GB2394918A

GB2394918A - Keypad for an electronic device having characters arranged on keys in a non-alphabetic/non-QWERTY order

Info

Publication number: GB2394918A
Application number: GB0225964A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Patrick John Naughton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-11-07
Filing date: 2002-11-07
Publication date: 2004-05-12
Also published as: GB0225964D0

Abstract

A keypad for an electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) is disclosed wherein the characters are grouped together on keys in a non-alphabetic/non-QWERTY order. The arrangement is designed to balance out the usage of individual buttons and to minimise the repetitive use of individual character keys. Furthermore the characters are arranged such that the characters that are most commonly used are positioned first in the sequence of characters on each key, therefore reducing the number of key presses required when text messaging. In a further embodiment, for ease of use when text messaging, the keys are arranged so that the character groupings with the most commonly used characters arc positioned nearest the top left of the keypad for a fight handed user, and in an alternative embodiment they are placed nearest the top right for left handed users. Also, there is disclosed a method for determining the optimum groupings of characters by calculating the most and least commonly used characters.

Description

23949 1 8

., ( DESCRIPTION OF ELECTRONIC DEVICE KEYBOARD^RRANGEMENT

FOR WHICH PATENT IS REQUESTED.

Patrick Nauhton November 2002 Alphabetic characters on electronic devices such as mobile phones are frequently used to create "text messages". The characters are invariably grouped in alphabetic order. e.g....

At) 3... etc This arrangement is sub optimal.

The use of character keys arranged in this way is not well balanced. For example the key "ABC" is used much more than the key "WXYZ".

It is possible to arrange the alphabetic characters across keys so that the keys are used more evenly and minimizes the need to access more than one successive character on the same key. This is important as there is usually a time delay (often 3 seconds) which allows a user to correct a character before use of the same key produces a new character. This can however be very frustrating.

Grouping characters to minimize the use of any subsequent characters on the same key minimizes this delay and can be done in such a way to reduce the number of key presses required to create messages.

The ordering of letters on keys can also be changed so that on any key the most commonly used characters come first. This also will reduce the key presses required to create messages.

The positioning of keys could be optimised so that the most commonly used characters appear on keys nearest the top left corner of the key pad to permit the majority right hand users to access keys single handedly. An alternative key arrangement for left handed users placing the most comm. on'y used keys nearest the top right of the keyboard would be optimal for left handed users.

Other optimal key pad arrangements exist for languages other than English.

The optimal groupings of letters was found by measuring the most commonly used 8 characters in all combination pairings with the least commonly used 8 characters produced the least use of "follow on" characters on the same key (i.e any two characters used immediately after each other in any order but in the same grouping).

A computer program was then written to count the number of times a successive character (i.e any two characters used immediately after each other on the same key but in any order on the key) was used for all combinations of 3 characters containing these optimum "common character/ least common character" pairings in a sample of more than 500,000 words used in various text documents.

The last two characters making up the set of 26 alphabetic characters were then appended to the two least used keys.

The arrangement of keys requiring the least immediate use of follow on characters on the same key in any order was then deduced.

The most optimum grouping of keys was found to be; EQZ 12.2%

TDK 14.2%

OJXR 14.8%

AFU 12.6%

BCGI 13.7%

HEM 1 1.7%

Spur 9.9% NPW 1 0.9%

The eight most commonly used characters in order of most common use were found to be; E,T,O,A,I,N,S,R

The eight least commonly used characters in order of least common use were found to be; Z, Q. X, J. V, K, P. F

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Claims

1. I claim all rights to all arrangements of characters on all electronic KEY

PADS which are not grouped in alphabetic or QWERTY order.

2. I claim all rights to all arrangements of characters on all Mobile Phone keypads and any other mobile electronic devices which are not in alphabetic or QWERTY order.

3. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together other than in alphabetic order (i.e. more than one character on each key).

4. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where all the following characters are placed on separate keys; E,T,O,A,I, N,S,R

5. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where all the following characters are all placed on separate keys; Z,Q,X,J,V,K,P,F

6. I claim all rights to the following specific groupings of letters on electronic device key pads; EQZ, TDK, OJXR, AFU, BCGI, HLM, SVY, NPW

7. I claim all rights to any two of the characters shown in any grouping in claim 6 being used together on any electronic key pad button.

8.1 claim all rights to the order of the characters in the groupings in claim 6 so that the most commonly used characters occur first on each button.

9. I claim all rights to the process which was used to deduce the optimum arrangement of character keys namely the optimum pairing of the most commonly used 8 characters with the least commonly used 8 characters and then counting by finding by measurement the set of pairs of these keys which produced the least use of any subsequent character (any character within the same group) on the same keys and subsequently in the same way the measurement of the use of keys on the same button for all remaining combinations of 3 letters which contain these optimum "common character/least common character" pairings.

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10. I claim all rights to the arrangement of the keys specified in claim 6 to be arranged in order as near as possible to the top left of the keypad.

11. l claim all rights to the arrangement of the keys specified in claim 6 to be arranged in order as near as possible to the top right of the keypad for left handed users.

12.1. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; ABC 12.2. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; DEF 12.3. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; GHI 12.4. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; JKI, 12.5. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; MNO 12.6. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; PQRS 12.7. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; TUV

s 12.8. I claim all rights to all key pad arrangements where letters are grouped together (more than one character on each key) where any of the following characters are placed on separate keys; WXYZ l