Patent ID: 7777728

Claim:
A text input method for an electronic apparatus with a touch sensitive display, wherein a virtual keyboard is displayed on said display so as to facilitate input of an intended character for a user by touching keys of said virtual keyboard with a pointer, wherein the method comprises: detecting a touch of a first key on the touch sensitive display at a first position; defining a candidate area that has a configuration that is dependent upon a tap direction that extends between the first position and a second position, wherein the second position is a position of a previously detected touch of a second key of the touch sensitive display, and wherein said candidate area being relatively longer along a first axis and relatively shorter along a second axis, said first axis being parallel to said tap direction and said second axis being perpendicular to said first axis; and determining said intended character by considering: a plurality of candidate characters disposed at least partially within the candidate area, said plurality of candidate characters being determined with regard to a raw distance, said raw distance being a distance between said first position and a position corresponding to a character, and linguistic probabilities of each character of said plurality of candidate characters being an intended character.