Neonode issued foundational user-interface patent for virtual keyboards

SANTA CLARA, USA: Neonode Inc. announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), on April 8, 2014, issued to Neonode patent number 8,692,806 (the '806 patent) for entering text on a virtual keyboard.

The new '806 user-interface patent covers the disambiguation of an intended one of a plurality of icons, when a finger covers more than one icon.

Essentially, when an individual's finger touches more than one icon on a virtual keyboard (of any touch technology), this method intelligently determines the intended key target, based on a pattern of locations detected by the touch detector, and it selects the appropriate icon/key based on their relative positions. The new Neonode '806 patent has priority dating back to 2001.

The issuance of this foundational user-interface patent brings Neonode's patent total to 133, which includes 36 issued patents and 97 patents pending. This compares with Neonode's patent total of 68 on December 31, 2012, which included 9 patents issued and 59 pending.