number of word panes displayed), the user has four options. The first option is to enter additional leading characters, which dynamically reduces the number of candidate keywords (except when the alphabet does not correspond to an existing entry, in which case, an error message is displayed), and which causes the display of a new set of keywords on the word tree. The second option is to continue to enter characters until there are less than ten candidate keywords, such that they are all displayed.

The third option is to revert to word tree drilling, and to select the last pane of the email word tree. This invokes the displaying of the next set of keywords on the email word tree. The user continues this process until he/she sees the target keyword, and selects it.

The fourth option is to just continue entering characters (even if the target keyword already appeared on the word tree) until there is only one candidate entry keyword. One or three drilling buttons may be used to drill the character and word trees.

9. Best Mode: For Accessing Personal Information Libraries, Using Entry List Columns

This best mode is similar to preceding best mode. The difference is that instead of the Directory Tree panes invoking entry word trees, they display a list on the screen. The display structure and process is similar to that of "7. Best Mode: For Entering Words, Character and Word Trees are Concurrently Displayed", except that the word tree is replaced by continuous columns (not panes) of entry keywords. The Tree Select button 48 is used to switch the drilling operations between the character tree and the keyword list columns.

When three drilling buttons are used, the entry keyword list is subdivided into three columns. The candidate entry keywords are subdivided on the three columns through the following method. The total number of keywords is divided by three. Starting from the keyword where the division coincided, the first keyword that start with a new first character type appears at the top of the next (to the right) column. This way, the keywords are more or less equally divided among the three columns, and the user can infer the first characters of the keywords in each column.

When three drilling buttons are used, each drilling button corresponds to one column. When a drilling button is pressed (without releasing), the highlight moves down the column. If it reaches the end of the column, the next set of keywords is displayed in the opposite direction, and the highlight moves from the bottom to the top. This process is repeated until the user releases the drilling button, which results in the selection of the keyword that was last highlighted. The contents of the corresponding entry are then displayed.

Before selecting an entry keyword from the list, the user has the option of entering additional leading alphabets. Each additional alphabet reduces the number candidate entry keywords (except when the alphabet does not correspond to an existing entry, in which case, an error message is displayed). The user can opt to continue doing this, until all the candidate keywords are displayed on the screen.

In some embodiments, one drilling key is used to drill the character tree and list.

10. Best Mode: Drilling Buttons with Display

In this best mode, drilling buttons with touch sensitive display screens on their top surfaces are used. It enables data entry without on-screen representations of the panes.

The drilling buttons individually correspond to the currently presented panes of the tree that is being drilled. The characters (or graphical representation) in the corresponding panes are shown on the button displays. When a pane is highlighted, the character on the corresponding button glows.

The user clicks a pane by touching the highlighted (or presented) button which contains that pane. When the clicked button contains a bottom pane, the character on the clicked button is inputted.

11. Best Mode: Textual Lists Search Method This best mode enables users of the present art to use the present art to search through textual lists (including but not limited to addresses, names etc), and select an entry. Entries of a textual list are successively mapped onto three-layer trees, twenty seven at a time. The top icons of the trees are consecutively displayed one at time. When the user presses the drilling button for a long time, the icon transition rate reverts to high speed. A succeeding long press returns the speed to normal speed. The normal and high speeds are set by the user. The user clicks the drilling button when a top icon that contains the target entry appears. This makes that top icon stay on the screen, and the highlighting loop over its top panes commences. The same drilling button is used to drill that tree to select the target entry. Listings with few entries are mapped onto smaller tree structures. The contents of the panes of the top icon may be a collective word (e.g., a city name) or a pictorial object (e.g., a map) that includes the target entry.

The entries are mapped onto the panes in the alphanumeric order of their respective first alphabets, wherein numbers have precedence over alphabets, and the first character of the entries have priority over their second character, and so forth.

12. Best Mode: Object Library Search Method

This best mode enables users of the present art to search through object libraries

(including but not limited to pictures, smileys, graphics, etc), and to select an entry.

This method is the same as the preceding best mode, except that instead of a textual listing, it is a pictorial objects library that is searched and drilled to find a target object.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention is suitable for a wide range of electronic devices with limited surface area. These devices Fig. 23 include mobile phones, PDA's and other handheld and pocket devices. Small physical embodiments 36 can be utilized to enable the inputting of characters into various devices, including (but not limited to) cameras, watches, POS, locks, meters, surveillance equipment, and so forth. The present art is also suitable for devices that are used in dark places, as long as the display screen is visible. The present art can function as an alternative input device for people who are unskilled or semi-skilled in the use of keyboards and keypads, as well as for people who have difficulties operating these devices.

The present invention can replace keypads or even keyboards. However, it does not necessarily have to do that. It can be used in conjunction with (for example) a mobile phone keypad, wherein the owner uses the present art for entering text, and the numeric keypad for dialing and making calculations. Another case is where the present art's icon is displayed on large personal computer screens (where it occupies a small space) as a means of entering characters using only the mouse.

(Other applications and embodiments) It will be understood that additional advantages and modifications can be applied to the present art described above by following the structures and processes described above. Various other embodiments of character set allocations, icons, layouts, button click combinations and other aspects of the present art are possible (including embodiments in languages other than the English language). It is impractical to explain all of them in this disclosure as they would occupy too many pages. It will also be understood that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit and central characteristics of the art described above. Therefore, the present examples and embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in all respect, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given in this disclosure.

(Copyright)

The copyright for all the contents (text, drawings, etc) of this document belongs to and is reserved by the inventor of the present art.

Claims

I claim,

1. Data entry apparatus for the entry of English alphabets, character sets of other languages, numeric characters, editing characters, symbols and other applicable character sets, in which apparatus: a graphical man-machine interface method based on a deductive process is used to select and input a target character, wherein:

• the apparatus is "effectively asking multiple-choice questions to the user" through graphical icons that are subdivided into parts;

• each part graphically (effectively) asks the question "is the character you wish to enter in me";

• wherein the target character input process is as follows: o in each stage of the process, an icon is displayed and its parts are individually and consecutively distinguished from the others through a highlighting effect that loops around the parts, where each part' s highlighting event indicates the current question, o the user effectively answers "yes" to the current question by clicking a drilling button, or effectively answers "no" by not clicking the drilling button before the completion of the highlighting event, o each time the drilling button is clicked, the characters in the selected part are further subdivided and displayed as the parts of a new icon, and the question and answer process is repeated, o eventually, each displayed part has one character and effectively asks the question "is your target character the character in me", o and finally, the user clicks the drilling button when the part that contains (only) the target character is highlighted, to input the target character into the device; wherein the icons and their parts are mapped onto a hierarchical tree, one instance of which is comprised of one top node, three middle nodes and nine bottom nodes (three under each middle node), wherein all the nodes contain three parts, each, which is called the "standard tree".

2. Data entry apparatus for the entry of English alphabets, character sets of other languages, numeric characters, editing characters, symbols and other applicable character sets, in which apparatus: the mathematical characteristics of the number "3" are utilized to create a hierarchical tree that has the following structure: • the top node contains "3ⁿ" characters, which is subdivided into three parts that each contain a third of the characters in the node, and each top part links to a lower node (called "middle node") that contains the same characters,

• each middle node is subdivided into three parts that each contain a third of the characters in the node, and each middle part links to a lower node that contains the same characters,

• the above process is repeated until the parts of the lower nodes (called "bottom nodes") each contain only one character; wherein, when a set of twenty seven characters is mapped onto each layer of the tree, the embodiment of the tree is such that:

• each layer contains all the characters,

• each top node's part contains nine characters, and its child middle node contains the same nine characters,

• and each middle part contains three characters, and its child bottom node contains the same three characters,

• and each bottom part contains one character; wherein, by using drilling button(s), the user drills down this tree structure (called the "standard tree"), to enter a target character from an initial set of twenty seven characters.

3. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 1, in which the mathematical characteristics of the number "3" are utilized to create a hierarchical tree that has the following structure: • the top node contains "3ⁿ" characters, which is subdivided into three parts that each contain a third of the characters in the node, and each top part links to a lower node (called "middle node") that contains the same characters,

• the above process is repeated until the parts of the lower nodes (called "bottom nodes") each contain only one character; wherein, when a set of twenty seven characters is mapped onto each layer of the tree, the embodiment of the tree is such that: • each layer contains all the characters,

• and each middle part contains three characters, and its child bottom node contains the same three characters, • and each bottom part contains one character; wherein, by using drilling button(s), the user drills down this tree structure (called the "standard tree"), to enter a target character from an initial set of twenty seven characters.

4. Data entry apparatus as claimed in any one of claim 1 or claim 2 or claim 3, in which tree structures that are subsets (called "small trees") of the standard tree recited in the preceding claim(s) are created:

• to contain character sets that are comprised of less than twenty seven characters, • wherein the characters are mapped from the bottom layer to the top layer, from the leftmost part to the rightmost part,

• and nodes that are empty are deleted from the tree; where the subsets are created according to the following procedure:

• the characters are first mapped onto the parts of the bottom nodes, • and if the number of filled bottom parts is less than four, the higher layers do not exist, and a one-layer tree that consists of only one bottom node is created,

• otherwise, the characters are mapped onto the parts of the middle node(s), and the bottom nodes are linked to corresponding (mother) middle parts that respectively contain the same characters,

• and if the number of filled middle parts is less than four, a two-layer tree is created, i.e., the top node does not exist,

• otherwise, the characters are mapped onto the parts of the top node, and the middle nodes are linked to corresponding (mother) top parts that contain the same characters.

5. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 4, in which "special tree" structures that are variations of the structures recited in the preceding claims are created, which are designed to reduce the number of layers in a tree or to allow usage of a different number of drilling buttons (where one drilling button corresponds to one presented pane), wherein the special trees include, but are not limited to, the following:

• a one-layer tree that contains a single bottom node that contain four or five parts,

• a two-layer tree that has an upper node which has four parts, each of which leads to a bottom node,

• a multi-layer tree wherein a top part that contains nine characters leads to a middle node which leads to bottom nodes, and a second top part that has less than six characters directly leads to a bottom node that has one to five parts, • A tree whose nodes each contain one, two, four or five parts.

6. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 5, in which the nodes described in the preceding claims are represented by "icons" that contain parts called "panes", wherein the icons include, but are not limited, to the following icon types: • cube, • column of boxes,

• row of boxes,

• circles arranged as satellites on a bigger circle,

• cluster of circles, • circle composed of pies,

• and blades of a rotor; whose components represent the panes of the icons; wherein, the icons displayed during a tree drilling operation may be all the same icon type, or different icons in different layers, or different icons within a layer; wherein, the characters contained in a pane may be represented by any graphical representation that the user can associate with the characters, including, but not limited to, the following:

• individual representations of all the contained characters,

• representations of only the first and last characters in each panes,

• non-alphabetic pictorial representations; wherein, any icon type can become a "miniature icon", hi which only the first and last characters or very small graphical representations of the characters are shown in the panes; wherein, in certain embodiments, the icons and panes may move from one position to another during the drilling of a tree, including but not limited to the case wherein a column of panes moves to the opposite part of the screen whenever the succeeding icon is invoked.

7. Data entry apparatus as claimed hi claim 6, in which the panes of an icon are subjected to a highlighting effect which is executed as a "highlighting loop" that is comprised of "highlighting events" that are continuously and consecutively applied on each of the panes, wherein the highlighting effect has the following characteristics: • each event distinguishes one pane from the other panes (in the highlighting loop) at a point of time, • a loop continues until it is interrupted by a drilling button click,

• the currently highlighted pane is always visible, but the panes that are not currently highlighted may or may not be visible, and in the latter case, the panes are displayed on the screen one by one,

• a highlighting event is presented as an animation effect, wherein a highlighting event is normally set to last during the animation effect applied on the pane,

• the user may specify a time interval from the end of an animation effect until the commencement of the highlighting of the next pane, wherein the user can specify the preceding pane to be either visible or invisible during the interval,

• the length of time of the animation effect is set by the user, who can set one time for all animation effects in a tree, or set different times for individual layers, or even for specific panes;

• wherein, the highlight can loop around the panes in any order,

• where in one instance it rotates from the highest pane, to the middle pane, to the bottom pane, then back to the top pane, and so forth, • where in another instance, it rotates from the top pane to the middle pane, to the bottom pane, then back to the middle pane, to the top pane, then back to the middle pane, and so forth; wherein the animation effects include, but are not limited to:

• zoom-out: translucent film spreads from the pane's center, • pull-down: translucent film covers the pane from top to bottom,

• pane-zoom: pane grows from a dot to the complete pane,

• on-off: pane instantaneously appears and disappears; wherein in some embodiments, when a pane is selected, the pane glows brightly for an instant (before it disappears) to indicate which pane was selected, and which character was inputted in the case of a bottom pane.

8. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 7, in which a tree is drilled in the vertical and horizontal directions, to input the target character, wherein:

• the device automatically performs horizontal drilling when the panes are subjected to a highlighting loop,

• and the user performs vertical drilling by clicking the drilling button that corresponds to a presented pane, which results in the replacement of the currently presented icon with the invoked icon (and the inputting of the target character if a bottom pane was selected); wherein one or three drilling buttons are used to drill down a tree; wherein in some embodiments, other number of buttons is used to drill down special trees whose icons contain two panes, or four panes, or five panes, and so forth, wherein each button correspond to one of the presented panes of the current icon.

9. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the user initiates the commencement of the highlighting effect of panes (that were not highlighted after they are invoked), wherein a two-state drilling button (which can either be in its original (not pressed) state or in its pressed state) is used; wherein the highlighting effect moves from pane to pane while the button is pressed and loops around the panes, wherein when the user releases the button to its original state (this action equates to a drilling button click), the highlighting effect ceases, and the pane that was last highlighted is selected (and the target character is entered if a bottom pane was selected), which action also invokes the next icon.

10. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein all the panes of the tree are not highlighted, wherein;

• each icon contains one to three panes, • three drilling buttons are used and each button corresponds to one of the presented panes,

• the corresponding pane is selected every time a button is clicked, ^• • three clicks are required to input the target character in a three-layer tree, two clicks in the case of a two-layer tree, and one click in the case of a one-layer tree.

11. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 10, in which a person memorizes the three button click combinations, wherein, when the buttons are numbered Buttonl, Button2, Button3, which respectively select the leftmost, middle and rightmost pane in a row of panes, wherein, when the English alphabets are allocated to a standard three-layer tree in their alphabetical order, and the panes are not highlighted:

• the "A" character is entered by clicking Buttonl three times • "E" is entered by clicking Buttonl, Button2, Button2

• "M" is entered by clicking Button2, Button2, Buttonl,

• and so forth; wherein this method may be applied to trees of other character sets;

12. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 11, in which one drilling button is used to drill down a tree (whose panes are all highlighted, and no panes are stacked) , such that one click selects a highlighted pane in each layer, and the number of drilling button clicks required to select a bottom pane that contains the target character is equal to the number of layers; except when highlighting loops are nested, in which case each nesting level reduces the number of clicks by one; wherein when the device has three drilling buttons, the user can switch between one drilling button mode and three drilling button mode.

13. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 12, in which multiple icons and panes are stacked over each other, or are separately and concurrently displayed; or are displayed one after the other.

14. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 13, in which three drilling buttons are used to drill down a tree (whose icons each contain one to three panes), wherein each drilling button is used to select one of the panes currently presented for selection, and the number of clicks required to input a target character from a tree is as follows:

• In the case of a three-layer tree:

• one click, when the top and middle panes are both highlighted (but not the bottom panes), the panes are all stacked, and the middle pane highlighting loop is nested under the top pane highlighting loop,

• two clicks, when the top panes are highlighted, but not the bottom and middle panes, and the middle panes are stacked on their top panes,

• two clicks, the middle panes are highlighted, but not the bottom and top panes, and the bottom panes are stacked on their middle panes,

• three clicks, when all the panes are not highlighted, and therefore not stacked;

• in the case of a two-layer tree:

• one click, when the (not highlighted) bottom panes are stacked on highlighted middle panes,

• two clicks, when all the panes are not highlighted, and therefore not stacked;

• one click, in the case of a one-layer tree.

15. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 14, in which multiple trees are concurrently displayed on the screen, wherein each tree is individually drilled; which include, but is not limited, to the following cases:

• portions of a large character set are subdivided into multiple trees,

• alphabets, numeric, symbols, other language trees; wherein, the characters inputted in each tree may be added into the same or separate output text boxes on the screen.

16. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 15, in which multiple trees are displayed in the same screen area, wherein the user performs switching from a currently displayed tree to another tree, through any of (but not limited to) the following methods: • a button other than the drilling button(s) is used to switch between two or more trees,

• a drilling button is also used for the tree switching operations, wherein it is pressed longer than the pane highlight duration, to select a specific tree, regardless of the characters in the panes, • when a drilling is pressed and released within the highlight duration, it enters the character (e.g., "N") contained in the selected bottom pane, but when it is pressed longer that the highlight duration, it invokes another tree (e.g., numeric tree),

• the selection of a specific character only invokes the replacement of the current tree with a corresponding tree,

• a tree is replaced by another specific tree according to a certain programming logic.

17. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein a plurality of characters contained in a bottom pane are treated as a "pseudo single character"; wherein the length of time the drilling button (that selects the bottom pane) is pressed determines which character among the plurality of characters contained in a pseudo single character is inputted; wherein, the press time is subdivided into time-slices; wherein, when the button is released within the first time-slice, the first character is inputted; and a succeeding character is instead inputted when the button is released in a subsequent time-slice.

18. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 17, which include methods for creating optimal English alphabets mapping layouts onto the panes of trees, and a plurality of optimal mapping layouts for individual tree structures and drilling operational modes; wherein, the English alphabets are mapped according to their relative usage frequencies (ETAOINRSHLCDUMFPGYWB VKJQXZ J on the panes, from the bottom panes that require the least number of pre-click events to the panes that require the most; wherein, the number of pre-click events is equal to the total number of vertical and horizontal highlights and inter-button gap finger traverse events executed up to the selection of the target bottom pane; which include (but is not limited) to the following mapping layouts:

• "ERUTSMAHF", "OPWIGBNYV" and "LKXCJZDQ_" are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes (and onto the middle and bottom panes); wherein the top panes are displayed as a column of panes, and the middle and bottom panes as rows of panes, the middle panes are stacked on their mother top panes, the top and bottom panes are highlighted, but the middle panes are not highlighted, wherein, three drilling buttons are operated by one finger, wherein a button-press action selects a middle pane, and the succeeding button-release action selects a bottom pane; • "ERMSTHFLA", "OPBGIYVWN" and "CKZJDQ_XU" are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes (and onto the middle and bottom panes); wherein the top panes are displayed as a column of panes, and the middle and bottom panes as rows of panes, middle panes are stacked on their top panes, the top panes are highlighted, but the middle and bottom panes are not highlighted, wherein, three drilling buttons are operated by one finger, wherein a button-press action selects a pane, and button-release actions are ignored;

• "EODFNP_QW", "IUKRTSXBL" and "MJZGHYVCA" are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes tree (and onto the middle and bottom panes); wherein all the panes are displayed as rows of panes, panes are not highlighted or stacked, wherein, three drilling buttons are operated by one finger, wherein a button-press action selects a pane, and button-release actions are ignored;

• "ETIANCRDY", "OSUHMWFBQ" and "LPVGKXJZJ' are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 panes (and onto the middle and bottom panes); wherein all the panes are displayed as columns of panes, panes are not stacked, all panes are highlighted, wherein, one drilling button is operated by one finger, wherein a button-press action selects a pane, and button-release actions are ignored; • wherein in one mode, the device keeps track of the relative usage frequencies of the alphabets by the user; wherein the user specifies how many (e.g., 1,000) of the most recent words that he/she entered should be included in the statistical data; and the alphabets are then mapped onto the grid according to the user's usage frequencies using the methods described above; wherein the alphabet mapping layouts that are further optimized variations of the above mapping layouts are also claimed; in which, alphabets that have the same number of pre-click events are rearranged within themselves (without significantly altering the map's efficiency); for purposes such as to position many of the most frequently used English words as close to each other as possible; which include (but is not limited to) the following character map layout for the "three keys, one finger, only top and bottom panes highlighted, middle panes stacked" tree drilling operation: "THMESYARC", "OFWIGKNPV" and "UBXLJZDQJ' are mapped onto the Tl , T2 and T3 panes of the tree; wherein, the application of this method on other characters sets (including the alphabets, characters, strokes and other elements of the text of other languages) , tree structures and drilling modes are also claimed.

19. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 18, including all embodiments wherein the character sets, symbols and other elements of any language are mapped onto the trees; wherein any combination of the structures, methods, processes and other features recited in the preceding claims are applied on those trees; wherein the character sets include (but is not limited to) the following: English characters:

• alphabetic order,

• QWERTY order,

• the most frequently used nine alphabets (ETAOINRSH) are mapped onto the TI panes in this order, and the rest of the alphabets are mapped onto the T2 and T3 panes in their alphabetic order, and all the alphabets are further mapped onto the middle and bottom panes; Numeric characters and symbols:

• 0123456789. + - \ x ( ) $ % space and # . . (a), : : & " ' are mapped onto the first, second and third top panes, respectively, of a three-layer tree,

• 0123456789 and $ - / + x ) ( = space are respectively mapped onto two two-layer trees, which are concurrently displayed on the screen, where two buttons (one for each) drill the trees,

• the above two trees are displayed in the same screen area one at a time, wherein one button drills the currently displayed tree, and another button switches the trees; European languages:

• twenty six Greek alphabets and the space character are mapped onto a three-layer tree.

20. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 19, which includes a method for users to create his/her own character set; wherein, two input fields are displayed on the device screen; and the user enters into the first input field the characters that he/she wishes to be included in his/her character set, and the user also enters a character set name into the second input field; wherein, when the user presses a button (designated for this purpose), the present art's device program uses the characters to generate a standard or small tree; and the user can then invoke the tree to perform data entry; wherein this new character set creation process can be performed on the apparatus of the present invention, or in another device (e.g., a PC) and then loaded into the present device.

21. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which a stylus (or a functionally equivalent instrument such as a pen, mouse or finger) is used to click on graphical representation(s) of the drilling button(s), which' are functionally equivalent to the mechanical drilling buttons, wherein one tap (or stroke into) on a graphical button is interpreted as one click.

22. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which a stylus (or a functionally equivalent instrument such as a pen, mouse or finger) is used to click on graphical representations of panes on a touch sensitive screen , which include , but is not limited to, the following embodiment: a three-layer tree whose top and bottom panes are highlighted, but whose middle panes are not highlighted, wherein each middle icon and its panes are stacked over its (mother) top pane,

• where the user places the stylus on a middle pane that contains the target character and keeps it on the surface, • which action causes the currently displayed top pane and middle icon to disappear, followed by the invoked bottom icon's panes which appear under the stylus tip one after another,

• wherein, when the user removes the stylus tip from the surface, the character in the bottom pane at that time is inputted into the device.

23. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which the user writes a continuous stroke for each word such that the stylus (or a functionally equivalent instrument such as a pen, mouse or finger) tip does not leave the touch sensitive screen surface between character inputs, wherein the character inputting process includes, but is not limited to, the following: • twenty seven characters are mapped onto a three-layer tree whose top panes are consecutively displayed such that only the currently highlighted top pane (with its child middle icon and its panes stacked over it) is visible, • the middle and bottom panes are not highlighted,

• a border line around the currently displayed pane indicates the "selection area",

• the user moves the stylus into a middle pane that contains the target character, and then moves it out of the selection area without lifting the stylus; which action makes the device display the invoked bottom icon's panes,

• and when the user returns the stylus tip into the selection area and passes it over the bottom pane that contains the target character, and then proceeds to take the stylus tip out of the selection area, the device inputs the character in that bottom pane; wherein stylus tap-lift-tap motions may be used instead of a continuous stylus stroke.

24. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein the stylus (or a functionally equivalent instrument such as a pen, mouse or finger) tip is placed on a touch sensitive screen position where it has a clear line of sight to the graphical representation of the target pane; and the user clicks a pane by drawing a short line (that does not have to reach the pane) towards the target pane graphical representation; wherein, the present art's program recognizes the direction of the short line, and accordingly interprets the short line as a click on the pane that the line is aimed at.

25. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein the panes move to a different part of the touch sensitive screen every time a pane is clicked; which include (but is not limited) to the following embodiment: a column of panes initially appear on the right side (or top part) of the screen, wherein, none of the panes are highlighted or stacked; wherein, a pane is clicked when the stylus (or a functionally equivalent instrument such as a pen, mouse or finger) enters its graphical representation, through a continuous stroke of the stylus; wherein, every time a pane is clicked, the next set of panes goes to the opposite part of the screen, and the stylus stroke continuously changes direction between left and right (or up and down); which method requires less stylus travel distance, because there is no need to reposition the stylus to prepare for the next click; wherein, the stroke path and panes positions can be in one of two modes (in the following explanation the panes are arranged as a column of panes which moves left-right, but the same method applies to panes that move up-down, and so forth); wherein the user selects the current mode;

• in the first mode, the vertical positions (referred to here as VP 1 , VP2, VP3) of the panes are always the same, such that the stylus tip vertically oscillates (i.e., up-down displacement) between the three pane positions;

• in the second mode, after the stroke reverses direction, the direction of the stroke (which is headed towards one of the panes in the opposite side) is monitored; when it is established (after the reversing curve) to which pane the stroke is headed towards, that pane is moved to the VP2 position, and the user can then change the stroke path to enter the VP2 position; thereafter, the next set of panes is again initially shown in their normal positions; this results in minimal vertical oscillations in the * stroke; wherein, other variations of pane positioning and stroke paths are also allowed, such as when the panes alignment is slanted; wherein, stylus tap-lift-tap motions may be used instead of a continuous stylus stroke.

26. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein the panes continuously moves to the right of the touch sensitive screen every time a pane is clicked; which include (but is not limited to) the following embodiment: a column of panes initially appear on the leftmost edge of the screen, and none of the panes are highlighted or stacked; wherein, a pane is clicked when the stylus (or a functionally equivalent instrument such as a pen, mouse or finger) enters its graphical representation, through a continuous stroke of the stylus; wherein, every time a pane is clicked, the next set of panes appears immediately to the right of the preceding panes, and this continues until the rightmost edge of the screen is reached, whereupon the next set of panes again appears on the leftmost edge; in which method, there is no need to reposition the stylus (except when the rightmost edge is reached) to prepare for the next click, and the user continuously moves the stylus to the right (just like normal script writing); wherein, alternatively, the stroke may be made to reverse direction at the rightmost edge; wherein, in languages where the script is not written from left to right (e.g., right to left, or from top to bottom), the succeeding panes appear in the script natural writing direction; wherein, the two modes for determining the stroke path and panes positions described in the preceding claim also applies to this method; wherein the difference is that the next set of panes is always shown to the right (or the natural writing direction of each language), and thus there is no reversing curve between pane selections (except at the rightmost edge if the pane display direction is reversed there); wherein, stylus tap-lift-tap motions may be used instead of a continuous stylus stroke.

27. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein drilling buttons with touch sensitive display screens on their top surfaces are used to drill the trees; wherein, the drilling buttons individually corresponds to the currently presented panes of the tree that is being drilled, and the characters or graphical representations in the corresponding panes are shown on the button displays; wherein, when a pane is highlighted, the character or graphical representation on the corresponding button glows; wherein, the user selects a highlighted or presented pane by touching the button that contains it; and when the clicked button contains a bottom pane, the character in that pane is inputted.

28. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which the pressing and releasing actions of a plurality of button types are interpreted in specific ways, which include , but are not limited to, the following:

• Two-state button which can be in original (O) or pressed (P) state: o Double-click mode: O-P and P-O transitions are individual clicks, o Single-click mode: O-P transition is a click, P-O is not a click, o Single-click reverse mode: O-P transition is a not click, P-O is a click, o Composite-clicks mode: First O-P is a click, succeeding P-O is ignored, next O-P and P-O are each clicks;

• Three-state button which can be in original (O), middle (M) or fully pressed state (F):

• Single-click mode: O-M is one click, M-O is ignored, M-F and F- M are ignored if performed;

• Double-click mode: O-M is the first click, M-O is the second click, M-F and F-M are ignored if performed; • Two or three-click mode: O-M is the first click, M-F is the second click if performed, F-M is ignored if performed, M-O is the second click if M-F-M was not performed, or M-O is the third click if M-F-M was performed; • One or three-click mode: O-M is the first click, M-F is the second click if performed, F-M is third click if performed, M-O is ignored;

• Number of clicks dependent mode: The transitions interpretation dynamically changes depending on the number of clicks required to select a bottom pane in the tree currently being drilled: ^■ One click required: O-M is the click, M-O is ignored, M-F and F-M are ignored if performed;

^■ Two clicks required: O-M is the first click, M-F is the second click, F-M and M-O are ignored;

■ Three clicks required: O-M is the first click, and M-F is second click, F-M is third click, M-O is ignored;

^■ Four clicks required: all transitions are clicks (for special trees);

• Toggle switch: each flipping transition (left-to-right, right-to-left, front-to- back, back-to-front) is an individual click.

29. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein a scrolling wheel is used to move the highlighting effect from pane to pane, wherein:

• the first wheel turn notch highlights the first pane in the highlight loop,

• each wheel turn notch moves the highlighting effect from its current position to an adjacent pane in the loop,

• when the user reverses the direction of the turn, the pane where the wheel reversed direction is selected and the panes of the next icon are displayed (and the target character is entered if a bottom pane was selected), wherein, the panes layout may be any layout (column, row, etc), so long as the highlighting order of the panes are pre-defined.

30. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which a tactile entry method is implemented, wherein three moving Braille key tops (where the dots protrude according to the character being represented) are used to present the panes of the icons of a three-layer tree that has twenty-seven characters, wherein the character inputting process is as follows:

• the standard Braille characters that correspond to the alphabetic characters are assigned to the bottom panes,

• special unique Braille characters (that correspond to collective representations of the characters in children bottom panes) are allocated to the (three) top and (nine) middle panes,

• the panes of the current icon are presented to the user when the corresponding Braille character is created on the Braille key top,

• the user (e.g., a blind person) identifies the characters in the key tops through finger touch (or any capable body part),

• the key tops that contain the special Braille character also acts as the drilling buttons, such that when a key top is pressed, the pane it currently corresponds to is selected; wherein the same approach is applied on the trees for numeric characters, symbols and characters of other languages.

31. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which the user enters character by clicking a button when he/she hears a sound that corresponds to a pane of a three- layer tree to which the English alphabets are allocated, wherein the character inputting process is as follows:

• special unique sounds are allocated to the (three) top panes and (nine) middle panes, and the standard alphabet pronunciations are allocated to the bottom panes,

• the user clicks a drilling button whenever he/she hears a sound that corresponds to a pane that contains the target character,

• three clicks are required to enter one character; wherein the same approach is applied on the trees for numeric characters, symbols and characters of other languages.

32. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, which include a method for entering Japanese characters, wherein two trees are used; which has the following features: the primary tree contains the following characters, which are mapped onto a standard three-layer tree: K₅G₅N₅S₅Z₅M₅T₅D₅R₅H,B,P,

and the secondary tree contains the following characters, which are mapped onto a two-layer tree: A₅I₅U₅E₅O₅

wherein, the primary tree is first displayed, and when K₅G₅N₅S₅Z₅M₅T₅D₅R₃H₅B₅P or V is selected, the primary tree is replaced by the secondary tree, (where K₅G₅N₅S₅Z₅M₅T₅D₅R₅H₅B₅P₅ V correspond to the "first alphabet" of the English character pair used to enter Japanese characters), wherein, when the user then selects the "second alphabet" from the secondary tree, the hiragana character that corresponds to the selected English character pair is then inputted; wherein, when any of the or — characters in the primary tree is selected, it is immediately inputted, and the secondary tree is not invoked; wherein, one or three buttons may be used to perform the drilling operations; wherein, a click on a separate button transforms the last series (after a space, period or at the start of the input process) of entered hiragana characters into kanji character(s), and if this button is pressed for a long time, the hiragana characters are converted into the corresponding katakana characters.

33. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, which include a method for entering Japanese characters, which has the following the following features:

• the first tree that appears on the screen is the mother tree, and each character in it calls a child tree (with some exceptions);

• the mother tree can be structured as a three-layer tree mode or as a two-layer; • in the three-layer mother tree structure, the characters "KGSZN Ht" ,

M", and "foM" are respectively mapped onto the middle panes, and each of the characters are mapped onto a bottom pane; • in the two-layer mother tree structure, the characters "KGSZN WC' ,

"HBPTDM IS", and " S V₀ R M foM" are respectively mapped onto the middle panes, and the characters "KG", "SZ", "N $C", "HBP", "TD", "M IB", " Jb V₀ ", "R M", and "t>Mⁿ are mapped onto the bottom panes;

• the mother tree is drilled using one or three drilling buttons, using any of the valid pane highlighting and stacking modes;

• in the two-layer mode, the multiple characters (e.g., "KG") in the bottom panes are treated as a single "pseudo single character", such that they are not further subdivided through a tree drilling operation, instead, they are individually inputted through an interpretation of the length of time the drilling button is pressed, as explained below;

• the time span between the pressing and subsequent releasing of the button (when a bottom pane is clicked) determines which of the characters within the pseudo single character is inputted:

• the first of the characters in the pseudo single character is inputted by a short click (button pressed for up to 350 milliseconds);

• when the user presses the button for more than 350 milliseconds, the second character in the pseudo single character is instead inputted;

• " <fa V" is treated as one character and it invokes a child tree; "_o " is immediately inputted when the button is pressed from 350 to

700 milliseconds; when the button is still pressed after than 700 milliseconds, thereafter, a space character is inputted every 250 milliseconds;

• In the case of the "HBP" pseudo single character , "H", "B", "P" are entered when the drilling button is pressed up to 350 milliseconds, between 351 and 700 milliseconds, and more than 700 milliseconds, respectively; • when the corresponding drilling button is pressed for between 351 to 700 milliseconds when the "R _ϋ" bottom pane is selected, the series of hiragana characters inputted since a space, period or the beginning of the inputting process, are converted into a Kanji character; when this button is continuously pressed more than 700 milliseconds, a series of Kanji characters and the equivalent katakana character(s) that correspond to the series of inputted hiragana characters is successively displayed; and when the user releases the button, the Kanji character or Katakana character(s) that was last displayed is entered into the device; • each bottom pane of the child trees is selected by a short click,

• the "8/9" bottom pane in the numeric character set is an exceptional case, where "8" is selected when the pane is selected by a short click, and "9" is selected when the button is pressed for more than 350 milliseconds;

• the ">" character in the last bottom pane of the child trees leads to an optional sub-tree, e.g., a tree of words, addresses, names; • unless the user invoked a sub-tree (by selecting the bottom pane that contain ">" or "V"), the mother tree is displayed on the screen after a bottom pane in a child tree is selected, and the user can then enter the next hiragana character;

• the mother tree is also displayed on the screen after a bottom pane in a sub-tree is selected, and the user can then enter the next hiragana character; wherein the contents of the bottom panes of the child trees that correspond to the characters in the bottom panes of the mother tree are as follows:

_o : a period character is entered; space characters are entered if pressed longer

34. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which Japanese characters are entered into the device using specific English alphabets, which include (but is not limited to) the following methods:

• the "first alphabets" (k, s, t hu n. m. y, r, w), the "second alphabets" (the five vowels and "ya", "yu" or "yo"), and v " ° _g - , ¥ > space are mapped onto the Tl, T2 and T3 top panes of a three-layer tree: o where when the superscript " " " follows the second alphabet that follows "k", "s", "t", or "h", these first alphabets are transformed to "g", "z"₅ "d", or "b", respectively, o and when the superscript "° follows the second alphabet that follows "h", this alphabet is transformed to "p", o wherein the entered alphabets are normally converted to hiragana characters in pairs, i.e., every time after a second alphabet follows a first alphabet, o except when a vowel or the small "zu" follows a second alphabet, space, period or the start of the input process, wherein it is interpreted as a hiragana character on its own, o where the space, period, dash, comma, yen and arrow characters are entered independently on their own between the hiragana character inputs, o wherein, a click on a second button transforms the last series (after a space, period or at the start of the input process) of entered hiragana characters into kanji character(s), and when this button is pressed for a long time, the hiragana characters are converted into the corresponding katakana characters;

• the above, but the first alphabets, the second alphabets, and v " ° _Q - , ¥ > space are individually mapped onto three two-layer trees which are concurrently shown on the screen, where three buttons (one for each) are used to drill those trees; • the above, but the trees are displayed one at a time in the same screen area, and one button drills the currently displayed tree, and a second button is pressed for a long time to replace the current tree with a new tree.

35. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which the five stroke symbols used to enter Chinese characters in the Wubi Hua or Five Stroke Chinese input method are mapped onto a one-layer tree that has a single icon that contains five panes which are highlighted, wherein one drilling button is used to select a symbol, wherein the symbols are converted to Chinese character after every fifth symbol, except when the drilling button is pressed for a long time to request immediate conversion to a Chinese character.

36. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, in which the possible succeeding alphabets is limited by comparing the letters (since a space or at the start of the input process) that have been inputted with the words in a word database to determine the possible succeeding alphabet(s), wherein the number of possible succeeding characters is used to create the optimal and smallest succeeding tree structure; wherein this method is applied on the alphabets and words of the English language, as well as the character and words of other languages.

37. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 36, in which a word frequency database is used to determine the relative frequencies of the possible succeeding alphabets, and where the possible succeeding alphabets are mapped onto the succeeding tree hi the order of their relative frequencies; wherein this method is applied on the words of the English language, as well as on the words of other languages.

38. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 36, in which a best mode for carrying out the invention using one drilling button is embodied, wherein the embodiment has the following features: • one drilling button is used,

• a character set with twenty six alphabets and the space character is used,

• the panes of all the icons in the trees are highlighted,

• the tree layers are not stacked over each other,

• the tree structures are designed to minimize the number of layers and highlighting events, and those trees include standard trees, small trees, and special trees,

• the special trees include the following: o a one-layer tree that contains a single bottom node that contains four or five parts, o a two-layer tree that has an upper node which has four parts that lead to four bottom nodes, o a multi-layer tree wherein a top part (that contains nine characters) links to a middle node which leads to bottom nodes, and a top part (that has less than six characters) directly leads to a bottom icon that has one to five parts; wherein the input process is as follows:

• at the start of a word, the three-layer tree that contains the entire character set is presented, and the user drills this tree to enter the first letter,

• after each entered letter, the number of possible succeeding alphabets is determined by comparing the already inputted letter(s) of the current word with the words contained in the word database,

• the smallest (with optimal number of layers) tree structure is generated for that number of possible succeeding alphabets,

• the succeeding characters are mapped onto the next tree in their alphabetic order,

• if the user wishes to enter a character that is not contained in the presented tree, the user presses the drilling button for a long time, which action causes the creation of a succeeding optimal tree structure that contains the characters that were not contained in the preceding tree, • the result of all of the above allows the user to input a target character in a tree using one to three clicks; wherein this best mode for carrying out the invention is applied on the alphabets and words of the English language, as well as on the character and words of other languages.

39. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 37, in which a best mode for carrying out the invention using three drilling buttons is embodied, wherein the embodiment has the following features:

• three drilling buttons are used to drill down a tree, whose icons and panes are stacked over each other,

• each drilling button corresponds to one of the three presented panes,

• a character set with twenty six alphabets and the space character is used,

• all the icons in all the trees each contain less than four panes,

• the tree structures are designed to minimize the number of layers and highlighting events, • the top and middle panes are highlighted, but the bottom panes are not highlighted, the middle panes highlighting loop is nested within the top panes highlighting loop; wherein the input process is as follows: • at the start of a word, the three-layer tree that contains the entire character set is presented,

• the user drills this tree to enter the first letter,

• after each letter, the number of possible succeeding alphabets is determined by comparing the already inputted letter(s) of the current word with the words hi the word data base,

• the optimal (smallest) tree structure is generated for that number of possible succeeding alphabets: o wherein when the number of characters is more than four, all its layers are stacked over each other, where the top panes (if present) and middle panes are highlighted, but the bottom panes are not highlighted, o wherein when the number of succeeding characters is less than four, a one-layer tree with one icon is generated, o a word frequency database is used to determine the frequency of the possible succeeding alphabets, and the result of which determines the mapping order of those alphabets onto the generated tree, from the most frequent to the least frequent, o if the user wishes to enter a character that is not contained in the presented tree, the user presses the third drilling button for a long time, which action causes the creation of a succeeding optimal tree structure that contains the characters that were not contained in the preceding tree, wherein the tree structure generated is the same as that created for the same number of possible succeeding characters,

• the result of all of the above allows the user to input a target character in a tree using one click,

• the user has the option to immediately switch from the current top pane to a succeeding top pane: o by pressing the first drilling button for a long time to jump to the next top pane, o or by pressing the second drilling button for a long time to jump to the top pane that follows the next one; wherein this method is applied on the alphabets and words of the English language, as well as the character and words of other languages.

40. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, including all embodiments wherein objects (including words, pictures, graphics and the like) are mapped onto the trees; wherein any combination of the structures, methods, processes and other features recited in the preceding claims are applied on those trees; wherein one pane may contain one or more objects; wherein a plurality of object trees and character trees can be operated interchangeably during a data entry operation; wherein they can be concurrently displayed, or they replace each other on the screen; wherein, in some embodiments, characters and words are contained in the panes of the same tree; wherein, in some embodiments a Tree Select button is used to switch the drilling operations from one tree to another.

41. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 40, in which a best mode for carrying out the invention for quickly entering entire words is embodied, wherein the embodiment has the following features: a number in a circle is attached to the right end of each displayed pane, when the number of possible words is less than ten; which number indicates the possible number of words that starts with the already inputted leading alphabets (if any) followed by any of the characters contained in the pane; wherein when the user clicks the (corresponding) drilling button for up to 350 milliseconds), the highlighted (or presented) character pane is selected, and when the user presses the drilling button for more than 350 milliseconds when a character pane with an attached number is highlighted (or presented), a special icon (called a word tree) with up to nine word panes is displayed, where the number of panes is equal to the number of possible words, and each word pane contains one word, and the user drills the word tree to select and input the target word; wherein after a word pane is selected, the top icon of the character tree is again displayed; wherein, the maximum value (contained in circles) of the number of possible words attached to the character panes may be changed by the user, e.g., to be "3" or "15", in which case, the number of word panes in the word tree is changed accordingly; wherein this method is applied on the alphabets and words of the English language, as well as the character and words of other languages.

42. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 40, in which a best mode for carrying out the invention for quickly entering entire words is embodied, which has the following features: the character panes are displayed as a row of panes, and a column of word pane(s) are displayed below each character pane; possible words that start with the already inputted leading alphabets (if any) and any of the alphabets in the character panes are automatically displayed below the corresponding character panes; the number of possible words (in a column) that have not yet been displayed is indicated below each column; when the user presses a drilling button to select a highlighted or presented character pane, the process performed is as follows:

• if the user releases the drilling button before the highlighting effect of the selected character pane is completed, that pane is selected; • if the drilling button is still pressed after the highlighting effect on the character pane is completed, the highlight moves down the word panes in the same column;

• if the button is still pressed after the highlight of the lowest word pane expires, the next set of possible words are displayed on the word panes of the same column, and the highlight returns to the top word pane;

• the word that is contained in the highlighted word pane when the button is released is inputted;

• the top icon of the character tree is displayed after a word is inputted; wherein this method is applied on the alphabets and words of the English language, as well as the character and words of other languages.

43. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 40, wherein one word tree and one character trees are concurrently displayed on the screen; in which the user drills a character tree to enter leading character(s) of the target word; wherein, the leading characters (from a space or at the start of the input process) is used to generate possible words that starts with the inputted leading characters; the possible word(s) are displayed on the word tree (one word per pane); wherein, the user inputs words by performing the following operations:

• the user starts entering leading character(s) by drilling the character tree, • when the user finds on the word tree the word he/she wishes to enter, the user clicks the Tree Select button to switch the drilling operations to the word tree,

• the user then selects the target word, which inputs the word,

• which action also causes the drilling operations to return to the character tree; wherein, the number of words displayed on the word tree dynamically changes, based on the leading characters already inputted, and the pane drilling progression down the tree structure; wherein, if the number of possible words is more than the number of word panes, the user has four options (when an inputted alphabet does not correspond to an existing word, an error message is displayed): • enter additional characters to reduce the number of possible words,

• enter additional characters until the number of possible words is equal or less than the number of word panes, such they are all displayed, • select the last pane of the word tree, which action results in the displaying of the next set of possible words on the word tree, and repeat this operation until the target word appears,

• continue entering characters until there is only one possible word; wherein, in one embodiment, a miniature character icon is used to allow maximum space for the word tree; but other character tree icons can be used; wherein, embodiments of this method on the text of all languages are claimed.

44. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 40, which include a method for accessing personal information libraries, which include (but is not limited to) emails, SMS,

MMS, voice mail, names, contacts, company directory, pictures, smiley s, and so forth; wherein, a character tree and a word tree are concurrently displayed on the screen, the last bottom pane of the character tree leads to a Directory Tree, the panes of the Directory Tree individually leads to personal information word trees, and a Tree Select button is used to switch the drilling operations between the character tree and the personal information word tree; wherein, the process for selecting an entry in a library is as follows:

• the user enters leading alphabets) of the keyword (e.g., the senders name, contact name, etc) that is used to access the personal information entry that he/she wishes to access, where each additional leading alphabet reduces the number of candidate entries, • the user then selects the last pane (which contains an arrow) of the character tree, which invokes the Directory Tree,

• the user then selects one of the panes of the Directory Tree (e.g., "emails"), • which causes the displaying (on the word tree) of the keywords of the candidate entries which start with the previously inputted leading character string; wherein the keywords are mapped onto the word panes in their alphabetic/numeric/symbol order; and graphical objects (e.g., pictures, smileys, etc) are mapped based on the characters in their respective names, • the user then selects the target keyword to display the contents of the corresponding entry (e.g., email); wherein, when no leading character was inputted before the before the Directory Tree is invoked, and/or a plurality of entries have the same keyword, the keywords (from the entire library) are displayed in their chronological order (in the case of email, SMS, and the like), or in their alphanumeric order (in the case of contact names, pictures and the like); wherein, when the number of candidate entries is more than the number of word panes, the user has four options (when an inputted alphabet does not correspond to an existing entry, an error message is displayed): • enter additional characters to reduce the number of candidate keywords,

• enter additional characters until the number of candidate entries is equal or less than the number of word panes, such their keywords are all displayed, • select the last pane of the word tree, which action results m the displaying of the next set of keywords on the word tree, and repeat this operation until the target entry's keyword appears,

• continue entering characters until there is only one candidate; wherein, embodiments of this method on the text of all languages are claimed.

45. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 20, which include a method for accessing personal information libraries, which include (but is not limited to) emails, SMS, MMS, voice mail, names, contacts, company directory, pictures, smileys, and so forth; wherein, a character tree and a word list are concurrently displayed on the screen, the last bottom pane of the character tree leads to a Directory Tree, the panes of the Directory Tree individually leads to personal information lists, and a Tree Select button is used to switch the drilling operations between the character tree and the personal information list; wherein, one or three drilling buttons (or other number of buttons in the case of special trees) may be used, and each drilling button corresponds to one column, wherein, when three drilling buttons are used, the displayed entry list is subdivided into three columns, by subdividing the total number of candidate keywords by three, and by showing in the next column the first keyword that starts with a new first character after each subdivision point, which more or less equally divides the keywords among the three columns, and allows the user to infer the first characters of the keywords in each column; wherein, the process for entry selection is as follows:

• the user enters leading character(s),

• the user selects the last bottom pane of the character tree, which invokes the Directory Tree,

• the user selects one of the panes of the Directory tree, which displays the keywords of the candidate entries, which starts with the leading characters,

• when the user chooses, he/she clicks the Tree Select button to switch the drilling operation to the word list,

• when a drilling button is pressed (without releasing), the highlight to move down the corresponding column,

• if it reaches the end of the column, the next set of keywords is displayed in the opposite direction, and the highlight moves from the bottom to the top,

• this process is repeated until the user releases the drilling button, which results in the selection of the keyword that was last highlighted, and the contents of the corresponding entry are then displayed; wherein, before selecting an entry keyword from the list, the user has the option of entering additional leading alphabet, wherein each additional character reduces the number candidate entry keywords (except when the alphabet does not correspond to an existing entry, in which case, an error message is displayed); wherein, the user can opt to continue doing this, until all the possible keywords are displayed on the screen; wherein, when no leading character was inputted before the before the Directory Tree is invoked, and/or a plurality of entries have the same keyword, the entries

(from the entire library) are displayed in their chronological order (in the case of email, SMS, and the like), or in their alphanumeric order (in the case of contact names, pictures and the like); wherein, embodiments of this method on the text of all languages are claimed.

46. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 40, in which entries of a textual listing are successively mapped onto three-layer trees, twenty seven at a time, wherein the search process is as follows:

• the entries are mapped onto the icon panes in their alphanumeric order, wherein numbers have precedence over alphabets, and the first character of the entries have priority over their second character, and so forth,

• the top icons of the trees are consecutively displayed one at time,

• when the user presses a (designated) drilling button for a long time, the top icon transition rate reverts to high speed, and a succeeding long press reverts the speed back to normal speed, wherein the normal and high speeds are set by the user,

• the user clicks a (designated) drilling button when a top icon that contains the target entry appears, which causes that top icon to stay on the screen, and the highlighting loop over its top panes commences, • the drilling button(s) are then used to drill that tree to select the target entry; wherein listings with few entries are mapped onto smaller tree structures; wherein, embodiments of this method on the text of all languages are claimed.

47. Data entry apparatus as claimed in claim 46, in which the structures and process recited in claim 46 are applied on a pictorial objects library.

48. Data entry apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the apparatus contains hardware features, electronic circuits, software programs, data bases and other electronic device features that store and execute any combination

(including all) of the methods, structures, processes and other features of the preceding claims; wherein, the user activates methods, modes of operation, and other features of the present art to enter characters and/or to select textual and pictorial objects.