Generating alphanumeric characters
Contents
1. anno saua 96 spseman 1810 8240 3 8 piemdn Buiuado tamna 190 8cl Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 2 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 204 208 Fig 3 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 3 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 208 408 US 2005 0068322 A1 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 4 of 14 ves 807 M INIM p nn ab 24 in CoS ____ __ 1 Jejuao AT Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 5 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 Fig 7 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 6 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 7 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 m Fig 9 IE m E L a m A B ES E Patent Application Publication 31 2005 Sheet 8 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 E Fig 10 US 2005 0068322 A1 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 9 of 14 qo 6 4 8 as XEN peziis 12. 3ndu pu D Poly uonezi ensiA uonisodjedng 005 yndu JENSIA O1 U04 VLOL Patent Application Publication 31 2005 Sheet 10 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 816 Q D LL US 2005 0068322 A1 Sheet 11 of 14 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Bly 0 ea uomezijensiA 3nduJ peuonisodiedns joueg 1 105592014 o 3u0j indu fe 91005 INOA OCLL nd no 1 9LLL jueuingjsu __ 8zil indul 80LL uoniog ejeq Patent Application Publication 31 2005 Sheet 12 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A1 US 2005 0068322 A1 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 13 of 14 211 614 0 ZLLL uonezijensiA duj easy lt peuonisodiedns __ 4 no saeo K pue ino n Jeued 1nduj OCELE Aejdsig 1ndino 5 OLLL SOLL ejeq jueuuinajsu Jonuo __ 1 Patent Application Publication 31 2005 Sheet 14 of 14 US 2005 0068322 A TERRE thn nie Fig 13a Fig 14 Fig 13b US 2005 0068322 A1 GENERATING ALPHANUMERIC CHARACTERS BACKGROUND 0001 An embodiment of the inventio
3. 0023 13A illustrates another set of graphic symbols that recognizably represent the 36 alphanumeric characters while adhering to the matrix complement concept US 2005 0068322 A1 0024 13B depicts a generic receiving area template for illustrating the symbols of FIG 13A 0025 FIG 14 shows a word formed as a combination of symbols taken from those in FIG 13A DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0026 embodiment of the invention is directed to a character representation technique in which each alphanu meric character is represented by a separate graphic symbol that is designed to be a mnemonic aid to the user The user when looking at the graphic symbol should be able to easily determine or recall which character corresponds to the symbol In addition each graphic symbol is easy to remem ber because it is designed in such a way as to be suggested by one or more apparent basic features of its respective alphanumeric character 0027 For the user to indicate her desired character group of zones may be defined in a writing area or receiving area Each symbol is designed to suggest to or remind the user of a respective combination of one or more zones to be selected from the group The combination of zones for a desired character is defined so that when visually contrasted with the remainder of the group the remainder of the group resembles the desired character Each zone of a given combination may serve to
4. in response to said input control instru ment to define an input signal describing a selected configuration of said input control matrix and said microprocessor to receive said input signal interro gate said storage device for a corresponding alphanu meric character to form a pictogram of a corresponding stylized alphanumeric character glyph on said input visualization area aligned with the selected configura tion and to transmit an output signal for said corre sponding alphanumeric character to said character out put display area of said data entry user interface Mar 31 2005 35 A device as defined in claim 34 wherein said input control instrument is a stylus 36 A device as defined in claim 34 wherein said input control matrix comprises a two dimensional array of cells 37 A device as defined in claim 34 further characterized in that a a glyph formation matrix is programmed into said device b said glyph formation matrix defining a two dimen sional array of sections and said data defining a set of stylized alphanumeric character glyphs identifying preselected sections of said glyph formation matrix 38 A method for inputting alphanumeric characters onto a data entry user interface said method comprising a providing a glyph formation matrix comprising a two dimensional arrangement of regions in the data entry user interface for displaying a set of alphanumeric character glyphs b providing an
5. A Jaffery Reg No 51 841 Walter T Kim Reg No 42 731 Eric T King Reg No 44 188 Steven Laut Reg No 47 736 Suk S Lee Reg No 47 745 Gordon R Lindeen III Reg No 33 192 Jan Carol Little Reg No 41 181 Joseph Lutz Reg No 43 765 Michael J Mallie Reg No 36 591 Andre L Marais Reg No 48 095 Raul D Martinez Reg No 46 904 Paul A Mendonsa Reg No 42 879 Jonathan S Miller Reg No 48 534 Heather M Molleur Reg No 50 432 Richard A Nakashima Reg No 42 023 Thinh V Nguyen Reg No 42 034 Robert B O Rourke Reg No 46 972 Daniel E Ovanezian Reg No 41 236 Philip A Pedigo Reg No 52 107 Marina G Portnova Reg No 45 750 Joseph A Pugh Reg No 52 137 James H Salter Reg No 35 668 William W Schaal Reg No 39 018 James C Scheller Reg No 31 195 Saina S Shamilov Reg No 48 266 Kevin G Shao Reg No 45 095 Stanley W Sokoloff Reg No 25 128 Judith A Szepesi Reg No 39 393 Edwin H Taylor Reg No 25 129 Lisa Tom Reg No 52 291 John Travis Reg No 43 203 Kerry D Tweet Reg No Mar 31 2005 45 959 Mark C Van Ness Reg No 39 865 Thomas A Van Zandt Reg No 43 219 Mark R Vatuone Reg No 53 719 LesterJ Vincent Reg No 31 460 John P Ward Reg No 40 216 Mark L Watson Reg No 46 322 Thomas C Webster Reg No 46 154 Chui Kiu Teresa Wong Reg No 48 042 and Norman Zafman Reg No 26 250 my patent attorneys and Brent
6. a dot positioned in the lower region of the rectangle refers to the feature of a closed curve as in the characters b and 17 The method of claim 15 wherein a dot positioned in the upper region of the rectangle refers to the feature of a closed curve as in the characters and q 18 The method of claim 15 wherein a vertical straight line positioned in the upper region refers to the feature of a curve opening upwards as in the characters U X and 19 The method of claim 15 wherein a straight line that is positioned in the lower region to the right refers to the feature of a curve opening to the right as in the character 20 The method of claim 15 wherein a straight line that is positioned in the lower region to the left refers to the feature of a curve opening to the left as in the character 21 An article of manufacture comprising a machine readable medium having data stored therein that when accessed by a processor maps each of a plurality of alphanumeric characters to a respective selection of one or more regions from a plurality of regions so that if the respective selection of regions were to be contrasted with the remainder of the plu rality of regions then said remainder would positively define a plurality of features of a respective one of the alphanumeric characters 22 The article of manufacture of c
7. below there may be 19 different features needed to compose all of the letters of for example the English alphabet and the 10 decimal numerals Next a template or matrix is created based on the entire set of features by abutting the features to each other in such a way that each feature can be visually distinguished from the others This template may then be overlayed with a smaller second matrix e g a 12 zone matrix The second matrix acts as an adapter to further reduce the number of control regions that will be offered to the user for indicating a character from 19 to in this example just 12 Each character is indicated by a respective selection of one or more and in most cases no more than two regions or zones in a matrix 0031 Feature Based Character Decomposition 0032 FIG 1 illustrates a table of a set of character features or building blocks in the nature of open and closed curves The inventor has found that a complete set of distinct graphic symbols may be generated from such a relatively small set of features or building blocks that closely resemble their respective characters The features are shown in the rows of the table of FIG 1 A set of 36 alphanumeric characters including the letters of the English alphabet some in lower case while others in upper case and the ten decimal numerals are listed in a first upper row 122 0033 Within the column beneath each character in the first upper row 122 are marked
8. by a 12 element three column by four row control matrix 0014 FIG 8B depicts a six point array that can be used instead of a grid to suggest the fixed locations of the regions of a 12 region control matrix 0015 FIG 9 illustrates 36 code configurations of the 19 zone complement matrix overlayed with the 12 zone control matrix highlighting selections of no more than two control zones in each code configuration 0016 FIG 10A shows 36 graphic symbols all using the 12 zone control matrix with no more than two zones in each selection yet still being readily recognizable as the charac ters they are intended to represent 0017 FIG 10B depicts a stylized glyph pictogram that is aligned with its corresponding control regions 0018 FIG 11A symbolizes an example process of con struction in the mind of a user for indicating the letter K 0019 FIG 11B shows in block diagram form a handheld computing device 0020 1 depicts in block diagram form a hand held computing device in which the input control and visualization areas overlap a large portion of the character output display 0021 12A depicts pen down and pen up actions by user on a touch sensitive screen for selecting the regions or zones of a matrix 0022 FIGS 12B E illustrate the use of a swirl action on a touch sensitive screen for differentiating between charac ters that share one or more control regions or code configu ration
9. input control matrix comprising a two dimensional arrangement of cells in the data entry user interface being coextensive with and aligned with said glyph formation matrix establishing a correspondence between a configuration of said input control matrix defined by a combination of one or more selected cells within said input control matrix and an alphanumeric character glyph d receiving a selected configuration of said input control matrix then identifying a corresponding alphanumeric character and then f displaying an alphanumeric character glyph that corre sponds to said selected configuration of said input control matrix by contrasting one or more selected ones of said regions with said glyph formation matrix 39 A method as defined in claim 38 wherein the configu ration was selected by a user addressing at least one cell of said input control matrix by means of a stylus 40 A method defined in claim 39 wherein the searching for the corresponding alphanumeric character further includes applying an input signal to a microprocessor defin ing said selected input control matrix configuration then b interrogating a data storage device for an alphanumeric character corresponding to said selected input control matrix configuration then recalling data from a data storage device defining preselected regions of said glyph formation matrix for representing said corresponding alphanumeric charac ter and th
10. on center closed curve 1 132 pelow center closed curve C 1 1 1 t 1 1 1 1 133 epus AME O left of cent 1 upwards ight of center curve 1 135 Spanii upwards Lu t 111 136 lopening downwards left of cent 137 downwards ight of center curve 1 138 opening downwards n above center curve 1 139 opening to teft above center curve 1 1 140 opening to right t e 1 141 opening to tet t 1 78 below ter curve 1 1 1 1 1 1 143 bein to le ft T1 below center curve 1 4 1 1 144 opening to right 1 145 amp to cli curve L 4 1 1 1 m 146 TRUE upward amp to right 147 opening downward amp to left LL eue 1 1 1 1 8 a NN 2 2 1 2 212121212 1 3 1 3 1 1 2 2 1 12 21 1 3 3 4 2 21012 2 2 2 2 21 1 2 2 1 US 2005 0068322 A1 Patent Application Publication Mar 31 2005 Sheet 1 of 14 SINNOD 3univa bu o PPL 2 94 oj J9 u82 MOJOQ yere buusdo sayuad juon ____ 19 9 yay oy Buluado 2 651 spieMuMop buluado gaing 1930 3940 44 Spiemumop buiuado eAin219 102240 Jel 11
11. 05 20050068322 1 as United States a2 Patent Application Publication Pub No US 2005 0068322 A1 Falcioni 43 Pub Date Mar 31 2005 54 GENERATING ALPHANUMERIC 52 US CL iet HERE 345 467 CHARACTERS 76 Inventor Richard A Falcioni Sylmar CA US 57 ABSTRACT Correspondence Address BLAKELY SOKOLOFF TAYLOR amp ZAFMAN 12400 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD SEVENTH FLOOR LOS ANGELES CA 90025 1030 US In some embodiments of the invention a desired alphanu meric character is generated through the use of mnemonic aids which are provided to represent the alphanumeric characters Each aid is designed so that it can suggest to a person a respective combination of one or more zones to be CD Appl No 10 67443 selected from a number of zones The respective combina 22 Filed Sep 29 2003 tion is such that if contrasted with the remainder of the zones or with the remainder of an area that is coextensive Publication Classification with and contains all of the zones the remainder resembles the desired character Other embodiments are also described 51 Int 17 5109 GO06T 11 00 and claimed 122 128 CHARACTERS lt jv 5 6 7 8 5 0 FEATURES alse ee eL S Uws es 8 124 130 jabove center closed curve L3 1 1 1 1 131 m
12. 2 results in the character being invoked see FIG 12E To make the choices more clear the corresponding graphic symbols or picto grams which may be given additional detail as needed to resemble their corresponding characters are superimposed onto the control matrix as shown Note that stepping back wards and forward through the possible characters may be accomplished by reversing the direction of the swirl 0068 Additional Embodiments 0069 Turning now to FIG 13A another embodiment of the invention is illustrated as another set of graphic symbols that correspond to the 36 alphanumeric characters In this embodiment each receiving area 1304 is of a contrasting color with respect to its background 1306 with a peripheral boundary 1307 shown in a darker color Each receiving area 1304 is to receive a combination of one or more marks that represents the desired alphanumeric character Each mark has a given form position and orientation within the receiving area 1304 that suggest a feature of the character once again through a complementary rather than direct relationship with that feature Taking the letter as an example the receiving area 1304 for that letter bears a mark 1312 being a dot positioned in the lower half of the rectan gular receiving area 1304 where the dot refers to the feature Mar 31 2005 of a below center closed curve 132 see FIG 1 The mark 1312 is also used for representing other chara
13. G 12C shows one and a half counterclockwise orbits For example the number of swirl orbits or partial orbits that have been detected may serve to increment or decrement a selection counter where post initial swirl direction deter mines the increment decrement action and each count is used to indicate a different special character A swirl may also be used to indicate an additional control option e g begin or stop capitalize begin or stop bold face insert a space etc 0067 The swirl may be applied in the final selection region of a given code configuration to allow the user to cycle through viewing the initial character and then the different special characters that bear some resemblance to the initial character Note that all of these special characters share the first and second selection regions but can now be differentiated using the swirl action Another way to explain this effect is to consider that several special characters can share the same code configuration of a base character i e the same initial combination of one or more control regions to be selected that have been assigned to the base character and the swirl action distinguishes beyond this initial code For example in FIG 12D the character has been invoked by selecting the regions 1275 and 1277 which without more represents a default code configuration namely that of lower case followed by a single 1 swirl Making an additional swirl
14. Vecchia Reg No 48 011 and Lehua Wang Reg No 48 023 my patent agents with offices located at 12400 Wilshire Boulevard 7th Floor Los Ange les Calif 90025 telephone 310 207 3800 and James R Thein Reg No 31 710 my patent attorney with full power of substitution and revocation to prosecute this application and to transact all business in the Patent and Trademark Office connected herewith What is claimed is 1 A method for generating a desired alphanumeric char acter comprising providing a plurality of mnemonic aids that represent a plurality of different alphanumeric characters each aid being designed so that it can suggest to a person a respective combination of one or more zones from a plurality of zones wherein if the combination is con trasted with the remainder of said plurality of zones then the remainder resembles the desired character 2 The method of claim 1 wherein said plurality of zones are arranged so that the periphery around them is the maximum extent of every graphic symbol that appears when combination of one or more zones is contrasted 3 The method of claim 1 wherein said plurality of zones form a matrix 4 The method of claim 3 wherein the matrix has twelve zones arranged in four rows and three columns 5 The method of claim 3 wherein the respective combi nation of zones has no more than two zones and wherein the plurality of mnemonic aids represent all 26 letters of the English alph
15. abet and 10 decimal numerals 6 The method of claim 3 wherein each aid is depicted by a matrix of said plurality of zones that shows the respective combination 7 The method of claim 1 further comprising visually contrasting a combination of one or more of said plurality of zones with unselected ones of said plurality of zones as the combination is being selected by a person 8 A method for generating alphanumeric characters comprising providing a plurality of selection zones instructing a user to select a combination of one or more of said plurality of selection zones that represents the user s desired alphanumeric character and providing a mapping between said selected combination and the desired alphanumeric character wherein the mapping is based on a representing each character as juxtaposition of some of a plurality of open and closed curves the plurality of selection zones being fewer than the plurality of curves b creating a tem plate containing all of the plurality of open and closed curves and c aligning the template with the plurality of selection zones 9 The method of claim 8 further comprising enabling the user to select one of the selection zones in the combination by one of a depressing a respective push button and b touching a respective region in a touch sensitive surface US 2005 0068322 A1 10 A method for textual communication comprising forming words and phrases using some of a plura
16. al from which pieces are essentially removed by the user applying force to those pieces when entering her desired character This leaves behind a graphic symbol also referred to as a stylized glyph or glyph like pictogram that closely resembles the character Thus it is the remainder of the matrix or the remainder of the group of regions that make up the matrix which resembles the character once the selected regions have been removed or visually contrasted in response to user input 0047 The Control Matrix 0048 Although in the complement matrix 408 not all rows have the same number of regions it is possible to overlay a three column by four row array of rectangular regions or zones over the complement matrix 408 In that case each of the larger elements of the complement matrix 408 may be completely contained in a separate one of the twelve regions This is illustrated in FIG 8A where the complement matrix 408 is overlayed by a three column by four row control matrix 808 0049 The control matrix 808 is intended to be a more efficient means for the user to enter manual actions that indicate a desired character by the selection of one or more of twelve zones that overlay the elements of the complement matrix 408 Note that the selection zones in the control matrix 808 are fewer and larger than those of the comple ment matrix 408 and accordingly should be easier for the user to operate 0050 suggest in the mind of t
17. ample and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like refer ences indicate similar elements It should be noted that references to embodiment of the invention in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment and they mean at least one Mar 31 2005 0006 FIG 1 illustrates a table of a set of character features or building blocks that are in the nature of open and closed plane curves and how each character can be decom posed into a subset of these curves 0007 FIG 2 shows a tentative matrix obtained by assembling the features together based on their relative positions 0008 FIG 3 illustrates application of the stretched matrix to select a combination of features that represent the letter b 0009 FIG 4 depicts a complement matrix 0010 FIG 5 shows regions of a solid complement matrix being visually contrasted with the remainder of the matrix to form a graphic symbol for the letter b 0011 FIG 6 shows examples of how the matrix comple ment approach may be used for forming more complex graphic symbols than necessary to obtain a more recogniz able graphic symbol 0012 FIG 7 illustrates a set of recognizable graphic symbols that correspond to the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the 10 decimal system numerals based on a 19 element matrix complement approach 0013 8A shows how the 19 element complement matrix is overlayed
18. approach may also be applied to encode the characters of other languages The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense APPENDIX A 0075 hereby appoint with full power of substitution and revocation to prosecute this application and to transact all business in the Patent and Trademark Office connected herewith BLAKELY SOKOLOFF TAYLOR amp ZAFMAN LLP a firm including Ramin Aghevli Reg No 43 462 William E Alford Reg No 37 764 Farzad E Amini Reg No 42 261 W Thomas Babbitt Reg No 39 591 Jordan M Becker Reg No 39 602 Michael A Bernadicou Reg No 35 934 Roger W Blakely Jr Reg No 25 831 R Alan Burnett Reg No 46 149 Gregory D Caldwell Reg No 39 926 Cory G Claassen Reg No 50 296 Thomas M Coester Reg No 39 637 Mimi D Dao Reg No 45 628 Stephen M De Klerk Reg No 46 503 Daniel M De Vos Reg No 37 813 Sanjeet Dutta Reg No 46 145 Tarek N Fahmi Reg No 41 402 Thomas S Ferrill Reg No 42 532 George L Fountain Reg No 36 374 Adam Furst Reg No 51 710 Angelo J Gaz Reg No 45 907 Andre M Gibbs Reg No 47 593 James Y Go Reg No 40 621 Jason R Graff Reg No 54 134 Jeffery Scott Heileson Reg No 46 765 James A Henry Reg No 41 064 Will more Holbrow Reg No 41 845 Sheryl Sue Holloway Reg No 37 850 George W Hoover II Reg No 32 992 Eric S Hyman Reg No 30 139 Aslam
19. being written on a sheet of paper The border 1307 see FIG 13A and the contrasting colors of the receiving area 1304 and the background 1306 may be preprinted or pre displayed on a form and the user is then instructed to indicate the desired character by simply making the marks being a dot or a straight line A word spelled using the graphic symbols of FIG 13A is shown in FIG 14 It is noted that when forming words and phrases based on the graphic symbols depicted in FIG 13A none of the marks that are to be made by the user to indicate the characters form a closed shape 0072 It is expected that the user can quickly learn the combination of dots and or lines that represent each char acter as shown in the embodiment of FIG 13A by recog nizing or recalling the complement matrix approach described above The orientation and location of each dot and or line for a given character is suggested by one or more features of the character which should be apparent to the user For example if the user wants to enter the character 3 user should recall that this character can be decom posed into an upper curve opening to the left and a lower curve opening to the left stacked This will immediately suggest that two substantially horizontal lines one substan tially in the upper half and another substantially in the lower half need to be marked at the left side of the receiving area 1304 so that the resulting graphic symbol will r
20. cters such as b and d as shown 0070 Asecond mark 1310 is needed to define the graphic symbol for the letter shown in FIG 13A The mark 1310 is a straight line that is pointing upwards and to the right and is positioned in a left half of the receiving area 1304 This mark 1310 refers to the feature of an above center curve opening to the left 139 see FIG 1 It can be seen that the combination of the marks 1310 and 1312 when viewed on the receiving area 1304 which is contrasted with its back ground 1306 suggests to a person that the receiving area 1304 is referring to the letter Note that the straight lines may alternatively be angled differently slightly curved or they may be substantially horizontal and still be capable of visually depicting the letter a 0071 The inventor has found that a generic receiving area template or matrix 1328 with a rectangular shape including top middle and bottom non overlapping regions as shown in FIG 13B may be used to represent each of the 36 alphanumeric characters using a combination of only straight lines and dots such as the marks 1310 and 1312 The matrix 1328 in FIG 13B shows all of the possible marks in this embodiment namely two dots and 18 straight lines in various positions and orientations as shown This embodiment of the invention may be more effective where the user is to indicate each character in a separate receiving area as if a word were
21. e here is to visually contrast the three regions 542 540 and 544 The latter combination of regions might yield a more recognizable graphic symbol in this case represent ing the letter FIG 6 also shows other examples of the matrix complement approach for forming more complex graphic symbols than necessary i e the letter u center curve opening upwards 133 suggested by the complement region 533 the letter 17 whose graphic symbol is formed by visually contrasting the complement region 546 and finally the letter whose graphic symbol is formed by visually contrasting the region 531 0045 Using the matrix complement technique described above and sometimes applying multiple compliment regions per feature a set of recognizable graphic symbols may be generated that correspond to the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the 10 decimal system numerals as shown in FIG 7 The graphic symbols are easily recognized to be the characters they are intended to represent 0046 Another way to understand the matrix complement approach may be as follows Rather than being directed to a drawing based approach where the features of a character or even a mnemonic are positively recited by the application of force via a finger or stylus on a receiving area an US 2005 0068322 A1 embodiment of the invention instead indicates each charac ter starting with a matrix of solid elements that are of the same color or materi
22. echargeable battery or a fuel cell not shown is provided in the PDA device coupled to power the display screen as well as the logic which imple ments the character representation technique described above 0060 FIG also shows a separate character output display 1130 used for displaying the generated characters either in the form of their respective graphic symbols or in a conventional high resolution font An alternative to this arrangement is to locate the input control area 1112 and the input visualization area 1120 so as to partially or even completely overlap with a part of the larger character output display 1130 see FIG 11C where the input control and visualization areas 1112 1120 superimposed relative to each other overlay a large portion of the output display 1130 where previously generated words and characters are simul taneously being displayed this alternative may be espe cially useful for very small devices 1104 such as enhanced watches where display area is at a premium 0061 The device 1104 should preferably include further logic that is designed to control the touch sensitive display screen so that each respective combination of zones selected by the user is visually contrasted with the remainder of the matrix as the operator selects the combination This pro duces in effect a real time sensation in the operator of drawing the desired character Of course as explained above the operator does not actua
23. en d providing said data in an output signal to a input visualization area of said data entry user interface 41 A method comprising providing a plurality of zones and contrasting a combination of one or more of the plurality of zones with a remainder of the plurality of zones the combination having been selected by a user to represent a desired alphanumeric character wherein the plurality of zones and the combination are such that when US 2005 0068322 A1 10 contrasted the remainder resembles the desired char acter 42 A method comprising providing a plurality of zones and contrasting a combination of one ore more of the plurality of zones with a remainder of the plurality of zones the Mar 31 2005 combination having been selected by a user to represent a desired alphanumeric character wherein the plurality of zones and the combination are such that the remain der forms one or more positive features of the desired character
24. es a user can quickly indicate her desired character by making merely one or two selections on the matrix Users can be expected to rapidly learn the combination for entering character because each combination is easily distinguish able from another and is naturally suggested by the basic features of its respective character Accordingly this is expected to allow the user to form entire words and phrases quickly and in a relatively error free manner Each indicated combination can be mapped into its corresponding character through a look up table thereby allowing low cost yet fast electronic decoding of the combinations This renders the technique particularly effective for data entry in small Mar 31 2005 electronic logic controlled devices that do not have a full size keyboard although other applications such as paper forms to be filled in by hand and then scanned electroni cally may also benefit from the technique 0030 derivation of the preferred mapping between each combination of one or more zones and its correspond ing alphanumeric character may be summarized as follows First each character is represented as a juxtaposition of some of a set of open and closed plane curves also referred to as features or components These features are like build ing blocks and may be idealized into rectangles or squares and angular portions of such rectangles or squares Other shapes are however possible As explained in detail
25. esemble the number 3 0073 To summarize some embodiments of the invention a novel character representation or coding technique has been described that is easy to learn Rather than have the user positively draw or define the features of a character the user is instead instructed to positively indicate or manually apply force to those regions that are the complement of one or more features of the character For example rather than have the user draw the entire contour of a plane closed curve US 2005 0068322 A1 as in the letter o the user contacts a point in a control region that is understood as representing the inside of the plane closed curve It is then up to the electronic device or other mechanism to reflect the visual contrast needed to highlight the actual features of the desired character based on the complement selection e g visually contrasting the entire control region relative to its surrounding control regions Other embodiments have also been described and claimed 0074 In the foregoing specification the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodi ments thereof It will however be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims For example although the invention has been described in the context of English alphanumeric characters complement
26. he combi nation to produce a sensation in the operator of drawing the desired character 34 A computing device comprising data entry user interface an input control instrument said data entry user interface comprising a character output display area and an input control panel area said input control panel area including a region responsive to said input control instrument a microp IOCCSSOr a data storage device in communication with and addres sable by said microprocessor data defining a set of character input signals derived from the features of a system of stylized alphanumeric character glyphs and data for forming visual represen tations of alphanumeric characters being stored within said data storage device an input control matrix defined within said region of said input control panel area said input control matrix being switchable between a plurality of configurations wherein each of a predetermined plurality of said configurations corresponds to one of said character input signals an input visualization area defined within said region of said input control panel area the input visualization area and the input control matrix being positioned relative to each other so that one lies over the other with like parts coinciding said input visualization area comprising a plurality of sections each of said sections being characterized by visually contrasting first and second states said input control matrix
27. he respective combination were to be visually contrasted with the remainder of the matrix then said remainder would resemble one of the alpha numeric characters and power source coupled to power the display screen and said logic 30 The system of claim 29 wherein the regions of a given combination that is associated with a desired character are those which are suggested by one or more features of the desired character 31 The system of claim 30 wherein the matrix is taller than it is wide the desired character is whose features include a closed plane curve located below a left opening plane curve as in US 2005 0068322 A1 there are two regions in the given combination associated with the first region being located in a lower half of the matrix and the second region being located to the left and above the first region 32 The system of claim 30 wherein the desired character s p whose features include a closed plane curve located above an upside down 17 as in r and there are two regions in the given combination associated with p the first region being located in an upper half of the matrix and the second region being located to the right and below the first region 33 The system of claim 26 further comprising logic that is to control the touch sensitive display screen so that the respective combination is visually contrasted with the remainder of the matrix as an operator selects t
28. he user the fixed locations of the control regions in the control matrix 808 a grid 810 may be displayed As an alternative to the grid a six point array 814 with a visible outside boundary 816 may be displayed as shown in FIG 8B 0051 Mnemonic aids 0052 In a preferred embodiment at most two selection Zones are needed to identify any one of the 36 alphanumeric characters previously mentioned Ihis embodiment is illus trated in the 36 configurations of FIG 9 where each combines an instance of the 19 zone complement matrix overlayed with the 12 zone control matrix These regions or zones may correspond to push buttons on a keyboard or keypad or to highlighted areas on a touch sensitive surface 0053 The 36 configurations shown in FIG 9 may also be used as the graphic symbols or mnemonic aids As an alternative an otherwise solid 12 zone matrix depicting a respective 2 zone selection for a given character may be used as the graphic symbol for that character That is because despite having less detail than those based on the 19 zone matrix graphic symbols that use the 12 zone matrix are still recognizable as the characters they are intended to represent See for example the two zone representation of each graphic symbol depicted in FIG 10A Note that the outline or border of each instance of the 12 zone matrix does not appear in that it is of the same color as the background around each matrix 0054 another alternat
29. highlight or suggest one or more respective features of the corresponding character via a complementary rather than direct relationship with that feature In the following section a derivation for a set of basic features or building blocks is given by decomposing each character into one or more of these basic features 0028 The character representation technique has been applied to decompose each of the twenty six letters of the English alphabet and ten decimal numerals into just a few features taken from a set of nineteen 19 features This so called feature based representation of each character may be used as the graphic symbol for that character This type of symbol is preferably depicted using a matrix of twelve zones arranged in four rows and three columns motiva tion for this particular number and arrangement of zones is given below although it is possible to use other zone arrangements as well as a different number of zones for indicating the symbols For example a 19 zone matrix that is a direct result of the 19 basic features may be used by itself i e without reduction to the 12 zone matrix to depict the graphic symbols It has also been found that every one of the alphanumeric characters may be represented by a respective combination of no more than two zones even in the 12 zone matrix This combination is also referred to as code configuration 0029 Due to the relative simplicity of each combination of zon
30. hip between a stylized glyph as it appears before the user and its corresponding selected control regions may also be explained as follows First the stylized glyph should be comparable in size to the entire control matrix Second the outside boundary of the stylized glyph should be substantially co extensive with that of the control matrix Both of these conditions can be seen in the control visual superposition diagram that depicts the letter e in FIG 10B This alignment reinforces in the user s mind the mapping between the control regions to be selected and the corresponding alphanumeric character First it does not introduce distractions and keeps the user focused on the task at hand namely indicating a desired character Second showing the stylized glyph so aligned is expected to help meet the user s expectations of her desired character being invoked This may be particularly helpful when a character input panel before the user appears as a solid rectangle with no outline that shows the boundaries of the control regions 0057 A process for constructing a desired character may be described as follows First when the user wants to generate a particular character he or she recalls the corre sponding graphic symbol as shown for example in FIG 7 This graphic symbol then in turn suggests the regions or zones to be selected namely those highlighted in FIG 7 or depicted in white in FIG 1A This forward process of c
31. ibed as follows First the user performs an initial PD action upon a first region The system then detects the first region Next the user slides the stylus out of the first region without any PU actions Now if the stylus is then slid back to the first region without any PU actions and is then followed by a PU action off the first region the system interprets the sequence as not invoking a character In other words to undo his actions the user slides the stylus back to the first region that was selected by the initial PD action and then lifts the stylus to prevent a character from being generated 0064 Special Characters 0065 There are some characters that may be too complex to be easily represented using only a combination of regions from the complement matrix 408 see FIGS 4 7 There are also characters that look so similar to each other that a combination of selection regions assigned for one of them would also be suggested for the other One solution for invoking these special characters while using the same complement matrix defined above is as follows First an association between a special character and a certain previ ously defined control region combination is made For example the character looks like the letter and hence may be associated with the same two region combi nation assigned to Similarly the characters and may be associated with the two region combination tha
32. in these three categories are angular alternatively they may be defined using smoother less angular curves or shapes 0035 Note that each feature may be defined not only by its shape and orientation but also by a relative location The inventor has found that these 19 features may be sufficient to generate the readily recognizable set of 36 graphic symbols corresponding to the 36 alphanumeric characters set forth in the first row 122 of the table in FIG 1 Note also that 33 out of the 36 can be characterized with at most two features And of those 33 25 of them can be characterized uniquely so that they can be distinguished from the others on the basis of feature decomposition alone This character representation technique can also be referred to as a modular character construction methodology where each character can be decomposed into one or more modules It should be noted that the characters may alternatively be represented by combinations of features other than those listed in FIG 1 Also a different set of constituent features may be defined that may be more or less numerous than the 19 shown in FIG 1 and that may have different shapes and orientations 0036 When decomposing the characters into their con stituent features each character is preferably drawn to fill the same vertical range Terms like upper or lower or above center and below center can therefore be interpreted as situating a feature in the upper or lower ha
33. ion that is opening to the right opening to the left opening upward and to the left etc Features that have an orientation associated with them are located at the outside of the matrix where the feature can face out in its specified direction 0040 Next almost all of the assembled features stretched so that they abut one another eliminating the intervening spaces and thereby resulting in a stretched matrix 208 in FIG 2 Note also that the stretched features become the boundaries of the regions in the matrix 208 in such a way that most of the regions line up in rows and columns The purpose for this will become apparent below Mar 31 2005 0041 FIG 3 illustrates application of the stretched matrix 208 to select a combination of features that represent the letter b namely the below center closed curve 132 and the curve opening upward and to the right 146 see also FIG 1 Note how the features 132 146 may be selected by the user s manual actions indicated by the X upon the corre sponding regions or elements 232 and 246 of the matrix 208 However the features as highlighted in the right hand diagram of FIG 3 may not easily convey the form of a recognizable character 0042 A solution to the above difficulty may be to first provide a rectangular background to the matrix 208 and second interpret the features as though they partition the background into smaller parts or components This combi nation
34. ions are placed on the location in the writing area and the path to take when the user makes a drawing An example of such a device is the PALM handheld computing device that features the GRAFFITI writing software by Palm Inc Milpitas Calif 0003 Although the suggested GRAFFITI drawings bear a strong resemblance to their corresponding characters the technique often results in the wrong character being detected when the pace of writing quickens In addition there is a noticeable delay between the point in time that the user has completed a drawing and when the corresponding character appears before the user 0004 Another method for entering alphanumeric data is described in U S Pat No 5 982 303 to Smith That patent describes how a complete set of alphanumeric characters may be entered on a data input device having only nine keys arranged in an array Each character is input by entering sequential keystrokes which define a pictograph The patent also alleges that an untrained operator can quickly learn the pictographs which correspond to each character While some of the pictographs employed bear a vague resemblance to their corresponding alphanumeric characters most do not As a result the operator may be required to spend a significant period of time learning or memorizing the strokes needed to enter most of the characters BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0005 The embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of ex
35. ive a more detailed graphic symbol may be provided to represent a character and to act as the mnemonic aid More detailed graphic symbols may be used to represent special characters other than those of the Mar 31 2005 alphabet For example additional detail may be provided for the graphic symbols that represent the characters and upper case c to clearly distinguish the symbol used for the letter c The graphic symbols depicted in FIG 9 are preferred because each of them readily maps into and is identified with the regions or zones for their selection It is believed that this aspect makes it relatively easy for people to remember how to designate a desired character in the feature based complement matrix approach 0055 In the preferred embodiment a graphic symbol e g a stylized glyph pictogram is made to appear when the user has selected a given combination of regions from the control matrix that correspond to that symbol In addition this symbol is preferably aligned with its corresponding control regions In other words at least a part of every contrast area that allows the symbol to be viewed falls within the corresponding control region that has been selected For example in FIG 10B at least a part of the area 1004 falls within the selected control region 1014 Similarly at least a part of the area 1008 falls within the selected control region 1018 0056 The preferred relations
36. ix as desired see the left hand diagram of FIG Mar 31 2005 12A without affecting the accuracy of the mapping between a combination of selected control regions and its corresponding alphanumeric character In cases where the character is represented by a single region the pen down and pen up actions remain on a single region see the right hand diagram of FIG 12A Other possible applications for the matrix complement techniques described above include desktop computer systems automated teller machines and mobile telephone devices where the control regions are typically represented by spaced apart rather than abutting mechanical pushbuttons on a keyboard or keypad In such an embodiment one or more key activation events may be prescribed for each character For example one or more keys may be associated with a given character and an activation event for each key may be defined as the key being depressed or let go by the user Note that the timing of the activation events for a given combination may not matter if the combination of events is based on a combi nation of keys that is unique to each character 0063 Sometimes the user may want to undo the effect of a region selection action for a certain character prior to beginning the process of indicating the next character According to an embodiment of the invention in which the PU and PD actions are used for such region selection the undoing or reversing process may be descr
37. l using a visualization area of the display surface that has higher resolution than said matrix so that the symbol more closely resembles the alphanumeric character 27 The article of manufacture of claim 21 wherein the data is to treat the respective selection as one for which said remainder positively defines a closed plane curve located below a left opening plane curve as in which features belong to the character the respective selection having a first selected region located in a lower half of an arrangement of said plurality of regions and a second selected region located to the left and above the first region in said arrangement 28 The article of manufacture claim 21 wherein the data is to treat the respective selection as one for which said remainder positively defines a closed plane curve located above a right opening plane curve as in 0 which features belong to the character the respective selection having a first selected region located in a upper half of an arrangement of said plurality of regions and a second selected region located to the right and below the first region in said arrangement 29 An electronic system comprising touch sensitive display screen logic that implements an association between each of a plurality of alphanumeric characters and a respective combination of one or more regions selected from a matrix of regions that have been defined on the display screen so that if t
38. laim 21 wherein the data is designed to allow said respective selection to be made via touch sensitive screen inputs 23 The article of manufacture of claim 21 wherein the medium has further data that when accessed by the proces sor divides a display surface of a touch sensitive screen Mar 31 2005 device into a two dimensional matrix of said plurality of regions and allows said respective selection to be made via input events on the display surface 24 The article of manufacture of claim 23 wherein the medium has further data that when accessed by the proces sor displays a graphic symbol on the display surface that is aligned with the two dimensional matrix wherein the graphic symbol represents an alphanumeric character that has been mapped to said respective selection so that a user can immediately confirm whether her selection resulted in the alphanumeric character she had intended to be retrieved 25 The article of manufacture of claim 24 wherein the data is to display the graphic symbol by contrasting the selected regions with the remainder of the plurality of regions in said matrix so that the graphic symbol as dis played is substantially coextensive with the outside bound ary of said matrix and at least a part of every contrast area that allows the symbol to be viewed falls within a corre sponding region that has been selected 26 The article of manufacture of claim 25 wherein the data is to display the graphic symbo
39. lf of that vertical range 0037 The features that are indicated in FIG 1 as con stituting each symbol may be viewed as meeting a minimum threshold needed to make a character representation recog nizable and distinguishable from the other characters Indeed a graphic symbol may be defined in a more complex manner using additional features or nuances For example when using only the given set of features shown in FIG 1 some characters may not be readily distinguishable from others such as and 9 o and 0 s and 5 and z and 2 In addition to make the letter more recogniz able and also distinguishable from the letter u may be represented as if it were an upper case with a very short stem This provides the effect of the characteristic vertex thus distinguishing it from the rounder or flatter Other enhancements to make a symbol more recognizable are possible Some special cases will be addressed below 0038 The Matrix Complement Approach 0039 In addition to discovering that the characters can be decomposed into constituent features the inventor has also found an effective process for indicating the graphic symbol and hence the desired character by a user First a template 204 is formed as shown in FIG 2 by bringing the features close together based on their relative positions that is upper center lower and their orientat
40. lity of graphic symbols that represent an entire alphabet wherein each graphic symbol visually suggests a sepa rate letter of the alphabet and is made of one or more marks in a receiving area none of which form a closed shape 11 The method of claim 10 wherein a word is formed by user marking a separate receiving area for each graphic symbol that constitutes the word as if the user were writing the word on a sheet of paper 12 The method of claim 11 wherein the user is using a writing instrument to mark a form sheet on which a plurality of separate receiving areas have been delineated 13 A method for textual communication comprising considering a receiving area that bears a combination of one or more marks as representing an alphanumeric character wherein each mark has a given form position and orientation within the receiving area that suggest a feature of the character through a complementary rather than direct relationship with that feature 14 The method of claim 13 further comprising consid ering a plurality of said combinations as constituting a word wherein each of said plurality of combinations is located in separate receiving area as if the word were written on a sheet of paper 15 The method of claim 13 wherein the receiving area is rectangular and has upper and lower non overlapping regions and said one or marks are from the group consisting of straight lines and dots 16 The method of claim 15 wherein
41. lly draw a character in the matrix complement technique but rather assembles it using the feature based complementary approach described above It should be noted that the logic circuitry may include hardwired logic circuitry and or a programmed processor device having a machine readable medium such as random access memory 1128 with input control data and input visualization data stored therein that when accessed by a microprocessor 1124 performs the matrix complement approach described above using for example a table look up to match a given input combination of control regions with a corresponding character and its graphic symbol 0062 Although the matrix complement character gen eration concept described above can be applied in electronic systems having mechanical or virtual buttons as the selec tion controls the preferred embodiment is implemented in touch sensitive screen systems that also support touch begin and touch end or also referred to as pen down PD and pen up PU events Using such a technique it has been found that each character can be identified by a single stroke of the pen or stylus on the touch sensitive screen More specifically the first region or zone is selected with a pen down action as shown in FIG 12A for the 12 zone matrix The second and in this case the last region is selected by a pen up action In between these two actions the stylus can be moved about on the character generating control matr
42. n described below relates to a technique for representing alphanumeric char acters such as the letters of the English alphabet using a set of graphic symbols that may have reduced information content relative to the characters In addition to other appli cations the technique may allow fast and accurate direct manual entry of electronic data into a device that has limited physical space for data entry such as a personal digital assistant PDA with a touch sensitive display screen Other embodiments of the invention are also described 0002 Small electronic logic controlled devices such as PDAs are popular tools for taking notes and communicating with others They are battery powered and portable yet can deliver significant computing power and connectivity Their small size however may preclude a full size keyboard in which each letter of the alphabet is assigned a large separate key Instead these devices typically have a specialized data input interface such as a touch sensitive display screen with a relatively small area on which an operator draws using a hand held stylus the character that he wants to enter After the operator makes the drawing on the interface the device then attempts to interpret the drawing to determine the intended character Words and phrases can be entered in this manner without using a full keyboard provided the device can properly interpret the operator s handwriting To assist in this process restrict
43. of a rectangular background having preferably a solid color that is partitioned into regions or zones which are delineated in part by basic features of a set of alphanu meric characters is referred to as a complement matrix 408 depicted in the right hand diagram of FIG 4 The reason for using the term complement will become clear below 0043 Next it is instructive to note what happens when for example regions 532 and 546 in the solid complement matrix 408 are visually contrasted with the remainder of the matrix as shown in FIG 5 A graphic symbol is formed that bears a strong resemblance to the letter b This resem blance may become more apparent when the symbol is viewed from a further distance This character representa tion is advantageously achieved without having to juxtapo sition the features 132 and 146 as would be needed in FIG 3 to recognize that the letter b is being sought The regions 532 and 546 of the matrix 408 are said to suggest the features 132 and 146 see FIG 3 through a complementary rather than direct relationship with those features 0044 It should also be noted that the complement matrix 408 allows a feature of a character to be represented in more than one way For example consider FIG 6 where the feature of a center curve opening to the right reference no 142 in FIG 1 can be recognizably represented by contrast ing region 542 with the remainder of the matrix 408 An alternativ
44. onstruction in the mind of the user is symbolized in FIG 11A for the example letter K However the reverse is also true When the user has selected the correct zone combina tion the remainder of the selection area or matrix will look like the desired character thus confirming for the user that he or she has selected correctly 0058 System Applications 0059 FIG 11A also depicts a user operating a handheld computing device 1104 such as a PDA device As shown in block diagram form in FIG 11B the handheld device 1104 includes a data entry portion 1108 such as a touch sensitive display screen in which a matrix of control regions have been defined in a preferably flat input control area 1112 Each of the control regions is sensitive to a force exerted by the user via his or her finger or via an input control US 2005 0068322 A1 instrument 1116 such as a stylus In addition the input control area 1112 may be superimposed with an input visualization area 1120 or vice versa so that each of the control regions can be visually contrasted with the remain der of the matrix when the user has selected the region The visualization area 1120 also allows a graphic symbol bear ing either the 19 zone matrix 408 see FIGS 4 7 a 12 zone matrix 808 see FIG 8 and FIG 1A or another higher or lower resolution alternative to be depicted when the control regions are selected by the user Some type of portable power source such as a r
45. t is assigned to the letter Alternatively the character can be associated with another similar looking special character namely This is also referred to as control region sharing by different characters which are assigned the same base or initial set of regions Next to distinguish between two similar characters that share the same initial set of control regions or code configuration a special control region which may be separate from the complement matrix or the control matrix is defined that may be selected by the user to indicate one and not the other of the two similar characters 0066 preferred approach to distinguishing between two similar looking characters however is to define a US 2005 0068322 A1 special movement of the user s finger or stylus during the region selection process For example in the touch sensitive screen embodiment which may also support PU and PD events a swirl action can be defined as sliding the stylus on the surface of the screen The motion may be clockwise or counterclockwise while staying within a given control region and without lifting the stylus off the screen See FIG 12B The initial direction of motion clockwise or counter clockwise may be used as a differentiating factor The number of swirl orbits or partial orbits detected by the system may also be used as differentiating factors see FIG 12B which illustrates a single clockwise orbit while FI
46. the features taken from a left hand column 128 that may be deemed necessary and in most cases sufficient for recognition purposes For example the letter o has only a single mark in its column in the row associated with what is referred to as the on center closed curve 131 In a second upper row 124 are all of the corresponding graphic symbols that are composed from the features The sufficiency or near sufficiency of just those features for recognition purposes can be appreciated In some cases slightly different features may be used or feature nuances may be added for characters that look similar For example and 0 may be represented by an on center closed curve 131 and a below center closed curve 132 respectively In the case of s and 5 and z and 2 feature nuances may be defined as illustrated in FIG 9 to distinguish their selection processes Note that feature nuances employing fragments of a feature may also be used simply to make a graphic symbol more recognizable 0034 The features listed in the left hand column 128 may be grouped into three distinct categories namely 1 closed plane curves 2 unshaped plane curves that open up down left and right and 3 right angle shaped plane curves that open out to the four quadrants upper left upper right lower right and upper left In such idealized form as rect US 2005 0068322 A1 angles or parts of rectangles the curves
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