The apparatus and method of the invention relate to data entry and menu selection.
Applications include: (a) data entry for ideographic languages, including Chinese,
Japanese and Korean; (b) fast food ordering; (c) correction of documents generated
by optical character recognition; and (d) computer access and speech synthesis
by persons temporarily or permanently lacking normal motor capabilities. In a preferred
embodiment, each option of a menu is associated respectively with a selectable
region displayed adjacent an edge of a display, forming a perimeter menu and leaving
a region in the center of the perimeter menu for the output of an application program.
Selectable regions may be on the display, outside the display, or both. A menu
option may be selected by clicking on the associated selectable region, by dwelling
on it for a selection threshold period or by a cursor path toward the selectable
region, or by a combination thereof. Remaining dwell time required to select a
selectable region is preferably indicated by the brightness of the selectable region.
Submenus of a perimeter menu may also be perimeter menus and the location of a
submenu option may be foretold by the appearance of its parent menu option. Menu
options may be ideographs sharing a sound, a structure or another characteristic.
Ideographs, which may be homophones of one another, may be associated with colored
indicating regions and selection of an ideograph may be made by speaking the name
of the associated color.
