CN102467338A - Electronic device and key display method of software keyboard thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A key display method for an electronic device and its software keyboard. The method includes completely displaying a software keyboard including a plurality of keys in a preset area of the touch screen of the electronic device when a text input field enters an active state. When it is detected that one of the keys is selected, at least one specific key is selected from all keys according to the selected key. Next, the software keyboard is hidden and only the specific keys mentioned above are displayed around the text input field. In this way, it will be more convenient for the user to input the electronic device through the software keyboard.

Description

Key display method of electronic device and its software keyboard

technical field

The invention relates to a method for displaying a software keyboard, in particular to a method for displaying keys of a software keyboard and an electronic device using the method.

Background technique

With the vigorous development of touch sensing technology, more and more electronic devices use touch screens to replace traditional screens and physical keyboards, and use touch screens to display various operation screens and allow users to input information interface. Among them, the Software Input Panel (SIP) is a technology developed to allow users to input text or symbols into electronic devices through a touch screen.

However, due to the increasingly thinner designs of electronic devices, the display area of the software keyboard on the touch screen is also limited when the size of the touch screen is limited. Most common electronic devices currently on the market display software keyboards with nearly half of the screen area. It is not difficult to imagine that in this display mode, the user may have to frequently move the screen below the software keyboard, so as to watch the screen content covered by the software keyboard.

In addition, in most electronic devices, the size of the display area of the software keyboard is fixed, so the size of each key on the software keyboard is inversely proportional to the number of keys. When the touch screen is a capacitive touch screen, the user must use fingers to operate, but the contact area of the finger is large, so when the number of keys is too large, the user is easy to touch unnecessary keys by mistake , causing various operational errors.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the present invention provides a key display method of a software keyboard to improve the convenience for users to input information into electronic devices through the software keyboard.

The invention provides an electronic device, which is convenient for users to use a software keyboard to input.

The present invention provides a key display method of a software keyboard, which is used in an electronic device with a touch screen. The method includes fully displaying a software keyboard on a preset area of a touch screen when a text input field enters an active state, and the software keyboard includes a plurality of keys. When it is detected that one of the keys is selected, at least one specific key is selected from all the keys according to the selected key. Then, the software keyboard is hidden and only the above-mentioned specific keys are displayed around the text input field.

In an embodiment of the present invention, after the step of displaying only the specific keys around the text input field, the method further includes determining whether the input of a single character is completed when a specific key is detected to be selected. If not, one or more specific keys are reselected from all the keys of the software keyboard according to the selected specific keys, and only the reselected specific keys are displayed around the text input field. This method will repeat the above steps until the input of the single character is completed.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the software keyboard is fully displayed on the touch screen, each key conforms to the first key size. The step of only displaying the specific key around the text input field includes displaying the specific key around the text input field according to a second key size, wherein the second key size is larger than the first key size.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the software keyboard is completely displayed on the touch screen, each key has a first key spacing between each other, and the step of only displaying a specific key around the text input field includes making The spacing between the specific keys is greater than the first key spacing.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of displaying only the specific key around the text input field includes making the specific key transparent.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of displaying only the specific keys around the text input field includes displaying the specific keys around the text input field according to the positions of the specific keys in the software keyboard.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of displaying only the specific key around the text input field includes displaying a specific button around a cursor display position in the text input field when the size of the text input field exceeds the preset field size. button.

From another point of view, the present invention provides an electronic device including a touch screen, a button drawing module, and a button selection module. Wherein, the button drawing module is coupled to the touch screen, and is used for drawing a software keyboard including multiple buttons. The button selection module is coupled with the touch-control screen and the button drawing module, and is used for selecting the buttons included in the software keyboard. Wherein, when a text input field enters the active state, the button drawing module completely displays the software keyboard in the preset area of the touch screen. When the touch screen detects that one of the keys is selected, the key selection module selects at least one specific key from all keys of the software keyboard according to the selected key, and the key drawing module hides the software keyboard and only draws the specific key Appears around text input fields.

In one embodiment of the present invention, wherein when the touch screen detects that a specific key is selected, if the key selection module judges that the input of a single character has not been completed, it will select all keys from the software keyboard according to the selected specific key. One or more specific keys are reselected from the keys, and the key drawing module only displays the reselected specific keys around the text input field.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the button drawing module draws the buttons according to the first button size when the touch screen completely displays the software keyboard. When the button drawing module only displays the specific button around the text input field, it draws the specific button according to the second button size, wherein the second button size is larger than the first button size.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the button drawing module keeps the first button distance between the buttons when the touch screen completely displays the software keyboard. However, when the button drawing module only displays specific buttons around the text input field, the spacing between the specific buttons will be greater than the first spacing between the buttons.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the key drawing module only displays the specific key around the text input field, it makes the specific key transparent.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the key drawing module only displays the specific key around the text input field according to the positions of the specific keys in the software keyboard.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the size of the text input field exceeds the preset field size, the key drawing module only displays the specific key around a display position of the cursor in the text input field.

Based on the above, the present invention selects one or more specific keys that may be pressed by the user next when the user uses the software keyboard for input and presses one of the keys, and only displays the specific keys in the text input field. around. In this way, there is no need to consume too much screen space to display a complete software keyboard, so as to ensure that the user can easily view the contents of the screen, and also allow the user to conveniently perform input operations.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, the following specific embodiments are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for displaying keys of a software keyboard according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for displaying keys of a software keyboard according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a software keyboard according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of displaying specific keys according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of displaying specific keys according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of displaying specific keys according to yet another embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference symbols

100: Electronics

110: Touch screen

120: Button drawing module

130: Button selection module

S210～S240, S310～S360: steps

400, 700: picture

405, 705: Cursor

410: Software keyboard

420, 430, 710: Text input fields

510, 520, 530, 540: specific keys

550: Backward key

560: blank key

570: Menu button

Detailed ways

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1 , the electronic device 100 includes a touch screen 110 , a button drawing module 120 , and a button selection module 130 . Wherein, the electronic device 100 may be a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), or a smart phone (smart phone), etc., and the scope thereof is not limited here.

The touch screen 110 is, for example, a capacitive touch screen. In addition to displaying various operation screens of the electronic device 100, it can also detect and receive operations performed by the user's fingers, and simultaneously serve as an input for the electronic device 100. and output interface. In other embodiments, the touch screen 110 may also be a resistive touch screen or an optical touch screen, etc., and the type of the touch screen 110 is not limited here.

The button drawing module 120 is coupled to the touch screen 110 . The button drawing module 120 is used for drawing a software keyboard (Software Input Panel, SIP) including a plurality of buttons according to the input language and input method currently set by the electronic device 100, so as to display the software keyboard on the touch screen 110. The button selection module 130 is coupled to the touch screen 110 and the button drawing module 120 . The key selection module 130 is used for selecting some keys from the keys included in the software keyboard. Wherein, the button drawing module 120 and the button selecting module 130 are, for example, instructions implemented in the form of program codes, and stored in a storage unit (such as a hard disk, not shown) of the electronic device 100 . After the power of the electronic device 100 is turned on and the above-mentioned instructions are loaded into its random access memory (not shown), the processing unit (such as a central processing unit, not shown) of the electronic device 100 will execute the above-mentioned instructions to complete the drawing Operations such as software keyboard and selection keys.

It should be noted that in this embodiment, the key drawing module 120 will change the way of displaying the keys of the software keyboard on the touch screen 110 according to the key selection result of the key selection module 130 . The detailed operation process of each component in the electronic device 100 will be described below with reference to FIG. 2 . Please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 together.

Generally speaking, when the user starts an application program with a text input field on the electronic device 100 (for example, starts a browser or text editing software), or moves the cursor of the electronic device 100 to the text displayed on the touch screen 110 When a text input field is entered, the text input field will enter the active state, indicating that the text input field is ready to receive the information input by the user. At this time, as shown in step S210 , the button drawing module 120 completely displays the software keyboard including a plurality of buttons on the preset area of the touch screen 110 . Specifically, the key drawing module 120 draws the software keyboard to be displayed according to the input language and input method currently set on the electronic device 100 . Wherein, the keys included in the software keyboard respectively correspond to different characters.

Then in step S220, when the touch screen 110 detects that any button included in the software keyboard is selected by the user, the button selection module 130 will select at least one specific button from all the buttons of the software keyboard according to the selected button. button. Specifically, since each button on the software keyboard corresponds to a different character, when the user clicks one of the buttons on the software keyboard through the touch screen 110, the character corresponding to the selected button can be input. to the electronic device 100. The key selection module 130 will find one or more characters (hereinafter referred to as candidate characters) that can follow the input character according to the input character and the font library of the input language currently set in the electronic device 100 . In addition, when the user has input multiple characters, the key selection module 130 can also find out one or more candidate characters from the font library according to the latest input character and previously input characters. The key selection module 130 selects the key corresponding to each of the above candidate characters from all the keys included in the software keyboard as a specific key.

Next, as shown in step S230 , the button drawing module 120 hides the software keyboard originally displayed on the preset area of the touch screen 110 . Based on this, the screen originally covered by the software keyboard can be displayed for the user to watch.

In step S240, the key drawing module 120 only displays the specific key selected by the key selection module 130 around the text input field. For example, the button drawing module 120 determines the display position of each specific button according to the position of the text input field on the screen, so that the above-mentioned specific button surrounds the text input field. In this embodiment, the key drawing module 120 does not let the specific key cover the text input field, so the user can clearly see the content in the text input field.

In this embodiment, once the user selects a button on the software keyboard to input a character, through the operation of the button selection module 130 and the button drawing module 120, the touch screen 110 will no longer display the complete software keyboard, but only The selected one or more specific keys will be displayed around the text input field. Since the key selection module 130 selects a specific key according to the candidate characters that can continue after the input character, only displaying the specific key around the text input field allows the user to find the key that needs to be clicked more conveniently and quickly. .

In one embodiment, when the key drawing module 120 completely displays the software keyboard on the touch screen 110 , the key drawing module 120 draws the keys in the software keyboard according to the first key size. When the key drawing module 120 only displays the specific key around the text input field, it will draw the specific key according to the second key size. Wherein, the size of the second button is larger than the size of the first button.

In another embodiment, when the key drawing module 120 completely displays the software keyboard on the touch screen 110, it will keep a first key spacing between each key on the software keyboard, and only display a specific key on the touch screen 110. When text is entered around the field, the button drawing module 120 will make the spacing between specific buttons larger than the first button spacing.

By enlarging the size of specific keys and/or increasing the distance between specific keys, the probability of the user selecting the correct key can be increased, thereby improving input efficiency.

In yet another embodiment, in order to avoid the inconvenience caused by the specific key covering the display screen of the touch screen 110, the key drawing module 120 will display the specific key around the text input field. Certain keys have transparency. For example, the button drawing module 120 can present a specific button in a semi-transparent manner, but the present invention does not limit the level of transparency. In addition, when displaying a specific key with transparency, the key drawing module 120 can also adjust the color of the specific key according to the color distribution of the background image, thereby enhancing the color contrast to highlight the specific key in the display screen of the touch screen 110 , so that the user can more clearly identify the position of a specific key.

In addition, in order to increase operational flexibility, the key drawing module 120 not only displays specific keys around the text input field, but also displays one or more function keys around the text input field. For example, the function key displayed by the key drawing module 120 may be a backspace key (backspace) for allowing the user to clear the inputted characters. The function key can also be a space key (space), used for inputting blank characters into the text input field. The function key can also be a menu button used to call out the function menu. The user can press the menu button to call out the function menu, and click an option in the function menu to control the electronic device 100 to perform different operations, such as controlling the electronic device 100 Display the full software keyboard again, switch between software keyboards that support different input languages or different input methods. In addition, the function key can also be a key dedicated to moving the cursor, through which the user can control the position of the cursor in the text input field, or move the cursor to the next text input field. The present invention does not limit the types of function keys.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method for displaying keys of a software keyboard according to another embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment further illustrates how the touch screen 110 and the keys are displayed when the user inputs text on the electronic device 100. Detailed operation of the drawing module 120 and the button selection module 130 .

Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 at the same time. When the text input field displayed on the touch screen 110 enters the active state, as shown in step S310, the key drawing module 120 completely displays the software keyboard including multiple keys on the touch screen. a preset area of the type screen 110 .

Then, as shown in step S320 , the touch screen 110 continuously detects whether any key is selected by the user.

When the touch screen 110 detects that the user selects any key on the software keyboard, then in step S330 , the key selection module 130 selects at least one specific key from all the keys of the software keyboard according to the selected key. Since the key selection module 130 selects a specific key in the same or similar manner as in the foregoing embodiments, it is not repeated here.

In step S340, the key drawing module 120 only displays specific keys around the text input field. In other words, the key drawing module 120 will hide the software keyboard originally displayed in the preset area of the touch screen 110 .

Next, as shown in step S350 , the touch screen 110 continuously detects whether any specific key is selected by the user.

When the touch screen 110 detects that a specific key is selected by the user, then as shown in step S360 , the key selection module 130 determines whether the input of a word is completed. For example, it is judged whether the currently input characters can constitute a single character in the input language font library set in the electronic device 100 .

If the key selection module 130 judges that the input of the single character has not been completed, the key display method of the software keyboard described in the present embodiment will return to step S330, and the key selection module 130 will renew from all the keys of the software keyboard according to the selected specific key. Select one or more specific keys. Next, as shown in step S340 , the button drawing module 120 only displays the newly selected specific button around the text input field.

The key display method of the software keyboard described in this embodiment will repeat step S330 to step S360 until it is determined that the input of a single character is completed. If the user needs to input another word in the text input field, the touch screen 110, the button drawing module 120, and the button selection module 130 in the electronic device 100 will repeat the steps shown in FIG. The keys that the user may need to select next are displayed around the field, instead of continuously displaying the entire software keyboard, so as to allow the user to watch the screen content displayed on the touch screen 110 .

In the following embodiments, it is assumed that the input language of the electronic device 100 is English. As shown in FIG. 4 , the screen 400 currently displayed on the touch screen 110 includes a text input field 420 for the user to enter an account number and a text input field 430 for the user to enter a password. Since the cursor 405 is preset to be displayed on the text input field 420, the text input field 420 will enter the active state. Based on this, the key drawing module 120 completely displays the software keyboard 410 in a preset area of the touch screen 110 (eg, the lower area of the touch screen 110 ). Wherein, the software keyboard 410 includes 26 keys corresponding to English characters and 7 function keys with different functions.

Assuming that the user has input the English character "t" into the text input field 420, FIG. 5 shows that when the touch screen 110 detects that the key corresponding to the English character "e" is selected, the key drawing module 120 displays the A schematic diagram of a specific key selected by the selection module 130 .

Please refer to Fig. 5, the button selection module 130 finds out from the English font library that the single words beginning with the English characters "t" and "e" include "te", "ten", "tell", "test" and "teach", according to which It is determined that when the user inputs English characters "t" and "e", the English characters that may be input next are "a", "s", "l", and "n". Therefore, the key selection module 130 selects the specific keys 510 , 520 , 530 , 540 respectively corresponding to the English characters “a”, “s”, “l” and “n” from all the keys included in the software keyboard 410 . In this embodiment, the button drawing module 120 will display the specific buttons 510, 520, 530, 540, as well as the reverse button 550, the blank button 560, and the menu button 570 around the text input field 420, and these buttons will not cover the The text input field 420, so the user can directly see the content of the text input field 420. Also because these buttons have transparency, even if the blank button 560, the menu button 570 and the text input field 430 partially overlap, it will not affect the convenience of the user when viewing.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 , the key drawing module 120 displays the specific keys 510 , 520 , 530 , 540 according to their positions in the software keyboard 410 respectively. Specifically, the software keyboard 410 belongs to a QWERTY keyboard, so the key drawing module 120 displays specific keys 510 , 520 , 530 , 540 around the text input field 420 according to the positions of the keys in the QWERTY keyboard. Based on this, for users who are familiar with the QWERTY keyboard, it is easy to think of the display position of the key to be selected. In addition, comparing FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, it can be found that the button drawing module 120 enlarges the size of the specific buttons 510, 520, 530, 540 and increases the distance between the specific buttons 510, 520, 530, 540, thereby effectively reducing the Chances of the user selecting the wrong key.

In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6 , the key drawing module 120 does not compare the key configuration mode of the software keyboard 410, but directly assigns the specific keys 510, 520, 530, 540, the reverse key 550, the blank key 560, And the menu buttons 570 are displayed around the text input field 420 . Likewise, the above buttons do not cover the text input field 420 and have transparency. Since the above-mentioned keys are all very close to the text input field 420 , it is convenient for the user to conveniently select the next key to be input while watching the text input field 420 .

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of displaying specific keys according to yet another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the proportion of the text input field 710 in the screen 700 displayed on the touch screen 110 is too high, so that the button drawing module 120 cannot completely display specific buttons and functions without covering the text input field 710 key. In this regard, as shown in FIG. 7 , the button drawing module 120 will draw the specific buttons 510, 520, 530, 540, as well as the reverse key 550, the blank key 560, the menu Keys 570 are displayed around the cursor display position of cursor 705 in text input field 710 . Since the specific buttons 510 to 540 , the back button 550 , the blank button 560 , and the menu button 570 all have transparency, the user can still see the content in the screen 700 .

It should be noted that although the above embodiment uses English as the input language as an example to illustrate the present invention, the present invention does not limit the input language. For example, when the current preset input language of the electronic device 100 is Chinese and the input method is the Zhuyin input method, the button selection module 130 can select the phonetic symbol character corresponding to the selected button and refer to the Chinese font library to select the input method from the software keyboard. Select at least one specific key (these specific keys correspond to possible continuous phonetic symbols characters respectively) from all the keys of . Similarly, the button drawing module 120 only displays specific buttons around the text input field, so as to facilitate the user to complete the input operation of Chinese characters.

To sum up, the electronic device and the method for displaying keys of the software keyboard according to the present invention can avoid the situation that the software keyboard largely occupies the screen of the electronic device, and ensure that the user can clearly view the content of the screen when inputting . In addition, enlarging specific keystrokes around the text input field also helps to reduce the chance of typing wrong keystrokes, thereby increasing input efficiency.

Although the present invention has been disclosed above with the embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Those skilled in the art can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention The scope of protection is based on the present invention.

Claims (14)

1. A key display method of a software keyboard, used for an electronic device with a touch screen, the method comprising: When a text input field enters an active state, fully display a software keyboard in a predetermined area of the touch screen, wherein the software keyboard includes a plurality of keys; If it is detected that one of the buttons is selected, then selecting at least one specific button from the buttons according to the selected button; hide the software keyboard; and Only the at least one specific key is displayed around the text input field. 2. The key display method of the software keyboard as claimed in claim 1, wherein after the step of only displaying the at least one specific key around the text input field, the method further comprises: When it is detected that one of the at least one specific key is selected, it is judged whether the input of a single character is completed; If not, reselecting the at least one specific button from the buttons according to the selected specific button; displaying only the reselected at least one specific key around the text entry field; and Repeat above-mentioned steps until finishing the input of this word. 3. The key display method of the software keyboard as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the software keyboard is completely displayed on the touch screen, these keys conform to a first key size, and only the at least one specific key is displayed on the The steps surrounding the text input field include: The at least one specific button is displayed around the text input field according to a second button size, wherein the second button size is larger than the first button size. 4. The key display method of the software keyboard as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the software keyboard is completely displayed on the touch screen, there is a first key spacing between these keys, and only the at least one specific key is displayed. The steps of pressing a key around the text input field include: Make the interval between the at least one specific key larger than the first key interval. 5. The key display method of the software keyboard as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of only displaying the at least one specific key around the text input field comprises: Making the at least one specific key have a transparency. 6. The key display method of a software keyboard as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of only displaying the at least one specific key around the text input field comprises: According to a configuration position of the at least one specific key in the software keyboard, the at least one specific key is displayed around the text input field. 7. The key display method of a software keyboard as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of only displaying the at least one specific key around the text input field comprises: When the size of the text input field exceeds a preset field size, the at least one specific key is displayed around a cursor display position in the text input field. 8. An electronic device comprising: a touch screen; A button drawing module, coupled to the touch screen, to draw a software keyboard including a plurality of buttons; and a button selection module, coupled to the touch screen and the button drawing module, to select these buttons, Wherein, when a text input field enters an active state, the key drawing module completely displays the software keyboard in a preset area of the touch screen, and when the touch screen detects that one of the keys is selected The button selection module selects at least one specific button from the buttons according to the selected button, and the button drawing module hides the software keyboard and only displays the at least one specific button around the text input field. 9. The electronic device as claimed in claim 8, wherein when the touch screen detects that one of the at least one specific key is selected, if the key selection module determines that the input of a word has not been completed, then according to the selected The at least one specific key is reselected from these keys, and the key drawing module only displays the reselected at least one specific key around the text input field. 10. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the button drawing module draws the buttons according to a first button size when the touch screen completely displays the software keyboard, and the button drawing module only draws the buttons at least When a specific button is displayed around the text input field, the at least one specific button is drawn according to a second button size, wherein the second button size is larger than the first button size. 11. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the button drawing module maintains a first key spacing between the buttons when the touch screen completely displays the software keyboard, and the button drawing module only draws When the at least one specific key is displayed around the text input field, the spacing between the at least one specific key is greater than the first key spacing. 12. The electronic device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the key drawing module makes the at least one specific key have a transparency when only displaying the at least one specific key around the text input field. 13. The electronic device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the key drawing module only displays the at least one specific key around the text input field according to a configuration position of the at least one specific key in the software keyboard. 14. The electronic device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the button drawing module only displays at least one specific button at a cursor display position in the text input field when the size of the text input field exceeds a preset field size around.

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