| 摘要 |
A data input system for an electronic device eg. mobile phone, television or game controller comprises four input elements such as joysticks 16, each having a normally-unactuated state and each being manually actuable to eight or nine momentarily actuated states, and a decoder (42 fig 6) operable in an alphabetic mode in which the decoder is operable to interpret each of the actuated states as letters in an alphabet, and as digits in a numeric mode (fig 7C). A shift button or actuated state may change mode, and upper and lower case modes (figs 7A and 7B) may be provided. States may be held or repeatedly pressed to select alternative characters. Vowels are arranged in left most positions. The elements may be arranged on the rear of a telephone for size reduction. Thus a keyboard layout of just four input elements may be used to represent, for example, twenty-six letters and at least six other values. A cursor may also be controlled by the elements, or colour coding asigned. |
