CN106648132B

CN106648132B - Method and apparatus for character entry

Info

Publication number: CN106648132B
Application number: CN201610173494.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 胡永歌; 陈绪金; 张翔; 朱玉
Original assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC
Current assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC
Priority date: 2009-12-30
Filing date: 2009-12-30
Publication date: 2020-08-25
Anticipated expiration: 2029-12-30
Also published as: CN106648132A

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for character entry are disclosed. A method and apparatus for predictive text input includes entering at least one symbol, displaying at least one candidate character string predicted from the symbol; and only a portion of the candidate string is selected that is not independently displayed as the entire candidate string.

Description

Method and apparatus for character entry

The application is a divisional application, the national application number of the original application is 200980163251.9, the application date is 2009, 12 and 30 days, and the invention name is 'method and equipment for character entry'.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to entering text into electronic devices, and in particular to a method of predictive text entry.

Background

Personal devices typically provide predictive text entry methods that employ algorithms that present candidate characters, candidate words, candidate phrases, and/or candidate strings after at least one character has been entered. Examples of such devices include cellular radiotelephones, smart phones, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), which employ predictive text applications to predict candidate characters, candidate words, candidate phrases, and/or candidate strings in response to entry of alpha-numeric characters on a touchscreen or keypad.

For example, for a letter entry mode using the roman alphabet, the user selects the first symbol (word) associated with the desired word and, in response, presents a list of candidate words and phrases corresponding to the word on the display. For example, the list is based on statistics for general usage such that the most common words appear first, while the less common words appear last. The user can select the displayed word or phrase or continue entering symbols until their desired word or phrase is presented as a candidate. One advantage of such alphabetic character entry is that it uses a relatively small number of symbols (words a-Z) that can be easily represented on a small keyboard, such as a telephone keyboard or a standard qwerty keyboard.

Adapting to chinese and other character-based languages presents greater challenges because they do not have a manageable number of alphabet words that can be overlaid onto a numeric keypad. For example, Chinese does not use the alphabet, but rather has approximately 5000 to 7000 common characters. Advantageously, many speech systems have been developed to standardize the pronunciation of, for example, the Mandarin Chinese language. Several such phonetic systems use the roman alphabet as phonetic symbols, such as the Wade-Giles and pinyin systems of mandarin chinese, and others use a unique set of phonetic symbols, such as the ZhuYin system of mandarin chinese, which has a 37-symbol phonetic alphabet. The chinese cantonese also has a phonetic system that uses the roman alphabet.

Although there are over 5000 common Chinese characters, there are only about 400 basic phonetic syllables in Mandarin spoken Chinese. Thus, many different Chinese characters use the same Chinese Mandarin phonetic syllable. An extreme example is the pinyin word "yi" of the chinese mandarin, which represents over 100 different chinese characters, each of which has a different meaning.

In addition, the chinese mandarin uses four standard tones to distinguish meanings. Thus, the same phonetic syllable has different meaning when utterances with different tones are used. Using the phonetic word "yi" as an example, at least 20 characters use a first tone, at least 31 characters use a second tone, at least 16 characters use a third tone, and at least 63 characters use a fourth tone.

While there are various methods for entering chinese characters into a computer system using a full-size keyboard having keys corresponding to all phonetic symbols and four tones of one of various phonetic systems, there is a need for a reduced keyboard entry method for characters for use in a portable handheld device such as a cellular radiotelephone, smartphone, or personal digital assistant. Further, it would be desirable to provide fast input in a manner that uses fewer key strokes and easier selection with reduced user constraints.

Disclosure of Invention

A method of predictive text entry, comprising the steps of: entering at least one symbol, and displaying at least one candidate character string predicted from the at least one symbol; and only a portion of the at least one candidate character string is selected, which portion is not independently displayed as the entire candidate string.

The method may further comprise the steps of: subsequent candidate characters are displayed to facilitate selection of a next character after the selected portion in the text field, the subsequent candidate characters being additional characters corresponding to the selected portion.

The method may further include highlighting the portion with a sustained press, which may be implemented, for example, as a mechanical button press associated with cursor positioning or a finger press on a display touchpad.

The method may further include submitting to a text box when the user releases after the sustained press.

The method may further include inputting symbols in pinyin to generate candidate strings of chinese characters.

The method may further include selecting a symbol in the symbol entry box that is different from the first symbol in the symbol entry box.

The method may further include selecting a portion that does not include the first character in the candidate character phrase.

Furthermore, an apparatus is disclosed in which the method is provided.

Drawings

The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages of those embodiments, including the concepts of the claimed invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile handset;

FIG. 2 illustrates the display of the mobile handset according to FIG. 1 after an additional user action;

FIG. 3 illustrates the display of the mobile handset according to FIG. 2 after an additional user action;

FIG. 4 illustrates the display of the mobile handset according to FIG. 3 after an additional user action;

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative interface;

FIG. 6 illustrates another alternative interface; and is

FIG. 7 illustrates a method according to one embodiment.

It will be appreciated that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

Detailed Description

The present invention allows a user to quickly enter symbols and popular phrases to produce a target candidate list in the candidate character field that is more relevant to the desired character output, and then select a portion of the character string that appears in the candidate character field to speed up the selection process.

The communication device 100 (fig. 1) includes a display 102 having a touch screen device associated therewith. The communication device comprises not shown circuits capable of operation. For example, device 100 may include a transceiver, an antenna, a controller such as a microprocessor, memory, a microphone, a speaker, and a battery, or other conventional components. The exemplary device 100 includes a touch screen associated with the display 102, which can be implemented using resistor and/or capacitor sensors, as is known in the art and conventional for cellular telephone devices. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the device may alternatively have a display and a conventional mechanical keypad and navigation keys (not shown), such as found on Motorola RAZR or other cell phones employing poppel keys, or any other suitable input mechanism. The device may include other accessory circuitry or portions of circuitry. In any case, the device 100 includes an application stored in memory that is executed by the controller to perform the methods described herein. The illustrated device also includes a speaker port 160, a microphone port 162, and three

mechanical buttons

164, 166, and 168, which are provided for purposes of illustration.

Somewhat more specifically, as an example, the illustrated display 102 uses a touch screen to allow direct finger control of the image presented on the display. The display includes a text field 104, a symbol entry box 106, and a candidate character field 108. The display also includes an emulated keyboard 110 which presents a 3 x 4 matrix keyboard of the type found on telephone handsets, which present numbers and words in a manner familiar to those using telephones. The display also includes a dynamic pinyin character and word button set 112. The dynamic pinyin character and word button groups present pinyin to a user for selection by tapping the display. The display is also controlled in accordance with a device application stored in memory to present control keys to the user, illustrated as including a delete key 114, an enter key 116, a space key 118, and keyboard selector keys 120. For example, the keyboard selector allows the user to switch the keyboard between qwerty and the telephone keyboard.

The illustrated display includes an address field 128 for the message recipient to be entered in the text field 104. The user enters the message recipient in the address field in a conventional manner. Text field 104 is a field in which the constructed text is presented to the user and may be, for example, a short message such as used in Short Message Service (SMS), an email message, a social network posting such as a status message, or a text field for any other application on device 100.

The symbol entry box 106 displays user input, such as pinyin symbols, words, or strings entered by the user in the illustrated example. As used herein, a pinyin word, character, or string is a separate phonetic character for the pronunciation associated with chinese characters and will be referred to herein as a pinyin word. A pinyin phrase refers to a plurality of such pinyin words with appropriate spaces between the words. The symbol entry box 106 provides feedback to the user that facilitates symbol entry and confirms to the user that the correct word or phrase is being used by the device application to generate candidate characters in the candidate character field 108. Those skilled in the art will recognize that while illustrated using pinyin, where an application is advantageously used to generate chinese characters, the symbol entry box will contain any form of text entered by the user via the keyboard, and this may include ZhuYin or any other desired input language selected by the user and supported by the application of the device 100.

The candidate character field 108 is a continuous field that presents the user with successive input candidate characters, words, strings, and/or phrases corresponding to the symbols entered and displayed in the symbol entry box 106. The candidate characters may correspond to characters of a single word, such as multiple characters corresponding to the pinyin word "yi", or to a word string, such as a common phrase or combination of words, as shown in fig. 1, where the characters displayed in the candidate character field 108 correspond to the pinyin phrase "wo men dou you ushi". In addition, the candidate fields include arrow keys 122 and 124, which allow the user to scroll to candidate characters not displayed in the fields, and thus expand the number of characters available for selection by the user. For example, as described above, if the user has only entered the word "yi" in the symbol entry box 106, then 100+ characters correspond to the word. The device application will present the most common characters in the candidate character field 108, but the user can employ the arrow keys to scroll through all 100+ characters corresponding to the word "yi".

In the illustrated example, the user enters a symbol by touching the display at a key of the keyboard 110 (fig. 1), as indicated in block 702 (fig. 7). For example, the user can enter the pinyin string "wo" by repeatedly pressing the "9 wxyz" key until "w" is displayed in the entry field. As indicated in block 704 (fig. 7), a list of candidate characters will appear in the candidate character field 108. The user can then repeatedly press the "6 mno" key until an "o" appears next to a "w" in the symbol entry box 106. At this point, a number of characters corresponding to the pinyin string "wo" will appear in the candidate character field 108. The user can select one of these characters by tapping his finger on the desired character, so that the desired character is thus selected to be submitted to the text field 104 as the next character.

Alternatively, if the user desires to enter a phrase, such as a common phrase starting with the pinyin string "wo," the user may press the space bar 118 after "wo" is displayed in the symbol entry box 106. In the illustrated example, the user may then repeatedly press the "6 mno" key until "m" appears on the symbol entry box 106. The user continues to enter symbols and spaces using the keys 110 in the same manner until the phrase "wo men dou you shi" is displayed in the symbol entry box 106, as shown in FIG. 1. The chinese candidate string will be "we all have yes" as highlighted in the candidate character field 108 in fig. 1. If this is the desired string that the user wants to enter as text, the user can simply tap on the highlighted area of the candidate character field and the entire highlighted phrase "we have all" will be selected and submitted to the text field 104.

However, if the user wants to input "we all have things" instead of the chinese candidate string "we all have yes", the user may simply select and submit "we all have". This is done by the user placing his finger on the first character "i me" and holding his finger down and across the "all there" key, thus producing a hold or continuous press. The partial selection is represented by block 706 in fig. 7. The device application responds to successive presses to generate a bubble (bubble)130 (fig. 2), which bubble 130 displays the selected string as it passes through each character until it displays "we all" over the final successive character of the candidate string to be selected, as shown in fig. 3. When the user lifts their finger after they have continued pressing, the device application submits the string in the bubble to the text field 104. The pinyin characters and strings corresponding to the selected characters will be removed from the text entry box 106, and thus "wo men dou you" from the field.

A new candidate list corresponding to "shi" will be displayed, which is the pinyin word that was not selected in the symbol entry box 106. Since "shi" is in the symbol entry box but the corresponding character is not selected, the candidate character for "shi" reflects the character appended to the previous selection. Thus, as indicated in block 708, the candidate character with the highest probability will be presented to the user when associated with the previously submitted phrase. In other words, the most likely candidates for "shi" would be those that match the phrase "wo men dou you". Other characters that correspond to "shi" but are less likely in view of the phrase will be able to be accessed using the arrow. The user can thus continue to select "things" from the Chinese candidates for the pinyin "shi" by simply tapping the "things" symbol in the candidate character field 108.

If the user continues to enter pinyin words in the symbol entry field adjacent "shi" without selecting the character for "shi" as described in the preceding paragraph, the device application will change the predicted candidate character in response to the symbol phrase now present in the symbol entry box 106.

Thus, in the above example, it can be seen that the start word is the first word touched by the user, which is followed by a persistent touch (continuous press). The application changes from a tap selection mode, in which the entire highlighted candidate string is selected and submitted regardless of where the user touches in the highlighted area, to a variable input mode, in which only one or more characters selected by the user are selected and submitted, in response to the continuous press. The variable mode uses characters from the beginning to the end of a continuous press, or a single character without movement of the cursor during the hold touch, and further displays the character to be selected when the user lifts his finger in the popped up bubble. It is contemplated that the time threshold may be used as a trigger to change from a tap selection mode to a variable mode.

Further, as the user moves their finger, the selection changes (from "we all" in FIG. 2 to "we all" in FIG. 3 in response to moving to the next character, as illustrated by bubble 130). When the user lifts his finger, the selected candidate "we all have" is submitted to the text field. Next, candidates for the remaining Pinyin "shi" are displayed in the candidate character field. The target character "thing" is the third item, which is marked by a red circle in FIG. 4. The user taps on the character for easy submission to the text field 104, as shown in fig. 4.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a user may be able to select a particular character from a pinyin phrase using the present method. For example, where a pinyin word or string has many associated characters such that the selection needs to scroll through many candidates, the present invention can allow a user to enter popular phrases that include the desired characters associated with the pinyin word. To accomplish this, the user enters the pinyin phrase into the character entry box 106 as described above. For example, if the user wants to enter "yes" into the text field 104 without "we all," the user can press "yes" in the candidate character field 108 in fig. 1 and hold his finger thereon until the bubble above the candidate field shows "yes". The user can then lift their finger and only "yes" will be moved to the text field 104. The user can then continue to enter text.

Fig. 5 presents a display in accordance with an alternative embodiment. In this embodiment, the user employs a qwerty keyboard 502 to enter alphabetic symbols. As illustrated, the user types the symbol "it is ve" directly into the text box 504 by tapping a key on the qwerty keyboard. At the same time, the candidates are displayed in the candidate list 506. The user can tap the entire candidate word from the list 506, or the user can select a portion of the candidate word (such as "vehi") from the list using a continuous press and slide. When the user's finger is released after the touch is maintained, the user selection is committed to the text field.

Fig. 6 shows another alternative embodiment. In this embodiment, for example, once a symbol is entered using a qwerty keyboard "F ", the symbol F appears in the symbol entry box 602. Multiple phrases appear as candidate phrases. The user can employ a computer mouse to move the cursor over any position on the candidate phrase and click to select the entire phrase string, and thus start on a device such as Google^TMThe search engine of the search site searches through the entire candidate string. In this way, a user can start a search for "Food network" by clicking anywhere on the string "Food network". Alternatively, the user can slide the cursor down and highlight any portion of the candidates on the candidate list 604, such as the desired string "food net" or the word "network". When the user releases the continuous depression of the right mouse button, a Google search for the highlighted portion begins. Thus, it can be seen that a navigation device such as a mouse may be used instead of a touch screen.

The methods and apparatus described herein provide a function for a user to select a chinese character that is part of a candidate string in a candidate list and submit a symbol string without selecting a complete string or repeatedly entering symbols. The method and apparatus also enables a user to indicate the beginning and end of a Chinese string, referred to herein as a phrase, so that Chinese words between the beginning and end characters can be selected and submitted to text. The method and apparatus allow a user to select a portion of candidate chinese characters by highlighting their desired character. Within the consecutive character candidate string, the application can highlight any character or consecutive character string. When the user releases their finger from the touch screen or releases a stylus control (e.g., a right mouse button or a button associated with a trackpad), the highlighted content will be rendered as created text.

Existing input methods are able to evaluate the results and generate a real-time list of candidates to be used for selection when the user presses a key one by one. However, when the device prompts the user to select from the candidate list, the user can only select the complete string from the candidate list. Existing applications do not allow a user to select a partial string. This requirement places limitations on the user for a number of reasons. The desired character or characters may not be a high probability candidate because they are not commonly used, forcing the user to scroll through an excessively long list of candidates or enter an entire string of characters. Furthermore, the user may not accurately press a key (e.g., an incorrect key when entering a character using a 3 × 4 telephone keypad called a "bell keypad", or a key that was missed using a touch pad on a display screen), and as a result, the candidate character string may not meet the user's expectations.

Known systems do not provide the user with the flexibility to select a portion of the entire project as the correct result, which degrades the user experience-particularly in the continuous input mode of chinese sentences. When a user finds that only a portion of the chinese characters are in the candidate character field, he is forced to scroll through the candidate field to find the desired character, submit the character, and then repeat entering, searching, finding, and submitting each remaining chinese character until the text is complete.

In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present teachings.

The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or element of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.

Claims

1. A method of predicting text, comprising the steps of:

displaying at least one symbol entered by a user;

displaying at least one candidate character string predicted from the at least one symbol;

responding to selection of only a portion of the at least one candidate character string by highlighting a portion in response to a sustained press associated with the at least one candidate character string of the portion and by submitting the portion of the at least one candidate character string to a text box after releasing the sustained press; and

displaying a subsequent candidate corresponding to the portion of the at least one candidate character string to facilitate appending a subsequent character to the portion of the at least one candidate character string.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one symbol comprises a pinyin word, and wherein the at least one candidate character string includes chinese characters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the at least one candidate character string corresponds only to symbols in a symbol entry box that are different from the at least one symbol in the symbol entry box.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the at least one candidate character string does not include a first character in the at least one candidate character string.

5. An apparatus for predicting text, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory in communication with the at least one processor and storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method of any of claims 1-4.