JP2001147764A - Character input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent generation of input errors and to provide convenient operability which does not require conscious attention by an input operator, by reducing the number of times of depressing keys and the number of times of moving between keys at inputting of characters and allowing the input operator to check a character to be inputted before entering it into a character input device allowing plural characters to correspond to one key. SOLUTION: Since a key touch detection means 1 for detecting human touch is added to the surface of each key on a key input means 3, a control means 6 displays a character to be inputted on a 2nd display means 5, on the basis of a detection signal from the means 1 at the moment that an operator's finger makes contact with a key to depress it in order to prevent the generation of an input miss, and when the key is depressed, the character displayed on the 2nd display means 5 is displayed on a 1st display means 4 to settle it as an input character.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character input device having key input means for inputting by pressing a key and display means for displaying input characters.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a character input device performs input by pressing a key corresponding to a character desired by an input user. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, mobile phones allow characters to be input with a small number of keys by assigning a plurality of characters such as alphabets and kana other than numbers to numeric keys used for conventional dials. In such a character input device, since a plurality of characters correspond to one key, the input user successively presses the same key, so that the characters assigned according to the number of times of pressing are sequentially changed. The characters are switched and displayed, and the input character is selected by pressing the character determination key while the character to be input is displayed. Generally, in order to save the trouble of pressing the character confirmation key, an arrow key for moving the input position to the left or right is used instead, or the previous input is confirmed when a key different from the previously pressed key is pressed. .

[0003] As an example, in the case of inputting a kana reading "Ishii", when the "1" key to which a line (a, i, u, e, o) is assigned is pressed once, "a" is displayed, Pressing it again displays the next character, "i". Here, when the “3” key to which the line (sa, si, su, se, se) is assigned is pressed, the first character is “a”.
Is determined, and “sa” is displayed as the second character. Subsequently, when the “3” key is pressed again, the display becomes “Ishi”, and when the “1” key is pressed, “Ishi” is determined and “Ishia” is displayed, and when the “1” key is pressed again, “Ishi” Finally, pressing the character confirmation key confirms the input of “Issue”. In this case, it is assumed that the character type (number, alphabet, kana, etc.) displayed when the key is pressed has been changed to kana.

When a character string composed of only characters in the same group (line A), such as "Oe", is input, the second character "O" must be determined unless the first character "O" is determined. Cannot be input, the "1" key must be pressed a plurality of times to display the first character "o", and then the character confirmation key or the right arrow key must be pressed. Similarly, to input the third character "E", the second character "O"
Is displayed, it is necessary to press a key other than the “1” key in order to confirm it. Therefore, every time one character of the "1" key and the key for confirmation is input, two or more keys are depressed alternately.

In the "character input device" described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-28086, it is possible to measure the key press time and, if it is longer than a predetermined time, confirm the selected character and perform the next character input. In addition, there is no need to press a key for character confirmation. However, since the pressing time differs depending on the input person, the character is incorrectly determined when selecting the character slowly, or the pressing time until the determination is too long,
There is a problem that input takes too long.

In these character input devices, it is necessary to depress the key a plurality of times (here, five times) in order to input the first character "O" when inputting the above-mentioned "Oe". The number of consecutive presses of the same key is also initialized at the stage of inputting the second character "o", so a single key press selects "a", and the key must be pressed multiple times. . As the psychology of the input person, when continuously inputting the character selected by himself, the repetition of the same selection operation is troublesome, and the burden of the burden is often felt.

If the input user does not press a key after recognizing the character type to be input beforehand, an unexpected character is input. After that, the erroneous input character is deleted, the character type is switched, and the input is performed again. Will do. Since the input user is troublesome in such a trouble, conscious attention is required at the time of input.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to provide a character input device which is easy for an input user to use. It is another object of the present invention to enable a conventional input operation without requiring a conscious attention of an input user, and to enable confirmation of characters to be input in advance at the time of key input. Another object is to prevent erroneous input and improve the operability of the character input device.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character input device comprising: a key input means comprising a plurality of key groups for inputting characters by pressing; and a first display means for displaying input characters. A character input device provided on each surface of a key group of the key input means for detecting a contact with a human body; and displaying a character to be inputted based on a detection signal of the key contact detection means. By providing the second display means, it is possible to detect that a key has been touched before inputting by pressing the key, and to confirm a character to be input in advance.

[0010] The character input device according to the second aspect is the first aspect.
In the character input device described above, when the second display unit detects a plurality of key contacts from the key contact detection unit, a character corresponding to a key that first detects the contact is displayed, whereby a plurality of Appropriate display is performed even when a key is touched. According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character input device.
In the character input device described above, when a key different from the key corresponding to the character displayed on the second display means is pressed,
The second display means displays the character corresponding to the pressed key, and the first display means does not display the input character, thereby preventing the input user from being confused by an input different from the display for confirmation.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character input device.
4. The character input device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: a timer for generating an interrupt signal when a detection signal of said key contact detection means has disappeared and a predetermined time has elapsed.
The display means starts display when the detection signal from the key contact detection means is generated, and erases the display based on the interrupt signal, so that even when the user does not actually input by simply touching the key. Erase the display so that the meaningless display does not continue.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character input device.
5. The character input device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said key input means is assigned a plurality of characters to one key as a group, and said second display means is said key contact detection means by operating the same key. The characters in the group are sequentially switched and displayed according to the number of consecutive occurrences of the detection signal from the first display means, and the character displayed on the second display means when the key is pressed is determined as the determined input character by the first display means. By displaying, it is possible to determine the character without moving the finger to another key for character determination as well as reducing the number of key presses.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an external view of a mobile phone embodying the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a key contact detecting means comprising a touch sensor or the like for detecting contact with a human body; , A key input means for inputting numbers, kana, etc. by pressing a key, a first display means comprising a liquid crystal or the like for displaying input characters and the like, a character information to be input, Is a control means. The first display means 4 is based on information input from the key input means 3.
Such as displaying the character information on the second display means 5 based on the detection signal from the key contact detection means 1 or deleting the display on the second display means 5 based on the interrupt signal of the timer 2. Do. Reference numeral 11 denotes an antenna, reference numeral 12 denotes a speaker, reference numeral 13 denotes a microphone. The key contact detection means 1 is attached to the surface of each key of the key input means 3 and sends a detection signal to the control means 6 for each key. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an input character selection procedure in the control means 6. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen at the time of character input.

The character input procedure in the portable telephone according to the present embodiment will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS. The operation in the case where the input user inputs "Oe" in the name using the telephone directory registration function of the mobile phone will be described below. Current,
Assuming that the display is in the phonebook registration screen and the input mode is automatically set to the kana input mode, the display screen is in an input standby state in which an inverted cursor is displayed at the input position as shown in FIG. It is in.

The control means 6 first checks in step S1 whether or not there is an interrupt signal from the timer 2 in step S1. The timer 2 outputs an interrupt signal when a predetermined time elapses after the timer is started (that is, after the finger is separated from the key). At this stage, the timer is not started and no interrupt signal is output. Therefore, the determination is false and the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, the presence / absence of a key contact detection signal is checked. Since the input person has not touched the key yet, the result is false, the process returns to step S1, and the same procedure is repeated until the key contact detection signal is detected.

When the input user touches the "1" key to which a line (a, i, u, e, o) is assigned to input the first character "o", the key contact on the key surface is detected. Means 1
a detects the contact and sends a detection signal to the control means 6,
Move to step S6. Here, it is checked whether the value of the key continuous contact count COUNT is 0 or not. Since the initial value of COUNT is set to 0 and becomes true, the process proceeds to step S9. In step S9, 1 is added to the value of COUNT, and the result is replaced by the remainder obtained by dividing by the number MAX (here, 5) of characters assigned to the key. As a result, the value of COUNT becomes 1, and step S1
The second display means 5 displays the COUNT-th character (here, the first character “A”) among the characters assigned to the key at 0. In the kana input mode, the characters of the row A are sequentially assigned to the "1" key, the first being "A" and the second being "A".
And so on up to the fifth character "o". The second display means 5 displays the first character "A" together with a display frame at the lower part of the display screen of the first display means 4, as shown in FIG. Here, in order to effectively utilize the entire display screen, the display frame displayed by the second display means 5 is not always displayed, and the display is started when there is a detection signal from the key contact detection means 1, and the timer interrupt signal is output. Is erased for each display frame based on. In addition, by displaying additional information (input mode, character type, and the like) on the characters to be displayed, the input user can easily confirm the characters.

If the input person does not press the key and keeps his / her finger off the key, the character is displayed in step S10, a key contact detection signal is detected in step S11, and the process proceeds to step S13. In step S13, it is determined that the key has been pressed.
Returning to step S11, the same processing is repeated. The input user does not press the key until the character to be input is displayed by the second display means 5, releases the finger touching the key from the key, and repeats touching the key again. That is, since "A" displayed on the second display means 5 is not "O" to be input, once release the finger from the key.
Then, since there is no key contact detection signal in step S11, the process proceeds to step S12, starts a timer, and returns to step S1. If the input user immediately touches the "1" key again, the timer interrupt signal cannot be detected since the timer has just been started, and the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, a key contact detection signal is detected, and the process proceeds to step S6. Since the value of COUNT is 1 (COUNT ≠ 0), the process proceeds to step S7, where it is determined whether the key whose key contact detection unit 1 has detected the touch is the same as the key detected last time (whether the detection signal is the same). I do. Since the detection signal of the “1” key 1a is the same as that of the previous time, the process proceeds to step S9 and COUNT is set to 2
, And the second character "i" is displayed in step S10. The same procedure is repeated, and when the number of consecutive key touches COUNT reaches 5, at step S10, as shown in FIG.
Display the second character "o". Up to this point, only the display on the second display means 5 has changed, the display on the first display means 4 has not changed, and no actual character input is performed.

Subsequently, the input person presses the "1" key touched by the finger while the character displayed on the second display means 5 is the character to be input. In step S11, since the key is kept touching, a key contact detection signal is detected, and the process proceeds to step S13. Since the key is pressed, the process proceeds to step S14. In step S14, it is determined whether the same key as the key of the key contact detection signal has been pressed. Here, since they are the same key ("1" key), the process proceeds to step S15, where the character "o" displayed by the second display means 5 is displayed by the first display means 4, and is determined as an input character. Then, as shown in FIG. 4D, "O" is input at the position where the cursor is located on the display screen, the cursor moves to the right side, and the system waits for input of the next character. Step S
After inputting No. 15, the process returns to step S11.

Since the input user should input the same character "o" as the first character as the second character, after pressing the key, he / she presses the key again without releasing the finger from the key. In step S11, a key contact detection signal is detected, and in step S13, the process proceeds to step S14 in order to detect key depression. In step S14, since the same key as the key contact detection signal is pressed, the process proceeds to step S15, and the character "o" displayed by the second display means 5 is input as the second character. As shown in FIG. 4 (e), "o" is input for the second character, the cursor moves to the third character, and the input waits.

Next, the input person once releases his / her finger from the "1" key to input "E" as the third character. Step S1
In step 1, since the key contact detection signal cannot be detected, the process moves to step S12, starts the timer, and returns to step S1. If the finger touches the "1" key 1a again within a predetermined time after starting the timer, a key contact detection signal is detected in step S5, and the process proceeds to step S6. Since the value of COUNT is 5, the process proceeds to step S7, and since the same key contact detection signal is detected, the process proceeds to step S9. When 1 is added to the value of COUNT, COUNT becomes 6, but is replaced by 1 which is the remainder of dividing by 5 of MAX.

If a predetermined time has elapsed after the timer is started, the character and display frame displayed by the second display means 5 are erased in step S2 to detect a timer interrupt signal in step S1. Then, step S3
Resets the COUNT to 0, stops the timer in step S4, and moves to step S5. Thereafter, when the "1" key 1a is touched, the process proceeds to step S6. Since COUNT is 0, the process proceeds to step S9, and the value of COUNT becomes 1. That is,
When the input user continuously touches the same key, release the key and touch the key within a predetermined time to display the next character after the previous display character, and return to the first character after the display of the last character If the key is touched after a predetermined time has elapsed after the finger is released from the key, the display frame that has been erased is displayed and the first character assigned to the key is displayed.

In step S10, since the COUNT is 1, the first character "A" is displayed by the second display means 5. The input person repeats contact and non-contact without pressing the “1” key, and presses the “1” key when the display character becomes “D”. In step S11, a key contact detection signal is detected. In step S13, a key press is detected.
In step S15, the character "d" displayed on the second display means 5 is changed to "3" as shown in FIG. 4 (f) in order to determine whether the same key ("1" key) as the key contact detection signal is pressed. Entered in the letter.

As described above, when "Oe" is input,
The input user can input by pressing only the “1” key, and the number of key presses is only three. The number of key contacts is nine,
Even in combination with key press, input is possible by ten operations. In the conventional character input device, "1" key five times, character determination key once, "1" key five times for the same input,
One press of the character determination key, four presses of the "1" key, and one press of the character determination key are required, requiring two keys and a total of 17 key presses. Therefore, with the character input device of the present invention, the burden on the input by the input person is greatly reduced.

Next, a case where "Ota" is input instead of "Oe" will be described. After inputting up to the second character as in the case of "Oe", in the state of FIG. 4 (e), the input person inputs characters of the line (ta, j,
Press the "4" key to which "T, T, G" is assigned. In step S5, a detection signal of the key contact detection means 1b is detected, and the process proceeds to step S6. Since COUNT is 5, the result is false, and the process proceeds to step S7. The previous key contact detection signal is for the "1" key 1a, and this time is false since the key contact detection signal for the "4" key 1b has been detected, and the process proceeds to step S8. In step S8, the value of COUNT is initialized to 0 because the same key is not touched as in the previous time. Accordingly, in step S9, the value of COUNT becomes 1, and in step S10, the first character "ta" of the characters in the ta line assigned to the "4" key is displayed by the second display means 5. In step S10, a key contact detection signal is detected. In step S13, a key press is detected.
Move on to In step S14, it is determined that the same key ("4" key) as the key contact detection signal is pressed, and
"Ta" is entered as the character, and "ota" can be entered.

If the user touches the "4" key and presses the key while touching the "1" key at the time of inputting the third character, the control means 6 sends a plurality of key contact detection means ( 1a and 1b), but only the first key contact detection means 1a detects the detection signal, and step S1 is performed.
In step 1, since the detection signal of the key contact detection means 1a is continuously detected, the process proceeds to step S13. In step S13, a key press is detected, and the flow advances to step S14. In step S14, the key contact detection signal is the output of the "1" key 1a, and the key depression is "4" key 1b, so that the result is false, and the process proceeds to step S16. In step S16, the first character "ta" of the pressed "4" key is displayed by the second display means 5, and the process returns to step S11. Therefore, the display of the first display means 4 does not change by pressing the key here, and no input is performed. Only the character displayed by the second display means 5 is changed from "o" to "ta". This is to prevent a character different from the display character that the input user is confirming from being input.

As described above, the input user can input characters by an operation method similar to the conventional input operation, and can confirm the characters to be input before inputting. Good operability is obtained. In this embodiment, a backlight is provided, and the second display means 5 of step S10 is provided.
The backlight may be turned on in conjunction with the start of the display by (1), and the backlight may be turned off together with the display erasure in step S2.

In addition to the characters to be input, the display of the second display means 5 displays, for example, "dial" when a call key is touched when dialing, or a call which also serves as a registration key when registering a telephone directory. When the key is touched, a sentence explaining the operation content such as “Register the above content” may be displayed. In this embodiment, the description has been given of the mobile phone. However, the present invention is not limited to the mobile phone, and may be applied to various mobile information terminals such as a PDA.

[0028]

As described above, according to the character input device of the first aspect of the present invention, the input user can confirm the input character by display before the actual input is performed at the time of key input,
Incorrect input can be prevented. According to the character input device of the second aspect, even when the input user unintentionally touches a plurality of keys, an appropriate display is performed, so that confusion at the time of input character confirmation can be avoided.

According to the character input device of the third aspect, since the input characters different from the characters displayed on the second display means are not displayed on the first display means, confusion of the input person can be avoided. According to the character input device of the fourth aspect, when the input user unintentionally touches a key other than at the time of key input, or when the user does not want to perform an actual input simply by touching the key, the cancellation is performed. The display is automatically deleted without pressing a key or the like, and it is possible to return to the state before the operation.

According to the character input device of the fifth aspect, an operation of pressing the same key a plurality of times to select a character can be performed.
It is possible to lightly replace the number of times the key is touched with a finger, and to determine the character without moving the finger to another key to determine the character, so that the burden of inputting by the input person can be reduced Become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the mobile phone according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an input character selection procedure according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a display screen at the time of character input according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Key contact detection means (key surface) 1a Key contact detection means ("1" key surface) 1b Key contact detection means ("4" key surface) 2 Timer 3 Key input means 4 First display means 5 Second display means 6 Control means 11 Antenna 12 Speaker 13 Microphone

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A character input device comprising: a key input means comprising a plurality of key groups for inputting characters by pressing down; and a first display means for displaying the input characters, wherein each surface of the key group of the key input means is provided. A key contact detecting means for detecting contact with a human body, and a second character display means for displaying a character to be inputted based on a detection signal of the key contact detecting means.
A character input device comprising a display means. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second display means displays a character corresponding to a key which first detects a touch when said key touch detection means detects a touch of a plurality of keys. A character input device as described. 3. When a key different from a key corresponding to a character displayed on the second display means is pressed, the second display means displays a character corresponding to the pressed key, and the first display means 3. The character input device according to claim 2, wherein the input character is not displayed. 4. A timer for generating an interrupt signal when a predetermined time elapses after the detection signal of said key touch detection means has disappeared, and said second display means is provided with a detection signal from said key touch detection means. 4. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein display is started, and the display is erased based on the interrupt signal. 5. The key input means, wherein a plurality of characters are assigned to one key as a group, and the second display means responds to the number of consecutive occurrences of a detection signal from the key contact detection means by the same key operation. The characters in the group are sequentially switched and displayed, and when a key is pressed, the character displayed on the second display means is displayed as a fixed input character on the first display means. The character input device according to claim 1.