Swipe gestures for touch screen keyboards
Systems, methods, and devices for interpreting manual swipe gestures as input in connection with touch-sensitive user interfaces that include virtual keyboards are disclosed herein. These allow for a user entering text using the virtual keyboard to perform certain functions using swipes across the key area rather than tapping particular keys. For example, leftward, rightward, upward, and downward swipes can be assigned to inserting a space, backspacing, shifting (as for typing capital letters), and inserting a carriage return and/or new line. Various other mappings are also described. The described techniques can be used in conjunction with a variety of devices, including handheld devices that include touch-screen interfaces, such as desktop computers, tablet computers, notebook computers, handheld computers, personal digital assistants, media players, mobile telephones, and combinations thereof.
1. A method, comprising:
at a computer system having a processor operatively coupled to a memory and a touch interface, the touch interface comprising a virtual keyboard area in which taps of a touch object generate text input:
detecting a swipe gesture across a plurality of keys on the virtual keyboard while the virtual keyboard is displayed, the swipe gesture including an initial touchdown point and a direction;
determining the direction of the swipe gesture; and
performing a predetermined function determined by the direction of the swipe gesture without regard to the initial touchdown point of the swipe gesture on the displayed virtual keyboard, wherein:
a rightward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a space, an auto-completion, or display of an auto-completion menu without regard to an initial touchdown point of the rightward swipe gesture on the displayed virtual keyboard;
a leftward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a character deletion, a word deletion, or a line deletion without regard to an initial touchdown point of the leftward swipe gesture on the displayed virtual keyboard;
a downward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a carriage return, a new line, inserting punctuation, or an alternate keyboard without regard to an initial touchdown point of the downward swipe gesture on the displayed virtual keyboard; and
an upward swipe gesture invokes at least one of a shift, a caps lock, or an alternate keyboard without regard to an initial touchdown point of the upward swipe gesture on the displayed virtual keyboard.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the touch interface is a touch screen.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting a swipe gesture across the virtual keyboard includes:
acquiring touch image data from the touch-sensitive device;
processing the image to generate one or more finger path events;
determining a displacement of the one or more finger path events; and
detecting a swipe gesture if the displacement exceeds a predetermined threshold.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.
8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the touch interface is a touch screen.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the direction of the swipe gesture includes:
comparing a magnitude of a vertical displacement of the swipe gesture to a magnitude of a horizontal displacement of the swipe gesture; and
determining a vertical direction for the swipe gesture if the vertical displacement is greater than the horizontal displacement; and
determining a horizontal direction for the swipe gesture if the vertical displacement is less than the horizontal displacement.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the touch interface is a touch screen.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined function comprises at least one of spacing, erasing, or punctuation insertion.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the computer system is selected from the group consisting of a desktop computer, a tablet computer, and a notebook computer.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the computer system comprises at least one of a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant, a media player, and a mobile telephone.
16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the touch interface is a touch screen.