Text entry into electronic devices
View Patent ↗A method of entering text into an electronic device 1 comprising a display 7 , the method comprising: controlling 21 the display 7 to display one or more demarcated areas 51 having a transparent background 55 ; detecting 23 an input in one of the one or more demarcated areas 51 ; and in response to the detecting step controlling 25 the display 7 to display an opaque background 57 instead of a transparent background 55 for at least one of the one or more demarcated areas 51 for text entry.
1. A method of entering text into an electronic device comprising a display, the method comprising:
controlling the display to display one or more demarcated areas transparently so that underlying text is visible as a background display of already entered text;
detecting an input in one of the one or more demarcated areas; and
in response to the detected input, controlling the display to display the one or more demarcated areas opaquely so the background text is at least in part not visible while text is entered by a user.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more demarcated areas are used for text entry using handwriting recognition.
3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein demarcation of a demarcated area is provided by a boundary region to the demarcated area.
4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , providing text or an image, or both underlying at least a portion of at least one of the one or more demarcated areas such that when a demarcated area has underlying background text, or image, or both, such are visible within the demarcated area while text is not being entered by the user.
5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , comprising controlling the display to display the background for at least one of the one or more demarcated areas while text is entered by the user.
6. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more demarcated areas are moveable around the display.
7. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a first area of the one or more demarcated areas is operable as a recognition area for recognizing characters written by a user and a second area of the one or more demarcated areas is operable as a candidate list for displaying potential character selections to a user.
8. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the input is detected in the first area.
9. A method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the background of both the first area and the second area changes from being visible to not being visible when an input is made in the first area.
10. A method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein only the background of the first area changes from being visible to not being visible when an input is made in the first area.
11. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the background of the second area changes from being visible to not being visible when a potential character for selection is displayed to a user.
12. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein text entry in the one or more demarcated areas is input in a foreground of the one or more demarcated areas so that it is silhouetted/contrasted against an opaque background.
13. Apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
memory including computer program instructions,
the memory and the computer program instructions configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform:
display one or more demarcated areas responsive to user input for text entry by a user via the one or more demarcated areas;
detect an input via the user input in one of the one or more demarcated areas; and
control the display to display the one or more demarcated areas transparently so that existing background text information is visible before the user input is detected and, in response to detection of the user input, to display at least one of the one or more demarcated areas opaquely so the existing background text information is at least in part not visible while text is entered by the user.
14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein at least one of the one or more demarcated areas are operable for text entry using handwriting recognition.
15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein demarcation of a demarcated area is provided by a boundary region to the demarcated area.
16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the one or more demarcated areas are moveable around the display.
17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13 , wherein a first area of the one or more demarcated areas is operable as a recognition area for recognizing characters written by the user and a second area of the one or more demarcated areas is operable as a candidate list for displaying potential character selections to the user.
18. An apparatus as claimed in claim 17 operable to detect an input in the first area.
19. An apparatus as claimed in claim 18 wherein the background of both the first area and the second area changes from being visible to not being visible when an input is made in the first area.
20. An apparatus as claimed in claim 17 wherein the background of the second area changes from being visible to not being visible when the display displays a potential character selection.
21. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein the text entry in a demarcated area is input in a foreground so that it is silhouetted/contrasted against an opaque background.
22. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored thereon for controlling an electronic device comprising a display which program instructions, when loaded into a processor, are for controlling the display to display one or more demarcated areas transparently so that underlying text is visible as a background display of already entered text, and for controlling the display the one or more demarcated areas opaquely so the background text is at least in part not visible while text is entered by a user.
23. A computer program product embodying the computer readable medium as claimed in claim 22 .