Abstract:
A compact keyboard for entry of alphanumeric data or other characters into a computerized system. A character formation key on the keyboard is formed by a plurality of bars which are capable of being activated for providing light. These bars are arranged in a mosaic pattern with several of the bars forming an outer box pattern and several of the bars extending inside of the box pattern. Light is emitted from each bar when such bar is in an activated lit condition. Each of the bars is switchable between an activated lit condition and an off condition, with the activated bars emitting light so as to display an alphanumeric character. The keyboard has a data entry mechanism for causing the displayed alphanumeric character to be entered into a computerized system.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a compact keyboard system. 
     With the rapidly expanding developments of small computer systems, there has been an ever increasing demand for reducing the overall size of the computer system as well as the keyboard for entering data into the system. While the size of the computer system has been substantially reduced so that small computers can fit within a briefcase or a large jacket pocket, problems have arisen as far as the practicality of use of the keyboards on such computers. These various pocket size or small computers for briefcases have used a full set of keys on a keyboard but have substantially reduced the size of such keys. The small size of these keys has rendered it difficult to only actuate a single key for entering data when using the keyboard. 
     While a full keyboard with all keys and punctuation marks of a size sufficiently large for enabling information to actually be typed into the computer system is desirable for some types of operation, if the amount of information to be entered into the computer system is limited in nature then a full size keyboard for regular typing is unnecessary. The primary concern in this type of situation becomes the case and speed with which data can be entered into the computer system. 
     Various types of coded key formats have been developed for enabling codes representative of different alphanumeric characters to be entered into a computer system using a single key structure. Exemplary of such systems are those systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,400 to Engdahl and U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,471 to Whitaker. 
     In the patent to Engdahl, a small data entry screen is provided on a portion of a watch surface. This data entry screen primarily consists of four pressure sensitive quadrants. By writing information across such quadrants in a particular order, it is possible to enter various numbers of 0 through 9. As indicated in the patent, by carefully writing the various numbers in a particular pattern each of the four quadrants will be activated in a particular different order thereby providing a coded signal corresponding to each of the different numbers of 0 through 9. In this manner, a numerical code can be entered through this data entry screen on the watch. 
     In the patent to Whitaker, special codes have been developed for each letter of the alphabet and for various punctuation marks. By writing these special codes on a data entry screen, which screen consists of four pressure sensitive quadrants, alphanumeric data can be entered into a computer system. In the operation of this system disclosed by the patent to Whitaker, one must remember the specific codes representing each character and punctuation mark or alternatively must continually refer to a chart showing the code for each of the alphanumeric characters and punctuation marks. 
     Other types of systems for enabling the entry of written data have been developed within the art. Exemplary of such other types of systems is the drawing board disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,029 to Graven. The patent to Graven discloses an array of light-emitting light-sensing members which can be activated by a stylus for entering different codes representing different data to be entered into the computer system. 
     In addition, various types of optical displays utilizing a series of light-emitting bars or segments have been extensively developed within the art. These displays provide for the display of alphanumeric characters based upon which bars are activated for emitting light. Exemplary of these types of display systems are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,495,232 to Wagner, 4,220,948 to Trame, and 4,224,615 to Penz. The patents to Wagner and Penz both disclose LCDs in which each character is formed by a series of lighted bars; these bar patterns have an outer box structure along with a plurality of bars extending within the box. These LCD display bars, however, only provide a display of information entered through another source within the system and are not utilized for enabling the entry of data. The patent to Trame discloses the formation of various characters using a 7-segment set of shutters; again this system is merely a display system and not utilized for the entry of data into a computer system. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An object of the present invention is to provide an improved compact keyboard system for facilitating the energy of alphanumeric data into a computer system. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a compact keyboard system for enabling the entry of alphanumeric data where the keyboard structure is formed by a plurality of bars capable of being activated in a particular alphanumeric pattern for the entry of the desired data. 
     A further object of the present invention is to provide a small compact keyboard having a single key structure formed by a plurality of bars for enabling these bars to be lit in a particular pattern for the entry of data into the computer system through the compact keyboard. 
     These objectives are achieved by the compact keyboard of the present invention. This compact keyboard is used for entering alphanumeric data into a computerized system. The keyboard of the present invention enables alphanumeric characters and if desired punctuation marks to be entered on the keyboard and enables such data to then be transferred either through a modem to a transmitter on a telephone or through a serial port connection to a system for transferring the information to a computer system. 
     The compact keyboard of the present invention has a character formation key which is formed by a plurality of bars capable of being activated for providing light. These bars which form the character formation key are arranged in a mosaic pattern with several of the bars forming an outer box pattern and several of the bars extending inside of this box pattern. A mechanism is provided for causing each of the bars to emit light when such bar is in an activated lit condition. Each of the bars is switchable between its activated lit condition and an off condition with the activated bars emitting light so as to display an alphanumeric character. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, either all or at least some of the bars are normally activated and hence emit light; during use of this embodiment when forming characters the necessary bars are deactivated, i.e. turned off, so that the remaining lit bars form the desired alphanumeric character. Once the desired alphanumeric character is formed, a data entry key is activated for causing the displayed alphanumeric character to be entered into the computer system. 
     In accordance with the preferred embodiment, each of the bars is switchable between its activated and its off control by a user contacting each individual bar. An initiating mechanism can cause the normal condition of at least several of these bars to be in their activated condition. In such normally activated condition such bars emit light so that when entering characters on the keyboard a user contacts selected normally activated bars to turn off their lights. It has been found in developing the present invention that the alphanumeric characters can be more rapidly formed by placing at least the bars forming the outer box pattern and possibly the bars extending horizontally across such box pattern in a normally activated condition. In this manner, it normally takes fewer key strokes to form each alphanumeric character, at least those characters that are most often entered such as the vowels, A, E, I, O and U. Once the displayed alphanumeric character has been entered into the computer system to which the keyboard is coupled, the data entry key causes a reinitiating operation so that the bars are returned to their normal conditions. 
     To facilitate and speed up the process of entering the desired alphanumeric characters through the keyboard into the computerized system, in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention a best guess display mechanism is provided. In accordance with this best guess display mechanism, as the bars of the key are activated, or deactivated if such bars are normally lit, an analysis is made based upon the bars that are lit as to which characters the user of the keyboard is most likely attempting to form. In making this analysis, the factors taken into consideration can be the bars that are actually lit and if desired a probability weighting factor can be added in so that the best guess characters displayed are those characters that are most often formed, e.g. vowels, certain letters of the alphabet or certain characters that historically have been most often formed by the user of the keyboard. Each of these best guess characters is displayed on a separate character display member. For example, if the bars forming the outer box pattern of the key and the bars forming the inner horizontal line of the key are lit then the best guess characters displayed could include B, D, O, and A. 
     The number of separate character display members can be any desired number although in accordance with the preferred embodiment four such displays are provided. If any of these separate character display members displays the desired alphanumeric character that the user intends to enter then a separate data entry key associated with such separate character display member that displays the desired alphanumeric character can be activated by the user thereby immediately entering this displayed alphanumeric character, which is one of the best guess characters selected by the analyzing mechanism of the keyboard. 
     The analyzing mechanism is formed by a one chip microprocessor such as a Z8 from Zilog, which has its own built-in RAM and ROM. The microprocessor can constantly update the best guess alphanumeric characters displayed each time the condition of any of the bars of the key is changed by the user of the keyboard. Consequently, each time the user changes the condition of any of the bars the best guess characters based upon the particular bars then activated are displayed on the separate character display members. 
     In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the keyboard of the present invention, each of the bars has an associated lamp which provides backlighting to the bar for generating a light behind the bar that shines through the bar. There are preferably sixteen of these backlit bars. 
     A separate punctuation generating mechanism also can be provided on the keyboard. While there are some punctuation marks such as a slash that can be formed by the bars, most of the punctuation marks can not be generated by the bars of the key. Consequently, it is possible to include on the keyboard two punctuation generating members. The first punctuation generating member can be a period which when pressed will display on the four separate character display members the following punctuation marks: &#34;.&#34;, &#34;:&#34;, &#34;!&#34; and &#34;?&#34;. The second punctuation key is a comma which when pressed results in the display on the four separate character displays of the following punctuation marks: &#34;,&#34;, &#34;;&#34;&#34;@&#34; and &#34;&amp;&#34;. 
     Finally, it is also possible to use the keyboard of the present invention for forming and entering both upper and lower case characters. For this purpose, a shift/lock key can be provided for shifting between the upper and lower case characters. 
     A separate display screen can be provided on one side of the keyboard for displaying the characters that have been entered. This display screen can display several characters that have been entered, for example the last ten or twenty characters or if the screen is made large then several lines of data can be displayed. 
     In accordance with the preferred embodiment, there are 16 bars provided for forming the mosaic pattern of the character formation key. There are also two alternative embodiments for the character formation key. The first alternative includes the addition of a seventeenth member located at the center of the bar mosaic pattern. The second alternative is to utilize a single bar member along the three horizontal lines: top, middle and bottom. 
     In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the bars that form the character formation key can be activated by a separate set of keys instead of the user actually contacting the bars themselves. For example, it is possible to ascribe a two-digit numerical code to each of the bars of the character formation key and by entering these codes each of the bars can be either activated or deactivated so as to turn on the light associated with such bar. In another alternative embodiment of the keyboard of the present invention, while the switching is accomplished by the user contacting the bars of the character formation key, the lights themselves do not emit light through the bars but instead the pattern of the bars which are activated result in a character pattern appearing on a separate display member. The character pattern on this display member is dependent upon the bars of the character formation key that are actuated. 
     Alternative arrangements for activating the bars of the character formation key can be utilized. Such alternative arrangements could include the use of a light pen, joystick, mouse, touch screen or voice commands for activating the various bars of the character formation key. With such alternative arrangements, the bar pattern alternatively can be a pictorial pattern displayed on a display member with each of the bars of the display being activated or deactivated by an appropriate command signal. If a voice activated system is used, then the user can either provide a number indicating a particular bar to be activated or can say the actual alphanumeric character with the system then providing the best guess interpretation of the voice command. 
     While the keyboard of the present invention is primarily utilized for entering alphanumeric characters, the keyboard can be used for entering other types of characters, e.g. *, +, - and graphic symbols. In entering such information, the character or symbol that is formed on the keyboard is the actual character to be entered into the computer system. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a front plan view of a compact keyboard in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the switch members associated with each of the bars of the key of the keyboard of the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the backlights provided behind each of the bars of the key of the keyboard of the present invention. 
     FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic circuit diagrams of the circuitry of the keyboard of the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 is a front plan view of the keyboard as shown in FIG. 1 except that some of the bars are lit as they would be in operation and four best guess characters are displayed on the keyboard. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     A compact keyboard system 2 in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. This compact keyboard system includes a character formation key 4. This character formation key is made up of 16 bars, bars 6 through 36. Each of these bars when activated emits light from a light emitting member located behind the bar which light emitting member is turned on when the bar is activated. During normal operation, bars 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 forming an outer box pattern of character formation key 4 are normally lit. In addition, inner horizontal bars 22 and 24 may be normally lit. When a user desires to enter an alphanumeric character, any of the normally lit bars that should not be lit are contacted so as to turn off the lighting for such bar and any of the normally unlit bars that should be lit are contacted so as to activate such bars. The character displayed by the lit bars can be entered by activating data entry key 5. 
     Once operation of the keyboard is commenced, as the user begins to contact different bars, a microprocessor controlled system within the keyboard system displays the four best guesses of the alphanumeric character being formed by the user. These four displays are presented on display members 40, 42, 44 and 46 of the best guess display and entry section 38. The best guesses of the character that the user intends to form is determined based upon analyzing: (1) the particular bars of character formation key 4 that are activated, (2) a probability weighting factor which takes into consideration that some letters are more likely to occur than others such as vowels are more likely to occur than certain other letters, and (3) an historical analysis based upon alphanumeric characters recently entered by the user which might determine for example that the particular user enters more s&#39;s than p&#39;s. This analysis is determined by a computer program within the microprocessor controlled system. 
     If one of the displays on display members 40, 42, 44 and 46 is the alphanumeric character that the user intends to form then an associated data entry key, one of keys 48, 50, 52 and 54, is contacted by the user so as to cause the character displayed on the separate display members to be entered by the keyboard system into the computerized system to which the keyboard is coupled. 
     Compact keyboard system 2 can be coupled to a telephone modem such as an acoustic modem. If such a modem is provided, then the keyboard system 2 can be used for entering data which then can be coupled through the telephone system to a computer system by such modem which transmits the information over the telephone lines. With such an arrangement, the keyboard system can be used for enabling a user to enter a password or several passwords into a computerized system through a telephone line so as to obtain information out of the computerized system once the password or words are recognized by the system. Thus, the keyboard system of the present invention can be used for enabling a user to enter a password over the telephone lines to a computerized telephone message system which once the password is received will transmit to the user over the same telephone line any messages for such user. These messages can be transmitted to the user through the same modem to which the keyboard system 2 is attached so that keyboard system 2 then displays on a display screen 62 any messages received over the telephone line. This display screen 62 also shows the series of characters entered by the user when operating keyboard system 2. 
     Character formation key 4 can be used for entering either upper case or lower case letters. For shifting between upper case and lower case letters a shift/lock key 60 is provided. In order to enable punctuation marks which can not be formed on the bar patterns of character formation key 4 to be entered through the keyboard system 2, two punctuation keys, keys 56 and 58 are provided. Punctuation key 56 is a period key which generates a series of different punctuation marks that utilize a period. Thus, when punctuation key 56 is contacted by the user, the following four punctuation marks can be caused to appear on display members 40, 42, 44 and 46: &#34;.&#34;, &#34;:&#34;, &#34;!&#34; and &#34;?&#34;. When punctuation key 58 is contacted by the user, the following four punctuation marks can be displayed: &#34;,&#34;, &#34;;&#34;, &#34;@&#34; and &#34;&amp;&#34;. 
     Each of the bars 6 through 36 has an associated switch such as switches 64 and 66 shown in FIG. 2. One side of each of these switches is connected to ground while the other side is connected to one of the input terminals A through O. These input terminals A through O are the input terminals to multiple one bit input ports 72, shown in FIG. 4. Each of the input terminals such as shown by input terminals 65 in FIGS. 2 and 4 is coupled to ports 72 and also to a five volt source through a 10k ohm pull-up resistor. When the switch associated with the input terminal is not closed, e.g. when switch 64 is open so that terminal 65 is not connected to ground then the input terminal associated with input A of ports 72 is biased by the five volts through resistor 74. However, when switch 64 is closed so as to connect terminal 65 of input A to ground then the input of A to ports 72 is grounded thereby providing an input signal through one bit input port 72 which in turn can be provided to a microprocessor 82. Similarly each of the input terminals A through X, shown in FIG. 4 has a corresponding pull-up resistor such as resistors 74 and 76. While only four input terminals have been shown with letter designations and the five volt bias and the 10k ohm pull-up resistor, each of the input terminals is connected to an appropriate input of multiple one bit input port 72 such as through terminals 78 and 80. 
     The signals from multiple one bit input port 72 are supplied to a microprocessor 82. This microprocessor can be a Z8 one chip microprocessor which has its own built-in RAM and ROM. The microprocessor 82 also is connected through a processor bus 84 to multiple one bit output ports 88. In addition, the microprocessor 82 is connected to a modem or to a computer direct connection through a serial port 86. Output signals are provided by the multiple one bit output ports to a series of current drivers such as current drive amplifiers 90 and 92 which in turn are each coupled to a light emitting member associated with each of the bars of key 4. These light emitting members are represented in FIG. 3 by light bulbs such as bulbs 68 and 70. The outputs A2 through D2 are coupled as output terminals such as 94 and 96 to the inputs of the light bulbs for providing current for turning on the light bulbs shown in Figure 3. Each of the light bulbs in FIG. 3 when activated then shines a light through the corresponding bar of key 4 so that a character pattern is formed by the lit bars. 
     In addition, the multiple one bit output ports provide a series of output signals to display members P1 through P4 which are designated as members 98, 100, 102 and 104, respectively. These display members display the best guess characters which guesses are determined by the microprocessor 82. If one of these characters is the particular character that the user of keyboard system 2 intends to form then such user can close the appropriate corresponding switch of switches 106, 108, 110 and 112 which provides an output signal on the appropriate output terminal such as terminal 114. Activation of one of these output terminals then provides a signal through multiple one bit input ports to microprocessor 82 which in turn supplies the selected character to the computerized system through serial port 86. In addition, data entry key 5 has an associated switch 122 for entering the actual character displayed by key 4. 
     In a similar manner, each of the punctuation keys, 56 and 58, and the shift/lock 60 has an associated switch, switches 116, 118 and 120, respectively, shown in FIG. 5. When each of the switches is closed then an appropriate input signal is supplied to multiple one bit input ports 72 indicating that such switch has been closed. 
     In FIG. 6 a series of lit bars are shown on key 4. As shown in this FIGURE, bars 6, 8, 10, 12, 18, 20, 22 and 24 are lit. When these bars are lit then microprocessor 82 could analyze such lit bars and provide an indication on displays 40, 42, 44 and 46 of the best guesses of the particular character that the user intends to form. As an example, display 40 shows an A, display 42 a P, display 44 a F and display 46 a R. The user then can activate one of the data entry keys under these four displays so as to select one of these four displayed characters and enter such character if the displayed character is the character that the user intended to form. 
     The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are presented merely as illustrative and not restrictive, with the scope of the invention being indicated by the attached claims rather than the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.