Portable electronic device including touch-sensitive display
View Patent ↗According to one aspect, a portable electronic device includes a body having a front face, a touch-sensitive display exposed at the front face of the body, a keyboard at the front face, the keyboard associated with a first plurality of characters excluding numerical characters, such that keys of the keyboard are each associated with a respective single one of the first plurality of characters, a memory, and a processor. The processor is coupled to the touch-sensitive display, the keyboard, and the memory to execute a program stored in the memory to cause the portable electronic device to display a second plurality of characters utilizing the touch-sensitive display in response to receipt of an input to display the second plurality of characters.
1. A portable electronic device comprising:
a body having a front face;
a touch-sensitive display exposed at the front face of the body;
a mechanical keyboard at the front face, the mechanical keyboard having mechanical keys arranged in exactly three rows, a total number of the mechanical keys equalling twenty nine and each of the mechanical keys being associated with only one of: a single keyboard function and a single character and each of the mechanical keys having printed thereon a representation of only one of: a single keyboard function and a single character, the single character being one of a first plurality of characters that excludes numerical characters, punctuation marks, symbols, and emoticons and the single keyboard function being one of a plurality of keyboard functions;
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the touch-sensitive display, the keyboard, and the memory to execute a program stored in the memory to cause the portable electronic device to:
display, on the touch-sensitive display, a plurality of selectable options, each of the selectable options associated with a virtual keyboard comprising selectable buttons, the plurality of selectable options being provided in a single row on the touch-sensitive display adjacent to the mechanical keyboard;
in response to detecting a touch, on the touch-sensitive display, at a location associated with a first selectable option of the plurality of selectable options, displaying, on the touch-sensitive display, the virtual keyboard associated with the first selectable option, wherein the selectable buttons of the virtual keyboard are associated with one of: numerical characters, symbols, punctuation, and emoticons and wherein one of the selectable buttons of the virtual keyboard is a lock key that is selectable to lock the virtual keyboard on the touch-sensitive display and to unlock the virtual keyboard on the touch-sensitive display;
in response to detecting selection of one of the selectable buttons associated with one of a numerical character, a symbol, a punctuation mark, and an emoticon when the virtual keyboard is not locked on the touch-sensitive display, discontinue display of the virtual keyboard associated with the first selectable option;
in response to detecting selection of one of the selectable buttons associated with one of a numerical character, a symbol, a punctuation mark, and an emoticon when the virtual keyboard is locked on the touch-sensitive display, maintain display of the virtual keyboard associated with the first selectable option,
wherein the mechanical keys of the mechanical keyboard include touch sensors to detect touches on the mechanical keys such that the mechanical keys are depressible to provide input to the processor and are touch-sensitive to provide further input to the processor.
2. The portable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of keyboard functions include an enter key and a delete key.
3. The portable electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to display a navigation device on the touch-sensitive display.
4. The portable electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein a horizontal key pitch of the keys of the mechanical keyboard is about equal to a vertical key pitch.
5. The portable electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the touch-sensitive display covers a majority of the area of the front face.
6. A method of controlling a portable electronic device comprising a body having a front face, a touch-sensitive display exposed at the front face of the body, a mechanical keyboard at the front face, the mechanical keyboard having mechanical keys arranged in exactly three rows, a total number of the mechanical keys equalling twenty nine and each of the mechanical keys being associated with only one of: a single keyboard function and a single character and each of the mechanical keys having printed thereon a representation of the only one of: a single keyboard function and a single character, the single character being one of a first plurality of characters that excludes numerical characters, punctuation, symbols, and emoticons and the single keyboard function being one of a plurality of keyboard functions, the method comprising:
displaying, on the touch-sensitive display proximate to a top row of the exactly three rows including the twenty nine keys of the mechanical keyboard with representations of the only one of: a single keyboard function and a single character printed thereon, a plurality of selectable options, each of the selectable options associated with a virtual keyboard comprising selectable buttons, the plurality of selectable options being provided in a single row on the touch-sensitive display adjacent to the mechanical keyboard;
detecting a touch on the touch-sensitive display, at a location associated with a first selectable option of the plurality of selectable options; and
in response to detecting the touch, on touch-sensitive display, the virtual keyboard associated with the first selectable option, wherein the selectable buttons of the virtual keyboard are associated with one of: numerical characters, symbols, punctuation, and emoticons, and wherein one of the selectable buttons of the virtual keyboard is a lock key that is selectable to lock the virtual keyboard on the touch-sensitive display and to unlock the virtual keyboard on the touch-sensitive display;
in response to detecting a touch, on the touch-sensitive display, at a location associated with one of the selectable buttons associated with one of a numerical character, a symbol, a punctuation mark, and an emoticon when the virtual keyboard is not locked on the touch-sensitive display, discontinuing display of the virtual keyboard associated with the first selectable option;
in response to detecting selection of one of the selectable buttons associated with one of a numerical character, a symbol, a punctuation mark, and an emoticon when the virtual keyboard is locked on the touch-sensitive display, maintaining display of the virtual keyboard associated with the first selectable option;
wherein the mechanical keys of the mechanical keyboard include touch sensors to detect touches on the mechanical keys such that the mechanical keys are depressible to provide input to the processor and are touch-sensitive to provide further input to the processor.
7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable code executable by at least one processor of the portable electronic device to perform the method of claim 6 .