Patent Document ID: 8990738
Application ID: 14304843

Base Claim:
1. An apparatus for key input comprising: a keyboard configured to accept a plurality of key inputs, wherein one key input of the key inputs is a long pressing key input, wherein the long pressing key input is received by: long pressing a key to display and cycle through a character sequence; long pressing a key to enter a number/digit explicitly; or a combination of long pressing a key to display and cycle through a character sequence and long pressing a key to enter a number/digit explicity; wherein responsive to receiving a key input, a single, character is received.

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Claim 8:
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a key input is further received by any combination of: 2-key explicit entry comprising two keys entered in sequence, wherein the combination of the two keys entered in sequence identifies a single character; changing to a numbers mode and pressing a key to enter a number/digit; changing to a multi-tap mode and pressing a key repeatedly to enter a character; interpreting key presses as an intended character, either by grouping each pair of key presses as a 2-key entry, or by grouping repeated presses of the same key as a multi-tap entry; using multi-switch keys, thereby permitting a potentially intended entry on a simple press and an intended character entry on a different kind of press; chording by pressing more than one key simultaneously, with a primary key indicating a potentially intended set of characters and a secondary key indicating which character in the set to select; and using a softkey as a secondary means for offering any character assigned to a key based on analysis of most likely character associated with a preceding keystroke or based on words in a current word candidate list.