Patent ID: 8866745

Claim:
A key sensing interface for one of a laptop computer, personal digital assistant, or other electronic device, comprising: a display located on the laptop computer, personal digital assistant, or other electronic device, and wherein the display is viewable to a user of the device, for use in displaying a document having characters in a regular format; an undifferentiated trackpad with the capacity to detect and transmit to the electronic device the location of multiple simultaneous touches, functioning as a virtual keyboard or keypad with a plurality of virtual keys, each mapped to a region of the trackpad; a sensing mechanism, which includes logic associated with each of the plurality of virtual keys, for determining which of the plurality of virtual keys on the virtual keyboard or keypad the user is currently selecting and is about to enter as characters within the document; a feedback mechanism for communicating feedback to the user, while the user is using the keys to select and enter characters within the document, by successively denoting, as a succession of interim ghosted, shimmering, colored, or other differently formatted characters, a preview of that character indicated by a key or plurality of keys currently selected by the user, including, while the user is selecting from the plurality of discrete keys to enter characters within the document, displaying a preview of the character indicated by the current selection of key or plurality of keys, at a current location in the document, as displayed on the display, as an interim displayed, ghosted, or other differently formatted character, and without requiring the user to look at the keyboard; a verification mechanism allowing the user to confirm or abort their key selection; and a key input mechanism recognizing the confirmation as a valid key stroke or input, while the user is typing in the document, wherein that same interim ghosted, shimmering, colored, or other differently formatted character, if confirmed, is then entered into the current location in the document in its regular format, as the valid key stroke or input.