1. A handheld wireless communication device configured to send and receive text messages, said device comprising:
a hand cradleable, elongate body configured to be held in one hand by an operator of said device during text entry;
a display located on a front face of said elongate body and upon which information is displayed to the operator during text entry;
a key field located on the front face of said elongate body, said key field being composed of a plurality of keys selected from a plurality of alphanumeric input keys and at least one menu key;
a trackball navigation tool located on the front face of said elongate body;
said alphanumeric input keys comprising a plurality of alphabetic keys having letters associated therewith and said letters, in a top row of said alphabetic keys, comprising in consecutive order the letters Q, W, E, R and T;
a rotatable ring surrounding a trackball of said trackball navigation tool; and
a microprocessor configured to receive operator commands from said alphanumeric input keys, said menu key, said trackball navigation tool and said rotatable ring to affect corresponding changes to the display.
2. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one key of said key field is positioned adjacent to said rotatable ring and said at least one key has a circular arc-shaped edge conformance fitting to a circular arc-shaped exterior boundary of said rotatable ring.
3. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 1, wherein said rotatable ring establishes an annular boundary about said trackball.
4. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 3, wherein said rotatable ring is at least partially located between said trackball and said alphabetic keys.
5. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said letters associated with said alphabetic keys are arranged in a QWERTY layout.
6. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said letters associated with said alphabetic keys are arranged in a reduced-QWERTY layout.
7. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said letters associated with said alphabetic keys are arranged in a QWERTZ layout.
8. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said alphanumeric input keys comprise numeric keys having numerals associated therewith and wherein said associated numerals are arranged in a telephone keypad layout.
9. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said elongate body is configured to be held in the hand of the operator with a long axis of said device substantially horizontally oriented during text entry.
10. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said elongate body is configured to be held in the hand of the operator with a long axis of said device substantially vertically oriented during text entry.
11. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 10, wherein said display is located in an upper portion of the front face of said elongate body during text entry, said key field is located in a lower portion of the front face of said elongate body during text entry and said trackball navigation tool is located substantially between said key field and said display.
12. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said trackball navigation tool is at least partially surrounded by said key field.
13. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein a majority of said trackball navigation tool is surrounded by said key field.
14. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, further comprising:
said handheld wireless communication device being configured to send and receive voice communications;
wherein at least one key of said key field is positioned adjacent to said trackball navigation tool and said at least one key has a circular arc-shaped edge conformance fitting to a circular arc-shaped boundary about said trackball navigation tool; and
two call keys oppositely and laterally flank said trackball navigation tool, one of said two call keys being a call initiation key and the other being a call termination key.
15. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 4, wherein said at least one key of said key field that is positioned adjacent to said trackball navigation tool is a menu key that upon actuation displays an available action menu on said display.
16. A handheld wireless communication device configured to send and receive text messages, said device comprising:
a hand cradleable, elongate body configured to be held in one hand by an operator of said device during text entry;
a display located on a front face of said elongate body and upon which information is displayed to the operator during text entry;
a key field located on the front face of said elongate body, said key field being composed of a plurality of keys selected from a plurality of alphanumeric input keys and at least one menu key;
a trackball navigation tool located on the front face of said elongate body;
said alphanumeric input keys comprising a plurality of alphabetic keys having letters associated therewith and said letters being arranged in a traditional, non-ITU Standard E.161 layout;
a rotatable ring surrounding a trackball of said trackball navigation tool; and
a microprocessor configured to receive operator commands from said alphanumeric input keys, said menu key, said trackball navigation tool and said rotatable ring to affect corresponding changes to the display.
17. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 16, wherein at least one key of said key field is positioned adjacent to said rotatable ring and said at least one key has a circular arc-shaped edge conformance fitting to a circular arc-shaped exterior boundary of said rotatable ring.
18. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 16, wherein said rotatable ring establishes an annular boundary about said trackball.
19. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 18, wherein said rotatable ring is at least partially located between said trackball and said alphabetic keys.
20. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 19, wherein said letters associated with said alphabetic keys are arranged in a QWERTY layout.
21. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 19, wherein said letters associated with said alphabetic keys are arranged in a reduced-QWERTY layout.
22. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 19, wherein said letters associated with said alphabetic keys are arranged in a QWERTZ layout.
23. The handheld wireless communication device as recited in claim 19, wherein said alphanumeric input keys comprise numeric keys having numerals associated therewith and wherein said associated numerals are arranged in a telephone keypad layout.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method to operate a touch screen user interface, comprising:
forming a stroke that encloses an area that contains at least a portion of at least one displayed object that represents data; and
selecting the at least one displayed object, where forming the stroke further comprises extending the stroke to a functional object, and activating the functional object with the at least one selected displayed object.
2. A method to operate a touch screen user interface, comprising:
forming a stroke that encloses an area that contains at least a portion of at least one displayed object that represents data; and
selecting the at least one displayed object, where the stroke does not define an area that is totally enclosed by the stroke, and further comprising automatically continuing the stroke such that the area is totally enclosed by the stroke.
3. A method as in claim 2, where the stroke is automatically continued by drawing a line that connects a stroke starting point to a stroke ending point, and by adding touch screen coordinates covered by the line to a list of touch screen coordinates that describe the stroke.
4. A device comprising a touch screen and a display processor coupled to the touch screen, said touch screen and display processor comprising a device user interface, said display processor operating in accordance with a stored program that is responsive to a user forming a stroke on the touch screen for determining an area encompassed by the stroke, and for indicating whether at least one displayed object is contained wholly or partially within the determined area, where the at least one displayed object represents data, where said display processor further operates, in response to the stroke being extended to a functional object, for signaling an activation of the functional object with the at least one selected displayed object.
5. A device as in claim 4, where said display processor further operates, in response to the stroke enclosing an area that contains at least a portion of a plurality of displayed objects, to simultaneously select each of the plurality of displayed objects.
6. A device comprising a touch screen and a display processor coupled to the touch screen, said touch screen and display processor comprising a device user interface, said display processor operating in accordance with a stored program that is responsive to a user forming a stroke on the touch screen for determining an area encompassed by the stroke, and for indicating whether at least one displayed object is contained wholly or partially within the determined area, where the at least one displayed object represents data, where the stroke does not define an area that is totally enclosed by the stroke, and where said display processor further operates to automatically continue the stroke such that the area is totally enclosed by the stroke.
7. A device as in claim 6, where the stroke is automatically continued by drawing a line that connects a stroke starting point to a stroke ending point, and by adding touch screen coordinates covered by the line to a list of touch screen coordinates that describe the stroke.
8. A handheld communications device having a graphical user interface that comprises a touch screen display and a display processor coupled to the touch screen display, said display processor operating in accordance with a stored program to be responsive to a user of the handheld communications device forming a stroke on the touch screen display for determining an area encompassed by the stroke, and for indicating whether at least one displayed icon is contained wholly or partially within the determined area, where the at least one displayed icon represents data, where said display processor further operates, in response to the stroke being extended by the user to a functional object, for signaling an activation of the functional object with the at least one selected displayed icon.
9. A handheld communications device as in claim 8, where said display processor further operates, in response to the stroke enclosing an area that contains at least a portion of a plurality of icons, to simultaneously select each of the plurality of displayed icons.
10. A handheld communications device having a graphical user interface that comprises a touch screen display and a display processor coupled to the touch screen display, said display processor operating in accordance with a stored program to be responsive to a user of the handheld communications device forming a stroke on the touch screen display for determining an area encompassed by the stroke, and for indicating whether at least one displayed icon is contained wholly or partially within the determined area, where the at least one displayed icon represents data, where the stroke does not define an area that is totally enclosed by the stroke, and where said display processor further operates to automatically continue the stroke such that the area is totally enclosed by the stroke.
11. A handheld communications device as in claim 10, where the stroke is automatically continued by drawing a line that connects a stroke starting point to a stroke ending point, and by adding touch screen coordinates covered by the line to a list of touch screen coordinates that describe the stroke.
12. A handheld device comprising: graphical user interface means comprising a touch screen display means and display processor means coupled to the touch screen display means, said display processor means responsive to execution of a stored program to respond to a user forming a stroke on the touch screen display means for determining a touch screen display means region enclosed by the stroke, for determining whether at least one displayed icon is contained within the determined region and, if so, for identifying a contained displayed icon as a target icon, where the at least one displayed icon represents at least one file containing data; and where said display processor means is further responsive to the stroke being extended to a displayed functional object, for signaling an activation of the functional object with the at least one file represented by the target icon.
13. A handheld device as in claim 12, where said display processor further operates, in response to the stroke enclosing a region that contains a plurality of displayed icons, to select each of the plurality of displayed icons.
14. A handheld device as in claim 12, where said display processor means is responsive to a case that the stroke does not completely enclose the touch screen display means region, to complete the stroke so that it does completely enclose the touch screen display means region.
15. A handheld device as in claim 12, where said handheld device is comprised of a wireless communications device.
16. A computer readable storing medium embodied with computer code for directing a computer to implement a graphical user interface having a touch screen display and to perform operations of:
responsive to a user forming a stroke on the touch screen display, determining a touch screen display region enclosed by the stroke;
determining whether at least one displayed icon is contained within the determined region and, if so, identifying a contained displayed icon as a target icon, where the at least one displayed icon represents at least one file containing data; and
responsive to the stroke being extended to a displayed functional object, signaling an activation of the functional object with the at least one file represented by the target icon.
17. A computer readable storing medium as in claim 16, further comprising an operation of, responsive to the stroke enclosing a region that contains a plurality of displayed icons, selecting each of the plurality of displayed icons as a target icon.
18. A computer readable storing medium as in claim 16, responsive to a case that the stroke does not completely enclose the touch screen display region, performing an operation of completing the stroke so that it does completely enclose the touch screen display region.
19. A computer readable storing medium as in claim 16, where said computer-readable medium is embodied within a wireless communications device.