CN1843020A - Mobile phone with rotator input device - Google Patents

Abstract

A mobile telephone having a display (240) and a rotator input device (250) comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on the display. It also has a wireless telecommunications interface to a mobile telecommunications network. A processing device couples the display, the rotator input device, and the wireless telecommunications interface. A text processing software application is executable by the processing device. The processing device is configured to provide, in a first mode of operation, a first user input via said rotator input device (250), said first user input comprising a sequence of digits representing a desired telephone number reached over the mobile telecommunications network, and to use said first user input when establishing a telephone call connection over said wireless telecommunications interface. Furthermore, the processing device is configured to provide a second user input via said rotator input device in a second mode of operation, said second user input comprising a sequence of characters representing a desired text, and to forward said second user input to said text processing software application. Neither of the first and second modes of operation involve a numeric or alphanumeric character keyboard.

Description

Mobile phone with rotator input device

technical field

The present invention relates to mobile telecommunications devices, and more particularly to a mobile telephone having a display, a rotator input device comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on said display, a wireless A telecommunications interface, a processing device, and a text processing software application executable by the processing device.

Background technique

Mobile phones are getting smaller and smaller. In a sense the keypad of a mobile phone, in particular the 12-key (alpha)numeric keypad commonly referred to as the ITU-T keypad, has been rendered useless due to the difficulty for the user to press the extremely small keys. Therefore, the ITU-T keypad may become the limiting factor constraining the design of mobile phones.

On the other hand, in modern mobile phones, the ITU-T keypad plays multiple important roles, not only as a dial pad for manually entering a phone number for a call, but also as an alphanumeric keypad for text entry, an arcade game (arcade game) game controls, etc. For text typing, each key in an ITU-T keyboard is usually associated with multiple characters. For example, a single key can be associated with the characters "a", "b", "c". Pressing the key once produces the character "a", pressing the key twice within a short period produces the character "b", and pressing the key three times within a short period produces the character "c". Pressing the key twice slightly slower produces two "a". Using the keyboard in this manner is somewhat slow; therefore, various methods have been developed to facilitate typing text on ITU-T keyboards. An example of such an approach aimed at recognizing words typed by a user is disclosed in US-5,818,437 and is generally referred to as T9.

Mobile phones typically have a graphical user interface. In order to facilitate the operation of the graphical user interface, the mobile phone usually has one or more special navigation keys outside or integrated with the ITU-T keyboard, for example, arrow keys or combined multi-directional navigation keys. However, such additional navigation keys increase the overall size of the keyboard, thereby further limiting the freedom of design.

US-6,097,964 discloses a mobile phone 1 which, in addition to an ITU-T keypad 7, has a roller 10 which replaces one or more conventional navigation keys and allows the user to operate the user by rotating and pressing the roller. interface to issue commands for browsing and selecting objects in the user interface. The UTU-T keypad 7 is still used for other purposes like manual dialing and text entry.

Contents of the invention

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to solve or at least alleviate the above problems. More specifically, the object of the present invention is to provide a user interface for mobile phones that allows a smaller design with fewer elements for manual input, but also allows the user to perform two important actions of manual input, namely manual Dial the phone number you want to call and type your text.

In general, the above objects and uses are achieved according to the appended independent patent claims.

An aspect of the present invention is to provide a mobile phone having: a display; a rotator input device comprising a rotatable element and capable of generating commands for browsing and selecting objects on said display; a connection to a mobile telecommunications network a wireless telecommunications interface; a processing device coupled to the display, the rotator input device, and the wireless telecommunications interface; and a text processing software application executable by the processing device. The processing device is configured to provide a first user input via the rotator input device in a first mode of operation, and to use the first user input when establishing a telephone call connection through the wireless telecommunications interface, the first The user input consists of a sequence of numbers representing the desired telephone number reached via said mobile telecommunications network. Furthermore, the processing device is configured to provide a second user input via the rotator input device and forward the second user input to the text processing software application in the second mode of operation, the second user input Contains a sequence of characters representing the desired text. Neither the first nor the second mode of operation involves a keypad of numeric or alphanumeric characters.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a mobile phone can be designed without a conventional numeric and alphanumeric character keyboard, such as a 12-key ITU-T keyboard, and also provide manual dialing of the phone number to be called and typing of text. Enter options. This has important advantages as it allows greater freedom in the design of the mobile phone, facilitates the miniaturization of the mobile phone and allows manual input with fewer components, ie a potential cost benefit. Furthermore, the present invention provides user input in an intuitive manner, resulting in a space efficient use of the available display area.

Advantageously, the processing device is configured to control the user interface of the mobile telephone substantially only based on user input made by the rotator input device. Controlling the user interface in this manner may include actions such as navigating through menus and selecting menu options. For example, the processing device may be configured to, based on user input made by the rotator input device, control at least one of the following user interface actions: entering the first mode of operation, exiting the first mode of operation, entering the second mode of operation, and exiting the Second mode of operation.

In one embodiment, the processing device is configured to, in said first mode of operation, display numbers on said display, and receive from said rotator input device a key for browsing said numbers and selecting in sequential order. commands for the respective numbers making up the sequence of numbers to provide the first user input. Furthermore, the processing device is configured to, in said second mode of operation, form said sequence of characters by displaying characters on said display and receiving from said rotator input device a command for browsing said characters and selecting in sequential order Commands for the respective characters to provide the second user input.

In one embodiment, a mobile telephone has a front housing surface, said rotatable element of said rotator input device being rotatable in a plane substantially parallel to said front housing surface, and depressible, thereby allowing to generate Described commands for browsing and selection. The rotatable element of the rotator input device is depressible in a direction substantially perpendicular to the front housing surface. Also, the rotatable element of the rotator input device is obliquely depressable at a plurality of positions along its perimeter, thereby allowing the different commands for browsing and selection to be generated for different ones of the plurality of positions. Such a swivel element which can be pressed obliquely thus offers more options than, for example, a roller, as in the aforementioned US-6,097,964, which can only be pressed in one direction - facing the housing downwards.

In one embodiment, the rotator input device has, in addition to said rotatable element, at least one depressible element, thereby allowing said user to browse and select by rotating said rotatable element and depressing said depressible element. The command. The rotatable element of the rotator input device comprises a ring having a central opening, wherein the at least one depressible element comprises a depressible central key located at the central opening. Providing such a central key will simplify certain operations, such as marking text, since the rotatable element can be rotated simultaneously while pressing the central key conveniently. The depressible central key can be a four-way or five-way navigation key. Furthermore, at least one depressible element may comprise a function key or softkey arranged close to said rotatable element.

In one embodiment, the rotator input device has a dynamic or selectable resolution for angular movement of said rotatable element such that a given amount of angular movement will result in a corresponding amount of browsing or scrolling on the display, which Depends on adjustable resolution setting. This resolution setting is adjusted by at least one of: a user of the mobile phone, an operating system within the mobile phone, or a software application within the mobile phone.

An embodiment also includes a text prediction engine, wherein the processing device is configured to display, in said second mode of operation, on said display a predicted set of characters available via said rotator input device for browsing and select. The text prediction engine may be configured to determine said set of predicted characters in response to currently made user input and according to predetermined reasoning logic. Advantageously, said currently made user input is a partial word; said predetermined inference logic involves matching said partial word with a database of known and/or commonly used words to predict said partial word the word to which the word is most likely to belong; and the set of predicted characters displayed on the display is determined by the corresponding next character following the partial word in the corresponding word in the predicted most likely word composition.

In one embodiment, the processing device is configured to, in said second mode of operation, display on said display, in addition to said characters, at least one control symbol available via said rotator input device. for browsing and selection, and wherein the at least one control symbol represents a user interface action performed upon selection of the control symbol. At least one control symbol may represent at least one of the following user interface actions: activate text prediction, deactivate text prediction, select character group and select cursor movement mode.

In one embodiment, the processing device is adapted to provide navigation within graphical data which requires a larger display area than is available on said display by: accepting a first rotation input mode via said rotator input device , as the desired sub-region pan direction (pan direction) within the graphics data; accepting a second rotation input mode made via the rotator input device as the pan direction in the selected pan direction within the graphics data a desired scrolling distance of the sub-region; and representing the sub-region on the display.

The aforementioned telephone call connection may include at least one of the following: a voice call connection, a fax transmission connection, and a data communication connection.

The aforementioned text processing software application may include at least one of the following: messaging application, phonebook application, calendar application, notepad application, Internet browser application, WWW browser application, WAP browser application, contact application, camera application, Image recording (recordal) application, video recording application, organizer (organizer) application, video game application, calculator application, voice memo application, alarm clock application, word processing application, code storage application, music player application, media streaming application, And a control panel application, or any other application that uses at least one field for text entry.

The mobile phone may be adapted for use with GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS or CDMA2000, or other commercially available mobile telecommunications networks.

Other aspects, objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the appended dependent claims as well as the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

The invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a mobile telecommunications system comprising a mobile telephone 100, as an example of an environment in which the invention may be applied.

Figure 2a is a schematic perspective view of the mobile phone of Figure 1 illustrating in more detail the user interface including the display and the rotator input device.

Figure 2b is a schematic illustration of the rotator input device shown in Figure 2a.

Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the hardware and software structure of the mobile phone in Figs. 1 and 2ab.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate screen transients of the phone display in a second mode of operation, with text being entered into a text processing software application via the rotator input device.

Figure 6 illustrates a set of symbols from which a user can browse and select a symbol via a rotator input device, the set of symbols including the entire set of characters as well as a set of predictive characters and a set of control symbols.

Figures 7a and 7b are block diagrams illustrating a mobile phone according to the present invention in a first mode of operation and in a second mode of operation, respectively.

Figure 8 shows an exploded view of a rotator input device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

A mobile telecommunication system to which the present invention is applicable will first be described with reference to FIG. 1 .

In the telecommunication system of FIG. 1, various telecommunication services can be performed via the mobile phone 100, such as voice calls, data calls, facsimile transmissions, music transmissions, still image transmissions, video transmissions, electronic message transmissions, and electronic commerce. Mobile telephone 100 is connected to mobile telecommunications network 110 via base station 104 via RF link 102, as is known in the art. Mobile telecommunication network 110 may be any commercially available mobile telecommunication system such as GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS or CDMA2000. Mobile telephone 100 is illustrated as a cellular telephone, but could alternatively be other similar kind of portable device, such as a portable/personal digital assistant (PDA) or communicator.

In the depicted example, mobile phone 100 may be used for voice communications with other device users. Therefore, the voice can be transmitted through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 130 and the mobile telecommunication network 110 with the user of the fixed telephone 132, and with the user of another mobile terminal 100' connected to the mobile telecommunication network 110 through the wireless transmission link 102' .

Mobile telecommunications network 110 is operatively connected to wide area network 120, which may be the Internet or a portion thereof. Therefore, the mobile phone 100 can access the computer 122 connected to the wide area network 120 according to dedicated protocols (such as TCP, IP and HTTP) and suitable application software (such as WAP or WWW browser, email or SMS application, etc.) in the mobile phone 100.

The system shown in Figure 1 is for illustrative purposes only.

FIG. 2a illustrates the mobile phone 100 of FIG. 1 . The mobile phone 100 has a device housing 210 . The front housing surface 220 of the mobile phone 100 has a speaker 230 , a microphone (not shown) and a display 240 .

The mobile phone 100 also has a rotator input device 250 for manual input, an embodiment of which is shown in more detail in Figure 2b. In this embodiment, a rotator input device 250 is provided on the front housing surface 220 and has an annular rotatable element 251 ("rotator") that is rotatable in a plane substantially parallel to the front housing surface 220 . Within the central opening of the rotatable element 251 is provided a depressible central key 252 ("MSK"). Using the rotatable element 251 , the user can generate commands for browsing and selecting objects displayed on the display 240 by rotating the rotatable element 251 and pressing the central key 252 .

In another embodiment, the rotatable element 251 may be pressed in a direction substantially perpendicular to the front housing surface 220 . In such an embodiment, the depressive capability of the rotatable element 251 may replace the central key 252 such that such a central key may not be included in the rotator input device 250 . Other embodiments of the rotator input device 250 will be described later with reference to FIG. 8 .

The embodiment of FIG. 2 a has, in addition to the rotatable element 251 , four depressible function keys or soft keys 253 - 256 , distributed equidistantly around the periphery of the element 251 . These keys include left soft key 253 and right soft key 254 ("LSK" and "RSK"), send (Send) key 255 (corresponding to call (Call)/Yes (Yes)/OK on various existing phone modes ) and an end (End) key 256 (corresponding to Hangup/No/Cancel). As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the keys 253-256 will be designed for different functions or actions in different situations in the user interface.

A first mode of operation for manually dialing the telephone number to be called will now be described with reference to Figures 2b and 7a. As shown in Figure 7a, the mobile phone 100 generally includes: a processing device 700, a display 710 (corresponding to 240 in Figure 2a), the aforementioned rotator input device (marked 250 in Figures 2a-b and 720 in Figure 7a ) and a wireless telecommunication interface 730 to the mobile telecommunication network (marked 110 in FIG. 1 and 750 in FIG. 7a). A text processing software application 740 is executed by the processing device 700 . In the first mode of operation, however, no text processing software application 740 is involved. Instead, a manual dialing procedure is implemented, either as a separate application or as part of the operating system in the mobile phone 100 . In the manual dialing procedure, the user may enter a sequence of numbers 722 indicating the desired telephone number to be reached via the mobile telecommunications network 750 . In more detail, each symbol (number or control character) of the numerical sequence will browse or scroll a set of available characters on the display 710 by rotating the rotatable element 251, such as "0123456789+#*", and press the central After key 252 selects each symbol required, input one by one according to continuous order. The user may indicate completion of the desired number sequence 722 by pressing one of the keys 253-256, such as the send key 255, wherein the processing device will establish a call to the desired telephone number 722 within the mobile telecommunications network 750 via the wireless telecommunications interface 730. The user calls 732. As shown, the set of available symbols includes all characters necessary to key in the desired phone number in sequence, where it may not be necessary for the mobile phone 100 to include a keypad of conventional ITU-T (alpha) numbers.

A second mode of operation for entering text into the text processing software application 740 will now be described with reference to Figures 2b, 4, 5, 6 and 7b. A text processing software application may be an application employing at least one field for text entry; it is exemplified in FIGS. 4 and 5 as SMS, MMS and/or email messaging applications. In the second mode of operation, the user may enter a character sequence 724 representing the desired text to be forwarded 742 by the processing device 700 to the text processing application 740 . In more detail, each character of the character sequence (such as letters, numbers, punctuation marks, control characters, etc.), will browse or scroll through a set of available symbols 600 ( FIG. 6 ) on the display 710 by rotating the rotatable element 251, After selecting the desired individual symbols 532 (FIG. 4) by pressing the central key 252, they are entered one after the other in sequential order. The user may indicate completion of the desired character sequence 724 by pressing one of the keys 253-256, wherein the processing device 700 will forward the typed character sequence 724 to the text processing application 740. Furthermore, due to the first mode of operation, the mobile phone 100 does not have to include a conventional ITU-T (alpha)numeric keypad.

Reference is now made to Figures 4 and 5, which illustrate information displayed on the display 240/710 in a given example of the second mode of operation. FIG. 4 shows a display screen transient 500 displayed when a new SMS message is just about to be entered by the user. The status bar at the top of the screen includes information that text prediction is active ("P"), that the current character set is uppercase Latin letters ("ABC"), and that no more than 160 characters have been typed without a single character being typed. Cursor 520 indicates the location on the screen where text entry is about to occur. Figure 5 shows a snapshot of the display screen where the SMS message has been partially typed (46 characters). In the lower portion of the screen 500 , a symbol selection window 530 represents a subset of all currently available characters 600 . The symbol ("T") in the center of the window is marked with box 532 and is the one that would be selected if the user pressed Select (center key 252). Arrows beside selection window 530 indicate that the user can scroll through the available symbols by rotating the rotatable element 251 in both directions, wherein the currently displayed subset of all available symbols 600 will change accordingly.

As shown in FIG. 6 , the set of all currently available symbols 600 consists of all character groups 610 (currently in FIG. 6 and also in FIG. 4 are uppercase Latin letters, and in FIG. 5 are lowercase Latin letters), predicted character groups 620 and control symbol group 630. Control symbols 630 include a symbol ("P") that, based on a selection in selection window 530, will toggle text prediction on and off (ie, activate and deactivate text prediction). They also include the character group selection symbols "abc", "123" and "?!£" which, upon selection in the selection window, will cause the current total character group 610 to be replaced with lowercase Latin letters, numbers/mathematical characters, and punctuation/special characters, respectively. symbol substitution. Of course, many other character groups than these examples can be used with the present invention. For example, when the mobile phone 100 is used to type text in Chinese, the control symbols 630 may include symbols for selecting which input mode to use, eg, Pinyin, Zhuyin, or strokes.

Control symbols 630 also relate to other functions than those described above; one example is control symbols for cursor movement modes. Once the cursor movement mode is entered, the symbol 600 is no longer scrollable and selectable in the selection window 530 . Conversely, turning the rotatable element 251 clockwise will move the cursor 520 forward in the typed text, while turning the rotatable element 251 counterclockwise will move the cursor 520 backward. When the cursor has been repositioned to the desired location, the cursor movement mode can be exited by pressing the central key 252, wherein the second mode of operation (text entry mode) will resume. Also, other dedicated (control) commands such as send (SEND), save (SAVE), clear (CLEAR) etc. should be added to the control symbols 630 . A detailed description is given in US Patent Application Serial No. 10/434,055, from which priority is claimed, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In the embodiment shown in Figures 4-6, text prediction facilitates the entry of characters. In more detail, in contrast to known text prediction schemes such as T9, which predict and display the entire word for selection, the text prediction in this embodiment predicts and displays subsequent individual character. More specifically, the text prediction engine in the mobile phone 100 provides a set of next most likely character candidates based on the text that has been typed. As already mentioned, this set of predicted characters 620 is displayed in a selection window 530 together with the surrounding parts of all currently available symbols 600 of the set, wherein the most likely characters 532 of the candidate set are centered in the selection window 530 , to maximize the convenience of the user's choice. Thus, in Figure 4, the text prediction engine has predicted the characters "W", "A", "T" and "I" as the four most likely characters to start a new word, while in Figure 5, the text prediction engine The 3 characters "r", "n" and "y" have been predicted as the most likely characters following or completing the incompletely typed word "Wednesda".

Accordingly, the content of the set of predicted characters 620 is updated whenever new user input has been received (ie, whenever a new character has been selected by the rotator input device 250/720). The text prediction engine uses inferential logic to determine which characters are included in the set of predicted characters 620 at a time. This decision is based on the text input that has been completed - preferably the most recent part (or parts) of the text input that has been completed, such as the foremost character (or characters) in the input.

In one embodiment, the inference logic is based on bigram statistics for the current language, where the text prediction engine compares the most recently entered character (e.g., "a" in Figure 5) with a reference database and finds the most recent The input character (e.g. "a") serves as the most probable character pair at the beginning, while the reference database contains pairs of characters in the current language and their corresponding probabilities. In another embodiment, the inference logic is based on trigram statistics, so the two most recently entered characters (eg, "da" in FIG. 5 ) are employed in the prediction. In yet another embodiment, the text prediction engine uses a database of known and/or commonly used words in the current language, and compares the current part of the word input (for example, "Wednesda" in FIG. 5 ) with the words stored in the database. Words are matched to find the most likely word that the user roughly intended to type. However, this most likely word portion is displayed on the display; instead, only the corresponding subsequent characters in the predicted word (eg, the "y" of "Wednesday") are included in the set of predicted characters 620 . Advantageously, the database of known and/or commonly used words can be updated by the user and/or by downloading from an external data source.

In one embodiment, the text prediction engine can be configured to only be activated when the actual first character has been typed in a new text typing session (e.g., so that when an empty SMS message is roughly to be filled with text, instead of predicting Instead, the first character "A" of all current character groups 610 is located in the center of the selection window 530 and is concentrated in the selection window 530.)

The rotator input device 250/720 may be used for many other purposes than the first and second modes of operation described above. One example is a password entry mode, where the available symbols 600, scrollable and selectable in the selection window 530, can vary between applications. In some cases, the available symbols may be limited to numbers (eg, in a SIM access control mode requiring a PIN code), while in other cases, letters and numbers may be allowed (eg, in a WAP login mode). An example further visualizing the use of a spinner is that the spinner can be used for code entry, like a number wheel on a safe, which scrolls through the numbers (either linearly or circularly) with the addition of clicks. Another example is a date/time entry mode, such as in a calendar application or an alarm clock application, where available symbols may include "0123456789", ":" and "/". Other examples relate to multimedia players, where the rotator input device 250/720 can be used to browse and select in a list of media files, to control volume settings, and the like.

In one embodiment, the rotator input device is also used in graphical data such as images displayed in the display 240/710 through applications such as WAP or WWW browsers, image editors or picture viewers. to navigate. More specifically, whenever such graphical data requires a display area that is too large to fit on the display 240/710, the navigation methods described below can be used. Initially, the sub-area of the required display area will be displayed at the start position of the display, such as the uppermost/leftmost part of the required display area, and the size of the sub-area preferably corresponds to the size of the available display area of the display. To navigate within the desired display area, the user will, by rotating the rotatable element 251, select the desired direction of translation of the sub-area to be displayed. Then, again by rotating the rotatable element 251, the user will select the desired scrolling distance of the sub-region to be displayed in the selected direction within the desired display area. In response, a selected sub-area of the desired display area will be displayed on the display at a location determined by the selected direction and distance from which the replacement starts. A detailed description is given in PCT Application No. PCT/IB03/03926, from which priority is claimed, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 3 illustrates the internal structure of the mobile phone 100 . The controller 300 may implement the processing device 700 of FIG. 7 and is responsible for the overall operation of the device, and preferably uses any commercially available CPU ("Central Processing Unit"), DSP ("Digital Signal Processor"), or any other programmable electronic logic device to achieve. The controller 300 has associated electronic memory 302, such as RAM memory, ROM memory, EEPROM memory, flash memory, or any combination thereof. Memory 302 is used by controller 300 for a variety of purposes, one of which is to store data and program instructions for various software in the portable communication device. The software includes a real-time operating system 320, a man-machine interface (MMI) driver 334, an application processor 332, and various applications. These applications include messaging application 340 (which may be the text processing application described above in conjunction with the second mode of operation), phonebook application 342, dialing application 344 (which may be the manual dialing routine described above in conjunction with the first mode of operation) and others not detailed. 346 applications mentioned. MMI drivers 334 work in conjunction with various MMI or input/output (I/O) devices, including displays 336 (240, 710), rotator input devices 338 (250, 720), and other I/O 339, such as cameras , microphone, speaker 230, vibrator, ringtone (ringtone) generator, LED indicator, etc. The user can operate the device through the thus formed human-machine interface, as is generally known.

The text prediction engine may be included in the set of MMI drivers 334 or may be provided as stand-alone software executable by the controller 300 . In another embodiment, it may be implemented partly or fully in hardware, eg in the form of an ASIC ("Application Specific Integrated Circuit").

The software also includes various modules, protocol stacks, drivers, etc., generally designated 330, and provide communication services (eg, transport, networking, and connectivity) of the RF interface 306, the Bluetooth interface 308, and the IrDA interface 310. RF interface 306 may implement wireless telecommunications interface 730 and include internal or external antennas and suitable radio circuitry for establishing and maintaining a wireless link to a base station (eg, link 102 to base station 104 in FIG. 1 ). As is well known to those skilled in the art, radio circuitry includes a series of analog and digital electronic components that together form a radio receiver and transmitter. These components include, i.a., Bandpass Filters, Amplifiers, Mixers, Local Oscillators, Low Pass Filters, AD/DA Converters, etc.

The device 100 also has a SIM card 304 and an associated card reader. As is generally known, SIM card 304 includes a processor and local working and data storage.

Text entry according to the aforementioned second mode of operation can be received and used for a variety of purposes in a variety of applications, including the aforementioned messaging application 340 and phonebook application 342, as well as notepad applications, contacts applications, the Internet Browser application, WWW browser application, WAP browser application, camera application, image recording application, video recording application, organizer application, video game application, calculator application, voice memo application, alarm clock application, word processing application, code storage application, music player application, media streaming application, and control panel application, or any other application that uses at least one field for text, character, or symbol entry.

FIG. 8 illustrates a rotator input device 860 according to one embodiment. A detailed description is given in US Patent Application Serial No. 10/458,401, from which priority is claimed, and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The rotator input device 860 includes a support 862 for supporting a rotatable and tiltable depressable element 864 . Also, the rotator input device 860 includes a navigation key 866 supported by a support 862 . Furthermore, even though not shown in the figure, the rotator input device 860 optionally includes a set of soft or function keys, eg like keys 253-256 of Figure 2b.

As shown in FIG. 8 , the rotatable element 864 has a central opening 870 allowing access to the depressing surface 872 of the navigation key 866 through said opening 870 . The rotatable element 864 is arranged on a motion detector element 874 which is in communication with a converter 876 via communication means 878 . Motion detector element 874 may be configured to determine angular motion of rotatable element 864 using electromagnetic, magnetic, electrical, acoustic, mechanical, or optical coupling.

When the motion detector element 874 utilizes electromagnetic, magnetic, electrical, acoustic or optical coupling, for sending event signals to transmitters on the motion detector element 874, and for receiving reflected events back from the motion detector element 874 The receiver of the signal is incorporated into the converter 876.

When the motion detector element 874 utilizes a mechanical coupling, the communication device 878 may be constructed with a mechanical lever that couples the serrated regions of the motion detector element 874 such that angular motion of the rotatable element causes the lever to rock.

The motion detector element 874 is supported by a bearing element 880 capable of rotating the interlocking annular rotatable element 864 and the motion detector element 874 . The bearing member 880 includes an opening 882 for receiving the navigation key 866 . In this embodiment, the navigation key 866 is not supported by the bearing element 880 and thus is not rotatable.

The rotator input 860 also includes a switch assembly, generally indicated by reference numeral 884 . The switch assembly 884 includes a first piece that uses a first set for a dome or switch element 886 that communicates with the rotatable element 864 when it is depressed and a second set for a dome or switch element 886 that communicates with the rotatable element 866 when it is pressed. The dome or switching element 888 with which it communicates at the time is integrated. Domes 886 and 888 include upper and lower surface layers separated by a spacing that detectably change electrical characteristics during a change. Changes in electrical characteristics are identified by corresponding detectors 890 on support 862 . The changes detected by the detector 890 are transmitted to a translator 892 through a communication device 894 . The communication device 894 and the transducer 892 may be provided and directly integrated on a support 862, which may be a printed circuit board (PCB).

Thus, in summary, rotator input device 860 may detect angular motion of rotatable element 864 in clockwise and counterclockwise directions via transducer 876 and, in response, cooperate with processing device 700 to generate commands for viewing objects on display 710 . Furthermore, rotator input device 860 may detect, via dome 886, detector 890, and transducer 892, a depression of rotatable element 864 at its perimeter, and in response, in cooperation with processing device 700, generate command on the object. Additionally, rotator input device 860 may detect, via dome 888, detector 890, and transducer 892, the depression of navigation key 866 in the center of rotatable element 864, and in response, in cooperation with processing device 700, generate Commands of objects on the display 710 .

Thus, in the described embodiment, the depressible, rotatable element 864 is used for angled or "continuous" browsing/scrolling as a normal rotator, and as a "non-serial" for four orthogonal directions. Four-way navigation key for browsing/scrolling/selecting. Four different depressible positions ("North, East, South, West") around the periphery of the rotatable element 864 can be assigned different commands for browsing and selection, as is conventional. Thus, virtually all kinds of input can be made via the depressible, rotatable element 864, wherein the user will not have to move his fingers very much at all, and wherein the input will be much quicker and more intuitive. The navigation key 866 acts as a five-way key for "non-sequential" browsing/scrolling/selection in four orthogonal directions (by pressing the navigation key 866 at its periphery), and for simple selection action.

In an alternate embodiment, the embodiment of FIG. 8 is modified by removing the navigation key 866 from the rotator input device 860 and using only the depressible, rotatable element 864 . In other embodiments, the number of domes 886 or 888 is different than that shown in FIG. 8 . Also, more than one dome, or even all domes, are assigned the same function, eg such that there is no difference in the part of the rotatable element 864 that is pressed for selecting such a function.

In yet another alternative embodiment, the rotator input device 860 has dynamic or selectable resolution for the angular (rotational) motion of the rotatable element 864, in the sense that a given amount of angular motion would be interpreted differently as Regarding the corresponding amount of browsing/scrolling, depending on the adjustable resolution setting, which should be maintained by the processing device 700 or the converter 876 for representation, the resolution setting can be updated by the user, the operating system 320, or any software application 340-346 . In this way, resolution can vary between applications (e.g., high resolution for a text processing application and low resolution for an arcade game), between users with different preferences (e.g., a disabled person might prefer low resolution, skilled and non-disabled personnel prefer high resolution), or change between different ranges or modes within an application. A detailed description is given in US Patent Application Serial No. 10/449,036, from which priority is claimed, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The invention has been generally described above with reference to several embodiments. However, as is readily appreciated by a person skilled in the art, embodiments other than the ones described above are equally possible within the scope of the invention, which is defined by the appended patent claims.

Claims (22)

1. mobile phone has:

Display (710);

Rotator input device (250; 720; 860), it comprises rotatable element (251; 864), and can produce the order that is used on described display, browsing with alternative;

Aerogram interface (730) to mobile telecom network (750);

Treatment facility (700), its described display that is coupled, described rotator input device and described aerogram interface; And

Can be by the text-processing software application (740) of described treatment facility execution;

It is characterized in that,

Treatment facility (700) is configured under first operator scheme, provide first user input (722) via described rotator input device (720), and when setting up call connection (732) by described aerogram interface (730), use described first user input, wherein said first user input comprises the Serial No. of the required telephone number of expression that reaches by described mobile telecom network (750); And

Treatment facility is configured under second operator scheme, provide second user input (724) via described rotator input device, and described second user input is transmitted to described text-processing software application (740), wherein said second user input comprises the character string of representing required text;

Wherein, described first and second operator schemes do not relate to numeral or alphanumeric figure keyboard.

2. mobile phone as claimed in claim 1, wherein said treatment facility (700) is configured under described first operator scheme, show number by going up at described display (710), and receive from described rotator input device (720) and to be used to browse described number and to select to form the order of each number of described number sequence according to continuous order, described first user input (722) is provided.

3. mobile phone as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein, treatment facility (700) is configured under described second operator scheme, by going up character display (610 at described display (710), 620), and receive from described rotator input device (720) and to be used to browse described character and to select to form the order of each character (532) of described character string according to continuous order, described second user input (724) is provided.

4. the mobile phone of arbitrary claim as described above, wherein, described mobile phone has procapsid surface (220), described rotator input device (250; 720; 860) described rotatable element (251; 864) can in the plane that is basically parallel to described procapsid surface, rotate, and can be pressed, thereby allow produce the described order browsing and select of being used to.

5. mobile phone as claimed in claim 4, wherein, described rotator input device (250; 720) described rotatable element (251) can be pushed on the direction that is basically perpendicular to described procapsid surface.

6. mobile phone as claimed in claim 4, wherein, the described rotatable element (864) of described rotator input device (860) is being pushed going up tiltable along a plurality of positions (886) of its periphery, thereby the diverse location that allows for described a plurality of positions produces the described different command browsing and select of being used to.

7. the mobile phone of arbitrary claim as described above, wherein, described rotator input device (250; 860) remove described rotatable element (251; 864) outside, but has at least one press element (252-256; 866), thus but allow to generate the described order browsing and select of being used to by rotating described rotatable element and pushing described press element.

8. mobile phone as claimed in claim 7, wherein, described rotator input device (250; 860) rotatable element comprises the have central opening annulation (251 of (870); 864), and wherein, but described at least one press element comprises the depressible center key (252 that is positioned at described central opening place; 866).

9. mobile phone as claimed in claim 8, wherein, described depressible center key (252; 866) be four-way or five navigation key.

10. as claim 7,8 or 9 described mobile phones, wherein, but described at least one press element also comprises function key or the soft key of arranging near described rotatable element (251) (253-256).

11. the described mobile phone of arbitrary as described above claim, wherein, described rotator input device (720,860) has described rotatable element (251,864) the dynamic or selectable resolution of angular movement, thereby make that the specified rate of angular movement will cause the corresponding amount browsing or roll on described display (710), it depends on adjustable resolution setting.

12. mobile phone as claimed in claim 11, wherein, described resolution setting is by following at least one adjusting: operating system (320) in the user of mobile phone, the mobile phone or the software application (340-346) in the mobile phone.

13. mobile phone as claimed in claim 3, also comprise text prediction engine, wherein treatment facility (700) is configured under described second operator scheme, go up the character (620) that shows one group of prediction at described display (710), it can obtain to be used to browse and select via described rotator input device (720).

14. mobile phone as claimed in claim 13, wherein, described text prediction engine is configured to, and in response to current user's input of making and according to predetermined inference logic, decides the group of described prediction character (620).

15. mobile phone as claimed in claim 14, wherein

Described current user's input of making is the words of part;

Described predetermined inference logic relates to the database matching with words and known and/or the common words of described part, with the words of predicting that described partial words speech most probable belongs to; And

Be presented at the group of the described prediction character (620) on the described display (710), form by following at the corresponding character late of described part words back in the corresponding words in the described prediction most probable words.

16. mobile phone as claimed in claim 3, wherein, treatment facility (700) is configured under described second operator scheme, go up except that showing described character (610 at described display (710), 620) outside, also show at least one control character (630), it can obtain to be used to browse and select via described rotator input device (720), and wherein, described at least one control character is represented based on to the selection of described control character and the user interface action of carrying out.

17. mobile phone as claimed in claim 16, wherein, at least one user interface action during described at least one control character (630) expression is following: activate text prediction, make text prediction invalid, select character group and select the cursor Move Mode.

18. the described mobile phone of arbitrary as described above claim, wherein, treatment facility (700) is suitable for providing navigation in graph data, and it need go up the bigger viewing area of Free Region than described display (240,710), and this realizes as follows:

Acceptance is via described rotator input device (250; 720; 860) the first rotation input of making is as subregion translation direction required in described graph data;

Acceptance is via described rotator input device (250; 720; 860) the second rotation input of making is as the required rolling distance of subregion described in the selected translation direction in described graph data; And

On described display, show described subregion.

19. the described mobile phone of arbitrary as described above claim, wherein, described call connects (732) and comprises at least one following content: audio call connection, facsimile transmission connection and data communication connect.

20. the described mobile phone of arbitrary as described above claim, wherein, described text-processing software application (740) comprises at least one following content: message sends uses (340), book applications (342), calendar application, notepad appli-cation, the Internet browser application, the WWW browser application, the WAP browser application, contact application, camera application, the image record is used, videograph is used, manager application, video game application, calculator application, voice memo is used, alarm clock application, text processing application, code storage is used, music player application, Media Stream is used, and the control panel application, or use at least one to be used for any other application of the field of text input.

21. the described mobile phone of arbitrary as described above claim, wherein, treatment facility (700) is configured to, basically only based on via described rotator input device (250; 720; 860) user who makes imports, and controls the user interface of described mobile phone.

22. mobile phone as claimed in claim 21, wherein, treatment facility (700) is configured to, based on via described rotator input device (250; 720; 860) user's input of making is controlled at least one following user interface action: enter described first operator scheme, withdraw from described first operator scheme, enter described second operator scheme and withdraw from described second operator scheme.

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