JPH0962660A - Character input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a character input device with improved input efficiency for facilitating input even at the time of inputting the of 'pingyin' and 'zhuyin', etc. SOLUTION: A character is inputted from a character input means 101 based on Chinese language pronouncing notation. In a dictionary 103, the characters of the pronounce notation of the Chinese and the words of the Chinese corresponding to the characters of the pronounce notation are stored. By a dictionary retrieval means 102, based on the characters by the pronounce notation of the Chinese inputted from the character input means 101, the dictionary 103 is retrieved and the candidates of the word corresponding to the inputted characters are selected. Further, a symbol conversion means 104 retrieves a symbol included in the character inputted from the character input means 101, converts the symbol '(chinese character comma)' included in the inputted character to the different symbol ',' when the words in front and behind the retrieved symbol are nouns or noun phrases and displays the result to a display means 105.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character input device,
In particular, it relates to a character input device suitable for inputting Chinese characters in phonetic transcription.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In Chinese, there are notations such as Pin sound and Zhu sound, but these phonetic notations are entered using a keyboard and the entered phonetic notations are Kanji. An example of a character input device for converting to
The one described in Japanese Patent No. 216887 is known.

In a recent Chinese input system, a pin sound or a syllabary sound is input for each sentence, and these are converted at once. On the other hand, the keyboard used in these input systems is often an English typewriter keyboard layout. For example, a so-called 101 keyboard is used in a personal computer. In Chinese, there is no character for notifying pronunciation like Japanese kana, so the notation of pin sounds and two tones is
Generally, English letters (alphabet) are used. Therefore, a keyboard for pinyin and two-tone input is a key that has a kana mark that is commonly found on Japanese keyboards, or a special key for inputting kana and English letters.
It does not have a so-called input mode switching key. Also, each key is only engraved with letters and symbols.

On the other hand, various symbols are used in sentences written in Chinese, as in Japanese. Punctuation marks “.” And reading marks “,” are examples. In addition, commas “,” and periods “.” Used in English are also used.

For example, in Chinese sentences, a comma "," is used as a delimiter between long-lasting sentences, and a reading point "," is used when an item is written together.

In Japanese sentences, the reading point "," and the comma "," are generally rare, and only one of them is used. Therefore, in many Japanese input systems that use Kana-Kanji conversion, when a key with a punctuation mark "," and a comma "," and a key with a punctuation mark "." And a period "." Are entered. The interpretation of
","".",","".",","
The user selects whether to use "." Or ","".". Further, since "," and "." Are not used in English sentences, in many cases, a comma "," and a period "." Are always input in the alphabet mode.

As described above, in the Japanese input system,
If you want to enter an English sentence or insert a comma "," and a period "." Into a Japanese sentence, you can solve it by switching to the alphabet input mode and entering. Also,
Which input mode is currently selected can be determined by displaying kana or English characters on the screen. That is,
If "fz / e" is displayed on the screen in spite of inputting "Hatsumei" in kana input mode, it is immediately found that the input mode is not kana input mode. Therefore, it is possible to notice immediately even if the input mode is wrong. As described above, in the Japanese sentence, there is almost no mixture of the comma "," and the reading point ",", and therefore the frequency of making an error in the input mode is low.

[0008]

However, in a Chinese input system for inputting pronunciations such as pinyin and syllable, pinyin is written in English letters. Therefore, even if a means for switching between the pin sound input mode and the alphabet input mode is provided so that the comma "," can be input in the alphabet input mode and the reading point "," can be input in the pin sound input mode,
Only English letters are displayed on the screen. as a result,
Even if the input mode can be switched so that the comma "," and the reading point "," can be sorted, only English characters are displayed on the screen. Since there is no clear difference such as the difference between English characters and hiragana, there is a problem that it is difficult to notice the setting error of the input mode. Therefore, there is a possibility that the user may make an erroneous input without noticing an error in the input mode setting, and in that case, there is a problem that it becomes necessary to re-input.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a character input device which is easy to input and has high input efficiency even when inputting pronunciations such as pin sounds and double tones.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a character input means for inputting characters in Chinese phonetic notation, a character in Chinese phonetic notation and a character in this phonetic notation. Based on the dictionary storing the corresponding Chinese words and the characters in the Chinese phonetic notation input from the character input means, the dictionary is searched and the word candidates corresponding to the input characters are selected. In a character input device having a dictionary search means for displaying and a display means for displaying a word searched by the dictionary search means, a symbol included in a character input from the character input means is searched for, and the searched symbol is searched. A symbol conversion means for converting a symbol included in the input character into another predetermined symbol based on the attributes of the words before and after.

In the above character input device, preferably,
The attribute of the word is the part of speech of the word, and in the dictionary,
It stores Chinese words and their parts of speech.

In the above character input device, preferably,
The part-of-speech of the above words is intended to be a noun.

In the above character input device, preferably,
The attribute of the word is a phrase consisting of a word string, and this phrase is made to be a noun phrase.

In the above character input device, preferably,
The symbol searched by the symbol conversion means is a comma ",", and when the words before and after this symbol are composed of nouns or noun phrases, the comma "," which is a symbol is changed to a reading point ",". It is designed to be converted.

In the above character input device, preferably,
The symbols searched by the symbol converting means are “<” and “>”, and depending on the word sandwiched between these symbols,
These symbols are converted into "<<" and ">>".

[0016]

According to the present invention, the symbols included in the characters input from the character input means are searched, and the symbols included in the input characters are predetermined based on the attributes of words before and after the searched symbols. By providing a symbol converting means for converting to another symbol, without switching the input mode,
It is possible to input symbols, which makes it easy to input in Chinese phonetic transcription.

The attribute of a word is the part of speech of the word,
By storing the Chinese word and the part of speech of the word in the dictionary, it is possible to distinguish the part of speech of the word and input the appropriate symbol from the relationship before and after that symbol. It can be easy to input.

Furthermore, since the part of speech of a word is a noun, a symbol sandwiched between nouns can be converted into an appropriate symbol to facilitate the input in Chinese phonetic transcription. Becomes

The attribute of a word is a phrase composed of a word string. Since this phrase is a noun phrase, a symbol sandwiched between noun phrases is converted into an appropriate symbol, It may be easier to input in Chinese phonetic notation.

Further, the symbol searched by the symbol converting means is a comma ",", and when the words before and after this symbol are composed of nouns or noun phrases, the comma "," which is a symbol. Is converted into a reading point ",", it is possible to automatically convert a comma "," into a reading point ",".

The symbols searched by the symbol converting means are "<" and ">", and these symbols are converted into "<<" and ">>" according to the word sandwiched between these symbols. By doing so, it becomes possible to automatically convert "<" and ">" into "<<" and ">>".

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The character input means 101 is a device such as a keyboard capable of inputting pin sounds in English characters, and is, for example, a so-called 101 keyboard connected to a personal computer.

The dictionary 103 stores the pinyin, the Chinese word corresponding to this pinyin, and the part of speech of the word.
It is a storage means composed of M and the like. The dictionary search means 102
The dictionary 103 is searched according to the pinyin input from the input means 101, and a word described in Kanji that is a candidate corresponding to the input pinyin is selected.

The part-of-speech sequence corresponding to the word sequence as the search result of the dictionary search means 102 is input to the symbol conversion means 104,
Convert symbols contained in pinyin to other symbols.
This symbol conversion is, for example, conversion of a comma "," into a reading point ",". The pinyin character string input by the character input unit 101, the Chinese words searched by the dictionary search unit 102, the symbols converted by the symbol conversion unit 104, and the like are displayed on the display unit 105 such as a display.

Here, the dictionary retrieval means 102 and the symbol conversion means 104 can be constituted by a CPU and a memory for storing software for controlling the CPU.

That is, the present invention can be configured by a general personal computer having a CPU, a memory, an external storage device, an input / output device, and control software. Alternatively, it can be implemented as a dedicated terminal device incorporating a control program.

Next, the control procedure of the character input device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
6 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In step 201, the user inputs a pin-sound character string by successively pressing letters or symbols on the keyboard which is the character input means 101.
In step 202, the dictionary search means 102 determines whether or not a key input for conversion instruction has been made from the character input means 101. When the key input of the conversion instruction is not made, the pin sound input in step 201 is continued as it is.

In step 202, if there is a key input of a conversion instruction, the process proceeds to the next step 203. In step 203, the dictionary search means 102 searches the dictionary 103 using the pinyin character string input by the character inputting means 101 as a search element, and the input pinyin character string is written in Chinese characters. Converted to a word string.

An example of the dictionary 103 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a dictionary used in the character input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Inside the dictionary, the pinyin character string 301 that is an index, the notation 302 of the word corresponding to this pinyin character string 301, and the part of speech 3 of each of these words.
03. For example, "beijing"
The pinyin character string of “” corresponds to the Chinese character word of “Beijing”, and the dictionary is formed such that the part of speech in this case is a noun. In addition, the pinyin character string of “ribenren” corresponds to the Chinese character word of “Japanese”, and the part of speech in this case is a noun, and the dictionary is formed. In addition, for example, a plurality of words with different homophones are also stored in the dictionary so that two types of Kanji words correspond to the pinyin character string “ai”.

In the pinyin character string input by the input means 101, not only the alphabet but also symbol characters imprinted on the keys of a general English typewriter, for example, "(", "%", ":". , And a comma “,” and a period “.” Are included in the dictionary search means 102.
A symbol other than the pinyin is not searched for in the dictionary but included in the word string of the search result as it is, and the dictionary is searched again from the pinyin character string after the symbol. Further, the word search is not limited to one word, but a plurality of phrases can be searched at one time. Such a dictionary search technique can be realized by applying a well-known technique such as Japanese multiple phrase kana-kanji conversion.

The word string containing the symbol characters obtained by the dictionary search means 102 is then, in step 204,
The symbol conversion unit 104 converts the symbols included in the word string according to a certain rule.

The conversion from a comma "," to a reading point "," which requires much time and effort when inputting Chinese, will be described below.

In Chinese text, the comma "," is used as a breath of text, and the text and text are combined, for example, "Seven points in the capital, arriving late (I'll be late at 7 o'clock)." Used as a separator. On the other hand, the punctuation mark “,” in Japanese is used to also write an item, for example, “Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong” and the like. In Japanese, it is common to use either one for both purposes, but in Chinese it is common to use one or the other.

In step 204, the symbol converting means 1
Reference numeral 04 identifies the part of speech before and after the comma "," in the pinyin character string input from the key input means 101. If both are a noun or a noun phrase, the comma "," gives a reading point ", I am trying to convert it. The details of step 204 will be described later with reference to FIG.

Next, in step 205, the conversion result is displayed on the display means 105 as a conversion candidate. There are many homophones in Chinese as well as Japanese, and 100%
Correct conversion is not possible with current technology, so it is necessary to correct the candidate. Since there are homophones and different notations in the conversion result, different conversion candidates are displayed on the display unit 105, or due to a pin sound input error from the character input unit 101, the converted Kanji candidate is erroneous. If there is, in step 206, the user indicates the display unit 1.
While looking at the conversion candidates displayed on 05, the character input means 1
Operate the 01 keyboard to correct the candidate. This can be realized with the same technology as Japanese Kana-Kanji conversion input.

Next, at step 207, it is judged whether or not the input from the character input means 101 is completed,
If the input is continued, the same operation and control are sequentially repeated from step 201, and if the input is completed, the above is finished.

Next, referring to FIG. 4, from the comma "," to the reading point "," in the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
The procedure of conversion to is explained. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of converting a comma "," into a reading point "," in the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 details step 204 in FIG.

In step 401, the symbol converting means 104 searches the word string of the search result from the beginning and cuts out to the place where the symbol exists. In step 402, the symbol converting means 104 determines whether or not the symbol at the end of the cut out word string is a comma “,”.

If the following symbol is not a comma [,], in step 406 the symbol conversion means 104
It is determined whether it is the end of the word string, and if it is not the end, the process is repeated from step 401. If it is the end, end.

If it is determined in step 402 that the following symbol is a comma ",", the process proceeds to step 403. In step 403, the symbol conversion means 104
Check the part-of-speech sequence of each word in the character string before the comma "," that is the symbol. The area in front is the previous symbol or beginning of sentence. If it consists of nouns only or is not a noun phrase consisting of a prefix and a suffix and a noun,
In step 406, the symbol converting means 104 determines whether it is the end of the word string, and if it is not the end, repeats from step 401. If it is the end, end.

If the checked character string is a noun or noun phrase, the process proceeds to step 404.

In step 404, the symbol converting means 1
04 examines the part-of-speech sequence of each word in the character string after the comma "," which is the symbol. The area behind is the following symbol or end of sentence. If it is not composed of only nouns or a noun phrase composed of prefixes, suffixes and nouns, in step 406, the symbol conversion means 104 determines whether it is the end of the word string, and ends. If not, the process is repeated from step 401. If it is the end, end.

If the checked character string is a noun or noun phrase, the process proceeds to step 405.

Proceeding to step 405, the symbol converting means 10
4, the symbol "," is determined to be a parallel noun phrase, that is, an item is written together, and the comma "," is converted into a reading point ",".

As described above, the comma "," between the noun phrase and the noun phrase can be automatically converted into the reading point ",".

Next, an example of character input according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

Here, from the character input means 101, as shown in the figure, "wo qu, beijing, s".
hanghai, zianggang. ", And a conversion instruction is input from the character input means 101,
The dictionary search means 102 searches the dictionary 103 based on the input alphabetic character and converts it into a character string of "I'm gone, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong."

Next, this character string is converted into the symbol conversion means 104.
At, the sign is checked. According to the flow shown in FIG. 4, in step 401, the character string "I" is cut out from the beginning to the place where there is a comma "," which is a symbol by searching for a symbol from the front of this character string. Since the following symbol is a comma “,”, the process proceeds from step 402 to step 403. Here, the word string "agai", which is the word string before the comma [,] cut out earlier, is composed of a noun and a verb, and is neither a noun nor a noun phrase. Therefore, the process proceeds to step 406.
Further, returning to step 401, the next word string is cut out.

In step 401, the character string "Beijing" up to the comma "," which is the next symbol is cut out. Since there is a comma “,” after “Beijing”, the process proceeds from step 402 to step 403. In step 403, “Beijing”, which is the word string in front of the comma “,” cut out earlier, is a noun, so the process proceeds from step 403 to step 404. In step 404, the word string after the comma "," is checked, and here it is "Shanghai",
Since this is a noun, the process proceeds to step 405.

In step 405, since the comma "," is used for arranging nouns as described above, the comma "," is automatically converted into the reading point ",".

Similarly, a comma "," between "Shanghai" and "Hong Kong" is also converted into a reading point ",". The period ".", Which is the symbol after "Hong Kong", is the symbol at the end of the sentence, so it is automatically converted to the punctuation ".".

As described above, in this embodiment, the target input example 502 is “I left, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong.
(I will go to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.) "Will be automatically converted.

On the other hand, in the conventional input example 501,
“I left, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong.” Remains, and the comma “,” in the middle is entered as it is.

As described above, in this embodiment, it is possible to input the symbols according to the Chinese notation without supporting the input mode switching. Therefore, by supporting the switching of the input mode, it is possible to prevent the number of input errors from increasing.

In the above description, the comma "," which is a symbol is used.
6 has been described with respect to a case where a comma "," which is a symbol is sandwiched between noun phrases and is converted into a reading point ",".
This will be described with reference to FIG.

The figure is an illustration of another example of character input according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Here, from the character input means 101, as shown in the figure, "zhe jia change y"
ou re cha, bing juzhi,
retang. (This restaurant has hot tea, cold juice, and hot soup.)
When a conversion instruction is input from the character input unit 101, the dictionary search unit 102 searches the dictionary 103 based on the input English character and converts it into a Chinese character string of Chinese characters as shown in the figure.

Next, this character string is converted into the symbol conversion means 104.
At, the sign is checked. According to the flow shown in FIG. 4, in step 401, the character string from the beginning to the place where there is a comma "," which is the symbol is cut out by searching the symbol from the front of this character string.
Since the following symbol is a comma ",", step 4
It progresses from 02 to step 403. Here, since the last word of the word string before the comma [,] cut out earlier is a noun and also forms a noun phrase together with the adjective before it, the process proceeds from step 403 to step 404. . In step 404, the word sequence after the comma “,” is checked. Here, the word immediately after is adjective, but since the noun is arranged following the adjective, it forms a noun phrase. , Go to step 405.

In step 405, since the comma "," is used for arranging nouns as described above, the comma "," is automatically converted into the reading point ",".

Similarly, the comma "," between the next noun phrase and the noun phrase is also converted into the reading point ",". The last symbol, the period ".", Is the symbol at the end of the sentence, so it is automatically converted to the punctuation ".".

As described above, in this embodiment, as shown at the bottom of FIG. 6, the comma [,] between the noun phrase and the noun phrase is automatically converted into the reading point “,” and the other pin The phonetic input is converted into Chinese kanji words.

As described above, in the present embodiment, it is possible to input the symbols according to the Chinese notation without supporting the input mode switching. Therefore, by supporting the switching of the input mode, it is possible to prevent the number of input errors from increasing.

In the above embodiment, the comma "," and the reading point are described, but "<" can be converted into "<<" and ">" can be converted into ">>" in the same manner. It is possible. Generally, "<" and ">" are used to emphasize a character string sandwiched between them. Moreover, "<<" and ">>" are used when the character string sandwiched between these is a well-known person's name. For example, it is used like "Li Yi". Therefore, from the character string of the search result, "<"
And ">" are searched, and the character string that comes after "<" and before ">" is searched for in the dictionary that stores the famous person's name. Conversion is possible.

In the above description, the conversion from the pin sound to the character string has been described, but the conversion from the two (Zhu) sound to the character string is performed in the same manner. That is, the two tones have the same phonetic notation as the pin tones, and are treated the same in terms of symbols. Therefore, when the words before and after the symbol are nouns or noun phrases, the comma "," is converted to the reading point ",". Similarly, "<" is converted to "<<" and ">" is converted to ">>".

According to the present embodiment, the symbol can be converted into another symbol based on the attributes of the words before and after the symbol, so that the symbol can be easily input. Moreover, since it is not necessary to change the input mode when inputting a symbol, the input efficiency can be increased.

[0069]

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily input a pin sound, a two-tone sound, or the like in the character input device at the time of inputting the sound, and to improve the input efficiency.

[0070]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a dictionary of a character input device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a conversion procedure from a comma “,” to a reading point “,” fart in the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a character input example in the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of another character input example in the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 ... Character input means 102 ... Dictionary search means 103 ... Dictionary 104 ... Symbol conversion means 105 ... Display means

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Katsuya Kono 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. Multimedia system development headquarters (72) Inventor Akira Nakajima Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 292 Incorporated company Hitachi, Ltd. multimedia system development headquarters (72) Inventor Yasumasa Matsuda 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Incorporated company Hitachi Ltd. multimedia system development headquarters

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A character input means for inputting characters in Chinese phonetic notation, a dictionary storing characters in Chinese phonetic notation and Chinese words corresponding to the characters in this phonetic notation, and the character inputting means. Dictionary search means for searching the above dictionary based on the Chinese phonetic characters input from and selecting word candidates corresponding to the input characters, and the word searched by this dictionary search means. In a character input device having a display means for displaying, a symbol included in the character input from the character input means is searched and included in the input character based on the attributes of the words before and after the searched symbol. A character input device, comprising: a symbol converting means for converting the symbol to be converted into another predetermined symbol, and displaying the result converted by the symbol converting means on the display means. 2. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein the attribute of the word is a part of speech of the word, and the dictionary includes:
A character input device characterized by storing Chinese words and parts of speech of the words. 3. The character input device according to claim 2, wherein the part of speech of the word is a noun. 4. The character input device according to claim 2, wherein the attribute of the word is a phrase composed of a word string, and the phrase is a noun phrase. 5. The character input device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the symbol searched by the symbol conversion means is a comma "," and words before and after this symbol are nouns or noun phrases. A character input device characterized by converting a comma "," which is a symbol into a punctuation "," when constructed. 6. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein the symbols searched by the symbol converting means are “<” and “>”, and the symbols sandwiched between the symbols are:
A character input device characterized by converting these symbols into "<<" and ">>".