Multimodal Adaptive User Interface for a Portable Electronic Device

US 20080291169A1

(io) Pub. No.: US 2008/0291169 Al (43) Pub. Date: Nov. 27, 2008

(54) MULTIMODAL ADAPTIVE USER
INTERFACE FOR A PORTABLE
ELECTRONIC DEVICE

(76) Inventors: David S. Brenner, Round Lake, IL
(US); Michael Bohan, Fox Lake, IL
(US); David B. Cranflll, Antioch,
IL (US)

Correspondence Address:
PHILIP H. BURRUS, IV
460 Grant Street
Atlanta, GA 30312 (US)

Publication Classification

A multimodal electronic device (100) includes a shutter enabled dynamic keypad for presenting one of a plurality of keypad configurations to a user. Each keypad configuration, which is presented by an optical shutter (204) that opens or closes windows or shutters that are geometrically configured as alphanumeric or device keys or symbols. Each keypad configuration comprises a plurality of mode based actuators, wherein the plurality of mode based actuators comprises at least a ten-digit keypad actuator set (2000) and a curved scroll device (1903). The optical shutter (204) is a low-resolution display that presents user actuation targets to a user in a low-resolution key area. As each mode of the device changes, the corresponding keypad configuration presented changes accordingly.