Communication terminal
It is shown how to select and insert a non-textual, e.g. a smiley, into an application such as a chat application in a communication terminal. A smiley insertion area in the form of a hand writing input area is displayed under the control of a user interface application. After recording that a stylus, or similar device, has been used in drawing on the touch sensitive display, the drawing is matched in an interpretation process against a pattern library consisting of smileys and other non-textual symbols. After a successful match, the smiley symbol is appended to the text that is being input.
1. A method of controlling input of non-textual symbols in a communication terminal during input of textual symbols to a symbol processing application, said terminal comprising control and communication circuitry and a touch sensitive display, the method comprising:
detecting that a non-textual symbol is to be appended to a textual symbol input,
displaying a hand writing input area upon detection that a non-textual symbol is to be appended to a textual symbol input,
detecting handwriting input signals in the displayed hand writing input area,
interpreting the handwriting input signals, and
depending on the interpretation, displaying at least one candidate non-textual symbol and providing the at least one candidate non-textual symbol to the symbol processing application.
2. The method of claim 1 , where the detection that a non-textual symbol is to be appended is a result of an analysis of already input symbols.
3. The method of claim 1 , where the detection that a non-textual symbol is to be appended is a result of a detection of a user action.
4. The method of claim 1 , where the displaying of a hand writing input area comprises displaying a non-textual guiding pattern.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the displaying of the guiding pattern comprises displaying a generic smiley symbol.
6. The method of claim 1 , where, if the interpretation results in plural candidate non-textual symbols, displaying the plurality of candidate non-textual symbols and detecting a user selection of one candidate non-textual symbol among the displayed plurality of candidate non-textual symbols prior to providing the selected non-textual symbol to the symbol processing application.
7. The method of claim 1 , where the detection of handwriting input signals, the interpretation of the handwriting input signals and displaying candidate non-textual symbols is performed essentially concurrently.
8. The method of claim 1 , where the interpretation of the handwriting input signals comprises use of associations between user specified patterns and user selected non-textual symbols.
9. The method of claim 1 , where the interpretation of the handwriting input signals comprises use of a selected pattern library, the selection being dependent on the symbol processing application.
10. The method of claim 1 , where the interpretation of the handwriting input signals comprises creation of at least one non-textual symbol, the creation being based on the detected handwriting input signals, and providing the created non-textual symbol as a candidate non-textual symbol.
11. The method of claim 1 , where the symbol processing application is a messaging application.
12. A computer program stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code that, when executed in a processor, performs the method according to claim 1 .
13. A communication device comprising control and communication circuitry and a touch sensitive display configured such that the communication device is configured to:
detect that a non-textual symbol is to be appended to a textual symbol input,
display a hand writing input area upon detection that a non-textual symbol is to be appended to a textual symbol input,
detect handwriting input signals in the displayed hand writing input area,
interpret the handwriting input signals, and depending on the interpretation, display at least one candidate non-textual symbol and providing the at least one candidate non-textual symbol to a symbol processing application.