Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
  • G06F3/01—Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer
  • G06F3/018—Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06K—GRAPHICAL DATA READING; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS
  • G06K15/00—Arrangements for producing a permanent visual presentation of the output data, e.g. computer output printers
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06K—GRAPHICAL DATA READING; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS
  • G06K2215/00—Arrangements for producing a permanent visual presentation of the output data
  • G06K2215/0002—Handling the output data
  • G06K2215/002—Generic data access
  • G06K2215/0028—Generic data access characterised by the format per se

Definitions

• CHARACTERS This invention relates to a method and apparatus for character processing including specifying and forming characters, particularly but not exclusively to a method of and apparatus for specifying and forming language characters such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other characters.
• United Kingdom patent specification 2066534 de-scribes a method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, elements of strokes of each charac- ter being allocated a unique alpha numeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes,the codes in a predetermined order of strokes of the respective charac ⁇ ter, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the codes corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified.
• the term "ele ⁇ ment”, is used in this specification in the same sense as in the prior United Kingdom specification, as meaning a fundamental unit of a stroke which stroke may comprise one or more elements.
• One or more strokes may form a component, a character being formed of one or more components.
• the forming of the character is effected by printing the character or by displaying it on, say, a visual display unit. It may however be formed simply by generating a suitable electric signal for on trans ⁇ mission or data storage.
• the store may include data as to which of the matrix elements is to be actuated to effect printing. More generally, however, where printing is possibly to be effected by a device such as an ink jet printer, storage has in the past been effected by storing the start and end point of each element or of cojoining portions thereof. In such case, the display and printing are effected by "drawing" in linear steps from each start point to each end point of each element. This system can be reduced to identif ⁇ ication of matrix elements in a dot matrix printer by suitable programming.
• the method is employed for drawing of Chinese characters it is not uncommon for there to be numerous strokes in a part ⁇ icular character, each being made up of numerous elements, some of which elements may require specif ⁇ ication as a number of discrete portions.
• the invention is concerned with providing means whereby storage capacity required for storing this data may be reduced.
• the invention provides a method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements of strokes of each character being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering at least one or more selected said codes in a prede ⁇ termined order of corresponding strokes of the respec ⁇ tive character, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the code trains corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that the step of forming is effected by •reference to a memory having a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the
• the invention also provides apparatus for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes iden ⁇ tify, with or without ambiguity, the particular charac ⁇ ter or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes a memory storing instructions for forming the characters and wherein the memory includes a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information' as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the drawing of that variant.
• the invention is concerned with obtaining improved speed of processing.
• the invention provides a method of charac ⁇ ter processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a-limited number of elements; which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes in a predetermined order of corresponding strokes of the respective character, the method comprising identifying characters by ref- erence to the so derived code train corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that for at least one of said charac ⁇ ters the said identifying is effected by reference to a code train which does not include a code for every element in said at least one character.
• the full code train for said at least one character may be stored to enable forming of the character, but the character may be identified, for retrieval, by input of less than the whole code train.
• the processing is concerned with processing of Chinese characters, the coding may exclude codings of single elements where these do not form part of a component (as herein defined) of a character.
• the apparatus is arranged to be responsive to identify and form characters where only such keys corresponding to codes having multiple alphanumerics are actuated, at least where the key or keys so actuated to identify a character or identify a section of the code train such that any remaining section comprises only a code corres ⁇ ponding to a single said element.
• the invention is con ⁇ cerned with removing ambiguities arising because some " characters, such as some Chinese language characters, are, when using the method of United Kingdom patent specification 2066534, identified by the same code train.
• these ambiguities are resolvable by the provision of some selector means in the apparatus used for practising the method which selector means is effective to permit an operator to reject an initial character selection made by the apparatus and to replace it by another selection made on the basis of the same code train as was the first selection made.
• a method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes in a predetermined order of corre ⁇ sponding strokes of the respective character, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the so derived code trains corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that, for at least one character having an identifying code train that is the same as that for another character, said identifying is effected by reference to at least two blocks of the corresponding code train, which blocks contain at least one said code each, the blocks for these two characters being different.
• the blocks may be made different by arranging different groupings of the codes making up the two code trains, usually while still
• the last described method and apparatus may be employed in such a way as to enable distinguishing between characters which have the same code train when the full code train including one code for every element in each character is the same, by providing that differ ⁇ ent contractions of the full code are employed for identifying different ones of such characters.
• apparatus for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity, the particular character or charac ⁇ ters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes memory storing instructions for forming the characters, wherein processing means is effective to distinguish between characters, for which respective full alpha ⁇ numeric code trains including codes for each element in the respective character are the same, by identifying a particular one of those characters where said input means receives a code train which is a contraction of the full code train, obtained by omission of one or more of the code thereof, and by identifying the other where the full code train thereof is inputted or where a different contraction thereof is inputted.
• the invention provides appara ⁇ tus ' for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alpha ⁇ numeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity, the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes a memory storing instructions for forming the characters characterised in that said processing means is effective to distinguish between characters which are capable of identification by reference to code trains which are the same for each character, in accordance with input of the code trains in ways which differ.
• apparatus for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambig ⁇ uity, the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said input means comprises a keyboard having keys for inputting said alpha numeric codes and wherein at least a majority of the keys for so inputting codes operate to input only a single code when so operated.
• Figure 1 is a perspective of an apparatus formed in accordance with the invention
• Figure 2 is a -diagram- of the keyboard of the apparatus of Figure 1; '
• Figure 3 is a diagram, in two parts labelled “3a” and “3b", illustrating codings of variant forms elements used in forming characters in an exemplary method in accordance with the invention
• Figure 4 illustrates exemplary codings when practising the method described in relation to Figure 3
• Figures 5 and 6 show layouts for two kinds of small keyboards which can be employed in practising this invention.
• Figure 7 is a diagram of a memory used in forming characters in accordance with the invention.
• the apparatus 10 shown in Figure 1 is substantially the same in general form as that in United Kingdom patent specification 2066534 and reference may be made to that specification for a full description.
• the apparatus, in this instance is for display and printing of Chinese characters.
• the apparatus comprises an input means 11 which can receive alpha ⁇ numeric codes corresponding to the order of formation of elements of the character, processing means 12 whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambigu ⁇ ity, the particular characters or character, means 13 whereby the characters or character can be displayed and if ambiguous characters are displayed means whereby the required character can be selected and output means 14 whereby the character can be retrieved and formed.
• the input means may be a typewriter, a standard keyboard or, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, a spec ⁇ ially formed keyboard
• the processing means may be a computer, mini computer or a microprocessor operating in conjunction with for example a disc drive 15
• the display means may be a V.D.U., as illustrated in Figure 1 - or may be comprised of light emitting diodes (L.E.D.) or a liquid-crystal display (L.C.D.)
• the output means may for example be a mechanical, electrical, optical, photographic, thermal or ink-jet device.
• the processing means may comprise means to reject further members of the alphanumeric train as soon as there is no ambiguity. It may also comprise means for various forms of character processing so the arrangement of the various characters can be widely manipulated.
• the characters are commonly formed by writing or painting the strokes of the character in a particular order, either the tradi ⁇ tionally accepted or an otherwise specified order.
• Any character is considered to be made up of elements of only five types, these being dots and horizontal, vertical, positive diagonal and negative diagonal strokes in specific positions.
• the alphanumeric codes of these elements comprise the respective digits 1 to 5 respectively and thus by applying the required digit to each element of the character in the traditional order that it is made when forming the character there is obtained a code train which represents the formation of a particular character. It will be appreciated that this train can be very short in that it can have as little as one or two digits or, for more complicated characters, can have thirty or more digits.
• the processing means 12 is programmed with the required number of characters, each of which can be addressed by its corresponding alphanumeric code train. An operator can then, by viewing the character, deter- mine the required alphanumeric code, to the required number of digits, and feed this through the input device to the correct address in the computer memory and the character is then available. Preferably the character is immediately brought up on the display means 13 and the operator can ascertain whether or not the input was correct and the character shown is that which was required.
• a preferred keyboard is shown in more detail in Figure 2. In addition to keys for input of codes of single ones of the five basic elements, there are several keys which when operated input codes for com- binations of elements occurring with some frequency.
• the display device still requires information as to how to actually draw the character whilst, where for example ink-jet printer is used similar information is necessary to enable the ink-jet printer to effect printing. In other case, such as where a dot matrix printer is employed some further coding may be necessary to define the components of the dot matrix printer which are to be actuated to actually form the character required.
• the present invention differs from that in the United Kingdom specification 2066534 in the manner in which, once a character is identified, information as to how to actually draw the character is extracted. For purposes of the following explanation, it will be assumed that each character is represented by points in a matrix of elements sixteen units wide and sixteen units high.
• the memory is addressed to give the start and end point of each element in the character, referenced in some prede ⁇ termined fashion.
• the start and end point of each element may thus be spe ⁇ cified.
• the visual display device would then operate to effect a display joining the start and end points of each element thereby to effect drawing of a character.
• an ink-jet printer is employed for example the same data could be used dir ⁇ ectly to control the movement of the ink-jet to draw each element.
• This embodiment of the present invention is essentially characterised in that, instead of storing full data for drawing each character separately when it is accessed by calling up the particular code train therefor, the processing means of the present invention is provided with a memory organised with three separate stores.
• each character with a given alphanumeric code train is decomposed into its components, or sometimes called radicals.
• each radical may have different sizes and occupy different position in a character. This increases the number of components which need to be taken account of in drawing Chinese characters to approximately 0 six hundred in number. Each such component is given a number w in the memory.
• the alphanumeric code train is augmented by a set of w.
• the character A ⁇ 43323222 may be assigned two numbers w.. and w 2 corresponding to the component ] and JS.
• the whole character will be treated as a component and stored as stroke elements so that character writing proceeds by by-passing this first store and proceeding directly to the second store.
• the second store is where data are given on the positional location of at least one point on each element included in the components of a character, as well as identifying for each such element, a code is also stored indicating which of a number of variant forms of the element in question needs to be used to effect drawing of the particular character concerned.
• the third store provides data as to how to draw each variant form of element.
• Figure 3 shows the five elements used in accordance with the invention of United Kingdom patent specifica ⁇ tion 2066534 used for forming the code trains used in identifying characters and, for each such element variant forms are shown, being described by a number of points in the sixteen by sixteen grid aforementioned. However, for convenience of representation here, the whole of each grid is not shown in each instance.
• the aforementioned third store has a bank of data as to how to form each variant of each element which is likely to be encountered in practice. In fact, with Chinese characters there are a limited number of such variant forms. For example in the example shown in Figure 3 the element having the greatest number of variant forms, that identified by the alphanumeric by 2 has only sixteen different forms.
• the set of variant forms illustrated in Figure 3 is adequate to enable representation of substantially all Chinese characters.*
• Xi. , i_s the horizontal location of a start point of the i element in the code train representing the character.
• Y. c tes the start vertical point for t represents a variant form of the i drawing the character in question.
• the first of the two radicals of the Chinese character illustrated therein has the identifying code train 43, and when this code train is inputted to the first store of the memory that memory outputs (Xm , Y, , ⁇ m ⁇ X ⁇ , 2 , 2 ) as the alphanumerics (6, 13, 4; 5, 11, 8) as shown in Figure 4.
• the processing means of the apparatus of the invention is able to retrieve the variant forms for each of the elements as represented in this particular example by the numbers "4 and 8" for the respective fourth and third kinds of element, to enable a full set of data for drawing the elements in the character to be concerned to be retrieved.
• the code numbers 6, 13 and 5, 11 indicate the start positions for drawing each of the elements in the character.
• Figure 4 also shows the second radical of the Chinese character example for representing the Chinese character having the code train 323222 as shown.
• the above processing operations are summarised with reference to Figure 7, where the first, second and third memory stores are designated by reference numerals 26, 28 and 30 respectfully.
• the memory store 26 is shown as storing, for each possible code train C Q , the corresponding components w-. , >.... (or radicals) which make up the character so identified..
• the memory store 28 is shown as storing, for each of the possible component w n ....w , the general instructions for forming each element (or stroke) thereof, each element being generally described, in the input train and thus in the part of the train designating the relevant component, by respective numbers 1 to 5.
• the instructions for forming each element in store 28 are stored as the aforementioned sets of X,, Y. , Z....X , Y , Z , where the X., Z. designate start points of the elements and the Z. indicate the variant forms of the elements to be used.
• the memory store 30 is shown as receiving the Z. data from the store 28 as well as the element designations from the input train. Memory store 30 provides, for each combination of such identifications, data for forming the identified element variation.
• the aforementioned example involving retrieval of data for forming the character A__ is further illustrated in Figure 7 by indications therein of all of the memory locations involved in storage of data for forming the first component of that character, and some of those involved in storage of data for forming the second component thereof.
• the third memory store needs only store data describing the limited number of variant element forms which are necessary to form characters and the first and second stores need contain a substantially less amount of data than would be necessary in accordance with pr-Tor practice for fully specifying the form of the each character.
• the arrangement in accordance with this invention has the particular advantage that by increasing the number of variant forms for each element which are stored it is simple to provide a facility of the apparatus to print a wide variety of different fonts.
• fonts include fonts where the variation in stroke width naturally occurring when representing Chinese characters by brush is duplicate.
• the data in the second memory store would include data as to the locations of points around the periphery of each stroke.
• a reference grid of greater than 16 x 16 is preferred in this instance.
• the keys of the keyboard includes keys (as shown in Figure 2) which when depressed provide input of codes for multiple elements.
• keys as shown in Figure 2
• a skilled operator may thus select combinations of codes to give parts of the code trains in a fashion minimising the need to use the keys for input of single code alphanumerics (i.e. for input of single alphanumerics) and by this means can achieve a very satisfactory operating speed.
• the water radical y is represented by 114
• the radical is represented by 2314
• the combination -p is represented by 23. So the exemplary character mentioned above can be typed as:
• a "select" key may be provided on the operator keyboard so that after keying in the full code and pressing the select key the character which is not displayed when the full code is inputted will then be displayed.
• Table 2 shows how ambiguities arising from omission of skipping of singlets, in accordance with the inven ⁇ tion, are resolved.
• 1123 1 23 - x Here, three sets of characters, the first having three characters and the second and third sets having two characters and their full code trains are shown.
• the code trains where all elements are represented differ, the contracted code obtained when the multiple stroke keys 124, 23 were used for inputting the corresponding contracted code trains would each be the same.
• the operator may memorise different truncated code trains as shown under the column "IMPROVED CODE TRAIN" and the processing means would then be response to identify the characters in accordance with these. Similar ambiguities which might arise from omission of singlets in the second and third pairs of characters shown in Table 2 would be avoided by memorising these rules for the particular characters concerned.
• the resolution between possibly ambigu ⁇ ously represented characters can come about by- fa) using different multi stroke keys where under particular circumstances, such as using ⁇ 3_ or 231 and/or (b) by keeping one or more single stroke keys, such as "1" in Table 2 either at the end or at the beginning.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• Document Processing Apparatus (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=3700755

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (2)

Families Citing this family (6)

Family Cites Families (12)

• 1986
  • 1986-03-27 WO PCT/AU1986/000082 patent/WO1986005905A1/en unknown
  • 1986-03-27 EP EP19860902279 patent/EP0215929A1/de not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (1)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events