Abstract:
An input method for a touch screen is provided. The touch screen includes a virtual keyboard having a plurality of virtual keys. The method includes a step of displaying a possible key frame in response to the action of touching one of the virtual keys. The possible key frame includes a plurality of possible keys, which have relatively higher possibilities to be inputted after the one of the virtual keys is touched.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to an input method, and more particularly to an input method for a touch screen.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Touch screens are widely used in handheld electronic devices, for example mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), as the interfaces for inputting data therevia.  
         [0003]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a schematic view of a conventional touch screen is illustrated. The touch screen  100  includes a virtual keyboard  101 , which has a plurality of virtual keys  1011 . The virtual keys  1011  include alphabetical keys, numeric keys, symbolic keys, function keys, etc. For example, by using a stylus to touch the virtual keys  1011 , the designated letters in the English alphabet, symbols or functions are inputted via the touch screen  100 .  
         [0004]     As known, the inputting speed of using the virtual keyboard is much lower than that of using a real keyboard. By using the real keyboard, the ten fingers of the user are responsible for pressing respective specified keys. Even when the current key (e.g. the letter P) and the next key (e.g. the letter Q) to be pressed are far from each other, the user needs not shift one finger by a long distance. On the contrary, since only one stylus is used to touch the virtual keyboard, the time interval between two successive touch operations is relatively long. If the current key and the next key to be touched are far from each other, the user should shift the stylus by a larger distance. Consequently, the inputting speed of using the virtual keyboard is usually undesirable and the possibility of inputting wrong keys is increased.  
         [0005]     In views of the above-described disadvantages, the applicant keeps on carving unflaggingly to develop an input method for a touch screen according to the present invention through wholehearted experience and research.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     It is an object of the present invention to provide an input method for a touch screen and a handheld electronic device using this input method, in which the inputting efficiency for the touch screen is increased and the possibility of inputting wrong keys is minimized.  
         [0007]     In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an input method for a touch screen. The touch screen comprises a virtual keyboard having a plurality of virtual keys. The method comprises a step of displaying a possible key frame in response to the action of touching one of the virtual keys. The possible key frame includes a plurality of possible keys, which have relatively higher possibilities to be inputted after the one of the virtual keys is touched.  
         [0008]     In an embodiment, the possible key frame overlies the virtual keyboard.  
         [0009]     In an embodiment, the possible key frame is a square frame containing nine possible keys.  
         [0010]     In an embodiment, the virtual keyboard has the function for inputting letters in the English alphabet therevia, and the nine possible keys of the possible key frame include several alphabet keys and at least one symbolic key.  
         [0011]     Alternatively, the possible key frame is a rectangular frame including the numeric keys 0˜9.  
         [0012]     In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a handheld electronic device. The handheld electronic device comprises a touch screen and an input control unit. The touch screen comprises a virtual keyboard having a plurality of virtual keys for inputting data therevia. The input control unit is used for displaying a possible key frame in response to the action of touching one of the virtual keys. The possible key frame includes a plurality of possible keys, which have relatively higher possibilities to be inputted after the one of the virtual keys is touched.  
         [0013]     Preferably, the handheld electronic device is a mobile phone.  
         [0014]     Preferably, the handheld electronic device is a personal digital assistant (PDA).  
         [0015]     The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which: 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a conventional touch screen;  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of a handheld electronic device with a touch screen according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0018]     FIGS.  3 ˜ 26  are schematic views of the touch screen illustrating the steps for inputting an English sentence according to the conventional input method and the input method of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0019]     Referring to  FIG. 2 , a schematic view of a handheld electronic device with a touch screen according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. An example of the handheld electronic device  2000  is a mobile phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The handheld electronic device  2000  comprises a touch screen  200  and an input control unit  300  mounted within the main body thereof. The touch screen  200  includes a virtual keyboard  201 , which has a plurality of virtual keys  2011 . The input control unit  300  controls implementation of the input method of the present invention.  
         [0020]     Take the English alphabetical system for example. A single character is composed of one or more letters. According to a statistic result relating to 26,000 single characters in an English dictionary, five letters with the highest possibilities of occurrences following a specified letter at a specified position are reported in the following table.  
                                                               Five letters with the highest               Specified   possibilities of occurrences           Position   Letter   following a specified letter                           1   p   r, a, e, o, i           1   i   n, m, r, s, d           1   y   o, a, e, u, a           1   o   r, b, p, c, s           2   e   r, n, l, a, s           2   l   a, o, e, u, i           2   r   a, o, e, i, u           2   s   t, s, y, c, p           3   a   n, r, t, d, c           3   d   i, e, d, r, a           3   i   n, t, l, s, m           4   m   i, a, e, o, p           4   r   e, i, o, a, t           5   a   n, r, t, l, c           5   s   t, i, e, o, h           6   x   i, y, t, e                      
 
         [0021]     From this statistic table with respect to the 26,000 single characters, the letters “p”, “i”, “y” and “o” have the highest possibilities of occurrences in the first position of the single characters. Whereas, the letters “e”, “l”, “r” and “s” have the highest possibilities of occurrences in the second position of the single characters. The rest may be deduced by analogy. On the other hand, the five letters with the highest possibilities of occurrences following the letter “p” are “r”, “a”, “e”, “o”, “i” if the letter “p” is located in the first position. Whereas, if the letter “i” is located in the first position, the five letters with the highest possibilities of occurrences following the letter “i” are “n”, “m”, “r”, “s” and “d”. The rest may be deduced by analogy. This statistic table is recorded in the handheld electronic device.  
         [0022]     Hereinafter, for a purpose of comparison, the conventional input method for a touch screen and an embodiment of an input method according to the present invention will be illustrated with reference to FIGS.  3 ˜ 26 , in which a sentence “Primax is 21 years old.” will be inputted into the handheld electronic device via the touch screen.  
         [0023]     Please refer to FIGS.  3 ˜ 26 .  FIGS. 3A, 4A ,  5 A, . . . ,  26 A illustrate the conventional input method for a touch screen. Whereas,  FIGS. 3B, 4B ,  5 B, . . . ,  26 B illustrate the input method for a touch screen according to the present invention.  
         [0024]     Please refer to  FIGS. 3A and 3B . The letter marked by the circle indicates the virtual key to be touched by the user. In a sentence “Primax is 21 years old.”, the first letter to be inputted is “p”.  
         [0025]     Referring to  FIGS. 4A and 4B , the next letter to be inputted is “r”. As shown in  FIG. 4A , for a purpose of touching the letter “r”, the stylus should be moved from the virtual key p to the virtual key r, which means a long relative distance. According to the present invention, after the letter “p” is inputted, the input control unit  300  enables a possible key frame  2010  to be displayed and overlie on the touch screen, as is shown in  FIG. 4B . The possible key frame  2010  displays nine possible virtual keys including the five letters with the highest possibilities of occurrences following the letter “p” (i.e. “r”, “a”, “e”, “o”, “i”), punctuation marks “,” and “.”, and a space key. Since some highly possible letters to be inputted are displayed on the possible key frame  2010  in response to the action of touching the letter “p”, the user can select the next letter “r” without difficulty because the distance for moving the stylus is largely reduced.  
         [0026]     Please refer to FIGS.  5 ˜ 7 . The letters “i”, “m” and “a” following the letter “r” are successively inputted according to the input methods similar to those described in  FIGS. 4A and 4B , and are not to be redundantly described herein.  
         [0027]     Referring to  FIGS. 8A and 8B , the next letter to be inputted is “x”. As shown in  FIG. 8A , for a purpose of touching the letter “x”, the stylus should be moved from the virtual key a to the virtual key x, which means a long relative distance. According to the present invention, after the letter “a” is inputted, the input control unit  300  enables a possible key frame  8010  to be displayed on the touch screen, as is shown in  FIG. 8B . The possible key frame  8010  displays nine possible keys including the five letters with the highest possibilities of occurrences following the letter “a” (i.e. “n”, “r”, “t”, “l”, “c”), two punctuation marks “,” and “.”, and a space key. Since the letter “x” is not included in these highly possible letters displayed on the possible key frame  8010 , the stylus should be moved from the possible key frame  8010  to the virtual key x in this situation.  
         [0028]     By the way, the user can discriminate whether a desired letter is displayed on the possible key frame promptly because these nine possible keys are disposed within a rectangular area. Optionally, if no possible key in the possible key frame has been touched for a waiting time period, the input control unit  300  may close the possible key frame. The waiting time can be preset by the manufacturer or varied by the user. For example, the handheld electronic device may further include a testing mechanism for testing a suitable waiting time according to the user&#39;s requirement.  
         [0029]     Referring to  FIG. 9B , after the letter “x” is inputted, the input control unit  300  enables another possible key frame  9010  to be displayed on the touch screen. The possible key frame  9010  displays nine possible keys including the four letters with the highest possibilities of occurrences following the letter “a” (i.e. “i”, “y”, “t”, “e”), punctuation marks “,” and “.”, and two space keys. Since “x” is the last letter of the character “Primax”, the user can directly select a space key on the possible key frame  9010  in order to input the second character.  
         [0030]     Referring to  FIGS. 10A and 10B , the next letter to be inputted is “i”. Since the statistic data associated with the highest possibilities of occurrences following the space key are absent, the user should use the stylus to touch the virtual key i.  
         [0031]     Please refer to FIGS.  11 ˜ 12 . The letter “s” and the space key following the letter “i” are successively inputted to the touch screen according to the input methods similar to those described above, and are not to be redundantly described herein.  
         [0032]     Referring to  FIGS. 13A and 13B , the user can use the stylus to touch the virtual key “2” to input the number “2”.  
         [0033]     Referring to  FIGS. 14A and 14B , the next number to be inputted is “1”. According to the present invention, after the number “2” is inputted, the input control unit  300  enables another possible key frame  14010  to be displayed on the touch screen, as is shown in  FIG. 14B . Statistically, following a specified number, the object with the highest possibility of occurrence is also a number. As a result, the possible key frame  14010  displays twelve possible keys including the numbers 0˜9, a punctuation marks “.” and a space key. Under this circumstance, the user can select the next number “1” from the possible key frame  14010 .  
         [0034]     Please refer to  FIGS. 15A and 15B . Since “1” is the last number of the character “21”, the user can directly select a space key on the possible key frame  14010  in order to input the next character.  
         [0035]     Please refer to FIGS.  16 ˜ 26 . The other characters “years old.” are successively inputted according to the input methods similar to those described above, and are not to be redundantly described herein.  
         [0036]     It is to be noted that the above descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed. The number and type of possible keys to be displayed on the possible key frames, for example the alphabetical keys, numeric keys, symbolic keys or function keys, may be designated according to the user&#39;s requirement.  
         [0037]     From the above description, the input method of the present invention is advantageous for facilitating a user to promptly input the virtual keys displayed on the possible key frames without moving the stylus in a long relative distance. As a consequence, the inputting efficiency for the touch screen is increased and the possibility of inputting wrong keys is minimized.  
         [0038]     While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.