Patent ID: 8300016

Claim:
An electronic device system, comprising: an input unit comprising a plurality of keys which comprise physical keys with mechanical structures or electronically displayable virtual keys, wherein each key of the plurality of keys is operable as a toggle key and is associated with a sequence of character candidates which comprises optional characters arranged in a specific arrangement for character input to the electronic device system, and two different keys in the plurality of keys are respectively associated with different sequences of character candidates, and the plurality of keys comprise a first key; and a processor electronically connected to the input unit and electronically connectable to a display, the processor operable to detect operation of a key of the input unit according to a method of character presentation on the display, the method comprising: detecting if a first operation on a first key of the plurality of keys conforms to a first 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 on the display 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 on the display 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; detecting if the first operation conforms to a second 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 on the display 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 on the display 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, the second and the currently selected character is presented during character presentation associated with the first key and is selected to be input to a text area of the electronic device system upon the end of character presentation associated with the first key.