Patent ID: 8106890

Claim:
A method for using and interpreting a slide based motion for input comprising: sensing a contact with a point of a touch input component of a computing device; detecting a continuous contact from the point to a different point on the touch input component caused by a first slide based motion of a contact instrument maintaining contact with the touch input component; determining based at least in part upon a direction of the slide based motion a first input character associated with the slide based motion; detecting a second slide based motion of the contact instrument from the different point to another point, wherein the contact instrument remains in contact with the touch input component during the first slide based motion, during the second slide based motion and between the first and second slide based motion; determining based at least in part upon a direction of the second slide based motion a second input character associated with the slide based motion; presenting a plurality of digits on the touch input component, wherein said presented plurality of digits inform a user regarding a manner in which said slide based motions will be programmatically interpreted; and arranging the presented plurality of digits such that the arrangement comprises an ordered three-by-three table of digits from one-to-nine, wherein one row of the table comprises digits one, two, and three, wherein another row of the table comprises digits four, five, and six, wherein still another row of the table comprises digits seven, eight, and nine.