Patent ID: 8576166

Claim:
An electronic device, comprising: a touch sensitive device operable to detect one or more touch operations based on one or more keys of a virtual keyboard displayable by a display function of the electronic device; and a processor electronically connected to the touch sensitive device and operable to present character information through the display function, and operable to detect operation of the touch sensitive device according to a character input method, the character input method comprising: displaying the virtual keyboard comprising a plurality of keys and utilizing the virtual keyboard as a base for one or more touch operations detectable by a touch detection function, wherein each key of the plurality of keys is operable as a toggle key, two different keys in the plurality of keys are respectively associated with different sequences of character candidates, and a sequence of character candidates comprises optional characters arranged in a specific arrangement for character input to a text area; detecting if a first operation on a first key of the plurality of keys conforms to a first input pattern or a second input pattern; utilizing a first route of character presentation to traverse a plurality of optional characters associated with the first key to present a first character of the plurality of optional characters associated with the first key through the display function as a currently selected character in response to the first operation conforming to the first input pattern and a first subsequent character of the plurality of optional characters through the display function as the currently selected character in response to a first subsequent operation based on the first key according to the first route upon the condition that the first operation conforms to the first input pattern; and utilizing a second route of character presentation other than the first route to traverse the plurality of optional characters associated with the first key to present a second character of the plurality of the optional characters associated with the first key through the display function as the currently selected character in response to the first operation conforming to the second input pattern and a second subsequent character of the plurality of optional characters associated with the first key through the display function as the currently selected character in response to a second subsequent operation based on the first key according to the second route upon the condition that the first operation conforms to the second input pattern wherein the second character is different from the first character, arrangement of at least two optional characters in the first route is reversed in the second route, and the currently selected character is presented during character presentation associated with the first key and is selected to be input to the text area of the electronic device upon the end of character presentation associated with the first key.