Abstract:
A system for entering text into a computing device is disclosed, the system includes an on-screen displayed (OSD) keypad having a first predetermined number of lines of keys, and a remote control unit having the same predetermined number of shift buttons, each of the shift buttons corresponding to a unique one of the lines of keys, wherein a press of one of the shift buttons immediately causes a selection of a key in the line of keys corresponding to the pressed shift button regardless which key is previously selected.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     The present invention relates generally to character entering into a computing device, and, more particularly, to on-screen character entering with a remote control unit. 
     “Smart” consumer electronics that can interact with users, such as cable set-top boxes and media streaming devices, has become increasingly popular. These devices can take user&#39;s character input in the form of text. Even though conventional keyboard can be used for entering text, most such “smart” consumer electronics use simple remote control unit to control all aspects of the operation of the “smart” devices including entering text. As conventional hand-held remote control units have a very limited number of buttons, they generally utilize an on-screen displayed (OSD) keypad for entering text. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a conventional OSD text entering system. A media streaming device  102  is connected to a TV set  110  through a cable  107 . The media streaming device  102 , for instance, can be an Apple TV. The cable  107  can exemplarily be a HDMI cable. The TV set display an OSD keypad  120  on its screen  113  when text entry operation is invoked. The OSD keypad has character keys: “a”, “b”, and “1”, etc. The OSD keypad  120  also has command keys, such as “Cap”, “Low”, “#” and “←”, representing “display capital letters”, “display lower case letters”, “display special characters” and “back space”, respectively. As shown in  FIG. 1 , as the “Low” is highlighted, lower case letters are displayed in the OSD keypad  120 . In this case, letter key “h” is highlighted, i.e., selected. 
     Referring again to  FIG. 1 , the conventional OSD text entering system also includes a remote control unit  130  having at least four shift buttons  132 - 138  and a enter button  141 . The remote control unit  130  may use infrared signals or radio frequency signals to transmit the button pressing information to the media streaming device  102 . The shift button  132 - 138  is for character selection on the OSD keypad to shift one character left, up, right and down, respectively, for every press of the buttons. In the case as shown in  FIG. 1 , when the enter button  141  is pressed, letter “h” is then entered. When shift button  132  is pressed, the selection will be shifted to letter key “g”. If then the button  134  is pressed, the selection will be shifted to letter key “a”. A problem with the conventional OSD text entering system is that often time two or more of the shift buttons  132 - 138  have to be pressed multiple times sequentially to reach a desired letter—and this can be slow and frustrating. 
     As such, what is desired is an OSD text entering system that can easily enter characters with a limited number of buttons. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a conventional OSD text entering system. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates an OSD text entering system according an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     The drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification are included to depict certain aspects of the invention. A clearer conception of the invention, and of the components and operation of systems provided with the invention, will become more readily apparent by referring to the exemplary, and therefore non-limiting, embodiments illustrated in the drawings, wherein like reference numbers (if they occur in more than one view) designate the same elements. The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the description presented herein. 
     DESCRIPTION 
     The present invention relates to an on-screen displayed (OSD) text entering system. A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the attached drawings. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an OSD text entering system according an embodiment of the present invention. The present OSD text entering system includes an exemplary media streaming device  102 , connected to a TV set  113  through a cable  107 . A remote control unit  130  has four shift buttons  132 - 138  (left, top, right and bottom, respectively) and a enter button  141  just as a conventional OSD text entering system shown in  FIG. 1 . The remote control unit  130  can transmit button pressing information to the media streaming device  102  via infrared or radio frequency signals. 
     However, as shown in  FIG. 2 , the present OSD text entering system displays a novel OSD keypad  220 , in which four series of letter and command keys are lined up in four directions: leftward direction  222 , upward direction  224 , rightward direction  226  and downward direction  228 . In an embodiment shown in  FIG. 2 , there are letter keys “a” through “g” in a line in the leftward direction  222 ; there are letter keys “h” through “n” in a line in the upward direction  224 ; there are letter keys “o” through “u” in a line in the rightward direction  226 ; and there are letter keys “v” through “z” and command keys “Cap”, “Low” and “#” in a line in a downward direction  228 . These lines of keys in directions  222 ,  224 ,  226  and  228  have no intersection, i.e., there is not a common key among these lines of keys. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the left shift button  132  incorporates an arrow symbol that coincides with the leftward direction  222 . Similarly, the top shift button  134  incorporates an arrow symbol that coincides with the upward direction  224 ; the right shift button  136  incorporates an arrow symbol that coincides with the rightward direction  226 ; and the bottom shift button  138  incorporates an arrow symbol that coincides with the downward direction  228 . 
     In operation, when letter key “d”, which is the fourth key to the left in the leftward direction  222 , is to be entered, a user can continuously press the left shift button  132  four times, then letter key “d” will be highlighted, and when the enter button  141  is pressed, letter key “d” will be entered into the media streaming device  102 . With each press of the left shift button  132 , the highlight will shift leftward by one key, so that the user can see exactly which key is selected without actually counting the number of button pressing. In addition, the highlight can only be shift in one direction, i.e., leftward for the leftward direction  222 . After key “g” is selected, another press of the left shift button  132 , key “a” will be selected, i.e., the selection shifts from the left to the right and back to the left. 
     After the enter button  141  is pressed, all the keys, but not the command keys (“Cap”, “Low” and “#”) will be deselected. If another letter key “g”, which is the seventh key to the left in the leftward direction  222 , is to be entered, a user has to continuously press the left shift button  132  seven times, and then press the enter button  141 . 
     Referring again to  FIG. 2 , when letter key “j”, which is third key to the top in the upward direction  224 , is to be entered, a user can continuously press top shift button  134  three times, and then press the enter button  141 . When letter key “o”, which is the first key to the right in the rightward direction  226 , is to be entered, a user needs to press the right shift button  136  only once, and then press the enter button  141 . 
     Referring again to  FIG. 2 , in embodiments, no matter which letter key is currently highlighted, when a different shift button is pressed, keys in the direction that corresponds to the newly pressed shift button will be highlighted from a first key to the next depending on how many time the shift button is pressed. Such operation can best be illustrated by an example. Suppose a user intends to enter letter “x”, but accidentally presses right shift button  136 . As a result, letter key “o” is highlighted. The user can then switch to pressing the bottom shift button  138 . After a first press of the bottom shift button  138 , letter key “v” will be highlighted. Two more press of the bottom shift button  138  will shift the highlight to letter key “x”. 
     Referring again to  FIG. 2 , as command “Low” is highlighted, the OSD keypad  220  displays and enters lower case letters. In order to shift to capital letters, one can press the bottom shift button  138  seven times to shift the highlight to command “Cap” which is in the seventh position to the bottom in the downward direction  228 , and then press the enter button  141 . The OSD keypad stays in capital letter display until either “Low” or “#” is selected. Pressing the bottom shift button  138  nine times, the command “#” will be selected, and then press the enter button  141 , the OSD keypad  220  will display numeral and special character keys (not shown) in place of the letter keys in the four directions  222 - 228 , and these characters can be entered in the same manner as described above. 
     In embodiments, the media streaming device  102  employs a central processing unit (not shown) to control the OSD keypad  220 , process the button pressing signals from the remote control unit  130  and handle the aforementioned operations of the text entering. In other embodiments, the media streaming device  102  may be incorporated in the TV set  110 . 
     While this disclosure has been particularly shown and described with references to exemplary embodiments thereof, it shall be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the claimed embodiments.