Samsung files patent for virtual display for inputting characters on mobile devices.

Have you been struggling with the text input on you phone, when writing SMS message or entering calendar appointment? With the need to press phone key 5 times just to get to the desired character? Cell phone manufacturers have known about this inconvenience for a long time and have come up with different solutions to the problem. Folding QWERTY keyboards, predictive text input, on screen character display, etc. Still, they all have some shortcomings and none of them have gained wide acceptance among consumers.

Now Samsung has designed another interesting input method - Virtual Display for inputting characters and symbols on a mobile phone. According to patent application filed yesterday, Samsung is working on a:

…device and method for inputting characters or drawings on a mobile terminal using a virtual screen. To input characters or drawings through a virtual screen, the mobile terminal includes an electronic pen, a virtual screen generator, a position detector for detecting the electronic pen position, and a character recognition algorithm for recognizing a trail as a character. When a signal is input from the electronic pen, the mobile terminal detects the originating position of the signal and its trail. The mobile terminal recognizes the detected trail as a character and generates a virtual screen with the recognized character.

Report from unwiredview.com