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1. In one example the commanding mode is activated by pressing 8 single modifier key 116 on the first keyboard layout 112 although it could be activated by selecting multiple keys or other user input items In one particular embodiment com manding mode is activated by touching a control CTRL key on the first keyboard layout 112 0026 In another embodiment the commanding mode may be activated by way of recognizable triggering events other than those involving a user s manual selection For US 2013 0082935 1 example the disclosure contemplates various smart trig gers that can be based on one or more static and or dynamic conditions that would suggest that one or more command shortcuts may dynamically be presented on certain keys or other UI mechanisms As an example the commanding mode activation module 110 may recognize selection of text in a document and may dynamically provide the second key board layout 122 that may include one or more commands that can be used with selected text e g copy text com mand As another example using arrow keys could present a second keyboard layout 122 that includes one or more navi gational commands As these examples suggest while trig gering of the modifier mode may be effected via a particular designated key s it can also be triggered in response to other user actions that suggest that the commanding mode is to be activated 0027 Another representative trigger is a g
2. in response to the selection of the respective individual key when in command ing mode 3 The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein presenting indicia on the individual keys to which commands are attributed comprises presenting indicia in a language to which the virtual keyboard is configured 4 The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein presenting indicia on the individual keys to which commands are attributed comprises presenting indicia ina language ofan operating system on which the processor implemented appli cation executes 5 The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein activating the commanding mode to attribute commands to respective individual keys comprises changing a default func tion attributed to the individual keys to the respective com mands in response to activating the commanding mode 6 The computer implemented method of claim 5 further comprising reverting the individual keys back to their default function after any of the commands is initiated in response to its respective individual key being selected while in com manding mode 7 The computer implemented method of claim 5 further comprising reverting the individual keys back to their default function in response to deactivation of the commanding mode 8 The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising activating the commanding mode by selecting at least one predetermined key and further comprising deacti vating th
3. keyboards that provide visual presentations of keyboards such as presented on a display device projected on a table or other surface e g projection keyboard via surface computing etc The present disclosure may be utilized in connection with any collection of selectable indicia generally referred to herein as key boards that facilitate modifiable visual representations on at least one of the selectable indicia e g keys US 2013 0082935 1 0019 Computer executed applications typically receive keyboard input such as characters and other input identified by the key itself However applications often facilitate entry of commands or functions that are not specifically associated with a designated key For example a function at an operating system level or application level may be invoked by pressing series of keystrokes that serve as a shortcut for performing that function An example is CTRL C which can copy selected information to an electronic clipboard although the keyboard may not have a designated copy key However because such shortcuts involve a series of keystrokes that may not be identified on the keyboard such keyboard command ing suffers from a discoverability issue The keyboard short cuts for commands are difficult for users to discover and learn Onscreen and other visually presented keyboards could present additional dedicated keys for additional com mands but this could result in an unacceptably
4. performed in the order depicted and such depictions are merely for purposes of illustration 0056 FIG 9 depicts a representative computing device apparatus 900 in which the principles described herein may be implemented The representative computing device 900 can represent any computing device in which a virtual key board or other keyboard where dynamic command assign ment and presentation can be effected The computing envi ronment described in connection with FIG 9 is described for purposes of example as the structural and operational disclo sure for facilitating dynamic command assignment and pre sentation is applicable in any environment in which a key board may be used for user input It should also be noted that the computing arrangement of FIG 9 may in some embodi ments be distributed across multiple devices e g system processor and display or touchscreen controller etc 0057 The representative computing device 900 may include a processor 902 coupled to numerous modules via a system bus 904 The depicted system bus 904 represents any type of bus structure s that may be directly or indirectly coupled to the various components and modules of the com puting environment A read only memory ROM 906 may be provided to store firmware used by the processor 902 The ROM 906 represents any type of read only memory such as programmable ROM PROM erasable PROM EPROM or the like 0058 The host or system bus 904 m
5. right LTR although certain scripts e g Hebrew Arabic etc are written from right to left RTL Where writing incorporates characters from both writing directions the writing and reading order may change multiple times in a single block of text Thus shortcut key combinations may be used to change the writing order direction The disclosure contemplates this by emulating a physical keyboard that can use the commanding mode and one or more subsequent key strokes to change the writing direction For example ina first scenario where no RTL languages are installed when the CTRL or other modify key is selected the SHIFT keys can be disabled On the other hand when a bi directional language is installed the left and right shift keys can be modified to LTR and RTL when in commanding mode In such case the left SHIFT key will send CTRL LEFTSHIFT to switch to LTR writing direction and the right SHIFT key will send CTRL RIGHTSHIFT to switch to RTL writing direction The appro priate direction may be indicated on the shortcut keys in response to the modifier key being selected This embodiment represents a conditional change where the key alteration is dependent on which keyboard language is installed Other conditional key keyboard changes may also be implemented 0048 As noted above the shortcut key commands may be system level commands application level commands etc FIGS 7A and 7B illustrate examples of implementing the dynamic
6. to be presented when in commanding mode In such case each application can have an application spe cific keyboard configuration 718 720 722 to identify short cut commands when in commanding mode 0050 For example application A 700 may register com mands and descriptive indicia 712 with the operating system 706 When the modifier key is selected while using applica tion A 700 the application specific commands and indicia 712 registered to application A 700 may be presented to provide keyboard configuration A 718 Similarly applica tion B 702 may register commands and indicia 714 with the operating system 706 When in commanding mode using application B 702 the application specific commands and indicia 714 may be presented to provide keyboard configu ration B 720 In this manner keyboard layouts can be dynamically changed based on the particular application whereby applications having their own shortcut key combi nations can be implemented 0051 FIG 8 isa flow diagram illustrating a representative method for facilitating command presentation and execution that identifies various possible features A touch keyboard or other virtual keyboard is presented as noted at block 800 As previously noted the dynamic command presentation and implementation may be configured on an application basis as depicted at block 801 or may be configured based on the operating system being used as depicted at block 802 In the application based embod
7. touch press event Each shortcut key press on the touch keyboard or other virtual keyboard can wrap multiple key actions on the traditional keyboard stack to achieve an analogous effect as if using a modifier based solution on a physical keyboard Accordingly users can get physical keyboard commanding that appears to behave as that of a physical keyboard and applications can get touch or other virtual keyboard com manding without involving any additional work to be under taken Users do not have to change their posture or move his her hands away from the keyboard to a pointing device and can more readily copy paste and do other commands without having to recall a keystroke combination for each command 0022 Various embodiments below are described in terms of onscreen or touch keyboards It should be recognized however that the description is applicable to any virtual key board or other keyboard capable of configurably adapting visual indicia on one or more keys of the collection of keys References to touch keyboards touchscreens onscreen key boards touch based keyboards virtual keyboards and the like is intended to broadly encompass collections of selectable Apr 4 2013 items e g keys that are visually presented and that col lectively provide a manner in which user input can be achieved 0023 Techniques disclosed herein include activating a commanding mode on a virtual keyboard In one embodi ment activating
8. 606 and command ing mode has been activated A representative command for italics 608 might then adapt a character key 610A When the mode key 612 has been touched or otherwise selected the key 610A is modified to that shown by key 610B where the command italics is displayed on the key 610B In one embodiment the T key 610A is selected to ultimately represent the shortcut key 610B since CTRL I in a physical keyboard toggles the italics feature In this example the shortcut key 610B description of italics is presented in English 606 as this is the language 602 that has been installed for the onscreen keyboard 600 0044 Itis next assumed that the installed language 602 is Spanish 612 and commanding mode has been activated A representative command for italics 608 which may corre spond to cursiva in Spanish might then adapt a character key C 614A When the mode key 612 has been touched or otherwise selected the key 614A is modified to that shown by key 614B where the command cursiva is displayed on the key 614B In this example the shortcut key 614B description of cursiva is presented in Spanish 612 as this is the lan guage 602 that has been installed for the onscreen keyboard 600 0045 It should be recognized that the language 602 may be determined based on for example the language of the operating system 604 or the language of the keyboard 600 Apr 4 2013 The
9. ENTIFIER YES SEND COMMAND KEYSTROKE SEQUENCE RECOGNIZABLE BY THE KEYBOARD STACK IN RESPONSE TO KEY WITH 814 THE COMMAND IDENTIER BEING TOUCHED EXECUTE COMMAND IDENTIFIED BY THE TOUCHED COMMAND IDENTIFIER AT THE APPLICATION 816 REVERT KEYS BACK TO DEFAULT FUNCTION 818 FIG 8 Apr 4 2013 Sheet 7 of 7 US 2013 0082935 A1 Patent Application Publication 6 27 876 JOVYOLS 0 6 JOVYOLS JOVYOLS IT18VAONIY 15 SJAA S3AIYA 656 21 JOVYOLS JOVYOLS J18VAONIY JYNYILNI JOVIYILNI 4 0 MYOMLAN LSOH sng W3LSAS 706 e UITTOYLNOD ER AMONEN AYONIN 616 TYNLYIA 766 9 YOSSIJ0Yd AV 1dSIA 006 SWVYDOUd NOILVOMdd S39N3nO3S 5 5 TIAITNILSAS SNOILdIHOS3d YO ONVY SONYNINOO NOLLYOMddV MOVLS GYYOGAI 310GON NOLLVYNDIANOO ONYNNOD AIM NOLLYALLOV 300 SNIQNVWNWO2 N31SAS ONILWYAdO AYONIN FDVYOLS US 2013 0082935 1 DYNAMIC COMMAND PRESENTATION AND KEY CONFIGURATION FOR KEYBOARDS BACKGROUND 0001 Physical keyboards and on screen keyboard emula tors may enable keyboard commanding which allows com mands to be performed in an application by pressing com bination of keys or representations of such keys For example holding a
10. M CYVONVLS 007 Apr 4 2013 Sheet 4 of 7 US 2013 0082935 A1 Patent Application Publication g DIA ED ISL n 1 Vers 7975 Patent Application Publication 4 2013 Sheet 5 of 7 US 2013 0082935 604 602 600 OPERATING LANGUAGE ONSCREEN SYSTEM KEYBOARD 608 COMMAND ITALICS 606 610A 610B ENGLISH 08 612 SPANISH G CURSIVA 614A 6148 FIG 6 710 zop SHORTCUT DESCRIPTIONS IMAGES ETC 7 9 Sa mer og OPERATING KEYBOARD SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FIG 7A y 710 SHORTCUT DESCRIPTIONS IMAGES ETC y 112 COMMANDS INDICIA APPLICATION A COMMANDS INDICIA OPERATING SYSTEM 7147 716 704 COMMANDS INDICIA 720 Patent Application Publication Apr 4 2013 Sheet 6 of 7 US 2013 0082935 PRESENT TOUCH KEYBOARD 800 800 CONFIGURE BASED ON THE CONFIGURE BASED ON THE 802 APPLICATION BEING USED OPERATING SYSTEM BEING USED TOUCH CTRL KEY TO ACTIVATE COMMANDING MODE 304 DETERMINE LANGUAGE OPERATING 806A KEYBOARD a SYSTEM 8066 INSTALLATION 808 DYNAMICALLY PRESENT ONE OR MORE COMMAND IDENTIFIERS ON ONE OR MORE RESPECTIVE KEYS IN RESPONSE TO THE COMMANDING MODE BEING ACTIVATED AND THE DETERMINED LANGUAGE 810 WHILE IN COMMANDING MODE ASSOCIATE A COMMAND KEYSTROKE SEQUENCE WITH EACH OF THE KEYS IN WHICH A COMMAND IDENTIFIER HAS BEEN PRESENTED 812 a HAVING COMMAND ID
11. US 20130082935A1 2 Patent Application Publication o Pub No US 2013 0082935 1 as United States Duggan et al 43 Pub Date Apr 4 2013 54 DYNAMIC COMMAND PRESENTATION AND KEY CONFIGURATION FOR KEYBOARDS 75 Inventors Finbarr Duggan Bray IE Seung Yang Woodinville WA US Gerrit Hofmeester Woodinville WA US Vasudha Chandrasekaran Mountain View CA US 73 Assignee Microsoft Corporation Redmond WA US 21 Appl No 13 249 258 22 Filed Sep 30 2011 Publication Classification 51 Int Cl 3 02 2006 01 GO6F 3 048 2006 01 52 0 8 USPE ss 345 172 715 773 57 ABSTRACT Techniques involving selective modification of keyboard pre sentation and functionality commanding mode is selec tively activated on a virtual keyboard Activating the com manding mode attributes commands to respective individual keys of the virtual keyboard Also in response to the com manding mode indicia suggestive of the command is pre sented on those individual keys to which the commands were attributed The commands can be executed in an application in response to selection of the respective individual keys when in commanding mode 100 COMPUTING APPARATUS COMMANDING MODE ACTIVATION 116 KEYBOARD LAYOUT 120A KEY COMMAND CONFIGURATION KEYBOARD LAYOUT WITH 1208 COMMANDS 124 9 COMMAND 122 FUNCTION DISPLAY amp USER INPUT APPLICATION Patent A
12. ay be coupled to a memory controller 914 which in turn is coupled to the memory 912 via a memory bus 916 The command assign ment and presentation embodiments described herein may involve software that stored in any storage including volatile storage such as memory 912 as well as non volatile storage devices FIG 9 illustrates various other representative storage devices in which applications modules data and other infor mation may be temporarily or permanently stored For example the system bus 904 may be coupled to an internal storage interface 930 which can be coupled to a drive s 932 such as a hard drive Storage 934 is associated with or other US 2013 0082935 1 wise operable with the drives Examples of such storage include hard disks and other magnetic or optical media flash memory and other solid state devices etc The internal stor age interface 930 may utilize any type of volatile or non volatile storage 0059 Similarly an interface 936 for removable media may also be coupled to the bus 904 Drives 938 may be coupled to the removable storage interface 936 to accept and act on removable storage 940 such as for example floppy disks optical disks memory cards flash memory external hard disks etc In some cases host adaptor 942 may provided to access external storage 944 For example the host adaptor 942 may interface with external storage devices via small computer system interface SCSI Fibre Channe
13. be seen acti vation of the CTRL 502B key or other modifier key s acti vates commanding mode where available commands 524 538 are presented on shortcut keys 504B 518B Selection of any of these shortcut keys 504B 518B will cause the respec tive command to be provided to the application or other targeted software 0042 Embodiments described herein relate to a system where an application can supply text and or other indicia to describe shortcuts that are not otherwise presented on the keyboard which will then be integrated into the keyboard irrespective of language Keyboard layouts may differ depending on the language that is to be used and selection of a language or region may impact the presentation or layout of the keyboard In accordance with the disclosure shortcut identifiers can be presented in the language of the installed keyboard and may also be presented on different keys for different languages due to the shortcuts potentially being associated with different keys FIG 6 is a block diagram that illustrates examples of these features 0043 A virtual keyboard such as the onscreen keyboard 600 can be adapted for language by installing the appropriate language 602 via the operating system 604 Depending on the language of the keyboard the shortcut descriptions and or other indicia presented on keys when in commanding mode may differ In the embodiment of FIG 6 it is first assumed that the installed language 602 is English
14. being selected 14 The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising a data retention device configured to store at least the command indicia as provided by an application to which the command is provided and wherein the processor is configured to present the command indicia provided by the application when in commanding mode 15 The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the processor is configured to present the command indicia as at least text that identifies the command that is sent in response to selection of the reconfigured standard key when in the commanding mode 16 The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the processor is configured to present the command indicia as at least an image that identifies the command that is sent in response to selection of the reconfigured standard key when in the com manding mode 17 Computer readable media having instructions stored thereon which are executable by a computing system for performing functions comprising presenting a touch keyboard providing a selectable modifier key on the touch keyboard configured to enable and disable a commanding mode recognizing that the commanding mode has been enabled by selection of the modifier key and in response dynamically presenting one or more command identifi ers on one or more respective keys of the touch key board recognizing that one of the keys having the command iden tifiers presented thereon has been selected and in response providing a series of keystro
15. cognizes user actions ges tures or other inputs to invoke the commanding mode 0031 It should be noted that touch based key entry mod ule 108 and any associated modules may be executed using software operable by a processor such as the processor 102 However a touch keyboard or other virtual keyboard may have a dedicated processor s associated therewith such as processor 102B Unless otherwise noted references to a pro cessor as used herein refer to a processing module s whether a dedicated processor s 102B associated with a virtual key board touchscreen controller system level processor s 102 and or other processor 0032 FIG 2 depicts an example in which a command is associated with and presented on a key in connection with a commanding mode The representative touch based or virtual keyboard 200 includes a plurality of visually presented keys referred to generally herein as keys including at least one modifier key 202A and at least one key 204A referred to in this example as a standard key that is acted on as a result of the modifier key 202A being activated In this example prior to the modifier key 202A being activated by the user the standard key 204A represents the S character key When the modifier key 202A is touched or otherwise selected the func tion associated with the standard key 204A changes in that it will now cause a command to be sent to a keyboard handler module or keyboard stack not sh
16. e commanding mode by again selecting the at least one predetermined key 9 The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the processor implemented application provides the com mands and corresponding indicia 10 The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising activating the commanding mode with a smart trigger that recognizes certain user input as a trigger to acti vate the commanding mode 11 An apparatus comprising a touch based keyboard comprising a plurality of visually presented keys wherein at least one of the keys is con figured as a modifier key and wherein at least one of the other keys is configured as a standard key to provide a first function when selected and a processor configured to recognize selection of the modi fier key to enter a commanding mode and in response to Apr 4 2013 the commanding mode to present command indicia on the standard key and to reconfigure the standard key to provide a second function identifiable by the command indicia when selected 12 The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the processor is configured to provide the second function by sending a com mand in response to selection of the reconfigured standard key when in the commanding mode 13 The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising a data retention device configured to store a series of keystroke actions for the command and to send the series of keystroke actions in response to the reconfigured standard key
17. er com munication methodologies The transmitter 952 and or receiver 954 devices may be stand alone components may be integrated as a transceiver s may be integrated into or already existing part of other communication devices such as the network interface 946 etc 0061 The memory 912 and or storage 934 940 944 948 may be used to store programs and data used in connection with the dynamic command assignment and presentation techniques described herein The storage memory 960 repre sents what may be stored in memory 912 storage 934 940 944 948 and or other data retention devices The represen tative device s storage memory 960 may include an operating system 962 Associated with the operating system 962 or separate therefrom software modules may be provided for performing functions associated with the description herein For example a commanding mode activation module 970 and key command configuration module 972 as described in con nection with FIG 1 may be provided integrally or separately from the operating system 962 A keyboard stack 974 or other keyboard handling program as previously described may also be provided 0062 The device storage memory 960 may also include data 966 and other programs such as the application pro grams 968 that receive the user input via the keyboard Such Apr 4 2013 data includes commands and command descriptions For example where the application s 968 provide application specif
18. esture s made by a user via the UI For instance a touch gesture on a touchscreen touchpad or other touch based mechanism to scroll some direction in a document may provide a second keyboard layout 122 that includes one or more navigational commands e g go to beginning of document go to end of document etc Another example may be a touch gesture that suggests an attempt to expand or zoom a document view where such touch gesture presents various document zoom commands As these examples reveal any desired techniques for triggering the commanding mode may be implemented including but not limited to manual selection via a user inter face mechanism s indirect triggering via touch gestures automatic triggering through other user input such as text selection etc Thus it should be recognized that descriptions involving any particular triggering technique are equally applicable to other triggering techniques 0028 When the commanding mode has been activated one or more keys on the presented keyboard change to serve as shortcut keys for functions other than the default function of those keys For example a key command configuration module 118 recognizes that the commanding mode has been activated and configures one or more keyboard keys to serve as command shortcuts while in commanding mode In the example of FIG 1 the key command configuration module 118 causes at least one key 120A to represent a command key 120B pro
19. example above assumes that the language 602 is based on the language installed on the keyboard 600 but the language of the operating system 604 may alternatively be used as the basis for the language selections 0046 Shortcut key commands may be associated with any keyboard key and not only character keys In some embodi ments the modifier key may be used in connection with SHIFT keys arrow keys and or other non character keys to perform shortcuts For example touching the modifier key e g CTRL and a right arrow key can cause the cursor to jump a word to the right in the application In one embodi ment a description can be provided on the right arrow key to indicate this command function when the modifier key has been selected Similarly the use of the modifier symbol in combination with a plurality of subsequent keys may also perform an appropriate function such as a combination of CTRL SHIFT ARROW where ARROW represents either the left or right arrow to select the word in the direction of the arrow from the position of the cursor When the last key in the sequence is touched the whole command sequence can then be provided to the keyboard handling module also referred to herein as the keyboard stack for processing and recognition of the desired command 0047 Other embodiments account for content direction based on language and the ability to provide shortcut keys to change the direction Most scripts are written from left to
20. fying command shortcuts on a virtual keyboard 0011 FIG 4 depicts another example for identifying com mand shortcuts on a virtual keyboard 0012 FIGS 5 and 5B illustrate representative keyboard layouts that depict the dynamic command assignment and command key identification described herein 0013 FIG 615 block diagram that illustrates examples of adapting the shortcuts based on keyboard language when in commanding mode 0014 FIGS 7 and 7B illustrate examples of implement ing dynamic shortcut keys using system level and applica tion level commands respectively 0015 FIG 8 is a flow diagram illustrating alternative method features in connection with the command assignment and descriptions and 0016 FIG 9 depicts a representative computing system in which the principles described herein may be implemented DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0017 In the following description reference is made to the accompanying drawings that depict representative imple mentation examples It is to be understood that other embodi ments and implementations may be utilized as structural and or operational changes may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure 0018 The disclosure is generally directed to keyboard functionality Often a physical keyboard is associated with a computing system such as a physical keyboard that connects to a computer wirelessly or by way of cabling Other user entry mechanisms involve virtual
21. ic commands and descriptions such data may be stored as shown at block 976 System level commands and or descriptions 978 may alternatively or additionally be stored for commands and descriptions that can be applied to mul tiple applications 968 such as those applications conforming to common operating system 962 commands Keystroke command sequences 980 to be assigned to shortcut keys when in commanding mode may also be stored These modules and data are depicted for purposes of illustration and is not intended to represent an exhaustive list Any programs or data described or utilized in connection with the description pro vided herein may be associated with the storage memory 960 0063 The computing device 900 includes some visual mechanism to present the virtual keyboard s 990 described herein A particular example of a virtual keyboard is a touch screen 992 which may utilize the processor 902 and or include its own processor or controller C 994 Other displays 996 be used as a virtual keyboard 990 such as a projected keyboard 0064 As previously noted the representative computing device 900 in FIG 9 is provided for purposes of example as any computing device having processing capabilities can carry out the functions described herein using the teachings described herein 0065 As demonstrated in the foregoing examples embodiments described herein facilitate dynamic command assignment and command identification on a keyb
22. iment each application can provide application specific commands and command identifiers that can be presented when in commanding mode In the operating system based embodiment the operating system can provide system level commands and command identifiers that can be used for multiple applications running on the operating sys tem 0052 In the illustrated embodiment the CTRL key is touched to activate a commanding mode as shown at block 804 although any key s may be selected to do so in other embodiments Block 806 shows that a relevant language may be determined such as the language of the operating system 806A or the language of the keyboard installation 806B The determined language may control or at least influence one or more of the command descriptions used the keys on which commands will be presented etc 0053 Based on the commanding mode being activated and the language one or more command identifiers are dynamically presented on one or more respective keys as shown at block 808 For example the command identifier may be a textual description icon or image that reveals or suggests the command etc Block 810 indicates that in addi tion to presenting a command identifier a command key stroke sequence is associated with each of the keys in which a command identifier has been presented For example key may become associated with a CTRL C keystroke Apr 4 2013 sequence when the C key is touched when i
23. ion of the commanding mode For example a keyboard layout 408 with command view may be presented as shown at block 410 In the illustrated embodiment the keyboard layout 408 has changed such that the functions associated with a plural ity of the keys has changed to now represent a command rather than a character For example the W key has changed to depict a description of close doc that indicates that the active document in the application will be closed if the key 412 is selected While the command close doc may be operating system level command usable across multiple applications it may also be an application specific command corresponding to the active application being used with the virtual keyboard 0038 In the illustrated embodiment it is assumed that the user has touched key 412 thereby selecting the shortcut key exhibiting the desired command as depicted at block 414 In response block 416 illustrates an embodiment where that the sequence of keystrokes is provided that the application would recognize as the selected command if activated on a physical keyboard More particularly in one embodiment the sequence of key manipulations is provided to a keyboard stack 418 or other keyboard handling module that is other wise used for a hardware keyboard thereby obviating any need to have a keyboard stack dedicated to the virtual key board For example when the W close doc key 412 is pressed a series of
24. ke actions to a keyboard stack to carry out a command identified by the command identifier of the selected one of the keys and disabling the commanding mode to return the touch key board to its state prior to enabling of the commanding mode 18 The computer readable media as in claim 17 wherein the instructions for dynamically presenting one or more com mand identifiers on one or more respective keys comprise instructions for dynamically presenting the one or more com mand identifiers in a language installed on the touch key board 19 The computer readable media as in claim 17 wherein the instructions for dynamically presenting one or more com mand identifiers on one or more respective keys comprise instructions for dynamically presenting the one or more com mand identifiers in a language of an operating system running an application utilizing the touch keyboard 20 The computer readable media as in claim 17 wherein the instructions for providing a selectable modifier key on the US 2013 0082935 1 Apr 4 2013 touch keyboard comprise instructions for providing a CTRL key that is configured to enable and disable the commanding mode
25. keystrokes shown at block 417 may be delivered to cause the command to be executed at the appli cation 422 This series of keystrokes may be for example a down press of the CTRL key which serves as the modifier key in this example a down press of the W key a release of the W key and a release of the CTRL key Thus pressing the shortcut key 412 while in command mode essentially mimics a series of keystrokes that would be performed on a physical keyboard to perform the command thereby enabling the same keyboard stack 418 to be used In this manner the virtual keyboard emulates a physical keyboard and the key board stack 418 sees the input from the virtual keyboard the same as if it had been received from a physical keyboard where the keystrokes are transmitted as they occur The key board stack 418 may be separate software operating in con nection with the operating system 420 or alternatively may be implemented as part of the operating system 420 0039 FIGS 5A and 5B illustrate a representative manner for identifying command shortcuts on a touch keyboard FIG 5A illustrates a first state or first layout 500A of a virtual keyboard which is assumed to be a touch keyboard imple mented via a touchscreen in the illustrated embodiment The CTRL key 502A serves as the modifier key that activates the commanding mode in the illustrated embodiment The first layout 500A of the touch keyboard represents a QWERTY keyboard that inc
26. l serial advanced technology attachment SATA or eSATA and or other analogous interfaces capable of connecting to external storage 944 By way of a network interface 946 still other remote storage may be accessible to the computing device 900 For example wired and wireless transceivers associated with the network interface 946 enable communi cations with storage devices 948 through one or more net works 950 Storage devices 948 may represent discrete stor age devices or storage associated with another computing system server etc Communications with remote storage devices and systems may be accomplished via wired local area networks LANs wireless LANs and or larger net works including global area networks such as the Internet 0060 The computing device 900 may transmit and or receive information from external sources such as to obtain keyboard configurations dynamic command key assign ments and command identifiers based on language etc Com munications between the device 900 and other devices can be effected by direct wiring peer to peer networks local infra structure based networks e g wired and or wireless local area networks off site networks such as metropolitan area networks and other wide area networks global area networks etc A transmitter 952 and receiver 954 are shown in FIG 9 to depict a representative computing device s structural ability to transmit and or receive data in any of these or oth
27. large visual layout that may not significantly alleviate discoverability dif ficulties 0020 Another representative problem involves the use of virtual keyboards in input systems designed for physical key boards Applications may leverage an input system designed for physical keyboards in their application of keyboard based commanding Character entry solutions optimized for touch screens cannot share the same input architecture as traditional keyboards without compromising their design since modifier keys can serve many purposes in physical keyboards which would be inappropriate in a keyboard optimized for touch As a result soft keyboards and other virtual keyboards do not provide commanding or require applications to expose com manding in a new way 0021 The disclosure addresses these and other problems Discoverability problems are addressed by for example dis playing descriptions images colors and or other indicia of the commands on the relevant shortcut keys when command ing mode is engaged As a result no on screen elements would need to be displayed within the application Issues involving input systems designed for physical keyboards may be addressed by utilizing the existing commanding system To avoid the modifier issues described above with virtual keyboards a virtual modifier key may be provided that oper ates within the scope of the virtual keyboard and engages a commanding mode rather than sending a modifier key
28. ludes character keys including the character keys identified as keys 504A 504A 508A 510A 512A 514A 516A and 518A 0040 When the modifier key 502A is touched the embodiment of FIG 5B illustrates that it may toggle and remain selected as depicted by toggled modifier key 502B While the modifier key is selected as depicted by toggled modifier key 502B the commanding mode is activated It should be recognized that some embodiments do not involve a toggle and the user continues to touch the CTRL key 502B to remain in commanding mode When commanding mode is activated commands are presented on one or more of the keys of the keyboard layout 500B For example what was origi US 2013 0082935 1 nally the character A key 504A becomes a shortcut key 504B with the command select all to select all text and or other information in an active application document The textual description select all 524 is also presented on proximate the key 504B to assist the user in knowing which key is to be touched in order to cause the select all command to be issued to the application 0041 Similarly what was originally the character Z key 506A becomes a shortcut key 506B with the command undo to undo the last action s in the active application document and the text undo 526 is also presented Similar change are shown by shortcut keys 508B 518B and their respective textual descriptions 528 538 As can
29. manding mode on a virtual keyboard Activating the com manding mode attributes commands to respective individual keys of the virtual keyboard Also in response to the com manding mode indicia suggestive of the command is pre sented on those individual keys to which the commands were attributed The representative technique further involves enabling execution of the commands in a processor imple mented application in response to selection of their respective individual keys when in commanding mode 0005 Another representative implementation involves an apparatus that includes at least a touch based keyboard and a processor The touch based keyboard includes visually pre sented keys At least one of the keys is configured as a modi fier key and at least one of the other keys is configured as a standard key to provide a first function when selected The processor is configured to recognize that the modifier key has been selected which initiates a commanding mode In response to the commanding mode the processor is config ured to present command indicia on the standard key and to reconfigure the standard key to provide when selected a different function identifiable by the command indicia 0006 In yet another representative embodiment com puter readable media having instructions stored thereon which are executable by a computing system The executable instructions can present a touch keyboard and provide a selectable modifier key on
30. mmands the commands associated with keys as a result of entering commanding mode may be available across multiple applications that run on the operating system 0034 Other indicia such as that shown by key 204E may be presented by second software such as by the application to which the command is being used For example the applica tion may register commands that can be used with the appli cation key associations and associated descriptive indicia When commanding mode is activated via the modifier key 202A 202B the application s commands can be associated with and described on keys such as key 204E which may use application specific text an icon or image and or other descriptive indicia to identify the command associated with the key 204E while in commanding mode 0035 FIG 3 isa flow diagram of an exemplary manner for identifying command shortcuts on a virtual keyboard In this example a commanding mode is activated as shown at block 300 This may be accomplished in various manners such as by touching or otherwise selecting one or more keys of the virtual keyboard As shown at block 302 in response to acti vation of the commanding mode commands are attributed to respective individual keys of the virtual keyboard For example a save command may be attributed to the default S key a copy command may be attributed to the default C key etc When in commanding mode indicia is presented on the individual ke
31. modifier key e g Ctrl while concurrently pressing a character or shortcut key can cause command to be performed Such commands may be able to be accessed in other ways such as via a graphical user interface GUI menu icon or other manner where keyboard commanding enables commands to be reached by pressing key combinations 0002 Keyboard commanding may improve on GUI com manding via mouse or on screen commanding as no special keys for commands are needed as existing physical or on screen keys can be utilized without needing additional work ing space Further users do not need to remove their hands from the keyboard which may improve input efficiency 0003 Notwithstanding some benefits to keyboard com manding keyboard commanding systems suffer from a dis coverability issue where keyboard shortcuts for commands are difficult for users to discover and learn In on screen environments this may result in the use of dedicated on screen elements despite the availability of keyboard based commanding Additionally modifier keys can serve various purposes in physical keyboards that would be inappropriate or difficult in a keyboard optimized for touch and leveraging an input system designed for physical keyboards may there fore be ineffective SUMMARY 0004 Techniques involving selective modification of key board presentation and functionality One representative computer implemented technique includes activating a com
32. n commanding mode When a key associated with a dynamically presented command identifier is touched or otherwise selected as determined at decision block 812 the command keystroke sequence that is recognizable by the existing keyboard stack is sent as shown at block 814 This embodiment assumes that an existing keyboard stack such as a keyboard stack used in connection with a physical keyboard is exploited without having to create a different keyboard stack In such a case the command keystroke sequence is provided to mimic that which would be provided by a physical keyboard to produce the same command for that application 0054 The command identified by the touched command identifier may then be executed at the application as shown at block 816 In one embodiment the keys may revert back to their default state as shown at block 818 For example a key that had been dynamically modified to send a com mand may revert to a C character key in response to a command being sent in response to the modifier key being toggle off or released etc 0055 It should be recognized that the sequence of various functions in flow or block diagrams need not be in the repre sentative order that is depicted unless otherwise noted For example in FIG 3 the order of blocks 302 and 304 does not suggest that these features be performed in this order Simi larly numerous functions associated with the flow diagram of FIG 8 need not be
33. nother embodiment the modifier key s 116 may be configured as a sticky key where it toggles on and off upon each successive touch By activating the com manding mode in this manner a user can be presented with an altered keyboard view that shows available commands for selection Rather than having to remember shortcut combi nations the user can press the modifier key s 116 to cause the key command configuration module 118 to temporarily con figure one or more keys as command shortcut keys from which the user can make a command selection 0030 As noted above one embodiment involves main taining the commanding mode if the user continues to touch the modifier key 116 and is applied to all subsequent shortcut key touches until the modifier key 116 touch is removed In another embodiment a sticky key can be used which will remain in effect until the modifier key is pressed again to deactivate the commanding mode In yet another embodi ment the modified mode can be invoked by touching the modifier key s and without lifting sliding to the desired command shortcut key to invoke the action at the command shortcut key where the sliding action stops These examples are merely representative manners in which the modifier key s may be used and do not represent an exhaustive list As noted above the commanding mode may so be invoked in manners where a modifier key s is not used but rather the triggering is smart in that it re
34. oard when a commanding mode has been initiated In various embodi ments methods are described that can be executed on a com puting device s such as by providing software modules that are executable via a processor which includes one or more physical processors and or logical processors controllers etc The methods may also be stored on computer readable media that can be accessed and read by the processor and or circuitry that prepares the information for processing via the processor For example the computer readable media may include any digital storage technology including memory 912 storage 934 940 944 948 and or any other volatile or non volatile storage etc 0066 Any resulting program s implementing features described herein may include computer readable program code embodied within one or more computer usable media thereby resulting in computer readable media enabling stor age of executable functions described herein to be performed As such terms such as computer readable medium com puter program product computer readable storage com puter readable media or analogous terminology as used herein are intended to encompass a computer program s existent temporarily or permanently on any computer usable medium 0067 Having instructions stored on computer readable media as described herein is distinguishable from instructions propagated or transmitted as the propagation transfers the instructions versu
35. own rather than the origi nal S character In the illustrated embodiment the modified standard key 204B becomes associated with a save com mand to save a document which is also written or otherwise identified for the user on the modified standard key 204B itself The modifier key 202A may be touched and held or the modifier key 202A may be configured as a toggle key that remains activated until touched again 0033 While the text or other indicia the word save in the current example may be presented next to or otherwise US 2013 0082935 1 near the modified standard key 204B in one embodiment the text indicia is presented somewhere on the face of the modi fied standard key 204B when in commanding mode Repre sentative modified standard key 204B depicts that the descriptive indicia may be presented in addition to the origi nal function of the key which was the character S in this example s the function of the key changes to the command during commanding mode one embodiment involves replac ing the indicia on the key with only the command identifier as shown at key 204C In yet another embodiment other indicia such as an image or icon may instead or additionally be presented on the key as depicted by key 204D In still other embodiments indicia such as that shown by any keys 204B 204C 204D may be presented by first software such as an operating system Where the commands are operating sys tem level co
36. pplication Publication 4 2013 Sheet 1 of 7 US 2013 0082935 100 COMPUTING APPARATUS TOUCH BASED KEY ENTRY MODULE 102B ES COMMANDING KEY COMMAND MODE ACTIVATION CONFIGURATION 116 KEYBOARD LAYOUT 120A KEYBOARD LAYOUT WITH 1208 COMMANDS 12i COMMAND 122 DISPLAY amp USER INPUT FUNCTION APPLICATION FIG 1 Patent Application Publication Apr 4 2013 Sheet 2 of 7 US 2013 0082935 200 200 5 204C 204D 204E FIG 2 300 ACTIVATE COMMANDING MODE ATTRIBUTE COMMANDS TO RESPECTIVE INDIVIDUAL KEYS OF A VIRTUAL KEYBOARD PRESENT INDICIA ON THE INDIVIDUAL KEYS OF THE VIRTUAL KEYBOARD TO WHICH COMMANDS ARE ATTRIBUTED IN RESPONSE TO ACTIVATION OF THE COMMANDING MODE 304 306 ENABLE EXECUTION OF COMMANDS IN RESPONSE TO SELECTION OF THE COMMANDS RESPECTIVE INDIVIDUAL KEYS WHEN IN COMMANDING MODE FIG 3 4 2013 Sheet 3 of 7 US 2013 0082935 A1 Patent Application Publication z AIM M r GUYOYAIM TVOISAHd V NO GS LVALLOV ANYANOD SV 3ZIND0038 GINOM NOLLYINddV AHL S3M0YLSAI 30 JONANOAS ANIS 917 807 eos N INOS Y Y e o o LYNYOS 123738 A 8 4 v SJANYNNOD 03 1930 SHL 9 QHVOSA3M 1ND140HS 193738 bly 0 SJAIM 103138 907 GYVOGAI
37. ptop computer mobile communication device smartphone or other mobile telephone application specific computing devices e g hand held signature devices scanners etc or any electronic device capable of presenting a virtual keyboard or other touch based keyboard to accept user input The computing apparatus 100 may include a pro cessor P 102 and operating system OS 104 through which applications and other functional modules may be executed 0025 In the illustrated embodiment application 106 rep resents a computer application that may utilize input from the user by way ofa keyboard The touch based key entry module 108 represents an executable module that may operate in connection with or integrally with an operating system 104 The representative touch based key entry module 108 of FIG 1 facilitates activation of a commanding mode visual alter ation of a keyboard layout and the user selection of a com mand s using the altered keyboard layout More particularly the touch based key entry module 108 of FIG 1 includes a commanding mode activation module 110 which represents amanner of initiating a commanding mode The commanding mode activation module 110 may be triggered through selec tion of one or more selectable keys or other items on a first keyboard layout 112 The first keyboard layout 112 may be presented via the display and user input device 114 which represents a touchscreen or other onscreen or projected key board
38. s stores the instructions such as can occur with a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon Therefore unless otherwise noted references to computer readable media medium having instructions stored thereon in this or an analogous form references tangible media on which data may be stored or retained 0068 Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and or methodologi cal acts it is to be understood that the subject matter defined US 2013 0082935 1 in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the spe cific features or acts described above Rather the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as represen tative forms of implementing the claims What is claimed is 1 computer implemented method comprising activating commanding mode on virtual keyboard which attributes commands to respective individual keys of the virtual keyboard presenting indicia on the individual keys to which com mands are attributed in response to the activation of the commanding mode and enabling execution of the commands in processor imple mented application in response to selection of their respective individual keys when in commanding mode 2 The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein enabling execution of the commands comprises initiating delivery of a series of keystroke actions for the respective command to keyboard handler module
39. shortcut keys using system level and application level commands respectively Referring to FIG 7A multiple applications 700 702 704 may execute under the control of an operating system 706 In such an embodiment the key board configuration 708 of shortcut descriptions 710 when in commanding mode can be applied across each of the appli cations 700 702 704 In other words whether using appli cation A 700 or application B 702 pressing the modifier key to activate commanding mode will in one embodiment present the same shortcut commands on designated keys of the keyboard 0049 In another embodiment the shortcut key commands may be application level commands where the applications US 2013 0082935 1 themselves or other source registers at least some information for specific use with the respective application FIG 7B illus trates such an example Again the applications 700 702 704 and operating system 706 are utilized In this example each of the applications 700 702 704 registers their commands and or indicia 712 714 716 to be presented for these com mands In another embodiment the commands themselves are operating system level commands but the descriptions and or other indicia are registered by each application 700 702 704 In the illustrated embodiment it is assumed that each application 700 702 704 registers at least its own com mands and corresponding shortcut descriptions or other indi cia 712 714 716
40. the commanding mode attributes commands to respective keys of the virtual keyboard Text icons images colors photos and or other indicia may be presented on the keys to which commands were attributed in response to the activation of the commanding mode The commands can be executed by pressing or otherwise activating any of these particular keys Thus among other things the techniques described herein involve touch based keyboards or other vir tual keyboards that incorporate a commanding mode where commands may be associated with individual keys Text or other indicia is displayed on the appropriate key on the key board which can identify the command s to be sent In some cases a single key activation e g press on a virtual keyboard when in commanding mode can replicate multiple key presses involved with physical keyboard shortcut commands Further applications can provide text descriptions and or other indicia for non standard shortcuts that can be integrated into the keyboard irrespective of the language the text is provided in Commands can be dynamically synchronized with a particular keyboard layout These and other represen tative embodiments are described in greater detail below 0024 FIG 1 isa block diagram depicting a representative computing apparatus 100 that incorporates virtual keyboard based commanding in accordance with the disclosure The computing apparatus 100 may represent for example a desk top computer la
41. the touch keyboard that is config ured to enable and disable a commanding mode When Apr 4 2013 executed the instructions can recognize that the commanding mode has been enabled by selection of the modifier key and in response can dynamically present command identifiers on respective keys of the touch keyboard The instructions can recognize that a key that has a command identifier presented on it has been selected and in response provide a series of keystroke actions to a keyboard stack to carry out a command identifiable by the command identifier of the selected key The instructions may further disable the commanding mode to return the touch keyboard to its state prior to enabling of the commanding mode 0007 This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0008 FIG 1 15 a block diagram depicting a representative computing apparatus that incorporates virtual keyboard based commanding in accordance with the disclosure 0009 FIG 2 depicts an example in which a command is associated with and presented on a key in connection with a commanding mode 0010 FIG 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary manner for identi
42. vided via a second keyboard layout 122 with com mands For example the key 120A of the first keyboard layout 112 may be a character key such as a C key When the modifier key 116 is selected the commanding mode acti vation module 110 recognizes that this modifier key 116 has been selected and the key command configuration module 118 presents a second keyboard layout 122 with the new command s displayed In the present example the second keyboard layout 122 may be the same as the first keyboard layout 112 with the exception of added or changed informa tion on the key 120B relative to the original key 120A As an example the C on the key 120A from the first keyboard layout 112 may be changed to instead or additionally display a command such as copy which is a command to copy a selected portion of a document When the key 120B is selected by a user the underlying command 124 is provided to the application 106 or OS 104 or other target to perform an associated function 126 for the application 106 For example ifthe command 124 represents a copy command text or other data selected in the application 106 will be copied such as copied to a clipboard Apr 4 2013 0029 In one embodiment the commanding mode activa tion module 110 causes the commanding mode to remain in effect and consequently the second keyboard layout 122 to be presented until the modifier key s 116 is no longer being touched selected In a
43. ys of the virtual keyboard to which the commands have been attributed as shown at block 304 By presenting the indicia on the keys themselves a user can easily identify the appropriate key to press in order to effect the desired command Block 306 indicates that commands may be executed in response to selection of the commands respective individual keys when in commanding mode 0036 FIG 4 depicts a more particular example for iden tifying command shortcuts on a virtual keyboard A standard keyboard view 400 is first presented as depicted by the rep resentative keyboard layout 402 Keyboard layout 402 depicts a portion ofa standard QWERTY keyboard In accor dance with the disclosure a modifier key s 404 is selected as shown at block 406 The modifier key 404 may be a desig nated or new key on the keyboard layout 402 although in one embodiment a key already on the keyboard layout 402 is used as the modifier key 404 For example the control CTRL key may be used as the modifier key In one embodiment the CTRL or other modifier key 404 does not send any output but rather it changes the output sent by other keys In other words in one embodiment it s effect is to change the payload of the character keys This is described in greater detail below 0037 When the modifier key 404 has been touched or otherwise selected the keyboard layout may change to reflect Apr 4 2013 the commands that are now available in response to activat

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