NANOPAD

The Nanopad solution.

Nanopad is a new method of data entry for small electronic devices. As electronic devices become more sophisticated, the need for some form of data input becomes more common. As those devices become smaller, there is less room available for standard keyboards or keypads. As keyboards become smaller, fast and accurate data entry becomes more difficult. Attempts at handwriting recognition are either inaccurate, hard to learn, expensive or difficult to emplement. Accurate voice input is difficult to implement and not appropriate for many situations.

Nanopad is a low cost solution to all those problems.

How Nanopad is implemented.

Nanopad requires only a 3 by 3 touchpad and some spare microprocessor resources. The only requirement for the touch pad is that the user be able to slide a fingertip or other pointing device smoothly from one segment to another. The touchpad could be similar to that commonly found on microwave ovens, but implemented using whatever method and size that is convenient.

The pad would be similar to the image above, but the numbers would not necessarily be there. They are included only to make the following discussion easier to follow.

Example 1 - Point at segment 5, then slide your pointer to segments 4, then 7 and 8, then remove the pointer. Notice that you have drawn the letter c and Nanopad simply recognizes this sequence 5478 as the letter c using a fairly simple lookup table. The fact that it looks like the letter c makes is very easy to remember.

Example 2 - Next point at segment 5 then slide your pointer to segments 4, 7, 8 then back to 5 and lift the pointer. Notice that you have drawn the letter o, and Nanopad recognizes this sequence 54785 as the letter o.

Example 3 - Finally, point at segment 5 again, then slide the pointer to segments 4, 7, 8, 5, and 8. You have drawn the letter a and Nanopad recognizes this sequence 547858 as the letter a.

Nanopad defines similar unique sequences for all the letters a to z, the numbers 0 to 9 and in fact all the characters found on a standard computer keyboard. By using a few simple rules and character shapes every one is familiar with, Nanopad makes the sequences very easy to learn and remember. Nanopad also uses a special table lookup algorithm to achieve better accuracy as well as flexibility in both defining and drawing the characters. It uses some very simple yet elegant techniques for approximate pattern matching. For further details, see the images below.

Although lifting the pointer normally signals the end of the character being drawn, holding the pointer in the last position for a predetermined time could be used to signal both the end of the character and then also repeat the character as long as that position is held.

The Nanopad method combines a 3 by 3 touchpad with some elegantly simple algorithms to provide low cost, accurate and easy data input in confined spaces.

Images

Letters a-z

Numbers and math symbols

Punctuation

Cursor movement and special characters

Accented (spanish) characters

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NanoPad for the Pocket PC

All images and descriptions are Copyrighted Lynn A Schauer - OutOfNoWare - 2001 - Patent Pending

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