JP2003085182A - Electronic dictionary - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic dictionary capable of easily referring to related information by easily designating a character string. SOLUTION: This electronic dictionary 10 has dictionary data 30 having information in response to a keyword, and displays the information corresponding to the keyword corresponding to the inputted character string, and is provided with a referring means 25 for extending a selecting range with a selecting character as the forefront on condition of selecting optional one character as the selecting character from displayed information, determining a maximally selectable maximum selecting range, retrieving the information corresponding to the keyword included up to the maximum selecting range from the selecting character, and displaying this information as a summary.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an English-Japanese language for displaying a translation corresponding to an input word and information related to the word,
With regard to electronic dictionaries represented by Japanese, English, Japanese, English, etc., it is devised so that the information corresponding to the entry word in the displayed information can be easily referred to.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electronic dictionary displaying dictionary data such as word translations, for example, when a word is input, a list of entry words corresponding to the word is displayed on the screen, and a desired word is selected from the list. By selecting an entry word, the screen is switched and the translation of the selected entry word is displayed.

Further, some of such electronic dictionaries have a reference function capable of retrieving information related to information corresponding to a headword. This is called, for example, a jump function, and by specifying a character string included in the information, it is possible to search for another dictionary to be referred to.

[0004]

However, in the conventional electronic dictionary, for example, when a character string is specified after selecting the jump function, after moving the cursor to the first character, the cursor is pressed while pressing the shift key, for example. By moving to the last character, the range of the character string had to be specified, and the operation was very complicated.

In view of such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic dictionary in which a character string can be easily designated and related information can be easily referred to.

[0006]

A first aspect of the present invention which solves the above-mentioned problems is provided with dictionary data having information corresponding to an entry word and corresponding to an entry word corresponding to an input character string. In the electronic dictionary that displays the information to be displayed, the selection range is extended from the selected character at the beginning and the maximum selection is possible, provided that any one character is selected as the selected character from the displayed information. The electronic dictionary is characterized by comprising reference means for determining a range, searching for headwords corresponding to character strings included in the selected character up to the maximum selected range, and displaying the list.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, a cursor is displayed in the information displayed by the reference key for activating the reference means, and the selected character is displayed by moving and determining the cursor position. It is in an electronic dictionary characterized by being selected.

A third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the second aspect, the selected character is one word when English is included, and the cursor moves for each word. It is in an electronic dictionary.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects, the reference means sequentially retrieves a range of one character after the retrieval of the selected character as an entry word and retrieves the retrieval result. The electronic dictionary is characterized in that the maximum selectable range is set immediately before the time when the symbol disappears.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, when the selected character is a kanji character, the reference means sequentially searches until a time when the selected range includes hiragana or katakana. It is in a featured electronic dictionary.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth or fifth aspect, the reference means maximizes a point immediately before a point when the selected character is a kanji character and a kanji character is again included in the selection range via hiragana or katakana. The electronic dictionary is characterized by having a selectable range.

A seventh aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in any one of the first to sixth aspects, the object to be searched by the reference means is various dictionaries or list lists included in the electronic dictionary. It is in an electronic dictionary.

An eighth aspect of the present invention is the electronic dictionary according to any one of the first to seventh aspects, wherein the object searched by the reference means is determined by the type of the entry word.

According to the present invention, any one character is selected as a selected character from the information displayed on the screen by moving and determining the cursor position, and the selected character is set as the head and the maximum selectable range is selected. Since the related information corresponding to the entry words included in the selected character to the maximum selection range can be determined and displayed as a list by the reference means, the character string can be easily specified and the specified character string can be specified. Related information can be easily referred to.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below based on embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic dictionary according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an external view of the electronic dictionary.

As shown in the figure, the electronic dictionary 10 includes a control section 20 for controlling each section, dictionary data 30 stored in a memory such as a ROM, and an input device 40 for inputting characters and operating the electronic dictionary. , A display device 50 for displaying various information
And. Further, the control unit 20 is connected to a RAM 60 that temporarily stores data output from the control unit 20.

The control unit 20 controls the electronic dictionary 10 as a whole by operating a control program or the like stored in a memory such as a ROM on the CPU.
It has a search means 21, a display means 22 and a jump means 23.

The search means 21 searches the dictionary data 30 for an entry word corresponding to the character input to the input device 40.

Here, the dictionary data 30 is, in the present embodiment, "national language" (national language dictionary), "kanji" (kanji dictionary),
It is composed of dictionaries such as "English-Japanese" (English-Japanese dictionary), "Japanese-English" (Japanese-English dictionary), "English-English" (English-English dictionary), and "Thesaurus" (thesaurus dictionary). Each of these dictionaries consists of a headword and its translated text, and the translated text contains, as related information, a phrase and an example sentence using the headword, a commentary of the headword, and the like. The data structure of the dictionary data 30 is not particularly limited, and the related information may be stored in the translation as it is, or only the related information may be extracted from the dictionary body and separately stored. It may be a structure.

Further, the input device 40 is for selecting and confirming character keys 41 for inputting characters and a type of dictionary, selection of headwords and phrases, display of translated sentences and example sentences, and the like. And a power switch 43 for turning on / off the power of the electronic dictionary 10.

The display means 22 outputs to the display device 50 necessary information for guiding various operations on the input device 40 or information indicating the result of the search by the search means 21.

The jump means 23 is composed of a selection means 24 and a reference means 25, and searches the dictionary data 30 for relevant information relating to a character string in the information (translated sentence) corresponding to the entry word. , For displaying a list of searched headwords.

The selection means 24 displays a cursor in a character string of information or the like displayed on the display device 50, and the input device 4
By moving the cursor by 0, the cursor is moved and any one character is selected as the selected character.

When the translated text is in English, the selecting means 24 moves the cursor position for each word in the translated text, and the translated text includes symbols such as numbers and arrows. If so, skip these codes to move.
This can improve the operability of the electronic dictionary 10.

The reference means 25 searches for the selected character selected by the selection means 24, and then sequentially searches for an entry word including a character string extended by one character from the selected character, and when the search result is no longer obtained. A list of each entry word including the character string from the selected character to the maximum selection range is displayed as a list, with the maximum selection range immediately before. In this embodiment, there are some exceptions in determining the maximum selection range.

Specifically, when the selected character is a kanji, the reference means 25 sequentially searches for character strings up to the time when the selected range includes "Hiragana" or "Katakana", and then, It will be extended until there are no search results, and "Hiragana" or "Katakana" will be extended.
If "Kanji" is included again, the search is terminated at that point. As a result, it is possible to prevent an unnecessary search and search for an entry word including an optimum character string.

When the selected character is "Hiragana" or "Katakana", the maximum selection range is set immediately before "Kanji" is included in the selection range regardless of whether or not there is a search result.

The exception for determining the maximum selection range is not limited to this and can be set as appropriate. Also,
There may be no exception.

On the other hand, the target searched by the reference means 25 can be selected in advance from various dictionaries of the dictionary data 30. For example, if the selection range is "Kanji", the Kanji dictionary, if "Kanji" and "Hiragana" or "Katakana" the national dictionary, if "Hiragana" or "Katakana" the Japanese dictionary, "English" In the case of, it is an English-Japanese dictionary or the like. Of course, all the dictionary data 30 may be always searched. In the reference means 25, when searching for "katakana", "katakana" is converted into "hiragana" and the search is performed.

The character keys 41 include keys for displaying alphabets that allow input of Roman characters, keys for displaying general symbols, and the like. Each of these keys is arranged in substantially the same manner as the keyboard layout of a keyboard used in a normal personal computer. In addition, such a character key 41 may be provided with, for example, a hiragana display or the like that allows hiragana input, for each key.

The selection key 42 is, for example, a dictionary selection key 44 for selecting a dictionary, a cursor key 45 for moving a cursor on the screen, and a decision key 4 for displaying and confirming a translation.
6, a jump key 47 for searching for related information related to information (translated text) corresponding to a headword, a return key 48 for redoing various operations, and the like.

The dictionary selection key 44 switches the translation mode by pressing any one of "national language", "kanji", "English-Japanese", "Japanese-English", "English-English", and "synonym". Is. For example, the “national language” key 44 of the dictionary selection key 44
By pressing a, the word translation mode is switched to the national language dictionary, and the headword including the character string input by the character key 41 is searched by the searching means 21 from the national language dictionary of the dictionary data 30. Of course, the same applies to the case of switching to another word translation mode by pressing another key of the dictionary selection key 44.

The jump key 47 is for switching to the jump means 23 for searching the related information related to the information (translated sentence) corresponding to the entry word. By pressing this jump key 47, a cursor is displayed at the beginning of the translated sentence on the screen.

The jump key 47, which will be described in detail later, selects any one character included in the translated text on the screen as a selected character, and the search means 21 includes the selected character up to the maximum selected range. It is used when searching from another dictionary in which you want to refer to a headword.

The display device 50 is, for example, a liquid crystal display device, and displays on the screen various information obtained as a result of searching the character string input by the input device 40 and the entry word corresponding to the character string by the control unit 20. Can be displayed.

Here, the basic operation of the electronic dictionary of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3. Note that FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the basic operation of the electronic dictionary according to this embodiment.

First, in step S1, the power switch 43 of the input device is pressed to turn on the power of the electronic dictionary 10, and in step S2 the desired dictionary is selected by the dictionary selection key 44 (in this case, the Japanese dictionary is selected). Was)
Then, the character input screen of the national language dictionary selected by the display means 22 is displayed on the display device 50. While looking at this character input screen, a character is input by the character key 41 in step S3. The input character is temporarily stored in the RAM 60 as a character string.

Then, in step S4, the dictionary data 30 is searched for an entry word including the input character string, and the search result is temporarily stored in the RAM 60. Then, in step S5, the display device 5 displays the list of entry words including the input character string.
List as 0. Then, the cursor is displayed at the head entry word of the list displayed on the display device 50. In step S6, the entry word is selected, and in step S7, the cursor position is moved to the position of the reference entry word to be referred to. In the state, it is judged whether or not the decision key 46 is pressed, and if it is pressed, the translated text of the entry word selected in step S8 is displayed on the display device 50. In step S5, when only one headword is displayed, the list corresponding to the headword is displayed without pressing the enter key 46.

Then, in step S9, the jump key 47
It is determined whether or not has been pressed, and if it has been pressed, a cursor is displayed on the screen in step S10. continue,
In step S11, any one character is selected as a selected character from the translation of the entry word displayed on the screen. And
In step S12, it is determined whether or not the decision key 46 has been pressed, and if it has been pressed, immediately before the time when the search result is no longer obtained by sequentially searching the range in which the selected character is increased by one character as the entry word in step S13. The dictionary words 30 are searched for the headwords included in the above, and the search results are temporarily stored in the RAM 60. After that, the headwords stored in the RAM 60 are displayed on the display device 5 in step S14.
List as 0. Then, if there is a headword to be referred to the translated sentence among the headwords displayed in the list on the display device 50, the cursor is moved to the position of the headword to be referred to in step S15, and the enter key is pressed in step S16. Four
It is judged whether 6 is pressed, and if it is pressed,
In step S17, the translated text corresponding to the headword to be referred to is displayed on the screen. The above steps S14 to S17 will be described in detail later.

In this way, by moving the cursor position by the selecting means while operating the cursor key 45, any one of the translated sentences of the headword displayed on the screen is selected.
Select a character as a selected character, determine the maximum selectable range starting with this selected character, search for each headword included in the range from the selected character to the maximum selectable range, and list each headword by reference means. Since it can be displayed, the character string can be easily specified and the related information of the specified character string can be easily referred to.

Here, an example of the jump means composed of the selection means 24 and the reference means 25 of the electronic dictionary 10 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. In addition,
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the jump means of the electronic dictionary according to this embodiment. Further, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of the electronic dictionary according to the present embodiment.

First, after displaying the character input screen corresponding to the Japanese dictionary on the display device 50, a predetermined character string is input to the character input screen by the character keys 41. The character string input on the character input screen is temporarily stored in the RAM 60. The screen at this time is shown in FIG. Note that FIG. 5A is an example in which "Cough gaisen" is input on the character input screen of the Japanese language dictionary.

Then, the dictionary key of the dictionary data 30 is searched from the dictionary of the dictionary data 30 for the entry word corresponding to "Sekigaisen" entered on the character input screen of the dictionary of characters by the character key 41.
The searched headword and its translated sentence are displayed on the display device 50. The screen at this time is shown in FIG. Note that FIG.
(B) is an example of the screen which displayed the translated sentence of "cough gaisen".

Next, by pressing the jump key 47, the cursor is displayed on the screen of the display device 50. afterwards,
At the position corresponding to "OK" in the portion "from visible light ..." in the translation of "Sekigaisen", move the cursor position on the screen to "OK" while operating the cursor key 45 of the character key 41. Move to. The screen at this time is shown in FIG.
It shows in (c). In addition, in FIG. 5C, the cursor is changed to “OK”.
It is an example of the screen moved to the position of.

Then, by pressing the decision key 46 with the cursor position moved to the "OK" position, the selected character selected by the cursor in step S21 (the selected character here is "OK"). Yes) is a kanji, and if it is a kanji, step S2
In step 2, the headword including the selected character is searched from the dictionary data 30, and the search result is stored in the RAM 60 in step S23.

Then, in step S24, it is determined whether or not the character next to the selected character is a kanji character. If it is a kanji character, a character string increased by one character from the selected character in step S25 (the character string here is The dictionary data 30 is searched for an entry word including "visible"), and step S is performed again.
In step 23, the search result is stored in the RAM 60. Such an operation is continuously performed until the next character is not a kanji character. That is, even if there is no corresponding headword in each character string of the kanji that has been increased by one character, if the next character is a kanji, it is incremented by one character and a search is performed sequentially.

Subsequently, when it is determined in step S24 that the next character is not a kanji character, an entry word including the character string increased by one character in step S26 (the character string here is "visible light") Is searched from the dictionary data 30. Then, in step S27, it is determined whether or not there is a headword, and if there is a headword, the headword is stored in the RAM 60 in step S28. Furthermore, step S
At 29, it is determined whether or not the next character is a kanji character, and if it is a kanji character, the search for the entry word is ended at step S30. If it is determined in step S27 that there is no entry word, it is determined in step S29 whether the next character is a kanji character, and if it is a kanji character, the search for the entry word is terminated in step S30.

On the other hand, in step S21, it is determined whether the selected character selected by the cursor is a kanji character. If it is determined that the selected character is not a kanji character, it is determined in step S31 whether it is "hiragana" or "katakana". When it is determined that the word is "hiragana" or "katakana", the headword including the selected character is searched from the dictionary data 30 in step 32, and the search result is stored in the RAM 6 in step S33.
Store at 0. Subsequently, in step S34, it is determined whether or not the next character is a kanji character, and if it is not a kanji character, in step S35, the dictionary data 30 is searched for a headword including a character string increased by one character from the selected character. Then, in step S33, the search result is stored again in the RAM 60. Such an operation is continuously performed until the next character becomes a kanji, and if it is determined in step S34 that the next character is a kanji, the headword is not searched in step S30 without searching the headword. To finish. Even if it is determined in step S31 that it is not “Hiragana” or “Katakana”,
In step S30, the search for the entry word is completed. afterwards,
In step S14, a list is displayed on the display device 50 in order from the headword of the longest character string among the headwords stored in the RAM 60. At this time, the cursor is displayed at the beginning of the list of entry words. The screen at this time is shown in FIG.
It shows in (d). Note that FIG. 5D is an example of a screen in which “visible light” is selected from the list of entry words.

Then, in step S15, the cursor displayed on the screen is moved to the reference word (referred to as "visible ray" here) to be referred to, and in step S16, the cursor is placed at the position of "visible ray". It is determined whether or not the decision key 46 has been pressed with. If it has, the translated text of the entry word ("visible ray") selected in step S17 is displayed on the screen. As a result, it is possible to refer to the translated sentence of the headword to be referred. The screen at this time is shown in FIG.
It shows in (e). Note that FIG. 5E is an example of a screen displaying a translated sentence of “visible light”.

Each list of headwords displayed on the display device 50 is obtained from each headword corresponding to each dictionary in the dictionary data 30 and displayed.
When each headword is temporarily stored in the RAM 60,
Information indicating in which dictionary each headword is registered or in which dictionary the headword is registered is also temporarily stored in the RAM 60. Therefore, the translated text of each headword can be immediately retrieved from the dictionary data 30 by the reference means 25 and can be referred to relatively easily.

In this way, any one character is selected from the translated texts displayed on the screen as the selected character, the maximum selectable range starting from this selected character is determined, and the maximum selected character is selected. Since each headword included in the range can be searched and each headword can be displayed as a list by the reference means 25, a character string can be easily specified and the related information of the specified character string can be easily referred to. You can

[0053]

As described above, in the electronic dictionary of the present invention, any one character is selected as the selected character from the information displayed on the screen by moving and determining the cursor position, and this selected character is the first character. As the maximum selectable range is determined as and the related information corresponding to the entry word included from the selected character to the maximum selectable range is searched and the list is displayed by the reference means, the character string can be easily displayed. Can be specified, and the related information of the specified character string can be easily referred to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic dictionary according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view showing an electronic dictionary according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a basic operation of the electronic dictionary according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of jump means of the electronic dictionary according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of an electronic dictionary according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 electronic dictionary 20 Control unit 21 Search method 22 Display means 23 Jumping means 24 means of selection 25 Reference means 30 dictionary data 40 input device 50 display 60 RAM

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An electronic dictionary, which comprises dictionary data having information corresponding to a headword and displays information corresponding to a headword corresponding to an input character string, is selected from among the displayed information. A character string that extends the selection range starting from the selected character, determines the maximum selectable range that can be selected maximally, and includes from the selected character to the maximum selected range, provided that one character is selected as the selected character An electronic dictionary comprising reference means for searching for a headword corresponding to, and displaying a list of the headword. 2. The cursor according to claim 1, wherein a cursor is displayed in the information displayed by the reference key for activating the reference means, and the selected character is selected by moving and determining the cursor position. Electronic dictionary. 3. The electronic dictionary according to claim 2, wherein the selected character is one word when English is included, and the cursor moves for each word. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the reference means searches sequentially for a selected character by one character and then sequentially searches as a headword for a range immediately before a time when a search result is no longer obtained. An electronic dictionary characterized by the maximum selectable range. 5. The electronic dictionary according to claim 4, wherein when the selected character is a kanji, the reference means sequentially searches until a time when the selected range includes hiragana or katakana. 6. The maximum selectable range according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the reference means sets the maximum selectable range immediately before a time when the selected character is a Chinese character and the selected character is included again through Hiragana or Katakana. And an electronic dictionary. 7. The electronic dictionary according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the object searched by the reference means is a various dictionary or a list list included in the electronic dictionary. 8. The electronic dictionary according to claim 1, wherein the target searched by the reference means is determined by the type of entry word.