KR20020087978A - Method and appratus for entry of multi-stroke charaters - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for receiving a set of direction codes via an input device (130) and converting the direction codes into corresponding symbols. The user operates the input device 130 configured to generate a direction code indicating the basic stroke used in the formation of the symbol. The processor 110 receives the direction code and converts it into standard symbols such as letters, numbers, or punctuation marks. The transformation can be made through a database 120 such as a lookup table, decision tree or other data structure. The device includes a display 140 to present a standard symbol to a user. Corresponding methods are also described.

Description

METHOD AND APPRATUS FOR ENTRY OF MULTI-STROKE CHARATERS}

Recent advances in technology and design have enabled the production of portable electronic devices (cellular telephones and portable digital assistants or 'PDAs') with new capabilities for storage, processing, and / or communication. Such a device may perform a data storage function that includes a number of organized textual information, such as name, address, email address, telephone number and facsimile number, for business and / or personal contact. The data access function may then be performed to retrieve and display a selected portion of the information for this purpose, which portion will be retrieved to be provided as a parameter for other device communications such as email, telephone or facsimile communication. .

Using a device such as a laptop or desktop computer, information can be easily stored or retrieved by entering text through keyboard typing. However, due to the portability and miniaturization associated with portable devices, there is no room for keyboard typing at all, and other methods are required for the device to support entering text or search parameters to search for text.

One choice is to adapt to existing user interfaces, such as a telephone keypad (i.e. numbers 0-9 and '#' and '*' symbols) with standard 12 buttons for symbol input. In this way, 26 Roman alphabets are mapped to selected keys (as shown in FIG. 1). This method, however, is inadequate for entering textual information, in part because the mapping must be plural to singular. For example, to enter a case of the letter 'C', the user must press the '2' key three times. Such a method is also slow because the user must know the interval between keystrokes to represent the symbolic area (to distinguish between two cases of the letter 'A' from one case of the letter 'B').

In any case, the process of clarifying symbols may in some cases be used to reduce the required number of keystrokes. In US Pat. No. 5,818,437, Grover et al. Describe that a computer uses a dictionary to map an array of keystrokes to corresponding words on a one-to-one character keystroke basis. Unfortunately, some arrangements require the user to perform additional activities to determine ambiguity in response to one or more words or strings. In the described device, for example, the array '1226' corresponds at least to the strings 'FOOD', 'GOOD', and '1226'. In addition, typing becomes more difficult for words that are not already present in the computer dictionary. In such cases, this method requires multiple and unfamiliar actions to enter the symbols. In one embodiment described, for example, each key is mapped to nine symbols, and at least two keystrokes are required to select any desired symbol.

Moreover, such a method is inadequate for languages with alphabets or symbol sets of about 30 symbols or more, since the number of required keys (and / or the number of symbols mapped to a given key) will be more than in actual use. For languages with thousands of symbols, such as those written in Chinese or Japanese kanji, any method that relies on symbol-to-key mapping would be completely impractical.

Another option is the input of text symbols that use non-breaking strokes at once, called "unistrokes." In US Pat. No. 5,596,656, Goldberg describes a method for using a pen on a suitable writing surface for entering a unistroke, each of which represents a letter of the Roman alphabet, Arabic numerals, or functional symbol. do. Since this method is strictly limited to single stroke input, however, the user requires a new writing alphabet where a number of symbols are not at all similar to the symbols they represent. For example, a unistroke according to the letter 'E' is a single stroke from right to left, whereas a unistroke according to the letter 'R' is a single straight stroke from top left to bottom right. Unistroke methods may be inappropriate for languages that contain more symbols than are conveniently indicated by such techniques.

Moreover, the Unistroke method requires a dedicated pen. On the other hand, the pen may be lost or broken. On the other hand, the dedicated pen can be inconvenient to use if the user only has one hand free and must support the device with that hand. In addition, the recording surface required to support such a method consumes a significant portion of the appearance of the device. As a result, any combination of a writing pen and a writing surface to support such a method can add significantly to the cost of the device.

The present invention relates to symbol input. In particular, the present invention relates to the input of multi-stroke symbols or language symbols recorded in electronic devices.

1 illustrates a Roman alphabet symbol mapping to keys of a conventional twelve button keypad.

2 shows the mapping of the EOC delimiters to basic strokes and keys.

3 shows another mapping of EOC delimiters to basic strokes and keys.

4 shows an additional mapping of EOC delimiters to basic strokes and keys.

Figure 5 shows the mapping of the EOC delimiter to the position of the selection input device with the addition of a basic stroke and four directions.

6 shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the invention.

7 shows a block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 shows an example of a symbol having a changed stroke.

9A shows two possible stroke combinations of the letter 'A'.

9B shows three possible stroke combinations of the letter 'V'.

Fig. 10 shows a set of select rocker switches in four directions.

11 shows a selection pogo pin in four directions.

12 shows a set of selective rocker switches in eight directions.

13 shows the selection pogo pins in eight directions.

Figure 14 shows a flowchart of a method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

15A shows a 3 * 3 bounding box array.

15B shows a matrix array of 3 * 5 and 5 * 7.

16 shows an example of a stroke.

17 shows a flowchart of a method according to a further embodiment of the present invention.

The direction code set is received from the input device. Each direction code relates to one of the predetermined number of directions in the paint, each set of direction codes associated with a stroke. The symbol containing the stroke is displayed.

In the method according to an embodiment of the present invention, each of the set of basic symbol strokes is associated with a key of a keypad. 2 is mapped to basic strokes (horizontal stroke, vertical stroke, ascending (left to right) diagonal stroke, descending diagonal stroke, curve stroke, and point or accent stroke) and to a keypad (or a portion of a larger keypad). An example of one set of symbol termination (EOC) symbols is shown.

Although the example shown in FIG. 2 uses seven keys, a set requiring fewer keys can be used to combine two diagonal strokes into one element (such as in the six key mappings of FIG. By deleting the accent element, it can be obtained by interrupting a predetermined minimum period between fewer keystrokes than the keystroke specifying the EOC classification. In addition, a set that requires more keys may include a shift key indicating, for example, whether uppercase or lowercase letters are entered, by assigning one or more basic strokes to long and short strokes, or to assign loop strokes. By distinguishing from a cyclic stroke (as in the 8 times key mapping of FIG. 4) and the like. FIG. 5 shows the mapping of four elements incorporating an EOC delimiter into part of a set of four-way select rocker switches. Using this set, pressing one of the four tabs indicates entering the corresponding element, and pressing the middle of the set (ie selecting a selection action) represents the input of the EOC delimiter. Similar mappings can be used with optional pogo sticks or pogo pins in four directions (as shown in top and side views in FIG. 11).

6 shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the invention. At task P110, the input of the basic stroke or EOC delimiter (ie keystroke, or similar behavior as described above) is received from the device. In operation P120, the combination of strokes entered by the current symbol is used with reference to an internal database that maps the combination of strokes to symbols. The database can be arranged into a lookup table, decision tree, or another known data structure.

If the join does not appear in the database, then an error is indicated at task P130 (eg, via a beep and / or visual indication on the display), the stroke is stopped, and task P110 is repeated. If the join is valid (ie appears as at least part of a mapped join in the database), then the action entered in task P110 at task P140 is compared with the EOC delimiter. Echoes of strokes input to the display may occur upon input at operation P110, or the echoes may be suppressed until confirmation of operation P130 is completed and only the strokes of the valid combination are displayed.

If a match is not detected at task P140, input of the next action continues at task P110. If a match is detected in task P140 (ie, the user indicates the end of the symbol), the symbol for which the entered combination is to be mapped is displayed for selection by the user in task P150. In one example, these symbols are arranged on a display of the same configuration as the location of a key or input device from which the user can easily select the desired symbol by selecting the corresponding key or location. A scroll function can be provided if the entered combination is mapped to more symbols than can be displayed at one time. Sound feedback may also be provided to indicate that the input of the symbol was completed successfully.

If the number of possible symbol matches remaining is reduced to a point where it can all be conveniently displayed, these remaining symbols can be easily selected by the user by selecting the corresponding key or location before the EOC action is performed. Can be arranged on the display in the same configuration as the location of the key or input device. In a similar extension, a dictionary may be added to the method or apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the number of possible word matches remaining may be displayed for selection.

7 is a block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Input device 130 may be a keypad, a set of rocker switches, or a pogo pin, as described above. Display 140 may be a liquid crystal or other type of flat panel display suitable for portable devices. As mentioned above, the database 120 includes a mapping of stroke combinations to symbols and may be arranged as a lookup table, decision tree, or other known data structure. Processor 110 executes instructions to perform the tasks described herein. Such instructions may be stored or loaded from storage elements (not shown), such as semiconductor memory, magnetic conductors, or other storage devices as is known in the present invention. Processor 110 may include one or more microprocessors, digital processing units, or other arrangements of programmable logic elements to execute instructions.

In applications for alphabets with uppercase and lowercase letters, recognition support may be limited to symbols in certain cases (eg, the database only contains mappings to uppercase letters). In implementations that support the recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters, the shift key may be used between letters in different cases (for example, between uppercase and lowercase letters of 'O', or uppercase 'D' and lowercase 'b' or 'p'). May be included to facilitate clarity. Such clarity can reduce the number of keystrokes, and the user is required to enter by reducing the number of symbols displayed in operation P150. In such an execution, the shift key can be pressed before the symbol entry begins. In an alternative implementation, the shift key can be pressed or locked while the stroke of the symbol is being entered in which case the shift key can be placed on the side of the device to make it easier to use.

Whereas the symbols of the Roman alphabet contain only a few strokes that can be drawn in any command, the symbols of languages written in East Asia, such as China, contain a number of strokes drawn in an array strictly determined by convention. can do. For such an application, symbol clarity can also be facilitated by considering the successive commands into which the stroke of the symbol is entered. For example, such clarity can be supported by arranging the crystal structure of the database to take the arrangement into account. In the example of a lookup table, such a configuration may require reducing the number of valid stroke engagements. In the example of the decision tree, the configuration may need to reduce the number of edges between nodes.

Even in applications with alphabets where stroke commands are less strictly defined, continuous information may be used for clarity because it may or may not be required to support stroke commands that are difficult to appear without error. In the Roman alphabet, for example, no symbols will be drawn using horizontal strokes, usually following curve or loop strokes.

In any written language, the way in which the stroke ends is also conveyed to distinguish information about symbols. 8 shows an example of the Japanese hiragana letter 'ka', which is changed by comparing the end of the first and third strokes with the end of the second stroke. In a method according to a further embodiment of the invention, the user's action (eg, a specific keystroke or position selection) is mapped to indicate a change in the last stroke entered.

Apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention may allow any different stroke combination to be mapped to a single symbol. For example, the letter 'A' can be entered in three or four strokes (as in FIG. 9A), and the letter 'V' can be any three different combinations of two strokes (as in FIG. 9B). The letter 'J' may be entered as vertical and horizontal strokes, vertical strokes and curve strokes, or simply as curve strokes. Whereas an apparatus comprising an embodiment of the present invention can be moved to approve all such valid combinations, the benefit of use is that the device can be programmed by the user to accept only one of the possible components for a particular letter. Can be increased by personalizing. Alternatively, the device may be configured to learn a particular combination that the user prefers by reducing the number of keystrokes that the user may be required to enter.

Apart from the number of keystrokes involved, referring to the method or apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention described above is to provide the user with a natural and ordinary interface. For example, such an interface is more similar in the operation of recording the stroke of a symbol than the conventional method of selecting letters by pressing the assigned key a predetermined number of times.

In a method according to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the stroke of the symbol is formed by user manipulation of the input device. The input device can be a four-way selection device such as a rocker switch (as shown in FIG. 10) or a 'pogo stick' or 'pogo pin' (as shown in the side and top view of FIG. 11). Four-way motion using such a device represents two orthogonal directions in Paint and vice versa, and the selection behavior is whether the drawing pen is above (ie moving but not drawing) or below (ie moving the stroke). Is used to indicate whether EOC indication may be supported by a designated button or by a predetermined action (such as a quick toggle of a selection action at the center stop position).

Alternatively, the input device may be an eight-way selection device such as a rocker switch shown in FIG. 12 or a pogo stick shown in FIG. As shown in this figure, the movement in eight directions represents two pairs of right angle directions on the paint board and vice versa, one pair being angled at 45 degrees relative to the other pair. In other words, the selection action is used to indicate whether the drawing pen is above or below. In yet another alternative implementation, the input device may be a joystick having a selective behavioral capability or a related button or trackball having other selective behavioral capabilities.

14 shows a flowchart for a method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In operation P120, the information for determining the start position for the stroke is received from the input device. This information is generated by the user's operation of the input device, which relates to the position at which to start drawing the stroke. The starting position can be a point in the bounding box array (such as the 3 * 3 array shown in Figure 15A, although any other sized array can be used). Alternatively, the location may be a point in a matrix array (such as the 3 * 5 and 5 * 7 examples shown in Figure 15B) although any other sized array may be used. It may be desirable for the size of the particular array to be used to match the grid of the display.

In operation P220, the instruction is received as the drawing of the stroke begins as if the pen was positioned on the paper in the starting position (as if the pogo pin or rocker switch set was lowered down). In task P230 a set of direction codes is received as the user draws a stroke. This set can be arranged as a string of codes representing motion in each direction. In the drawn stroke shown in FIG. 16, for example, the 'up' direction is indicated as A, orthogonal to the 'up' direction and the right direction is indicated as B, and the string of codes is (+ A, + A, + B , -A, -A). Two alternative representations are (+ 2A, + 1B, -2A) and (2 (+ A), 1 (+ B), 2 (-A)).

In addition to, or in the alternative to, the distance in space, the direction code may represent a relative period of the number of movements in a particular direction. In such a case, the direction code received from the input device is preferably normalized to an array for display purposes but need not be associated with a bounding box or matrix array. The reference clock can be used to normalize the period of such motion. Sound feedback can be provided for each clock sound during stroke drawing and the speed of the clock can be adjusted by the user (these clocks can also be used to support the EOC timeout feature in addition to or in addition to the specified EOC delimiter behavior. ). The code string entered in the execution for the stroke of FIG. 16 may be normalized to, for example, (+ 2A, + 1B, -2A) for display and / or further processing (+ 18A, + 7B, − 23A).

The instruction to raise the pen in operation P240 is received from the input device signaling that the stroke input is completed. In task P250, if the next signal received from the input device is not an EOC delimiter, then the input is interpreted as the starting position for the next stroke in the symbol in task P210 (in an alternative embodiment, the test of task P250 is performed in a loop May be executed in the first step).

In the method of Fig. 14, it is mentioned that a user inputs a symbol in a form as usual. In other words, the entry of an immediately acceptable symbol is achieved, and in such an embodiment it is not necessary to provide recognition support to complete the symbol input task in the device.

In the method according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in Fig. 17, recognition of the stroke combination entered as a symbol is performed. Such a method may output the recognized symbol in 7 or 8 bit ASCII (ASCII) code, in Unicode, or in a similar standard encoding for text symbols. Operations P310 to P340 of this method are similar to operations P210 to P240 as described above.

The apparatus for carrying out the method of FIG. 17 includes a database that maps the combination of basic strokes to symbols as described above. The set of direction codes received at task P350 is compared with the set of basic strokes. Each stroke in this set can be represented as a set of direction codes, or a received set of direction codes can be mapped to a basic stroke before comparison.

If the set of received direction codes is determined to correspond to one of the basic stroke sets, then the test of task P360 will pass. Otherwise, the received set is rejected at task P390 and the stroke is stopped. Sound and / or visual error indications may also be generated. Operations P370, P380, P400, and P410 may be performed similarly to operations P120, P140, P130, and P150 in the method of FIG. 6 described above.

As described above, the arrangement in the stroke of the entered symbol can be integrated in the recognition decision. Other information that may be received from the input device and that may be incorporated in such a determination includes the stroke direction and the relative speed of the stroke or other portion of the stroke.

In addition, information relating to the relative position of the stroke in the symbol may be used for clarity. For example, the position of the loop relative to the downstroke can be used to distinguish between lowercase 'b' and uppercase 'P'. Clarity may also include ignoring the insignificant spatial relationships between strokes. The uppercase 'H' can be recognized regardless of the distance between the downstrokes and / or depending on which crossstroke actually meets all the downstrokes.

In further embodiments no stroke description (such as in operation P350) is performed. In this case, the pattern of input strokes is recognized by the database (configured as a decision tree) when performing EOC instructions regardless of individual strokes (as determined by bounding box or matrix array points intersected when drawing symbols). Can be.

Additional features can be provided to the input device for ease of user feedback and feedback that can be facilitated. For example, the input device may provide a click that can be identified at the corner or edge location to clearly indicate to the user the current location. In addition, the handle of the pogo pin or joystick can be extended to provide more resolution and control. In such a case, it is desirable to provide a locking mechanism for the extended handle to maintain the availability of the up-down selection behavior.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiment will enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that many changes to the present invention are possible without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the present invention relates to a fixed wiring circuit, a circuit structure assembled into an application specific integrated circuit, or a firmware program loaded on a nonvolatile storage device or a soft program loaded on a data storage medium as mechanically readable code. Or may be executed entirely, and the code may be an instruction executable by an array of logical elements such as a microprocessor or other digital signal processing unit. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed herein but corresponds to the widest range of principles and principles disclosed herein.

Claims (17)

Receiving a first set of direction codes from an input device; Receiving a second set of direction codes from the input device; And Displaying a symbol, the symbol having at least a first stroke and a second stroke, Each of the first set of direction codes is associated with one of the first to fourth directions of the paint, The first direction is perpendicular to the second direction, the third direction is perpendicular to the fourth direction, the third direction is an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the first direction, Each of the second set of direction codes is associated with one of the first to fourth directions, Wherein the first set of direction codes is associated with the first stroke and the second set of direction codes is associated with the second strike. The method of claim 1, wherein the input device is a selection device in eight directions. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the first set of direction codes is associated with one of the first and second directions, wherein each of the second set of direction codes is one of the first and second directions. And associated with. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the input device is a selection device in four directions. The method of claim 1, Obtaining the first stroke from the first set of direction codes; And Obtaining the second stroke from the second set of direction codes, A set of basic strokes comprises said first and second strokes; Obtaining the first stroke comprises comparing at least one of the basic set of strokes with information based at least in part on the first set of direction codes; Obtaining the second stroke comprises comparing at least one of the basic set of strokes with information based at least in part on the second set of direction codes. 6. The symbol set of claim 5, wherein the symbol set comprises a plurality of symbols, wherein the symbol is selected from the symbol set based at least in part on information associated with the first set of direction codes and the second set of direction codes. How to. A data storage medium having instructions executed by a series of logical elements, The command defines the following method, which comprises: Receiving a first set of direction codes from an input device; Receiving a second set of direction codes from the input device; And Displaying a symbol, the symbol having at least a first stroke and a second stroke, Each of the first set of direction codes is associated with one of the first to fourth directions of the paint, The first direction is perpendicular to the second direction, the third direction is perpendicular to the fourth direction, the third direction is an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the first direction, Each of the second set of direction codes is associated with one of the first to fourth directions, And said first set of direction codes is associated with said first stroke and said second set of direction codes is associated with said second strike. 8. The data storage medium of claim 7, wherein the input device is a selection device in eight directions. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the first set direction codes is associated with one of the first and second directions, and each of the second set direction codes is associated with one of the first and second directions. And a data storage medium. 10. The data storage medium of claim 9, wherein the input device is a selection device in four directions. The method of claim 7, wherein Obtaining the first stroke from the first set of direction codes; And Obtaining the second stroke from the second set of direction codes, A set of basic strokes comprises said first and second strokes; Obtaining the first stroke comprises comparing at least one of the basic set of strokes with information based at least in part on the first set of direction codes; Acquiring the second stroke comprises comparing at least one of the basic set of information and information based at least in part on the second set of direction codes. 12. The symbol set of claim 11, wherein the symbol set comprises a plurality of symbols, wherein the symbol is selected from the symbol set based at least in part on information associated with the first set of direction codes and the second set of direction codes. How to. A processor; Input device; And Includes a display, The processor receives a first set of direction codes from the input device, receives a second set of direction codes from the input device, and causes the display to display a symbol comprising at least a first stroke and a second stroke. and, Each of the first set of direction codes is associated with one of the first to fourth directions of the paint, The first direction is perpendicular to the second direction, the third direction is perpendicular to the fourth direction, the third direction is an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the first direction, Each of the second set of direction codes is associated with one of the first to fourth directions, Wherein the first set of direction codes is associated with the first stroke and the second set of direction codes is associated with the second strikefork. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the input device is a selection device in eight directions. 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein each of the first set of direction codes is associated with one of the first and second directions, each of the second set of direction codes being one of the first and second directions. And associated with the device. 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the input device is a selection device in four directions. The method of claim 1, further comprising a database including a mapping, wherein a set of basic strokes comprises the first and second strokes, each mapping combining a combination of one of the symbol sets and the basic strokes. Apparatus characterized in that the.