Abstract:
A first signal is received to activate a first entry field ( 200 ). Upon receipt of the first signal, the first entry field is distinguished by at least one of the following attributes: changing a size of the first entry field, changing a font face of the first entry field, changing a color of the first entry field, and changing a property of the first entry field. The first entry is undistinguished when a second signal is received to de-activate the first entry field and to activate a second entry field, or when no activity has occurred within the entry field for an amount of time. Alternatively, a character string contained within an entry field at a position marked by a cursor is dynamically distinguished when the cursor is within or immediately adjacent to the character string.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates generally to a method for dynamically distinguishing a character string.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Eyestrain and readability are common problems with smaller computing devices, such as personal digital assistants (“PDAs”). These devices have smaller display screens, therefore making it a challenge to display a plurality of input fields simultaneously. Developers want to display, and users want to see, for example, an entire paper form on the display screen. Displaying an entire paper form may not always be possible due to lack of screen real estate. Newer portable devices, like PDAs, exacerbate this problem. That is, there is even less space available on the display screen, and the display screens are typically less crisp and less color accurate. Some PDAs even use monochromatic display screens, making reading the display screen more difficult. This in combination with various light or other environmental conditions make these display screens difficult to read for both data entry and editing.  
           [0003]    A current solution to the above problem uses a magnifying glass technique to enlarge an area of the display screen to make the enlarged area easier to read. The floating magnifying glass technique is not an optimal solution as it simply enlarges everything in a given area of the display screen. That is, the magnifying glass technique is not discrete in making entry fields more readable. The magnifying glass technique indiscriminately enlarges a particular area, including field prompts and whatever else is in scope. Another disadvantage to the magnifying glass technique is that the magnifying glass distorts the surrounding area, making those areas more difficult to read, or unreadable all together. Moreover, the magnifying glass technique is typically manually controlled by the actions of the user; the user has to manually activate the magnifying glass function, disable the magnifying glass function, and move the magnifying glass around the display screen, etc. each time the user wants to indicate the area magnification or use the function.  
           [0004]    Other solutions include simply making all the fields statically larger or bolder on the display screen. This solution makes the problem worse as larger fields makes even less room available for other information to be visible to the user on the display screen.  
           [0005]    Moreover, the user can sometime have tunnel vision when using the PDA; the user is required to focus so intently on the entry or edit, he loses his peripheral vision. Tunnel vision can cause eyestrain, and can also be dangerous for public safety officers in that they need peripheral vision to identify individuals or behaviors that could put them at risk.  
           [0006]    Thus, there exists a need for a method for dynamically distinguishing an entry field and/or a character string on behalf of the user while retaining readability of a majority of the surrounding entry fields. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES  
       [0007]    A preferred embodiment of the invention is now described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures in which:  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 illustrates a structural block diagram of an input device in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 illustrates a screen shot of an electronic form in accordance with a first example of the present invention;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 illustrates a screen shot of FIG. 2 after a timeout period has elapsed in accordance with the first example of the present invention; and  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 illustrates a screen shot of paragraphs of text in accordance with a second example of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0012]    It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to each other. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate identical elements.  
         [0013]    The present invention dynamically distinguishes the entry field temporarily, on behalf of the user, as data entry and/or editing is being performed; the present invention uses the term “dynamically” to mean during the time of operation of the software by the end user. The present invention further distinguishes at least the current character string, on behalf of the user, in which the cursor is within or immediately adjacent to. The present invention also dynamically undistinguishes the entry field after, on behalf of the user, after a timeout period has lapsed or when the entry field is no longer active (i.e., in focus); the present invention dynamically undistinguishes the character string, on behalf of the user, after a timeout period has lapsed or when the cursor is no longer within or immediately adjacent to the character string. Thus, the present invention allows the user to use a small input device while easily viewing the character strings during data entry/editing by dynamically distinguishing the entry field and/or the character string itself on behalf of the user. Further, the present invention reduces tunnel vision and eyestrain that may occur with a small input device while retaining readability of a majority of the surrounding entry fields.  
         [0014]    Let us first discuss the structure of the input device according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a graphical display screen  100  of the input device  102  enables the display of a graphical user interface (“GUI”)  104  and keyboard  106 . It should be noted that the keyboard  106  might comprise any type of characters (e.g., letters, numbers, special characters, etc.) and/or display any type of configuration thereof (e.g., the characters displayed in a particular order such as in a QWERTY keyboard).  
         [0015]    In the preferred embodiment, the internal circuitry of the input device  102  comprises a touch sensitive surface  108 , an input interface  110 , a processing unit  112 , a keyboard graphic module  114 , and a display driver  116 . The touch sensitive surface  108  and the graphical display screen  100  create a touch screen  118 . Preferably, the touch sensitive surface  108  is a resistive grid, but could alternatively be an inductive grid, capacitance grid or any other touch sensitive surface known in the art.  
         [0016]    The input interface  110  is coupled to the touch sensitive surface  108 . The input interface  110  translates pressure on the touch sensitive surface into Cartesian coordinates (hereinafter referred to as “coordinates”) and transmits the coordinates to the processing unit  112 . The coordinates identify the current location of a stylus  120  used to enter and/or edit data. Thus, as the stylus  120  exerts pressure on the touch screen  118  by moving across the GUI  104  and/or the keyboard  106 , the input interface  110  generates new coordinates in order to keep current of the location of the stylus  120  as typically known to those individuals skilled in the art.  
         [0017]    The processing unit  112  is coupled to the input interface  110 . Upon receiving the coordinates from the input interface  110 , the processing unit  112  is programmed by a computer-readable storage (memory) device  122  having instructions and data stored therein which, when loaded into the processing unit  112 , causes the processing unit  112 , to perform the functions of the present invention, particularly, a) dynamically distinguish an entry field and associated character string(s) upon gaining “focus”; b) dynamically undistinguish the entry field and associated character string(s) upon losing “focus”; c) dynamically undistinguish the entry field and associated character string(s) after an amount of time (timeout period) has lapsed; d) dynamically distinguish a character string in which the cursor is within or immediately adjacent to, particularly from, but not limited to the surrounding text; e) dynamically undistinguish the character string after an amount of time (timeout period) has lapsed; and/or f) dynamically undistinguish the character string when the cursor is no longer within or immediately adjacent to the character string. For purposes of the present invention, an entry field gains “focus” when the entry field becomes active (i.e., when the cursor enters the entry field for data entry/edit). An entry field loses “focus” when the entry field is no longer active (i.e., when the cursor leaves the entry field).  
         [0018]    The keyboard graphics module  114  is coupled to the processing unit  112 . The keyboard graphics module  114  communicates to the processing unit  112  the type of characters associated with the keyboard  106  (e.g., special characters, selected characters, etc.) and/or their configuration displayed on the GUI  104  as known to those individuals skilled in the art.  
         [0019]    The display driver  116  couples the processing unit  112  to the graphical display screen  100 . The output from the processing unit  112  is transmitted to the display driver  116  that turns on or off pixels within the GUI  104  as known to those individuals skilled in the art.  
         [0020]    At this point, the preferred hardware and software components implementing the present invention have been described. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that all the hardware and/or software components described above may not be needed to implement the present invention. It will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that alternative hardware and/or software components than those described above may be used to implement the present invention. Let us now turn the discussion to specific examples of the present invention. It is important to note that the following examples are used for exemplary purposes only, and are not intended to limit the spirit and scope of the present invention in any manner.  
         [0021]    The first example of the present invention describes data entry/editing into a plurality of edit boxes on an electronic form. An edit box is a type of entry field; the term edit box is defined as an area designed for text input by the end user. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the present invention dynamically distinguishes the edit box  200 , and associated character string, currently “in focus”; in the present invention, the edit box  200  becomes “focused” by selecting it with the stylus  120 , using a tab function, or the like. In this specific example, the “last name” edit box  200  gained focus as the user selected the field containing the last name field value of “SMITH”.  
         [0022]    In this example, the present invention distinguishes the focused edit box  200  and associated character string by enlarging the size of the edit box  200  and associated character string from their default values. It is important to note that the present invention temporarily enlarges only the active edit box  200  and associated character string, rather than a given area of the screen as described in the background. The expansion size of the edit box  200 /character string may be statically defined, such as a twenty percent enlargement; alternatively, the expansion size of the focused edit box  200 /character string may be user-definable. It should be noted that in the preferred embodiment, the focused edit box  200  enlarges “in place”; i.e., the focused edit box  200  expanded from it current horizontal center position (placement), however, expanding from its current center position is not necessary. The advantage of enlarging the focused edit box  200  “in place” allows the user to view the majority, if not all, of the edit boxes displayed at any given time while performing data entry/edit.  
         [0023]    It is important to note that the present invention may have alternatively distinguished the edit box  200  and associated character string(s) currently in focus by at least one of the following attributes: changing the size of the edit box/character string, changing the font face of the edit box/character string, changing the color of the edit box/character string, changing a property of the edit box  200 /character string (e.g., bolded, italicized, underlined, shadowed, highlighted, etc.), etc; it should be obvious to those individuals skilled in the art that the edit box/character string may be distinguished in a variety of other ways, and should not be considered limited to those listed above. Dynamically distinguishing the focused edit box  200  and/or associated character string allows the focused edit box  200 /character string to become easily readable as data entry and/or editing is being performed. Thus, the present invention has the advantage of allowing the user to quickly view at-a-glance which edit box is currently in focus, without the need to locate the cursor.  
         [0024]    Preferably, if data entry and/or editing subsides for an amount of time (i.e., a timeout period) while the cursor remains in the focused edit box (i.e., the edit box is still active), the focused edit box  200  reduces to the size of its default value as illustrated in FIG. 3; in the preferred embodiment, the focused edit box  200  expands in size if activity (e.g., data entry, data editing, etc.) resumes within the focused edit box  200 . Additionally, an edit box returns to its default value when it “loses focus” (i.e., when the cursor leaves the edit box; e.g., when the user inputs/edits data in a different edit box). Once the edit box “loses focus”, the edit box returns to its default value immediately or after a predetermined amount of time.  
         [0025]    Let us now discuss the second example of the present invention: data entry/editing of paragraphs of text/character strings. In the preferred embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 4, character strings are typed and displayed in a multi-line edit box  400 . The present invention dynamically “distinguishes” at least the character string in which the cursor is within or immediately adjacent to. The present invention can also be extended to dynamically “distinguish” at least one additional character string that has been entered within a predefined period of time. In this particular example, two character strings (i.e., “lazy” and “dog”) are made “distinguishable” from the other character strings in the multi-line edit box  400 .  
         [0026]    Preferably, after a predetermined amount of time lapses after the character string has been entered/edited, or alternatively, after a punctuation mark or break in the character string indicating the completion of the character string (as a result of a space, carriage return, or the like), the character string becomes “undistinguishable” from the other character string(s) displayed in the multi-line edit box  400 . Again, making the character string undistinguishable can occur immediately or after a predetermined amount of time has lapsed.  
         [0027]    It should be noted that a character string may be “distinguishable” from the other character string(s) in the multi-line edit box  400  in a variety of ways that will be obvious to those skilled in the art; for example, the character string(s) may be displayed in a different font size, different font face, different color, different property (e.g., bolded, italicized, underlined, shadowed, highlighted, etc.), or the like. In this example, the character strings (i.e., “lazy” and “dog”) are “distinguished” from the other character strings in the multi-line edit box  400  by temporarily taking on a larger font size and a bolder font face. Thus, as in the first example, the user easily views what s/he recently entered/edited.  
         [0028]    While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. The invention, in its broader aspects, is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus, and illustrative examples shown and described. Various alterations, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. Thus, it should be understood that the invention is not limited by the foregoing description, but embraces all such alterations, modifications and variations in accordance with the spirit and scope of the appended claims.