Miniature character input mechanism

1. A device, comprising:

a touch screen: and

logic configured to:

display an input interface on the touch screen, wherein the input interface includes a scrollable character wheel,

distinguish between a first type of input motion and a second type of input motion,

scroll the scrollable character wheel by a first number of characters in response to detecting the first type of input motion,

scroll the scrollable character wheel by a second number of characters in response to detecting the second type of input motion,

receive a selection of a character from the character wheel, and

display the selected character on the input interface, in response to receiving the selection.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the input interface further includes control buttons, wherein the control buttons comprise one or more of

a save button that saves selected characters in a memory,

a delete button that deletes a last character of the selected characters,

a call button that places a call using the selected characters, and

a return button that terminates display of the input interface.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the input interface comprises a three by three grid of input fields.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the scrollable character wheel includes characters of a telephone keypad.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the receiving one or more selections of characters include:

detecting a scrolling up or down of the scrollable character wheel to position a character in a particular location; and

detecting a pressing action on the character in the particular location.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first type of input motion includes a dragging motion and the second type of input motion includes a flicking motion.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the logic is further configured to:

continue to scroll the scrollable character wheel while pressure is being applied to the scrollable character wheel.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the logic is further configured to:

detect a selection of a displayed character to edit, based on a horizontal dragging motion associated with the displayed character.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the scrollable character wheel comprises one or more character wheels, and where each of the one or more character wheels includes a subset of letters of an alphabet.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device comprises a mobile communication device.

11. A method performed by an electronic device, the method comprising:

providing, by a processor of the electronic device, a user interface on a touch screen of the electronic device, where the user interface includes a scrollable character wheel;

detecting by the processor, an input action via the scrollable character wheel;

determining, by the processor, whether the detected input action corresponds to a first type of input action or a second type of input action:

scrolling, by the processor, the scrollable character wheel by a first number of characters in response to determining that the input action corresponds to the first type of input action;

scrolling, by the processor, the scrollable character wheel by a second number of characters, in response to determining that the input action corresponds to the second type of input action;

receiving, by the processor, a selection of a character from the scrollable character wheel; and

displaying, by the processor, the selected character in the user interface, in response to receiving the selection.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the receiving a selection of a character comprises:

detecting a scrolling up or down of the scrollable character wheel to position a character in a particular location; and

detecting a pressing action on the character in the particular location.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first type of input motion includes a dragging motion and the second type of input motion includes a flicking motion.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the receiving a selection of a character and displaying the selected character are repeated multiple times to input a phone number into the electronic device.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the user interface includes a call button, the method further comprising:

detecting a selection of the call button; and

placing a telephone call using the entered phone number.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the receiving a selection of a character and displaying the selected character are repeated multiple times to display a set of displayed character, the method further comprising:

detecting a first horizontal dragging action associated with the displayed set of characters;

detecting a selection of one of the displayed set of characters;

detecting a selection of a character from the scrollable character wheel to replace the selected one of the displayed set of characters; and

detecting a second horizontal dragging action to resume entry of characters.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the user interface includes a maximum of nine distinct touch areas.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the scrollable character wheel comprises multiple letter wheels, each of the multiple letter wheels including a subset of characters of an alphabet, the method further comprising:

detecting a horizontal dragging motion to select one of the letter wheels, the selected letter wheel becoming the scrollable character wheel.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the user interface includes a character wheel icon and where receiving the selection of a character comprises:

detecting a pressure applied to the character wheel icon;

moving the scrollable character wheel while the pressure is applied to the character wheel icon;

detecting that the pressure is no longer applied to the character wheel icon;

stopping movement of the scrollable character wheel when the pressure is no longer applied to the character wheel icon; and

detecting a pressing action on a character located in a particular position of the scrollable character wheel.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by one or more processors of an electronic device, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions to provide a user interface on a touch screen of the electronic device, where the user interface includes a scrollable character wheel and a call button;

one or more instructions to detect an input action via the scrollable character wheel:

one or more instructions to determine whether the detected input action corresponds to a first type of input action or a second type of input action;

one or more instructions to scroll the scrollable character wheel by a first number of characters, in response to determining that the input action corresponds to the first type of input action;

one or more instructions to scroll the scrollable character wheel by a second number of characters, in response to determining that the input action corresponds to the second type of input action:

one or more instructions to detect a pressing action on a selected character on the scrollable character wheel; and

one or more instructions to display the selected character in the user interface.