CN116521024B

CN116521024B - Input method switching method, device and computer program product

Info

Publication number: CN116521024B
Application number: CN202211345685.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王杰; 王伟; 陆翔; 贾玉庭
Original assignee: Suzhou Gstarsoft Co ltd
Current assignee: Suzhou Gstarsoft Co ltd
Priority date: 2022-10-31
Filing date: 2022-10-31
Publication date: 2024-04-16
Anticipated expiration: 2042-10-31
Also published as: CN116521024A

Abstract

The invention relates to an input method switching method, an input method switching device and a computer program product, wherein the method comprises the following steps: associating at least one dominant language with a first input region on the operator interface; the input method control unit is used for detecting whether the first input area is activated; when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is activated, setting or maintaining a current input method in the first input area as a dominant input method, wherein the dominant input method is used for inputting dominant language in the first input area; when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects that a user sends an active signal or a passive signal, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as a non-dominant input method or as a dominant input method based on the corresponding signal. The input method switching method provided by the invention can help a user to quickly enter an accurate input mode, and effectively reduce misoperation and influence on input fluency.

Description

Input method switching method, device and computer program product

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of input method switching, and in particular, to an input method switching method, an input method switching device, and a computer program product.

Background

Currently, many applications support hybrid input, so when a user uses the applications, text input is usually required to be performed in different input areas of the applications, and thus, round-trip switching of input states of an input method may be involved, but the multiple round-trip switching often makes a user unable to obtain a smooth personal experience.

In order to optimize the user's input experience, the following solutions are proposed in the prior art, including in particular:

1. the current state of the input method is displayed to the user so as to reduce the probability of trial and error of the user. The invention patent in China with the application number of CN201512697086. X provides a text input implementation method and a text input implementation device, wherein the method is used for displaying the state of a current input method of electronic equipment near a cursor so that a user can directly observe the state of the input method at the cursor. However, for the user, the input method still needs to be manually switched, and the operation is complex. And this approach also presents some additional problems. For example, it is necessary to consider how to set the status bar of the input method so that it can display the input information completely, and at the same time, it does not cause shielding to the input interface, and affects the user operation. For another example, it is not necessarily desirable for a user to enter text at a location while the cursor is moving in the interface, and sometimes jumping out of the status bar may instead give the user a poor look and feel, such as occluding the text, affecting the user's fluent reading of the text. That is, such visual occlusion, if occurring too frequently, can also affect the efficiency of the user's operation. In order to solve or alleviate these problems, the amount of data to be processed increases.

2. The auxiliary input function is provided, in particular, the switching frequency of the input method can be reduced by providing a plurality of candidate results to the user. Such as chinese patent application number CN201010232678.4, discloses a method for adapting input based on input environment. The input method adapting method is applied to an input method system of the client, is cut in from the angle of the input method, and provides a plurality of auxiliary input functions for a user based on the environment information of the current input interface so as to help the user reduce the operation times of switching the input method or the input state. However, the method for adapting input mainly has the functions of completing and prompting the user under the scenes of website input, search input, mailbox address input and the like. Namely, the method is more suitable for the completed application scene and has limited application range.

Thus, a technical problem that one skilled in the art would like to solve is how to help users obtain a smoother operating experience.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a method for switching input methods, which aims to partially solve or alleviate the technical problems, and specifically adopts the following technical scheme:

An input method switching method, comprising:

providing at least one operation interface, wherein the operation interface comprises: a first input area, the first input area associated with at least one dominant language;

the input method control unit is used for detecting whether the first input area is activated or not;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is activated, the input method control unit sets or maintains a current input method in the first input area as a dominant input method, wherein the dominant input method is used for inputting the dominant language in the first input area;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a first active signal sent by a user, the input method control unit switches the dominant input method to a non-dominant input method based on the first active signal, wherein the non-dominant input method is used for inputting a non-dominant language in the first input area;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a second active signal and/or a passive signal sent by a user, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as the dominant input method based on the second active signal and/or the passive signal.

In some embodiments, the passive signal comprises: and (2) misoperation generated in the process of inputting in the first input area by a user and/or misoperation generated in the process of sending out the first active signal or the second active signal by the user.

In some embodiments, when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time, the input method control unit considers that the user sends a corresponding passive signal;

or in some embodiments, when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time, a first prompt signal for prompting the user to check the input method is sent to the user.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is changed from an activated state to an inactivated state, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as a non-dominant input method.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the operation interface further includes: a second input area, the method further comprising:

When the input method control unit detects that the second input area is activated, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method of the second input area as the corresponding non-dominant input method.

In some embodiments, the non-dominant language is not included in the dominant input method or the non-dominant language in the dominant input method is in a locked state.

In some embodiments, the dominant language is not included in the non-dominant input method, or the dominant language in the non-dominant input method is in a locked state.

In some embodiments, the dominant input method is pre-bound to the first input region.

In some embodiments, the step of associating the dominant language with the environmental information of the first input area, and the corresponding input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method of the first input area as the dominant input method includes:

the input method control unit acquires the environmental information of the first input area;

the input method control unit confirms the dominant language based on the environment information and determines a corresponding dominant input method based on the dominant language;

The input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as a dominant input method.

In some embodiments, the environmental information includes: a handle.

In some embodiments, the environmental information includes: and the user edits the label in the first input area in advance, and the information of the dominant language or the dominant input method is stored in the label.

In some embodiments, the step of detecting whether the first input region is activated comprises:

and acquiring the stay time of the focus of the user on the first input area, and when the stay time is larger than a preset second time, considering that the first input area is activated.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the step of detecting whether the first input region is activated comprises:

and when the first input area is acquired and the user sends an activation instruction for activating the input area to the first input area, the first input area is considered to be activated.

In some embodiments, the dominant language is english and the non-dominant language includes one or more of the following: chinese, japanese, korean, german, french, spanish, russian, arabic, and grape dental.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit is provided or stored in an application program.

The second aspect of the present invention also provides an input method switching device, including:

an interface unit configured to provide at least one operation interface, the operation interface comprising: a first input area, the first input area associated with at least one dominant language;

an input method control unit configured to detect whether the first input area is activated;

In some embodiments, the input method control unit is further configured to consider that the user has sent a corresponding passive signal when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as a non-dominant input method when the input method control unit detects that the first input region is changed from an active state to an inactive state.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the operation interface further includes: and the second input area is correspondingly used for setting or maintaining the current input method of the second input area as a corresponding non-dominant input method when the input method control unit detects that the second input area is activated.

In some embodiments, the dominant input method does not include the non-dominant language, or the non-dominant language in the dominant input method is in a locked state;

In some embodiments, the dominant language is associated with the environmental information of the first input area, and the corresponding input method control unit is further specifically configured to:

In some embodiments, the environmental information includes: a handle;

In some embodiments, the input method control unit includes:

a first detection subunit configured to acquire/detect a dwell time of a user's focus on the first input area, and to consider the first input area to be activated when the dwell time is greater than a preset second time.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit includes:

and the second detection subunit is configured to consider that the first input area is activated when acquiring an activation instruction sent by a user to the first input area for activating the input area.

In some embodiments, the dominant language is english and the non-dominant language includes one or more of the following: chinese, japanese, korean, german, french, spanish, russian, arabic, and grape dental;

A third aspect of the invention also provides a computer program product comprising computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the method as in any of the embodiments described above.

The beneficial technical effects are as follows:

the input method switching method provided by the invention can directly switch the current input method to the specific dominant input method when the user enters the first input area, so that the manual switching operation of the user is reduced. During actual operation, the process of inputting by the user in the first input area may be interrupted for various external or internal reasons, i.e. the user may leave the first input area and enter the second input area. However, each time the user returns from the second input area to the first input area, text input can be directly performed without affecting the smoothness of user operation due to the need to switch input methods.

In order to further ensure the smoothness and consistency of the user operation input, the method maintains a relatively stable dominant language environment for the user during the whole input process of the user in the first input area. The method can effectively reduce misoperation of a user and avoid damage of the misoperation of the user to the dominant language environment through mutual binding (or association) of the dominant language and the dominant input method and collaborative coordination of switching the input method to guiding or limiting. Especially, under the scene that the code is input by the user of the non-English native speaker, the user can be efficiently helped to directly enter the dominant language mode of accurate input, and adverse effects or interference on a non-daily input environment (code input scene) caused by the daily input habit of the user are reduced or avoided to a certain extent.

It should be noted that the switching concept of the input method switching method provided by the invention is different from the conventional operation habit of the user, and the conventional operation habit of the user is more prone to freely switching the input state. The invention selects an unconventional switching idea, and the unconventional switching idea at least comprises two points: 1. and (2) directly switching the input method (instead of switching the state of the input method), and limiting the switching freedom of the input method to a certain extent.

In summary, the method and the device can ensure that the user does not need to manually switch the input method in the back and forth switching of each application or each input area, and ensure the operation smoothness of the user.

Preferably, the input method control unit is set or stored in an application program (such as various drawing software), at this time, the input method switching can be directly realized from the angle of the application program, the permission of each input method is not required to be acquired, the modification of each input method is not required, the implementation is simple, and the feasibility is higher. In addition, compared with the switching mode of third-party software (namely input method software), the mode of directly switching the input method from the perspective of the application program is more excellent in accuracy and reliability.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below. Like elements or portions are generally identified by like reference numerals throughout the several figures. In the drawings, elements or portions thereof are not necessarily drawn to scale. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the drawings in the following description are of some embodiments of the invention and that other drawings may be derived from these drawings without inventive faculty.

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a method according to an exemplary embodiment of the utility model;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an apparatus in an exemplary embodiment of the utility model;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an operation interface according to an embodiment of the present utility model.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present utility model more clear, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present utility model will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present utility model. It will be apparent that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the utility model. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the utility model without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the utility model.

In this document, suffixes such as "module", "component", or "unit" used to represent elements are used only for facilitating the description of the present utility model, and have no particular meaning in themselves. Thus, "module," "component," or "unit" may be used in combination.

The terms "upper," "lower," "inner," "outer," "front," "rear," "one end," "the other end," and the like herein refer to an orientation or positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, merely for convenience of description and to simplify the description, and do not denote or imply that the devices or elements referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus should not be construed as limiting the utility model. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like, are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

The terms "mounted," "configured to," "connected," and the like, herein, are to be construed broadly as, for example, "connected," whether fixedly, detachably, or integrally connected, unless otherwise specifically defined and limited; the two components can be mechanically connected, can be directly connected or can be indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and can be communicated with each other. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present utility model will be understood in specific cases by those of ordinary skill in the art.

Herein, "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Herein, "plurality" means two or more, i.e., it includes two, three, four, five, etc.

CAD files herein refer to various types of files that can be run in a CAD (Computer Aided Design ) system for drawing, editing, modifying, storing, viewing CAD drawings. Common CAD file formats include, but are not limited to DWG, DXF, DWT, DWF, DWL, DWS, DWX, MNU, MNC, MNL, MNS, CUI, CUIX, SHX, PAT, LIN, CTB, STB, PLT, PC3, etc.

As used herein, an "operating system" is a collection of system software that manages computer hardware resources, controls the execution of other programs, and provides an interactive operating interface for a user. The operating system is a key component of the computer system and is responsible for basic tasks such as managing and configuring memory, determining the priority of supply and demand of system resources, controlling input and output devices, operating a network, managing a file system, and the like. Operating systems are of many kinds, and the operating systems installed by various devices can range from simple to complex, from embedded operating systems of cell phones to large operating systems of supercomputers. Modern operating systems currently in popular use are mainly Android, BSD, iOS, linux, mac OS X, windows Phone, z/OS, and the like. It may be appreciated that in some embodiments, the current input method of the first input area is the current input method of the operating system.

Herein, "application" may refer to "application program" or may refer to an element of "software", and in particular, may also refer directly to software. An application is a computer program that performs one or more specific tasks, and that operates in a user mode, and that can interact with a user, with a visual user interface. Software (Software) is a collection of computer data and instructions organized in a particular order.

As used herein, "handle" refers to a unique integer value, such as a 4-byte (8-byte in a 64-bit program) long value, that is used to identify different objects in an application and different instances in the same class of objects, such as a window, button, icon, scroll bar, output device, control, file, or the like. The application can access information of the corresponding object through the handle.

For example, in some embodiments, handles refer to unique integers used by Windows (although other operating systems are possible) to identify objects created or used by an application, windows uses a wide variety of handles to identify objects such as application instances, windows, controls, bitmaps, GDI objects, and so forth. Thus, the handle corresponds to an identifier, and in this application, the information of the "handle" is preferably used for identification of the object (specifically, for identification of the environment information of the input area).

Herein, "input method" refers to an input method editor, also referred to as input method software or an input method platform, such as a Pinyin input method for a dog, a Xinfei input method, a Baidu input method, and a American keyboard, etc. And one or more input states, such as a chinese input state, an english input state, etc., may be included in one input method editor.

Herein, the "input type" of the input method refers to the type of information that the input method can output, such as chinese characters, english characters, japanese characters, and the like. Of course, gesture input, picture input, or the like may be used.

With the rapid development of economic globalization and network information, applications (APP) installed on smart devices are increasing. The user may enter chinese when using certain applications, while other applications may enter other languages (e.g., foreign language learning applications). That is, when a user uses a different application, the user needs to switch the corresponding input method to better use the application. In the related art, according to the use requirement of a user, the user is usually required to manually switch the corresponding input method, the switching process is time-consuming and laborious, and the user experience is poor.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 1, a first aspect of the present invention is to provide an input method switching method. As shown in fig. 1, the method includes:

s101 provides at least one operation interface, which includes: a first input area, the first input area associated with at least one dominant language;

s103, an input method control unit is used for detecting whether the first input area is activated or not;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is activated, step S105 is executed, where the input method control unit sets or maintains a current input method in the first input area as a dominant input method, where the dominant input method is used to input the dominant language in the first input area;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a first active signal sent by a user, executing step S107, the input method control unit switches the dominant input method to a non-dominant input method based on the first active signal, wherein the non-dominant input method is used for inputting a non-dominant language in the first input area;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a second active signal and/or a passive signal sent by a user, step S109 is executed, and the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as the dominant input method based on the second active signal and/or the passive signal.

For example, in some embodiments, a user runs at least one application in an operating system, and provides an operation interface of the at least one application, where at least two input methods are provided in the operating system, and the operation interface includes: a first input region and a second input region. A cursor (also called cursor) for selecting an input area is provided in the operating system, and in response to a first operation instruction of a user, the cursor selects a first input area, at which time the input method control unit considers that the first input area is activated, and then acquires environmental information of the first input area. Further, the input method control unit determines a dominant input method based on the environmental information, and sets or maintains the current input method of the first input area as the dominant input method.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit generates and transmits a first control signal to the operating system indicating a switch to the dominant input method based on the dominant input method; the operation system switches the current input method to a dominant input method based on the first control signal, wherein the dominant input method is used for inputting a corresponding dominant language in the first input area.

In some embodiments, when an application (or an application being used by a user) is currently running in an operating system, the application correspondingly provides an operation interface for the user in the system, and the input areas which can be called on the operation interface are two or more, and the dominant languages of the two input areas are different, when the user switches between the two or more input areas, adjustment of the input method is involved.

Of course, in other embodiments, two or more applications currently running in the operating system or being used by the user will be provided on the system, and two or more operation interfaces will be provided for the user, and adjustments to the input method will be involved when the user switches between different operation interfaces.

Specifically, in some embodiments, an application refers to an application program, i.e., application software in a personal computer, such as CAD; or refers to APP in intelligent mobile terminals such as mobile phones, tablet computers and the like.

In some embodiments, two or more input methods are typically preset in the operating system. For example, for a user in a non-english country, at least one english input method (such as a american keyboard input method carried by Windows) and at least one input method for inputting a native language (such as a chinese input method, a japanese input method, a korean input method, etc.) are generally provided in the system.

In some embodiments, the user may send a corresponding first operation instruction to an input method control unit disposed in the operating system or the application through the mouse, so that the cursor freely moves in the interface of the system or the operation interface, so as to assist the user in implementing selection of each input area.

In some embodiments, when the input method control unit determines/identifies that the cursor is located in the first input area, it determines that the first input area is selected by the user, and at this time, when the input method control unit further obtains the environment information of the first input area, the dominant language of the first input area is confirmed from the environment information.

It will be appreciated that the language types of the dominant and non-dominant languages are not fixed, but are related to the type of input region.

For example, in some embodiments, when the first input area is identified as a command line input box based on the acquired environmental information, the dominant language is determined to be english.

For another example, in other embodiments, when the first input area is identified as a chat software input box based on the acquired environmental information, the dominant language is determined to be the type of input that is commonly used by the user under the first input area. And the input type is preferably a system language in Windows, such as chinese input, or japanese input, or korean input, etc. Further, a corresponding input method is selected from the input methods of the system based on the dominant language and is used as the enabled dominant input method when switching to a new input area.

In some embodiments, the context information refers to relevant information that may be used to determine the input language of the input area. It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the environment information is not the text information (such as various characters) or the non-text information (such as picture information) of the input area, but a type of attribute information (such as a handle) determined by the input area itself, which is usually related to the input area and the application type of the application program itself or the purpose of setting the input area (or, in other words, this type of attribute information is often already set by a developer at the time of software development).

In some embodiments, after determining the dominant input method, the input method control unit generates a first control signal for switching the input method based on the dominant input method, and sends the first control signal to an input method interface of the operating system, and the operating system switches the current input method to the dominant input method in response to the first control signal.

In some embodiments, the first active signal refers to a specific instruction issued by the user to switch the dominant input method to a non-dominant input method. The input mode of the specific instruction or the specific content of the instruction can be customized in advance by a user. For example, a user may associate corresponding instruction content for one or more shortcuts to input a particular instruction via a particular shortcut operation.

In some embodiments, the second active signal refers to a specific instruction issued by the user to switch the dominant input method. Specifically, when the user sends out the second active signal, if the current input method is the dominant input method, the dominant input method is kept unchanged; and if the current dominant input method is a non-dominant input method, switching the non-dominant input method into the dominant input method. Likewise, the input mode of the specific instruction or the specific content of the instruction can be customized by the user.

In some embodiments, the first and second active signals may be associated with the same shortcut key. Of course, in other embodiments, different shortcuts may be associated.

In some embodiments, the passive signal comprises: and misoperation generated in the process of inputting in the first input area by the user.

In some embodiments, the passive signal comprises: and the user generates misoperation when sending the first active signal or the second active signal.

In some embodiments, when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time, the input method control unit considers that the user sends a corresponding passive signal. The passive signal in this embodiment corresponds to a timeout signal.

In some embodiments, the continuous use time is an activation time of the non-dominant input method.

In some embodiments, the continuous use time is the time that the user makes continuous input in the state of the non-dominant input method.

For example, in some embodiments, when it is detected that the time for the user to input the continuous input of the non-dominant language in the first input area exceeds a preset first time, or when it is detected that the cursor of the user is located in the first input area and the non-dominant input method is enabled for more than the preset first time, a first prompt signal (such as a language or text prompt) for indicating that the input method is checked is issued to the user. The first prompting signal is used for sending out the prompt of checking the input method to the user, so that the influence of misoperation of directly inputting the first language due to the fact that the user is too attentive to the input behavior can be avoided or relieved to a certain extent, and the input method is ignored to be switched.

Of course, in other embodiments, when the time-out condition is met, the input method control unit may also directly set the current input method as the dominant input method, that is, perform the time-out switching.

It will be appreciated that especially when a chinese user performs code input, the user's thinking and input actions at this time are all fast. In this process, the case that the input condition of the chinese input method is not successfully switched to the english input method or the user forgets to switch to the english input method may inevitably occur. At this time, the user will directly try to input English under the Chinese input method, and the user may find that the input method is wrong after inputting a long string of characters due to the quick input behavior of the user. Thus, the user's current input efficiency and consistency of thinking are both affected. In addition, in the code input scenario, the content of each non-english input is generally short, and may only involve the input of a few characters, so in this input environment, the accuracy of the timeout reminding or timeout switching function is relatively reliable.

In some embodiments, whenever it is detected that the user is within the first input area and a switch input method is made, or other erroneous switching operations, such as an operation to switch an input state, are uniformly switched back to the dominant input method.

Further, in some embodiments, the dominant input method does not include the non-dominant language, or the non-dominant language in the dominant input method is in a locked state.

Further, in some embodiments, the dominant language is not included in the non-dominant input method, or the dominant language in the non-dominant input method is in a locked state.

For example, in some embodiments, when the dominant language is English, the dominant input method is English, the non-dominant language is Chinese, and the non-dominant input method is Chinese. In the first input area, the english input method includes only the function of english input, but not the function of chinese input or other text input (or, in the first input area, only the function of english input may be activated, and the other input functions are locked). When the current input method in the first input area is a chinese input method, the enabled chinese input method includes only chinese input functions and no english input functions (or, in the first input area, only chinese input functions may be enabled, and the english input functions are locked). That is, in the present embodiment, the input language and the type of input method are bound to each other, and when the user wishes to switch the input language, the input method needs to be switched.

For example, in some embodiments, when the cursor is located within the first input region, the input state of the dominant input method is in a locked state; and the method further comprises the steps of:

when the fact that the user needs to input the non-dominant language in the first input area is detected, determining a non-dominant input method based on the non-dominant language;

the input method control unit generates and sends a second control signal representing switching to the non-dominant input method to the operating system based on the non-dominant input method;

the operating system switches the dominant input method to the non-dominant input method based on the second control signal.

In some embodiments, when it is detected that the user has made an operation to switch the input method, it is considered that it is detected that the user needs to input a non-dominant language in the first input area.

Preferably, in some embodiments, the input states of the dominant input method are in a locked state, that is, when the user wants to change the type of input language and make a switching operation of the input method (for example, the input method or the input method state is switched by shift+ctrl or Shift), the dominant input method is uniformly switched back, without inadvertently switching to another input state of the dominant input method. In other words, in this embodiment, different restriction or guidance manners are adopted for the user to switch back and forth between the dominant input method and the non-dominant input method.

Further, in some embodiments, the input state of the non-dominant input method is also in a locked state. When the fact that the user needs to switch from the non-dominant language to the dominant language is detected, the input method control unit generates and sends a first control signal representing switching to the dominant input method to the operating system again; the operating system switches the non-dominant input method to the dominant input method based on the first control signal. The dominant input method and the non-dominant input method may include a plurality of input states, but when the dominant input method and the non-dominant input method are in corresponding locked states, the user cannot directly switch the states.

It can be understood that in this embodiment, the locked state of the dominant input method or the non-dominant input method does not represent that the user cannot enable other types of input methods, but rather limits the input method switching operation of the user.

Preferably, in some embodiments, when the dominant language is English, the dominant input method is preferably a pure English input method, such as American keyboard input method.

Of course, in other embodiments, when the dominant language is english, the dominant input method may be another type of input method whose default input state is english, for example, a chinese input method whose default input state is set to english.

In order to further explain the technical scheme and beneficial technical effects adopted by the invention, the operation mode in the prior art is described by taking an application scenario in which a non-English native speaker user performs code input, such as a Chinese user as an example:

in the process of inputting codes in the code writing frame, the Chinese user may be involved in inputting character strings containing Chinese, and the input method needs to be adjusted at this time. Generally, when a user initially selects an english input state using a chinese input method, the user directly switches the english input state to the chinese input state when inputting a character string.

This manner of operation is prone to problems. For example, if a user performs english input using a chinese input method, the chinese input method may be switched to a chinese input state during an operation due to a misoperation (e.g., a mispoint input state switching key during a fast input). Moreover, because the user is often immersed in the input concept or the input action itself, the user is likely not to notice the problem in time, and thus, the user may delete the input content, adjust the input method, and re-input after inputting a long string of characters. Thus, the consistency of the user's mind may be disturbed and the smoothness of operation may be affected.

The following also takes code input as an example to describe the technical scheme adopted by the invention:

in some embodiments, the first input area is a code writing box, the dominant language of the code writing box is english, the non-dominant language is chinese, and the user may issue the first active signal or the second active signal by clicking on the "shift+ctrl" shortcut key combination. When the user enters the code writing frame, the input method control unit detects that the code writing frame is activated, and sets or maintains the current input method of the code writing frame as an English input method (including only an English input state). Then, if the user needs to input the character string of Chinese, the user needs to manually input an accurate switching instruction (i.e. send out the first active signal), and at this time, the input method control unit switches the English input method to the Chinese input method based on the switching instruction (wherein, the Chinese input method does not include the English input state, or the English input state in the Chinese input method is locked). Finally, when the user wants to input English again after finishing inputting the character string, the user can input the switching instruction again manually (which is equivalent to sending the second active signal), and the input method control unit switches back to the English input method based on the corresponding switching instruction.

In the above-described operating scenario, the following may also be present: 1) When the user uses the text input method, the user may wish to switch the input method, but the user selects to switch the input state (i.e., clicks the Shift key) due to a misoperation. Or 2) the user clicks the Shift key by mistake in the process of English input. Or, 3) the user clicks another key or area by mistake by operating the keyboard or the mouse, and issues a wrong switching instruction. In these cases of misoperation, the method in the present embodiment preferably sets or maintains the current input method as the english input method.

Since in a code writing box, english input method is itself the most advantageous input method (or, english is the most preferred input language for a code writing box). Therefore, under the code input environment, whether the second active signal of the user is detected or other misoperation is detected, the current input method can be uniformly set or kept as the English input method, so that adverse effects of misoperation on input behaviors can be reduced to a large extent.

For example, in some embodiments, the operation of switching from the english input method to the chinese input method may be set to a shortcut operation (e.g., shift+ctrl), or may be set to another special form. Specifically, in some embodiments, due to the extremely high accuracy requirement for cutting off the english input method, when the user needs to switch the english input method, it may even be necessary to stop the current input action, so as to ensure that the switching operation can be accurately performed to switch the english input method to the chinese input or other input methods.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, unlike the process of switching from the chinese input method to the english input method, in order to ensure that the user can accurately input the content, the accuracy requirement for switching from english to chinese switching operation is higher. In other words, the input method control unit must perform the switching operation of the input method after receiving the accurate first active signal.

The input method switching in the embodiment of the invention adopts an unconventional switching idea. In the existing operating environment, in order to facilitate the user to flexibly input different languages, the English input method and the Chinese input method can be freely switched, and the internal state of the same input method can be freely adjusted. Generally, in the existing operating environment, the switching difficulty (or convenience of operation) between the input methods or input states is the same or similar, so that the user can flexibly allocate. Compared with the prior art, the unconventional switching concept adopted by the invention is at least two different: 1) Direct switch input method (binding dominant language with dominant input method); 2) The freedom of switching of the input method is limited to a certain extent (when the input method is under the first input area, the switching difficulty of the dominant input method and the non-dominant input method is not the same).

Generally, for Chinese users, chinese is the most common language for the user, and Chinese input methods are the most common input methods for the user. Thus, it is relatively easier for a chinese user to choose a chinese input method from an operating habit, or to choose a chinese input method for english or chinese input during the input process. The switching method provided in this embodiment is exactly opposite to the conventional idea existing for the user. When the Chinese user uses the method to input in the code writing frame, the user can more easily and directly switch to the English input method, and compared with the method, the difficulty of switching to the Chinese input method by the user can be slightly increased. Therefore, the user or the system can preferentially call the dominant input method with better suitability to the language characteristic of the code input in the code input process.

Preferably, in this embodiment, through the selection of the dominant input method and the multiple combination of one or more of the above limiting/guiding means, it is ensured that the user of the non-english native speaker can be better immersed in the fully english input environment during the english input process (such as the code input process). The pure English input environment is highly adaptive to the current input demands of users, so that the users can be helped to smoothly and continuously input English commands in quick and massive code writing and releasing. Such fluency and consistency allows the user to sink more into the code writing itself (i.e., the user allows more focus on the work itself).

Further, in some embodiments, when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is changed from the activated state to the inactivated state, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as a non-dominant input method.

For example, in some embodiments, when the user clicks on an area of the operator interface other than the first input area, the first input area is considered to be transitioned from the active state to the inactive state.

For example, in some embodiments, further comprising:

when the input method control unit detects that the cursor leaves the first input area, a third control signal for switching to the non-dominant input method or other default input methods is generated and sent to the operating system. The operating system then sets or maintains the current input method as a non-dominant input method or other default input method based on the third control signal.

In this embodiment, once it is detected that the user leaves the first input area, the input method is switched to the default input method or the previously enabled input method. Because the default input method and the input method which is started in advance are input methods which are selected by the user under the input environment of the second input area, the switching mode can be well adapted to the operation habit of the user.

In some embodiments, the operation interface further comprises: a second input area, the method further comprising:

when the input method control unit detects that the second input area is activated, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method of the second input area as a non-dominant input method.

In some embodiments, the dominant input method is pre-bound to the first input region, which is equivalent to associating a corresponding dominant language or dominant input method for the first input region.

and when the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as the dominant input method.

Further, in some embodiments, the environmental information includes: a handle.

Further, in some embodiments, the environmental information includes: and the user edits the label in the first input area in advance, and the information of the dominant language or the dominant input method is stored in the label. In this embodiment, the first input area is associated with a corresponding dominant language or dominant input method.

In some embodiments, when the user clicks to select the first input area, the input method control unit considers that the activation instruction sent by the user is recognized or obtained.

In some embodiments, before acquiring the environmental information of the first input area, the method further includes a step of (or, the method further includes a step of determining whether the cursor is located in the first input area):

And acquiring the residence time of the cursor on the first input area, and judging that the cursor is positioned in the first input area when the residence time is longer than the preset second time.

For example, in some embodiments, the second time may be set to 1s (or 0.5s,1.2s, etc.), and when the input method control unit detects that the residence time of the cursor in the first input area exceeds 1s, it is determined that the cursor is located in the first input area.

In some embodiments, the preset first and second times may be adaptively set by the user according to actual conditions.

In this embodiment, the setting of the second time can save the running resources of the computer to a certain extent, and only when the cursor stays in the first input area for more than a certain time, the corresponding switching process (such as acquiring the environment information and switching the input method) is started, so as to avoid invalid switching of the input method. For example, in some usage scenarios, the cursor may quickly move between one or more operation interfaces in response to the user's operation, where the cursor may pass through the positions of multiple input areas, but the current requirement of the user does not want to perform text input (or other types of information input such as pictures) in one of the input areas, and the preset time in this embodiment may avoid ineffective input method switching, so as to avoid occupying the operating resources of the computer.

when a second operation instruction sent by a user to the first input area is obtained, the cursor is judged to be positioned in the first input area, wherein the second operation instruction comprises: instructions for selecting the first input area.

For example, in some embodiments, when the cursor moves the first input area, the user may issue a corresponding second operation instruction by clicking the mouse, where the application (or system) determines that the cursor is located in the first input area in response to the second operation instruction.

Specifically, in some embodiments, when the user moves the cursor to the corresponding input area through the mouse (or other operation manner), and clicks on the input area, the input area acquires the focus, and then triggers the corresponding event handler, such as switching the default input method (or the currently enabled input method) in the system to the corresponding dominant input method. When the cursor leaves, the input area loses focus, and a corresponding event processing program is triggered at this time, for example, the input method is switched from the preferred input method to the default input method (or switched to the last enabled input method).

In this embodiment, from the operation perspective of the user, after the user clicks the input area, the system automatically switches to the corresponding dominant input method. Moreover, since the user typically selects the input area by clicking in most cases, such an operation manner can be quickly adapted to the user in terms of learning use by the user.

Of course, in other embodiments, after the first or second input area loses focus, the user may decide the input method switching mode by himself without performing the input method switching operation.

In some embodiments, the cursor being located in the first input region refers to a state in which a user can directly input into the first input region.

It is to be understood that the two foregoing judging manners may be implemented separately as different embodiments, or may be implemented jointly in the same embodiment.

Specifically, in some embodiments, the first input area refers to an input box in which a particular input language is desired to be input. For example, the first input area includes: code writing boxes, which rely primarily on english input. Correspondingly, the second input area refers to an input box capable of inputting a non-specific input language, such as a chat input box of various social software or a search input box of various general websites, and can freely select various languages such as English, chinese, japanese, korean and the like according to language habits of users.

Of course, in other embodiments, the first input area may be an input box that needs to specifically input chinese, and correspondingly, the second input area refers to an input box that can input english or other languages.

Generally, a unified default input method is preset in the system, and when a user opens any application or opens any input area/input box in the application, the default input method is called by default. However, the default input method does not necessarily meet the input requirements of all applications or all input areas/input boxes in an application.

The switching method in this embodiment may be different input areas in the application, and the corresponding dominant input method is switched, so that when the user enters the first input area or the second input area, the input method (i.e., the dominant input method) invoked in the system can meet the requirement of the user on inputting the most dominant language in the first input area or the second input area. The dominant input method in this embodiment refers to an input method that is preferentially enabled by the input method control unit/operating system when the user switches/moves to a new input area (e.g., the first or second input area) and starts inputting language or other information in the new input area.

For example, for a user other than a native english speaker, such as a chinese user, a chinese input method is generally used in the process of using an input box (corresponding to the second input area in the present embodiment) of a website, a mailbox, and social software. While the user needs to write the code in the code writing box (corresponding to the first input area in the embodiment), the user needs to use english input. In this embodiment, when a user enters a code writing frame, the input method control unit sets the current input method as the dominant input method corresponding to the code writing frame, and when the user performs the english input method in the code writing frame, the input method is preferably only realized by the dominant input method.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit may be provided to the user as an internal unit/module of the application along with the application. Thus, the input method is switched from the perspective of the application program. The switching method can directly set or maintain the current input method as the corresponding input method without obtaining the state of the current input method (such as the category of the current input method or the input state of the current input method), and has higher efficiency and high response speed.

In some embodiments, the non-dominant input method is a default input method preset in the operating system. For example, in some embodiments, when the non-dominant language is the same as the default input language of the default input method, the default input method is determined to be the non-dominant input method.

Preferably, in some embodiments, there is only one dominant input method.

Of course, in other embodiments, two or more dominant input methods may be provided, and the two or more dominant input methods are used only as input of dominant languages in the input environment of the first input area. At this time, one of the dominant input methods may be selectively enabled according to the operation state or health state of each of the first dominant inputs. Therefore, the two or more dominant input methods are arranged from the operation experience of the user, and the problem of confusion of input is not caused.

In some embodiments, the non-dominant input methods may also include one or more input methods. In this embodiment, the input method control unit may also switch from one non-dominant input method to another non-dominant input method in response to a user operation.

In some embodiments, for the first input region, the non-dominant language may be of various types, such as chinese, japanese or korean, and correspondingly, the non-dominant input method may include a plurality of types, such as chinese input method, japanese input method or korean input method, respectively.

In some embodiments, the first input area is an input area mainly dependent on english input, such as a code writing box, and the dominant language is english, and the non-dominant language includes one or more of the following: chinese, japanese, korean, german, french, spanish, russian, arabic, and grape dental.

The technical solution of the above embodiment will be further described below by taking the use requirement of the chinese user as an example:

application scenario 1:

specifically, in some embodiments, at least two types of input boxes are typically involved when a CAD (computer aided design ) is run on an operating system and a CAD file is opened. One type of input box belongs to a command line and dynamic input (corresponding to a first input area in the embodiment), and the dominant language of the input box is English. Another type of input box includes text boxes such as text/mtext/table (corresponding to the second input area in this embodiment), and a non-english input method is often required for users in non-english regions, for example, a chinese input method is generally used for users in chinese regions, and for example, a japanese input method is generally used for users in japan. For these users, when CAD is turned on, the currently enabled input methods are usually in a state of non-english input (e.g., non-dominant language such as chinese, japanese input) by default. Therefore, each time a user opens a command line in a CAD, it is necessary to manually switch the input method or switch the input state of the input method before performing the formal text input (i.e., when entering the initial state of the command line). In other words, in the above scenario, when the user enters a new input area, such as a command line, the required input method may not match the default input method of the system, and thus, the user will be required to manually adjust the input method at the beginning of entering a new input area.

Conventionally, when switching input methods, a user usually tries to input characters (under some setting scenarios, the current input method and the input state of the input method are not always displayed in the operation interface of the system or the application), then observes the text input display result, if the observed result is Chinese and the observed result is considered to be the Chinese state of the Chinese input method, the user presses the corresponding shortcut key of the Chinese input method to try to switch to the English state of the Chinese input method or to switch to the English input method, and at this moment, the user can correctly input English characters/commands in the command line, so that the operation is very complicated.

In addition, the input process of the user in the command line is not necessarily continuous, for example, after the user inputs a section of english command, text boxes such as text/mtext/table may be called up to set other parameters, so that repeated input method switching may be involved, the operation smoothness of the user is affected, and the operation efficiency is reduced. The switching method in this embodiment can automatically switch the dominant input method in the back and forth switching in different input areas (or input windows) of the same application operation interface. Specifically, when the user switches from text and other text boxes to command lines, the input method control unit automatically switches to the dominant input method corresponding to the command lines, namely the English input method, so that the input efficiency of the user is greatly improved, and the input experience of the user is improved.

Application scenario 2:

when a user cuts into an input area of a new operation interface, for example, when the user currently opens an operation interface with multiple applications, such as simultaneously opening CAD software, social software (e.g., letter, mail, etc.), and browsing web pages, the user may switch between the multiple operation interfaces. For example, when a user is programming in CAD software (specifically, inputting an operation instruction in a command line, the dominant language of the command line is english), session information sent from a client or a colleague may be received (for a user in a non-english country, non-english input such as chinese, japanese, korean, etc. is often required), and at this time, it is required to switch to corresponding social software such as WeChat to reply to the client or colleague (the dominant language of reply at this time is non-english). For another example, during editing by a user, it may be desirable to implement rapid programming of a CAD by means of learning information (e.g., various CAD use courses, etc.) or other relevant information on a network. When the user switches back and forth between them (e.g., CAD switches to WeChat, CAD switches to web page, etc.), the input method needs to be adjusted before text content is input, and this frequent adjustment (or switching) is poor for the user's use experience. Especially when the user performs CAD programming, when a client or a colleague initiates session communication to the current user, the user needs to switch back and forth for many times, and the user is likely to forget to switch the input method/input state before inputting, so that the input error is caused, the error content is also required to be deleted at this time, then the user needs to switch to the correct input method or input state to perform input again, and the operation fluency of the user is seriously affected. The input method switching method in this embodiment can directly switch the input method into the dominant input method meeting the input condition (input requirement) of the first input area in the initial state (i.e. when the user switches to a new input area), so that the user is ensured to switch back and forth without manually adjusting the input method, the operation smoothness of the user is improved, and the use experience of the user is optimized. Of course, in the process of inputting the CAD instructions by the user, the input method may be switched freely based on the real-time requirement.

In summary, the method can not only quickly set the dominant input method for the user at the initial moment, but also provide the dominant language environment (or maintain the current dominant language environment) adapted to the current input area for the user in the whole code input process. Specifically, the method is used for maintaining the input environment of the dominant language based on the synergistic effect of a plurality of means by binding the dominant language with the dominant input method, guiding or limiting the switching of the input method to a certain extent and the like, so that the user can smoothly input the dominant language in the process.

Further, in some embodiments, the environmental information may also include other information, such as application configuration information, and the like. That is, there may be various judgment conditions for determining the dominant input method. At this time, before acquiring the environmental information of the first input area, the method further includes the steps of:

the first input area is identified to determine characteristic environmental information of the first input area.

Further, feature environment information is obtained from the environment information of the first input area, and a dominant input method is determined based on the feature environment information.

For example, in some embodiments, the characteristic environmental information of the input area may also be predefined by the user. For example, the feature environment information of the command line is set/defined as a handle, and for other commonly used text input areas (such as chat input boxes of social software, etc.), the feature environment information is set/defined as application configuration information, where the application configuration information may be preset by an application developer or user-defined.

For another example, in some embodiments, the characteristic environmental information of the input area may be identified and analyzed by the operating system or application (or an input method control unit in the operating system or application) itself.

In some embodiments, application configuration information refers to information used to identify the application. The application configuration information includes, for example, the name of the application, and the dominant input method pre-associated with the application is determined according to the name of the application. The application configuration information includes, for example, versions of the application, and when a certain application of a plurality of versions is installed on the system, a different input method may be associated for each version. For example, an input method with better English input experience is related to international WeChat, and an input method with better Chinese input experience is related to domestic WeChat, so that the requirements of users are better met, and the use experience is improved.

For example, in some embodiments, the application configuration information is a package name of the application. The package names are unique, one package name representing one application, and two applications are not allowed to use the same package name. Package names are mainly used for system identification applications and are hardly visible to the end user. Because each application in the system is matched with a corresponding package name, the package name is used as application configuration information, and other information for identifying the application is not required to be additionally arranged, so that the application configuration information is conveniently arranged.

Preferably, in some embodiments, for some applications (such as WeChat, etc., which may use various types of input methods such as Chinese input, english input, etc.) that do not involve a specific input type, the user may configure the input method with a preference associated with the information for each application, so that the dominant input method corresponding to the target application may be determined according to the application configuration information of the target application, so as to facilitate switching of the input methods. For example, mail association input method a, weChat association input method B. For applications involving specific input types, the dominant input method is preferably determined by means of handle recognition.

For example, in some embodiments, a manner of determining a dominant input method based on application configuration information is employed for commonly used social software such as WeChat, enterprise WeChat, QQ, etc., and a manner of determining a dominant input method based on handle information is employed for objects that involve input of operation instructions (e.g., command lines of CAD must involve English input under most existing applications).

According to the switching method in the embodiment, the judging conditions (or switching rules) of the input method can be flexibly determined according to the characteristics of different input areas, so that the dominant input method meeting the input requirements can be more accurately called for a user.

Further, in some embodiments, when the input method control unit detects that the cursor leaves the first input area, or when detecting that the user makes input actions or input preparations in other input areas, a second control signal representing a default input method for switching back to the operating system is sent to the operating system; the operating system switches the dominant input method to the default input method based on the second control signal.

In some embodiments, when the first input region is detected as losing focus, the cursor is considered to be away from the first input region.

In some embodiments, when a click operation is detected to occur in an area other than the first input area, the user is considered to have made input preparations in the other input areas. When detecting that the input behavior occurs in the area except the first input area, the user is considered to have input behavior on other input areas.

Preferably, in this embodiment, it is not necessary to determine the dominant input method for the user to enter all the input areas.

Specifically, an input area where a dominant input method needs to be specifically determined may be specifically designated by the user. If various input areas for inputting control instruction text are set as specific input areas, the corresponding steps are only executed when the first input area is the specific input area.

Therefore, in this embodiment, when the user leaves the first input area (the first input area is a specific input area), the default input method is directly switched back, so that the data processing capacity of the computer can be greatly reduced. Meanwhile, the simplified switching mode can also meet the actual demands of users, for example, in some applications which do not involve the input of control instruction text or other special text types, the default input method can often meet most of the input demands of users.

For example, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a command line in CAD is set as a special input area, and when a user enters the command line, corresponding switching steps are sequentially performed to switch to the corresponding dominant input method. And when the user leaves the command line and enters text boxes such as text/mtext/table and the like in the CAD or enters other daily applications such as enterprise WeChat, QQ and the like, the user is directly switched back to the default input method. In this embodiment, when the user needs to switch back and forth between the command line and other text boxes multiple times, even if the necessary switching times of the input method are not significantly reduced, the data volume that the computer needs to process will be significantly reduced, so that the power consumption of the computer (power consumption saving) is effectively saved.

In particular, in some embodiments, when the user is a user in a non-english region, such as a chinese user, more than two input methods may be installed in the system. For example, two commonly used Chinese input methods are installed in the system, at this time, the default input type (i.e. default input state) of one input method with better Chinese input effect can be set as Chinese input, and the default input type (i.e. default input state) of the other input method can be set as English input. When the automatic input method in the embodiment is switched, the method can be directly switched to a pure English input method or to an input method with a default input type set as English input when the English input method needs to be switched.

Preferably, the input method may be simply identified/marked, for example, the input method with the default input method being english is specially marked, so that the application or the system may quickly identify the corresponding target input method (i.e. the dominant input method to be switched in the first input area), without obtaining the control authority of the input method into the input method, which may be implemented by those skilled in the art.

In some embodiments, the input language includes one or more of the following: various types of text character input such as Chinese characters, english characters, japanese characters and the like, various types of format picture (such as including bmp, jpg, png, tif, gif, pcx, tga, exif, fpx, svg, psd, cdr, pcd, dxf, ufo, eps, ai, raw, WMF, webp, avif, apng and the like) input and gesture input (such as input through a handwriting board on a touch screen).

It can be appreciated that the switching method in this embodiment can quickly adjust the input method of the input area in the initial input stage. That is, when the user performs input in the input area newly switched to, the switched dominant input method can basically meet the input requirement of the user. The method effectively avoids the influence on the operation fluency of the user caused by the fact that the input method is manually switched when the user switches back and forth among a plurality of input areas. However, the switching method in this embodiment does not exclude or limit the conventional input method switching method, and when the user is in the input process, the input method can be switched freely to a certain extent based on the real-time input requirement.

Specifically, when a user inputs an operation instruction in CAD, english input (equivalent to dominant language) is generally performed. However, when the input of the command is required, the character string may be other non-english characters, such as chinese characters (corresponding to non-dominant language), and at this time, the user may switch the input method from the dominant input method to the target input method (such as chinese input method) by using a conventional input method switching manner (such as ctrl+shift shortcut key).

It will be appreciated that the steps (e.g., steps S101-S109) included in any of the embodiments described above may be packaged in a program development language such as Java, python, C as a stand-alone application, a plug-in, or other form that may be validated, such as a computer-readable medium.

Preferably, in some embodiments, the input method control unit is provided or stored in an application program. The application program is preferably various drawing software such as CAD and the like.

For example, in some embodiments, when the input method control unit is set or stored in the CAD, the input method control unit may be started along with the operation of the CAD software when the CAD software is turned on, or may also be started in response to various operations of the user (e.g., activating the input method control unit).

For example, in some embodiments, the input method control unit may also be a plug-in installed in the application. In this embodiment, the input method control unit may also be regarded as a part of the application program, which is equivalent to directly enabling the application program itself to enable the corresponding dominant input method for each input area inside the application program.

From the software design perspective, the dominant language or dominant input method of the input area is most known to the software developer or user, i.e. the application program itself has the most accurate knowledge of the characteristics of each input area inside. Therefore, especially compared with the switching mode of the third party software (namely, the input method software), the input method is directly switched from the angle of the application program in the embodiment, and the accuracy and the reliability of the switching operation are better.

The switching mode of the third party software generally needs to acquire specific information set in the application program, and then identify or judge the specific information, so as to determine the input method required by the application program for selection and switching. Therefore, the switching manner of the third party software generally has the following defects: 1) The execution steps are more complicated, and the processing efficiency is relatively low; 2) Because the identity is third-party software, errors are unavoidable in the process of acquiring specific information and analyzing characteristic information, and therefore the accuracy and reliability of a switching result are affected; 3) When the third party software is mainly oriented to users other than English native speakers, such as Chinese users, the third party software selected by the users is usually Chinese input method. The Chinese input method is more prone to be suitable for the input environment with Chinese as the dominant language in terms of functional design, and the adaptability of the Chinese input method may be greatly reduced when the Chinese input method is applied to another type of input environment with the dominant position of the language reversed (such as the input environment with English as the dominant language).

Alternatively, in other embodiments, the input method control unit may be a stand-alone application or plug-in installed in the operating system. In this embodiment, the input method control unit may also be regarded as a part of the operating system.

For example, in some embodiments, the various operating instructions/steps of the input method control unit may be implemented in firmware instructions in read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), or flash memory.

It should be noted that the following situations may also exist in the prior art: the current input method is a Chinese input method, and the input state is Chinese input, but if inputting of a password is needed in a certain webpage, after a cursor is moved to a password input box, english characters can be directly input in the password input box without any other operation. This is the function provided by the web page itself, i.e. the input function set to mask the input method system when the web page is made, and data is read directly from the keyboard. The input functions of the embodiment of the invention are provided by the input method (namely, the input method system). Of course, for an input box that only allows english input, the switching method in the embodiment of the invention can automatically switch the input method (specifically, can switch from a dominant input method to a non-dominant input method and can also switch from one non-dominant input method to another non-dominant input method) even if the input function of the input method system is not shielded when a web page is made.

The input function of the input method adopted in the embodiment of the invention can effectively utilize the input characteristics of the input method per se, such as the usual association function, memory function and the like of the input method, so that the smooth input experience of a user can be ensured. Moreover, when there are multiple types of text types that can be input in one input area, for example, an english instruction may be input in a command line, or a chinese character string may be input, and the user may still flexibly switch the input method manually.

It should also be noted that in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the dominant input method may be determined by acquiring the handle information. That is, the method in this embodiment is to acquire or identify the environmental information of the input area (the environmental information is independent of the historical input behavior of the user, and is a relatively determined information), so as to determine the dominant language in the input area. Rather than prior art predictions of the user's next input behavior based on the type of text entered historically or based on the user's historical usage preferences. Therefore, the above embodiment of the present invention is different from the input method of the type in the prior art from the point of entry to the whole switching concept.

Example two

A second aspect of the present invention is to correspondingly provide an input method switching device (i.e. an input method switching system) based on the method in the first embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, including:

an interface unit 10 configured to provide at least one operation interface comprising: a first input area, the first input area associated with at least one dominant language;

an input method control unit 20 configured to detect whether the first input area is activated;

In some embodiments, the input method control unit 20 is further configured to consider that the user has sent a corresponding passive signal when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use of the non-dominant input method is longer than a preset first time.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit 20 is further configured to send a first prompting signal for prompting the user to check the input method when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous usage of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit 20 is further configured to set or maintain the current input method as a non-dominant input method when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is changed from an active state to an inactive state.

In some embodiments, the operation interface further comprises: and the second input area is correspondingly used for setting or maintaining the current input method of the second input area as a corresponding non-dominant input method when the input method control unit detects that the second input area is activated.

In fact, the invention guides/limits the operation of the user to a certain extent when the user switches between dominant and non-dominant languages, i.e. the input method must be switched. Wherein, when the user switches from the dominant input method to the non-dominant input method, the switching operation needs to be accurately made. When the user is in a state of the non-dominant input method, any improper switching operation (such as a user mistakenly sends out an instruction/operation for switching the state of the input method) is performed, and the input method is switched back to the dominant input method.

In addition, unlike the conventional operation concept (i.e. switching the state of the input method), in this embodiment, for each input language, only one input method is relatively and fixedly adopted to implement text input, so as to avoid the situation that misoperation is easy to occur in a plurality of mixed input scenes.

Specifically, if a chinese user inputs english by using a chinese input method during the code input process, the state of chinese input may be switched due to incorrect operation during the operation process. The binding/association of the dominant input method and the dominant language and the multiple combination of one or more limiting/guiding means are preferably adopted in the embodiment, so that the user is immersed in the full English input environment in the English input process as much as possible. The pure English input environment is highly adaptive to the current input demands of users, so that the users can be helped to smoothly and continuously input English commands in quick and massive code writing and releasing. Such fluency and consistency allows the user to sink more into the code writing itself (i.e., the user allows more focus on the work itself).

In this embodiment, when the user leaves the first input area and enters the second input area, the method may also quickly switch the input method to the default input method or the non-dominant input method for the user, so as to reduce the manual switching operation of the user. That is, when the user switches back and forth between the first input area and the second input area a plurality of times, the user can directly input without manual operation. Therefore, on one hand, the method avoids misoperation possibly generated when a user frequently switches the input method manually; on the other hand, the manual switching operation is avoided from cutting off the user input thought. In conclusion, the method and the device can provide smoother input experience for the user.

In some embodiments, the dominant language is associated with environmental information of the first input area, the input method control unit is further specifically configured to:

acquiring the environment information of the first input area;

confirming the dominant language based on the environment information, and determining a corresponding dominant input method based on the dominant language;

In some embodiments, the environmental information includes: a handle.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit includes:

a first detection subunit 21 is configured to obtain/detect a dwell time of the user's focus on the first input area, and to consider the first input area to be activated when the dwell time is greater than a preset second time.

In some embodiments, the input method control unit includes:

the second detection subunit 22 is configured to consider the first input area to be activated when it is obtained that the user issues an activation instruction for activating the input area to the first input area.

Wherein the above-mentioned switching means or input method control unit may preferably be provided inside the application program. Therefore, in the embodiment, the input method can be automatically changed according to the requirements from the inside of the application program, and switching is not needed by a third party, so that the switching result is more accurate. In addition, when an application has a plurality of different input areas, for example, an area a needs default chinese, an area B needs english, and an area C needs japanese, the switching method or device in the embodiment of the invention can perform targeted setting according to the accurate requirements of different areas A, B, C.

It will be appreciated that unlike prior art methods of providing auxiliary input functions, the switching apparatus/method of embodiments of the present invention is not simply intended to reduce the number of input method switches during operation of a computer. In other words, from the computer perspective, the necessary number of switches of the input method (the number of switches without erroneous operation) may not be changed. The switching device/method provided by the embodiment of the invention realizes the autonomous switching of the input method mainly through the cooperation of the application program and the operating system, so as to reduce the manual operation times of the user, thereby optimizing the operation experience of the user.

In some embodiments, the environment in which the device can operate is a Windows operating system, and the default input method in the system is a chinese input method a, where the default input state of the chinese input method a is chinese input. When the user opens the CAD in Windows to start working, the default is to start or input method A. Further, when the user prepares a command line under the CAD to input an instruction, the cursor is moved to the input position of the command line (as shown in fig. 3, the cursor is located after "select source object:"), and then clicked at that position by the mouse. After the user finishes clicking, the command line acquires a focus, CAD software correspondingly sends a first control signal for indicating to switch the input method B (namely, the dominant input method) to an input method interface of the system, and when the command line loses focus (namely, the user clicks an area outside the command line), the input method is switched back to the default input method A by the input method B.

The first control signal may be preset by a user. For example, the first control signal includes a control instruction indicating a switch to the American keyboard and is set to be associated with a command line. Thus, each time the command line acquires focus, the CAD sends a first control signal into the operating system. Alternatively, the first control signal may be generated in real time in response to a user operation on the CAD. For example, when the command line acquires the focus, the CAD software starts a corresponding input method switching program, that is, acquires the handle of the command line, determines the target input method to be switched based on the handle, and generates the corresponding first control signal in real time based on the target input method.

In addition, it should be noted that the switching method/device in the present invention does not match an input method (such as a method of switching input states by various third party software, a method of matching corresponding input based on text content, etc.) for an application or an input area, and an error is unavoidable in the matching process. In the switching process, the dominant input method is directly or indirectly predetermined by a user or a computer, so that the result is more accurate.

Meanwhile, the invention also does not determine the input method to be switched based on the current text information of the existing page or the text information input in the input box. Therefore, when the user enters the first input area for the first time, the required dominant input method can be started for the user even though the text information possibly does not exist in the first input area.

Example III

In a third aspect, the present invention provides a computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program product programmed to implement a method of input method switching, the computer program product comprising instructions for performing the operations of any of the methods of the embodiments described above.

For example, in some embodiments, the computer program product includes instructions for: providing at least one operation interface, wherein the operation interface comprises: a first input area, the first input area associated with at least one dominant language; the input method control unit is used for detecting whether the first input area is activated or not; when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is activated, the input method control unit sets or maintains a current input method in the first input area as a dominant input method, wherein the dominant input method is used for inputting the dominant language in the first input area; when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a first active signal sent by a user, the input method control unit switches the dominant input method to a non-dominant input method based on the first active signal, wherein the non-dominant input method is used for inputting a non-dominant language in the first input area; when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a second active signal and/or a passive signal sent by a user, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as the dominant input method based on the second active signal and/or the passive signal.

Exemplary hardware and software environments for implementing one or more embodiments of the invention include a computer, which may be a user/client computer, a server computer, or a database computer. The computer includes a processor and memory, such as Random Access Memory (RAM). Computers may be coupled and/or integrated with other devices, including input/output (I/O) devices such as keyboards, cursor control devices (e.g., mice, pointing devices, pens and tablet computers, touch screens, multi-touch devices, etc.), and printers. In one or more embodiments, the computer may be coupled to or constitute a portable or media viewing/listening device (e.g., MP3 player, iPod ^TM 、Nook ^TM Portable digital video players, cellular devices, personal digital assistants, etc.). In another embodiment, the computer may include a multi-touch device, mobile phone, gaming system, internet-enabled television, television set-top box, or other internet-enabled device executing on a variety of platforms and operating systems.

In one embodiment, a computer operates through a general purpose processor to execute instructions defined by a computer program under the control of an operating system. The computer program and/or operating system may be stored in memory and may be connected to a user and/or other device to accept inputs and commands and provide outputs and results in accordance with the inputs and commands and instructions defined by the computer program and operating system.

Some or all of the operations performed by a computer according to computer program instructions may be implemented in a special purpose processor. In this embodiment, some or all of the instructions of the computer program may be implemented by firmware instructions stored in a read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), or flash memory, which is located in a dedicated processor or memory. A special purpose processor may also be hardwired to perform some or all of the operations to implement the present invention by circuit design. Furthermore, the special purpose processor may be a hybrid processor that includes special purpose circuitry for performing a subset of the functions, as well as other circuitry for performing more general-purpose functions, such as in response to computer program instructions. In one embodiment, the special purpose processor is an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

A computer may also implement a compiler that allows an application or computer program written in a programming language (e.g., COBOL, pascal, c ++, FORTRAN, or other language) to be translated into processor-readable code. Alternatively, the compiler may be an interpreter that directly executes the instructions/source code, converts the source code into an intermediate representation to be executed, or executes stored pre-compiled code. Such source code may be written in a variety of programming languages, such as Java ^TM 、Perl ^TM 、Basic ^TM Etc. Upon completion, the application program or computer program accesses and manipulates data received from the I/O device and stored in the memory of the computer using the compiler-generated relationships and logic.

The computer may also optionally include an external communication device such as a modem, satellite link, ethernet card, or other device for accepting input from and providing output to other computers.

In one embodiment, instructions implementing the operating system, computer program, and compiler are tangibly embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as a data storage device, which may include one or more fixed or removable data storage devices, such as a compression drive, a floppy disk drive, a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, a tape drive, and the like. Furthermore, the operating system and computer programs are comprised of computer program instructions which when accessed, read and executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the necessary steps.

Of course, those skilled in the art will recognize that any combination of the above components, or any number of different components, peripherals, and other devices, may be used with a computer.

The distributed computer system uses a network to connect client computers to server computers. Typical combinations of resources may include networks including the Internet, lan (local area network), wan (wide area network), SNA (system network architecture) networks, or similar personal computing clients.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

From the above description of the embodiments, it will be clear to those skilled in the art that the above-described embodiment method may be implemented by means of software plus a necessary general hardware platform, but of course may also be implemented by means of hardware, but in many cases the former is a preferred embodiment. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium (e.g. ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) comprising several instructions for causing a computer terminal (which may be a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method of the embodiments of the present invention.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which are merely illustrative and not restrictive, and many forms may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention and the scope of the claims, which are to be protected by the present invention.

Claims

1. An input method switching method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

providing at least one operation interface, wherein the operation interface comprises: a first input area pre-associated with at least one dominant language;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is activated, the input method control unit sets or maintains a current input method in the first input area as a dominant input method, wherein the input method refers to input method software, and the dominant input method is used for inputting the dominant language in the first input area; the dominant input method does not comprise non-dominant language, or the non-dominant language in the dominant input method is in a locking state; the input method control unit is further configured to: acquiring environment information of the first input area; wherein the environment information includes: a handle and/or a label edited by a user in the first input area in advance, wherein the label stores information of the dominant language or the dominant input method; confirming the dominant language based on the environment information, and determining a corresponding dominant input method based on the dominant language; setting or maintaining the current input method as a dominant input method;

When the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a first active signal sent by a user, the input method control unit switches the dominant input method to a non-dominant input method based on the first active signal, wherein the non-dominant input method is used for inputting a non-dominant language in the first input area; the dominant language is not included in the non-dominant input method, or the dominant language in the non-dominant input method is in a locking state;

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and detects a second active signal sent by a user, the input method control unit sets or maintains a current input method as a dominant input method based on the second active signal, and when the input method control unit detects a passive signal sent by the user, the input method sets or maintains the current input method as the dominant input method based on the passive signal; wherein the passive signal comprises: the input method comprises the steps of carrying out misoperation in the process of inputting in a first input area by a user, carrying out misoperation in the process of sending out a first active signal or a second active signal by the user, and when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time, considering that the user sends out a corresponding passive signal by the input method control unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time, a first prompt signal for prompting the user to check the input method is sent to the user.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is changed from an activated state to an inactivated state, the input method control unit sets or maintains the current input method as a non-dominant input method;

or,

the operation interface further includes: a second input area, the method further comprising:

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the dominant input method is pre-bound to the first input region;

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

the dominant language is English and the non-dominant language includes one or more of the following: chinese, japanese, korean, german, french, spanish, russian, arabic, and grape dental;

And/or the number of the groups of groups,

the input method control unit is set or stored in an application program.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting whether the first input area is activated comprises:

acquiring the stay time of a focus of a user on the first input area, and when the stay time is longer than a preset second time, considering that the first input area is activated;

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

the step of detecting whether the first input area is activated comprises:

6. An input method switching device, characterized by comprising:

an interface unit configured to provide at least one operation interface, the operation interface comprising: a first input area pre-associated with at least one dominant language;

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time, the input method control unit considers that a user has sent a corresponding passive signal;

and/or the number of the groups of groups,

when the input method control unit detects that the first input area is in an activated state and the continuous use time of the non-dominant input method exceeds a preset first time, a first prompt signal for prompting a user to check the input method is sent to the user.

8. A computer program product comprising computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1-5.