Click-wheel dialing patent

Three patents filed by Apple Inc. surfaced today that detail telephone and text entry interfaces for a cellular-capable device via a click-wheel. The second patent will enable users to "type" or dial phone numbers with a click-wheel interface and receive suggestions for completing words or phrases to speed typing efforts. The first patent, titled "Telephone Interface for a Portable Communication Device," describes a rotary dial driven by an iPod-like click-wheel. The rotary dial produces numbers as well as icons arranged in a circular pattern, allowing users to scroll through the icons and numbers with the touch of a finger via either a click-wheel or touch-screen interface.

The second patent titled "Text Entry Interface for a Portable Communication Device" describes the process of displaying one or more characters that were selected by a user via a click-wheel in a first tray, while a second tray includes various icons that correspond to a set of characters and one or more recommended words in what appears to be an attempt by Apple to 'auto-complete' a word or phrase to speed typing efforts.

A third patent describes segmenting a click-wheel's circular shape into various regions to enable quick phone dialing by sensing which region was touched, dialing the number shown in that region of the clickwheel on the corresponding screen.

by MacNN Staff