1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to interfacing with applications executing on user devices, and in particular to a method and device for automated capture of inputs within an interface of an application executing on a user device.
2. Description of the Related Art
One very common usage of electronic user devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and computers, is for execution of applications that require a user to provide textual inputs into a user interface. Increasingly, these devices are being provided with microphones and the capability to provide speech input in addition to and/or in place of textual inputs. This usage is becoming increasing popular with standard messaging applications, such as provided with short message service (SMS) or instant messaging applications. Many of the user interfaces for these applications now provide a virtual microphone displayed within the message interface or as a selectable icon included on a virtual keyboard. However, the default input mechanism for these applications have remained the keyboard, which requires tactile manipulation of the device. Thus, access to the microphone and, by extension, access to speech-based interfacing with these applications, first require a manual or tactile input to open the message interface and or reply message, manually activate the keyboard, and then, if speech input is desired, manually activate and/or select the microphone as an input mechanism. Given that the microphone is a preferred means of some users for providing input to these applications, the experience is fragmented and mostly manual user interface and/or touch driven, although the user ultimately wants or prefers to use speech as the means for providing the input. Similar limitations exist in other computer applications such as traditional word processing software and other applications that receive text-based input, but which can be manually configured to support user dictation of speech input.