GB2261403A

GB2261403A - Keyboard for typing in more than one language

Info

Publication number: GB2261403A
Application number: GB9110495A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Michael Timothy Knowles
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1991-05-15
Filing date: 1991-05-15
Publication date: 1993-05-19
Also published as: GB9110495D0

Abstract

This multi-language keyboard, for personal computers, includes keys (within the normal four rows of keys of a QWERTY keyboard) which are permanently designated to various accents, punctuation marks and variant characters such as to enable the machine to be used for generating text in at least two languages whose alphabets are related but not identical. It is stated that the invention is more utilitous for the purposes of exporters, teachers and translation agencies etc. etc. than a computer with macros or numerical character codes. <IMAGE>

Description

MULTI-LANGUAGE COMPUTER KEYBOARD ~*~ INTRODUCTION This invention relates to a new computer keyboard layout designed to facilitate anglo-european business correspondence.

DESCRIPTION Mainframe and personal computers, as well as dedicated wordprocessing systems, are well-known items of office equipment, already subject to extensive standardisation and available with numerous so-called National Keyboard Layouts. By this means, the same computer can be sold by a manufacturer in many countries without major modifications to the hardware. The adaptation of the keyboard to the layout prevailing in the market concerned is effected by changing the key-caps on a standard keyboard, and supplying a keyboard driver programme which interprets the keypresses of a given key-cap layout into code, which in turn causes the appropriate signal to be transmitted to the programme running on the machine and the correct character to appear on the screen.

Each National Keyboard Layout is conceived to enable users of the language(s) of that national market conveniently to produce text in those language(s). Its layout is a function of the frequency of occurrence of the letters and of the sequences of key-presses to create the words of the language(s). Although most countries have only one language, certain countries e.g. Switzerland and Belgium have two or more, which the relevant National Keyboard Layout must be capable of producing. All such National Keyboard Layouts are however designed for the production of the languages in use within the country where the equipment is marketed.

The essentially different feature of the current invention is that it is designed specifically to enable companies and persons within the United Kingdom to produce the languages of export markets, i.e. countries other than the country of origin. This is achieved by appropriate selection of key-caps, to cover the range of characters required for the stated purpose. The key-cap layout of the new keyboard is shown in figure 1.

DESCRIPTION The invention can be applied simply to any commercially-available computer or text-processor keyboard. The essence of the invention is the method of obtaining improved operational convenience of existing equipment for the specified purpose.

The present invention enables persons accustomed to UK-English text-processing conventions to produce and/or modify business correspondence in the six major European languages. The invention is also particularly intended for simple intervention in textfiles created by commercial translation agencies, by company personnel with a lower level of competence in the language concerned than that of the mother-tongue translator who created the original document. Such textfiles are sent from translation agency to the company computer system incorporating the invention (i.e. the new keyboard) over a conventional telephone line/modem link using any commercially-available filetransfer procedure. The entire procedure here described forms a Language Management System" ( c 1990), already copyrighted by the present Applicant.

The invention here described has been evolved with UK membership of the European Common Market in mind. It addresses a national problem: with it, UK-based companies will be better able to trade with European businesses in their own languages, on the eve of the creation of the Single European Market in 1992.

In view of its intended purpose, the new keyboard is based on the UK-English layout, so that it can be used without significant retraining by persons accustomed to the standard UK keyboard. The principal operational difference between it and the standard UK keyboard is the need to press the "alt" or shift keys to produce numerals and special characters, as in other national keyboards.

Claims

1) Current personal computers, mainframes and dedicated word processors are capable of producing a wide variety of char acters used in European languages but not commonly used in English. Using a machine adapted for English, it is possible but troublesome to produce these characters by means of the numerical (ASCII) codes for each. Since this is inconvenient it is seldom done in commercial practice. This new invention renders easy what is at present difficult and inconvenient.

2) Office EDP (electronic data-processing) equipment is gener ally marketed with keyboard layouts adapted to the language (or languages) of the national market where the product is sold. This invention has a distinctly different purpose; it is intended to be used in the UK market to produce text in the languages of a number of other national markets.

3) The invention renders it possible for a company with one such keyboard, typically located in its export department, to send out correspondence to all major European countries in the language of the market, whether the text be created at the company premises or at a remote site, e.g. by a com mercial translation agency.

4) The keyboard is flexible in that it can be used by a number of people, each with appropriate language skills. Therefore a company may correspond with a number of export markets in the language of the market concerned, while using only one such keyboard. This is simpler and more economical than to instal a number of separate foreign national keyboards.

SUMMARY OF FEATURES PROVIDED: The special foreign characters provided in the invention, (i.e.

additional to those used in the English language) are summarised hereunder: 1) FRENCH: The acute, grave and circumflex accents, as well as the cedilla and tremas signs, are produced by pressing keys with appropriate visible symbols on the key-cap concerned. The circumflex and tremas signs are produced by a multiple-press method, a combination of an accent key and the letter to be modified, including the capital E acute, the only capital letter normally accented in French.

2) GERMAN: The umlauted vowels in both upper and lower case, and the "Sharp S" symbol, are obtained from key presses in the "German" area to the right of the board, where the ? and ! marks are also located.

3) The Multi-language keyboard also incorporates the full range of characters needed for working with the operating system.

3) ITALIAN: The only special characters in Italian are vowels with a descending stress-mark. These are produced by the multiple-press method using the special key mentioned under FRENCH above.

4) SPANISH: The special characters in Spanish are the rising stress-mark applied to vowels, which is obtained as in Italian and French by a multiple-press of the special key followed by the vowel concerned, and the tilde sign. This is only applied to the N in upper and lower case, and a special key for it is located below the German special characters and marked clearly with the complete character.

5) DUTCH: The only special character in Dutch, the ij, is written or printed as an "umlauted" y. This is obtained by a multiple-press, of the separate tremas (from French) followed by the character y.

6) OTHERS: The characters obtainable as above are sufficient for certain other languages, for example Finnish, which uses the characters of the German language.

ESSENTIAL COMPLEMETARY INFORMATION: 1) The invention herein described requires for its operation with a computer or text-processing system a suitable Key board Driver Program, which however, is outside the scope of the present application.

2) The signal input from the keyboard/driver combination enters e.g. the word-processing program in use on the computer, and when it is desired to print the textfile so created, this is possible with most ink-jet and laser-beam printers available on the international market which incorporate user-specified character sets. It is only necessary to set the printer used to produce the ISO character set and also to ensure that the Printer Driver programme in use is capable of generating the full range of codes required so to operate the said printer.