Patent ID: 7057607

Claim:
A user interface method for an electronic device, comprising: detecting a stroke of a touch sensitive medium forming a part of the electronic device, the stroke occurring on a region of the touch sensitive medium that could represent either one of an application function and a character input function; determining if the stroke can be categorized as a first type of stroke, wherein the first type of stroke corresponds to character input stokes, wherein the determination is based at least upon touch location, release location, and contact time associated with the stroke; if so, converting the stroke to a character input function; and if not, categorizing the stroke as a second type, and translating the stroke to the application function, wherein the touch sensitive medium comprises a touch sensitive display, and wherein the electronic device further comprises an application interface, and wherein the touch sensitive display has a grid containing cells, with each cell containing a plurality of characters, and wherein the grid overlays the application interface thereby occupying a common area of the touch sensitive display, and wherein the grid is displayed simultaneously with the application interface, and wherein a feature of the grid is displayed prominently in a first display mode and less prominently in a second display mode.