Touchscreen Interface

Abstract

A method for aligning an input interface (240) of a touchscreen (230) with an overlay (210) for the touchscreen (230) is provided. The method comprises receiving a touch input on the touchscreen (230), wherein the touch input identifies a first position on the touchscreen (230) corresponding to an alignment mark (220) of the overlay; determining, based on the received touch input, a region of the touchscreen (230) in which to render the input interface (240); and rendering the input interface (240) in the determined region of the touchscreen (230).

Claims

1. A method for aligning an input interface of a touchscreen with an overlay for the touchscreen, the method comprising: receiving a touch input on the touchscreen, wherein the touch input identifies a first position on the touchscreen corresponding to an alignment mark of the overlay; determining, based on the received touch input, a region of the touchscreen in which to render the input interface; and rendering the input interface in the determined region of the touchscreen.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising rendering an input element of the input interface at the first position, such that the rendered input element is aligned with the alignment mark of the overlay.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the input interface comprises a plurality of further input elements, and rendering the input interface comprises rendering one or more of the plurality of further input elements in alignment with one or more corresponding input marks of the overlay.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein rendering the input interface comprises rendering each of the plurality of further input elements in alignment with a corresponding input mark of the overlay.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving a second touch input on the touchscreen that identifies a second position on the touchscreen corresponding to a second alignment mark of the overlay.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising receiving a third touch input on the touchscreen that identifies a third position on the touchscreen corresponding to a third alignment mark on the overlay.

7. The method of claim 5, comprising: determining, based on the received touch inputs, a size for the input interface; and rendering the input interface with the determined size.

8. The method of claim 5, comprising: determining, based on the received touch inputs, an orientation for the input interface; and rendering the input interface with the determined orientation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the orientation for the input interface is based on: the positions of the received touch inputs; and/or the order in which the touch inputs are received.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the method comprises: determining an aspect ratio for the input interface based on the received touch inputs; rendering the input interface with the determined aspect ratio; and preferably wherein the input interface has edges having different lengths.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the method comprises: rendering the input interface in a first scheme when a short edge of the input interface is oriented horizontally on the touchscreen; and rendering the input interface in a second scheme when a short edge of the input interface is oriented vertically on the touchscreen, wherein the input elements of the input interface are arranged differently in the first and second schemes.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the input interface comprises: in the first scheme, one or more function keys arranged below a keypad and/or keyboard; and/or in the second scheme, one or more function keys arranged to a side of a keypad and/or keyboard.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the first and second positions correspond to corners of the input interface.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the second and third positions correspond to corners of the input interface.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the input interface comprises an arrangement of one or more input elements selected from: a keypad; a payment terminal interface; a keyboard; numeric characters; alphanumeric characters; symbolic characters; one or more function keys; a PIN entry device; an automated teller machine PIN pad; and/or a chip authentication program interface.

16. The method claim 1, further comprising: receiving an input indicative of an audio request; and in response to receiving the input indicative of an audio request, providing an audio prompt to a user of the touchscreen.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the audio prompt comprises audio instructions for using the: touchscreen; input interface; and/or overlay.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the input indicative of a request for audio output comprises one or more of: a long press on the touchscreen; a plurality of presses on the touchscreen within a predefined time period; and/or an audio input.

19. A method comprising: placing an overlay comprising one or more alignment marks on the touchscreen of a device having touchscreen; and causing the device to perform the method of claim 1.

20. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions to cause a device having a touchscreen to execute the method of claim 1.

21. (canceled)

22. A system comprising: the computer-readable medium of claim 20; and an overlay for a touchscreen, the overlay comprising one or more alignment marks for aligning the overlay with an input interface when the computer program is executed.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the overlay comprises one or more input marks each corresponding to an input element of the input interface.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the input marks and/or the alignment marks are tactile elements.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein one or more of the tactile elements are: a protrusion; a depression; or an opening.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the overlay is transparent.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the overlay is: the same size as the touchscreen; or smaller than the touchscreen.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the overlay is: square; rectangular; circular; triangular; or polygonal.

29. A device having the touchscreen and arranged to execute the computer program of claim 20.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the device is: a point-of-sale device; a mobile phone; a touchscreen monitor; a tablet; a gaming device; an automated teller machine; an electronic voting machine; or a self-service kiosk.

31. An overlay for a touchscreen, the overlay comprising one or more alignment marks for aligning the overlay with an input interface of the touchscreen.

32. The overlay of claim 31, comprising one or more input marks each corresponding to an input element of the input interface.

33. The overlay of claim 32, wherein the input marks and/or the alignment marks are tactile elements.

34. The overlay of claim 33, wherein one or more of the tactile elements are: a protrusion; a depression; or an opening.

35. The overlay of claim 31, wherein the overlay is transparent.

36. The overlay of claim 31, wherein the overlay is: the same size as the touchscreen; or smaller than the touchscreen.

37. The overlay of claim 31, wherein the overlay is: square; rectangular; circular; triangular; or polygonal.

38. The overlay of claim 31, wherein the overlay comprises a releasable attachment mechanism configured to allow the overlay to be releasably attached to the touchscreen.

Description

LISTING OF FIGURES

[0036] Embodiments will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0037] FIG. 1 shows a method for aligning an input interface with an overlay for a touchscreen;

[0038] FIG. 2 shows schematically a system comprising a touchscreen and an overlay;

[0039] FIG. 3 shows a method of selecting a scheme for an input interface;

[0040] FIG. 4 shows schematically a further system comprising a touchscreen and an overlay;

[0041] FIG. 5 shows an overlay and two devices suitable for use with the overlay; and

[0042] FIGS. 6A and 6B show different schemes for an input interface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a generalised method 100 for aligning an input interface of a touchscreen with an overlay for the touchscreen. The method 100 comprises a first step 110 of receiving a touch input on the touchscreen. The touch input identifies a first position on the touchscreen corresponding to an alignment mark of the overlay. The method 100 further comprises a step 120 of determining, based on the received touch input, a region of the touchscreen in which to render the input interface. Then, the method 100 comprises a step of 130 rendering the input interface in the determined region of the touchscreen. The method 100 thereby ensures that the input interface is rendered at an appropriate position on the touchscreen, in view of the received touch input.

[0044] FIG. 2 shows a system 200 comprising a transparent overlay 210 that comprises an alignment mark in the form of a raised dot 220. The system 200 of FIG. 2 can be used to implement the method 100 of FIG. 1. The raised dot 220 is located at co-ordinates (X, Y) in the overlay 210, where X is the distance from the leftmost edge of the overlay 210 and Y is the distance from the bottom edge of the overlay 210. The overlay 210 is intended to be placed over the touchscreen 230, such that when the overlay 210 is affixed to the touchscreen 230, the raised dot 220 is at the position (X, Y) relative to the lower left corner of the touchscreen 210. The overlay 210 is at least partially transparent such that, when placed on the touchscreen 230, the touchscreen 230 can be viewed through the overlay 210. A software component 250 is loaded onto the device with the touchscreen 230 for rendering an input interface 240 in a calibrated arrangement. The software component 250 may be installed within the device as shown, or it may be partially located within the device with certain parts of the software component being installed remotely from the device (e.g. utilising cloud-based processing). Aspects of this disclosure are directed to ensuring that a keypad image position 240a is rendered in alignment with the raised dot 220 when the overlay 210 is applied to the touchscreen.

[0045] To calibrate, the overlay 210 is placed onto the touchscreen and an alignment mark, which in this case is a raised dot 220, is pressed. This locates the ‘5’ key on the keypad (although any other key on the keypad could be used), which is located at the keypad image position 240a. Thus, the raised dot 220 is used to align the input interface 240. Areas A and B are then pressed to tell the software component 250 what the aspect ratio of the overlay 210 is and what its X/Y dimensions are, because in some embodiments, the input interface 240 and overlay 210 may have edges having different lengths and so the methods may comprises determining an aspect ratio and rendering the input interface 240 with the determined aspect ratio. In this context, areas A and B also serve as alignment marks of the overlay 210.

[0046] Once a user has pressed one or more of the raised dot 220, area A, and area B, then step 120 of the method of FIG. 1 is executed. This step receives data indicative of positions on the touchscreen identified by pressing the alignment marks, which are the dot 220 and/or area A and/or area B. Step 120 leads to a region of the touchscreen 230 for displaying an input interface 240 being determined. By using the received touch inputs, an input interface 240 may be rendered on the touchscreen 230 in the determined region that ensures the overlay 210 is immediately useable with the input interface 240.

[0047] This disclosure encompasses scenarios in which differently sized overlays 210 are available for different devices. In such cases, pressing two areas during calibration would allow appropriate dimensions for the input interface 230 to be determined, as pressing two points on the touchscreen 230 provides data indicative of the size of the overlay 210. Thus, these dimensions can be used to ensure that the size, position, orientation, layout and/or aspect ratio of an input interface 240 are correctly rendered on the touchscreen 210. The size, position, orientation, layout and/or aspect ratio of the input interface 240 can be determined using two touch inputs (e.g. by pressing the raised dot 220 and one of the areas A and B). Alternatively, a more accurately rendered input interface 240 can be obtained using three touch inputs (e.g. by pressing the raised dot 220 and both of the areas A and B). Alternatively, a single touch input can be used for a quicker but less accurate rendering process (e.g. by pressing only one of the raised dot 220, area A and area B) if the size of the overlay 210 are known and the input interface 240 is symmetric so that the angle of the overlay 210 with respect to the touchscreen 230 does not affect its usage. In some scenarios, the calibration process may use only the corners of the overlay 210 (i.e. they may press areas A and B only) to determine the region in which to render the input interface 240, without requiring the user to press the raised dot 220. The number of touch inputs used in the rendering process can be varied depending on the needs of the user and the specific overlay 210.

[0048] When a plurality of touch inputs is used for rendering the input interface 240, the order in which the touch inputs are received may be used to assist the rendering. For example, if two inputs are received, then there may be two alternative orientations for the region for the input interface 240 and each orientation would be aligned with each of the received touch inputs (e.g. by rotating the interface by 180 degrees). In this case, the order of receiving the inputs can be helpful. For instance, if area A is pressed before area B, then the top left area of the input interface 240 can be rendered near area A and the bottom right area of the input interface 240 can be rendered near area B. If the corners were rendered at the opposite areas, then this may lead to portions of the overlay being positioned over incorrect areas of the input interface 240.

[0049] Areas A and B on the overlay 210 may comprise tactile elements for a user to touch during the alignment procedure. Alternatively, they may be identifiable to a user by being, for example, partially coloured and/or partially opaque, and/or by having text at positions A and B on the overlay 210. The software component 250 may be configured to cause the device having the touchscreen 230 to provide a prompt to a user to press one or more of the raised dot 220 and/or area A and/or area B. The prompt may be a visible and/or an audible prompt. The pressing of areas 220, A and B when the overlay 210 is on the touchscreen 230 provides touch inputs indicative of a position on the touchscreen 230 and these touch inputs can be used in the method 100 of FIG. 1. In such cases, when areas A and B are used in this way, they serve as alignment marks of the overlay 210.

[0050] In FIG. 2, the rendered input interface 240 is a 3 x 3 numerical keypad having the numbers 1-9, with function keys (cancel, clear, enter) to the right hand side, and with “-”, 0 and “+” keys arranged below the bottom row of the keypad. Such an input interface 240 may be used instead of an automated teller machine (ATM) terminal for inputting a PIN number during a transaction, for example.

[0051] This system and method are applicable to various types of input interface 240 and alleviate the difficulty of accurately placing an overlay 210 on a touchscreen 230. For example, touchscreen overlays may be thin and flexible with adhesive on one side, which makes them difficult to accurately affix to touchscreens, especially when the overlay folds and potentially adheres to itself.

[0052] Audio may also be included in these processes. For example, if a user presses the raised dot 220, then the software component 250 may cause the device to speak to say, for example, the type of input interface 240 (e.g. a PIN pad) that is on the touchscreen 230 to assist the user (who may be visually impaired). The audio prompt may comprise any audio instructions for using the touchscreen 230, input interface 240 and/or the overlay 210.

[0053] The rendered input interface 240 may be any input entry mechanism such as, for example, an input interface 240 that replicates a PIN Entry Device (PED) or an ATM PIN pad. These embodiments may be used by card issuers for mobile banking and/or remote telephone authentication. For instance, this may be the DDA equivalent of a physical Chip Authentication Program (CAP) reader. The overlay may be an overlay for DDA supplied by issuing banks to allow cardholders to use a smartphone to enter authentication codes or a PIN for mobile banking applications or other secure applications. It will be appreciated that this disclosure is generally applicable to various area of technology, including financial security and general security of touchscreen devices where the entry of authentication codes may be required. In a further example, an employer may require a user to access an authentication code in to a touchscreen device in order to access a virtual private network (VPN), and this may be difficult for a visually impaired user, in which case embodiments of this disclosure may be used to assist with the authentication of a device seeking access to a VPN.

[0054] The above procedure describes a calibration procedure in which an overlay 210 is affixed to the touchscreen 230 and the input interface 240 calibrated such that the input interface 240 is rendered in alignment with the overlay 210. In other words, the above-described processes may be used to perform an initial calibration of a device and overlay 210. Following this calibration, the input interface 240 may then be minimised to allow the touchscreen 230 to be used for other functionality. Then, if it is necessary to enter data (e.g. during a payment transaction), then the user (e.g. a cardholder) can find the raised dot 220 by touch and pressing it will automatically ensure that the ‘5’ key 240a on the data entry screen 240, and hence the data entry screen 240 itself, is it in the correct position with the ‘5’ key under the dot 220 and the data entry screen 240 generally aligned with the overlay 210, irrespective of any misalignment of the overlay 210 with the touchscreen 230. The other input elements of the input interface 240 (the keys) will be rendered in their correct respective positions, which are standard for payment systems, and which is the current case for conventional keypads.

[0055] Pressing the dot 220 for a period of time (e.g. a long press) may automatically invoke audio prompts that can guide the customer through the usage scenario (e.g. a transaction), which could be played through a headset or a speaker of the device, for example. Other touch inputs (e.g. a double press of the dot, or a plurality of presses on the touch screen within a predefined time period) may be used to invoke such audio prompts.

[0056] FIG. 3 shows a method 300 for selecting an input scheme based on received touch inputs. The method of FIG. 3 comprises a step 320 of receiving a plurality of (i.e. two or more) touch inputs and determining 340 an aspect ratio based on the received touch inputs. Based on the aspect ratio, a first input scheme is selected at step 340A or a second input scheme is selected at step 340B. If the short X dimension is horizontal, then the first scheme is selected as shown in FIG. 2. If the short dimension X dimension is vertical, then a second scheme (in which CNL, CLR, ENT are arranged below the numbers) is selected. FIGS. 6A and 6B show more detailed examples of such input schemes. Other layouts may be used without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

[0057] Turning next to FIG. 4, a system 400 that is similar to the system 200 of FIG. 2 is shown. The same transparent overlay 210 is depicted fitted to a larger touchscreen 430. An identical software component 250 (not shown in FIG. 4) may be used to recognise when the user presses the location of the raised dot 220, and bring up the input interface 440 (shown as a data entry keypad) in exactly the right position, irrespective of where the overlay 210 is on the larger touchscreen 430. In addition, the relative dimensions of the input interface 440 will be the same as that depicted in FIG. 2, which ensures that the method is compatible with the same overlay 210 even when the method is executed by different devices. Moreover, it is easy for a user to locate the other key positions from the ‘5’ key reference 440a. That is, the ‘5’ key 440a provides a natural and intuitive reference point for the input interface 440 to aid a user of the touchscreen 430 who may be visually impaired.

[0058] The above discussions relate to the use of one, two or three alignment marks on the overlay 210 in aligning the overlay 210. The number of marks is limited to three for simplicity and to aid understanding. As a consequence, none of the previously described alignment marks constitute input marks. However, any number of further marks (e.g. tactile features) could be added to the overlay 210 in order to assist with the location of the keypad digits, whilst being transparent to normally sighted users. Any such marks that are not used for calibrating the input interface 440 would be considered input marks in the context of this disclosure. An example of an overlay having a plurality of input elements is a floor selection touchscreen for a lift (e.g. that shown in FIG. 7), which may have a plurality of tactile elements that allow a user to select an appropriate floor (i.e. at least one tactile feature per floor) but which is only calibrated using a small number of tactile features which serve as the alignment marks. Similarly, when a numerical keypad is used, there may be different numbers of tactile elements in different places on the overlay 210 (e.g. 1 dot corresponding to the ‘1’ key, 2 dots corresponding to the ‘2’ key, 3 dots corresponding to the ‘3’ key, etc. etc.) and only a subset of these may be used in the alignment process and thereby constitute alignment marks.

[0059] FIG. 5 shows how the same overlay 210 can be used on either an iPhone 560 or an iPad 580, each of which may be loaded with software component 250, and how identical data entry keypads 540A and 540B having the same size would be displayed on both devices using the methods of this disclosure. Various devices having relatively small touchscreens may be used (e.g. smartphone, such as an iPhone or an Android phone). Similarly, various devices having relatively large touchscreens may be used (e.g. a touchscreen monitor, or a tablet, such as an iPad or an Android tablet). Various operating systems may be used such as, for example, Windows, Android, iOS and Linux. The overlay 210 may be the same size as the touchscreen 230 or smaller than the touchscreen 230 depending on the device used.

[0060] Using the methods of the disclosure, an overlay 210 can be fitted reliably to either device 560, 580 in a way that ensures that the overlay 210 is in good alignment with the rendered input interface 440 regardless of the specific dimensions of the device used. The software component 250 may use knowledge of the device on which it is installed to assist in rendering an input interface 440. For instance, the methods of this disclosure may use the physical dimensions of the touchscreen and/or the resolution of the touchscreen in determining the region in which to render the input interface 440. Such a process may involve scaling the number of pixels to use for the region in which the interface is to be rendered, with this scaling being based on the screen size and resolution.

[0061] FIGS. 6A and 6B show examples 600A and 600B of input schemes that correspond to numerical keypads. These may be rendered depending on whether the X dimension of the overlay 210 is horizontal, or whether it is vertical. Scheme 600A has the function keys to the right of a numeric keypad whilst scheme 600B has function keys below a numeric keypad. That is to say, the input elements of the input interface are arranged differently in the first and second schemes. The selection of a different scheme depending on the orientation of the overlay 210 with respect to the touchscreen may improve ergonomics and usability.

[0062] The input schemes in FIGS. 6A and 6B have different aspect ratios. In other words, the input interfaces 600A and 600B have different dimensions in the x and y directions. In FIG. 6A, the input interface 600A has a greater width (the dimension in the x direction) than height (the dimension in the y direction). In FIG. 6B, the input interface 600B has a greater height than width. The methods of this disclosure can automatically present the correct interface based on the received inputs. For instance, if the three touch input points are the two corners and the 5 key, then the positions of the touch inputs can be used to determine which input scheme should be used for rendering.

[0063] In FIG. 7, a scheme for an input interface 700 for calling a lift (elevator) is depicted. Such an interface may be displayed (e.g. on a wall-mounted tablet) when a user is on the first floor of a building, which is apparent because the button for selecting the first floor is not available for selection (because the user is already there and so there is no need to call a lift to the first floor). A number of other floors of the building are available for selection, including the roof, floors 2 to 4, ground floor (floor ‘0’), the car park (floor ‘-1’) and the basement (floor ‘-2’).

[0064] It may be difficult for a visually impaired user to interact with such an interface as it may not be standardised, since various buildings have different numbers of floors and hence the lifts in different buildings will have different floor selection interfaces. However, the provision of a transparent overlay, similar to the previously described overlay 210, may aid such users. In particular, such an overlay may be affixed to a touchscreen showing the interface 700, and then calibrated accurately using the methods described previously. In this case, the overlay may be provided with braille text (or other tactile features) to assist a user of the lift in knowing which floor they are selected. The input interface may be disabled (e.g. using a voice command or using a switch on the touchscreen) whilst a user touches the screen to determine which floor they wish to select (to avoid inadvertently calling a lift to an incorrect floor), and the user may then reactivate the input interface and select an appropriate floor of the building with the help of the overlay’s tactile elements. The methods of the disclosure can be used to ensure that each tactile element on the overlay (i.e. all input and alignment marks) is aligned with an appropriate input element (e.g. ‘ROOF’) on the input interface, by rendering the input interface based on an alignment process which uses an alignment mark. Thus, it will be appreciated that the disclosure is useful for visually impaired users of various touchscreen devices in a variety of contexts.

[0065] It will be appreciated that many variations may be made to the above methods and apparatus whilst retaining these advantages. For example, whilst the above embodiments have been described primarily with reference to payment interfaces, many lifts are operated using touchscreen tablets with buttons thereon used for calling a lift. The same methods and systems as described above could also be applied in a lift to select the floor required. These principles may be used in various other scenarios in which touchscreen devices are used. It will also be understood that although the disclosure has been described with reference to particular types of data, devices and applications, and whilst the disclosure provides particular advantages in such cases, as discussed herein the disclosure may be applied to other types of data, devices and applications.

[0066] For example, throughout the above discussion, the overlay 210 is typically transparent, since it will then not interfere with normally sighted users, and importantly in the payment environment, precludes any possibility of the insertion of PIN disclosing bugs (since that would be clearly visible to any normally sighted user or the merchant). However, portions of the overlay may not be completely transparent.

[0067] Each feature disclosed in this specification, unless stated otherwise, may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose. Thus, unless stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

[0068] As used herein, including in the claims, unless the context indicates otherwise, singular forms of the terms herein are to be construed as including the plural form and, where the context allows, vice versa. For instance, unless the context indicates otherwise, a singular reference herein including in the claims, such as “a” or “an” (such as a touch input or an overlay) means “one or more” (for instance, one or more touch inputs, or one or more overlays). Throughout the description and claims of this disclosure, the words “comprise”, “including”, “having” and “contain” and variations of the words, for example “comprising” and “comprises” or similar, mean “including but not limited to”, and are not intended to (and do not) exclude other components.

[0069] The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (“for instance”, “such as”, “for example” and like language) provided herein, is intended merely to better illustrate the disclosure and does not indicate a limitation on the scope of the disclosure unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the disclosure.

[0070] Any steps described in this specification may be performed in any order or simultaneously unless stated or the context requires otherwise.

[0071] All of the aspects and/or features disclosed in this specification may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive. In particular, the preferred features of the disclosure are applicable to all aspects and embodiments of the disclosure and may be used in any combination. Likewise, features described in non-essential combinations may be used separately (not in combination).