“Apple on Tuesday was granted a U.S. patent for the graphical user interface used in iOS which changes the ‘hit region’ size of a virtual keyboard’s buttons based on predictive text data,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“In an elegant solution to the problem of entering text on a mobile device’s small screen, Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,232,973 for a “Method, device, and graphical user interface providing word recommendations for text input” enlarges the effective area of the virtual keyboard’s buttons based on a predictive input system without resizing the visual keyboard asset,” Campbell reports. “For example, a user entering the word ‘ELEPHANT’ would begin by hitting the ‘E’ key followed by the ‘L’ key, the ‘E’ key and so on. The system begins to narrow down what the user is attempting to spell, dynamically increasing the size of the next expected key icon which in this example would be the ‘P’ key. Instead of representing the next key’s larger hit area visually, the keyboard retains its normal size which makes the system completely invisible to the user.”
Campbell reports, “The ‘973 patent most likely leverages technology from Apple’s U.S Patent No. 8,074,172 for a “method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendations” or predictive text.”
More info, including Apple’s patent application illustration, in the full article here.
Lotta good it will do them. Might as well try to patent the rectangle. /s
It really needs to be a little bit cleverer than that. It’s not enough to just have a correctly spelt word, it needs to be the correct word for the context.
For instance, you might end a message to your spouse with “I love you”, but the characters I&O are adjacent on the keyboard, as are V&B so it’s easy to end up with “I live you” or “I lobe you”, which makes little sense, even though the words are all correctly spelt.
iOS has been doing this successfully since day one. It’s only the patent grant that’s news….
meh- I think the 3GS did it better than the 4 and 4s- I dunno if they did something to change it but typing on my 4s is slower than the 3GS…
Thus is what is wrong with the system. Apple and others with deep pockets can file frivolous Patents all day long on everything but the kitchen sink… Hang on there is probably an Apple or Samsung Patent on sinks too!
This is all a waste of time as Patents in the auto industry if upheld would have all of us driving Mercedes Benz or flying in Air Bus jets. Build great products and service your clients to noe end and now you have a Patent that makes sense without filing a Patent application. Aye aye aye!
And here is Pat folks, Pat has been Trolling MDN for 3 weeks now, all we have seen from this mindless idiot is an increasingly deep hatred for Apple.
But as a side note, it’s very comical, as with the other Trolls we see a pattern and the fear that has pushed them to Troll in force on almost all Apple sites, the best part of all these Trolls is all the time spent on sites that have an Apple agenda, and it’s just waisted time and effort for a lost cause…. Whatever it may be.