JP2006120000A - Information processor, method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to retrieve a fixed phrase or sentence including a plurality of his desired words by performing a simple operation that does not take time. <P>SOLUTION: The user uses an operating part 31 to direct designate a plurality of respective words in one sentence or more displayed on a display part 32 on a screen regardless of the continuous arrangement or discontinuous arrangement of the sentences. Then, a recognizing part 34 recognizes a plurality of words designated by the user on the basis of operation contents of the operating part 31 and notifies a retrieving part 35 of the recognition result. The retrieving part 35 retrieves a fixed phrase and an example including the plurality of notified words or text about them from a dictionary storing part 36 and supplies the fixed phase or the example or the text to a display control part 33. The display control part 33 displays the supplied fixed phrase and example or text about them on the display part 32. This invention is applicable to an information processor having a dictionary function. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, method, and program, and in particular, an information processing apparatus, method, and program capable of realizing search for a phrase or sentence including a plurality of words desired by a user with a simple and time-consuming operation. About.

  In recent years, digitization of dictionaries has progressed. That is, in recent years, information processing apparatuses having a dictionary function have been widely used. Such an information processing apparatus is disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, for example.

“E-Book Reader EBR-100MS Instruction Manual”, published by Sony Corporation on March 1, 2004

  However, in the conventional technology such as Non-Patent Document 1, for example, when the user wants to find a word group that seems to be a phrase in the text displayed on the screen and wants to examine its meaning and usage, There was a problem that a complicated and time-consuming operation was required.

  Specifically, for example, the user has found a group of words such as “in” and “front of” from the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” On the display screen. Suppose that the “in front of” consisting of is considered a possible phrase and we wanted to investigate the meaning of the “in front of”. In this case, in the conventional technology such as Non-Patent Document 1, it is necessary to take a long procedure such as the following procedure 1 to procedure 9, which causes such a problem.

  Hereinafter, the procedures 1 to 9 will be described with reference to FIGS. That is, FIGS. 1 to 9 show examples of screens displayed by the information processing apparatus disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1 when a user operation such as procedure 1 to procedure 9 described later is performed.

  1 to 9, one or more sentences (sentences) about a predetermined word, phrase, or example are mainly displayed in the display area 1 of the display screen. Hereinafter, a sentence (sentence group) composed of one or more sentences about a predetermined word, phrase, or example is referred to as a text. A display area in which the text is displayed, such as the display area 1, is referred to as a text display area. A display area 2 below the text display area 1 displays words, phrases, and the like targeted by the text. Hereinafter, a word or phrase that is the subject of the text is referred to as an item, and a display area in which the item is displayed, such as the display area 2, is referred to as an item name display column. Specifically, for example, in the screen of FIG. 1, an item “in the front” is displayed in the item name display field 2, and a text about “in the front” is displayed in the text display area 1. .

  1 to 9, especially in FIGS. 3 and 7, the display area 3 of the display screen displays a list in which one or more words, phrases or examples are listed as will be described later. Is done. Hereinafter, such a list is referred to as a corresponding list, and the display area 3 in which the corresponding list is displayed is referred to as a corresponding list display area.

  The procedure 1 means that when the screen of FIG. 1 is displayed, the user looks at the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom” in the third and fourth lines of the text display area 1. Among them, a word group such as “in” and “front of” is found, and “in front of” consisting of these word groups indicates a procedure until it is determined that there is a possibility of a phrase.

  The procedure 2 means that the user shifts the operation mode of the information processing apparatus to the jump mode, and “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” Displayed in the text display area 1 as shown in FIG. "In the sentence" "refers to the procedure until the word" in "is highlighted.

  The jump mode refers to an operation mode that makes it possible to change the target of the text displayed in the text display area 1 from the current target to another target. Hereinafter, updating the display content (text) in the text display area 1 from the text for the item A to the text for the item B is referred to as jumping from the item A to the item B. Specifically, for example, in the example of FIGS. 1 and 2, the text for the item “in the front” displayed in the item name display field 2 is displayed in the text display area 1. Therefore, the information processing apparatus shifts the operation mode to the jump mode, thereby changing the display content of the text display area 1 from the text about “in the front”, for example, “in” shown in FIG. Can be updated to the body, ie jump from “in the front” to “in”. In the information processing apparatus disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, when the user presses the jump key, the operation mode shifts to the jump mode.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the procedure 3 is to display a corresponding list including “in” itself or English words including “in” in the corresponding list display area 3 when the user performs a predetermined operation. Refers to the procedure up to In the information processing apparatus disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, a pressing operation of a “decision” key is defined as the predetermined operation.

  Step 4 means that the user performs a predetermined operation to jump the display content of the text display area 1 from the item “in the front” (its text) to the item “in” (its text). Refers to the procedure up to In the information processing apparatus disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, as the predetermined operation, a predetermined item is specified by moving the cursor shown as the finger symbol 4 in FIG. 3 up and down by pressing the up / down / left / right key. After that, it is specified that the “determine” key is pressed. For example, when the cursor (finger symbol 4) is placed to the left of the item “in” displayed at the top of the corresponding list display area 3 in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the “in” is displayed in the item name display field 2, and the text about the “in” is displayed in the text display area 1.

  As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the procedure 5 is until the user finds the character string “in front of” by scrolling the text of “in” displayed in the text display area 1. It is a procedure.

  However, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the character string “in front of” does not exist in the text of “in” displayed in the text display area 1. Therefore, the user cannot find “in front of” in the end even if the procedure 5 is performed. Therefore, this time, the user has to perform the same procedure as procedure 2 to procedure 5 for “front” in “in front of”. The procedure of the operation is the following procedure 6 to procedure 9.

  That is, the procedure 6 is shown in FIG. 6 after the user performs an operation to return to the first screen, that is, the screen in which the text about “in the front” is displayed in the text display area 1. Thus, it refers to the procedure until the word “front” in the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom” displayed in the text display area 1 is highlighted.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the procedure 7 indicates that the user presses the “decision key” to display a corresponding list including “front” itself or English words including “front” as an item in the corresponding list display area 3. Refers to the procedure until the display.

  In step 8, the user performs the same operation as in step 4 to change the target of the text displayed in the text display area 1 from the previous item “in the front” (its text) to “front”. This refers to the procedure for jumping to the item (its body). For example, in the state where the cursor (finger symbol 4) is placed on the left side of the item “front” displayed at the top in the corresponding list display area 3 in FIG. As shown in FIG. 8, the “front” is displayed in the item name display field 2, and the text about the “front” is displayed in the text display area 1.

  As shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, the procedure 9 is until the user finds the character string “in front of” by scrolling the text of “front” displayed in the text display area 1. It is a procedure.

  In the text about “front” displayed in the text display area 1 of FIGS. 8 and 9, there is a text related to “in front of” as shown in FIG. 9. Therefore, the user can finally find “in front of” by performing the above-described operations from Procedure 1 to Procedure 9.

  As an operation mode of the information processing apparatus disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, the following modes are mounted in addition to the jump mode described above. That is, the user operates the input device such as a keyboard using the item name display field 2 described above as an input area, and, for example, connects a plurality of words with “&” to the input area 2. In this case, when a corresponding list including phrases and examples including a plurality of input words is displayed in the corresponding list display area 3, and then the user performs an operation similar to the above-described procedure 4 and procedure 8, A mode (hereinafter referred to as “manual input search mode”) for displaying the text of the phrase or example specified by the text in the text display area 1 is mounted as one of the operation modes of the information processing apparatus disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1. ing.

  Therefore, by using the manual input search mode, the user operates a keyboard or other input device to input a character string such as “in & front & of” into the input area 2, so that “in front of "Can also be displayed in the text display area 1.

  However, when using this manual input search mode, it is essential for the user to perform complicated and time-consuming operations such as manually inputting words and “&” character by character using an input device such as a keyboard. Eventually, the above-mentioned problems arise. In particular, this problem becomes more prominent when the number of input words increases or the number of characters constituting the word increases.

  Furthermore, the above-described problem occurs not only for the dictionary function, but also for the entire search function for searching for sentences and sentence components (phrase etc.) including a plurality of words desired by the user. For example, when a user reads a novel or the like using an information processing apparatus having an electronic book function, the above-described problem occurs when searching for a sentence including words such as characters from the novel. become.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and makes it possible to realize a search for a phrase or sentence including a plurality of words desired by a user with a simple and time-consuming operation. is there.

  The information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a display control unit that controls display of one or more sentences on a predetermined display device, and one or more of the sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the display control unit. From the operation means in which the first operation for directly specifying each of the plurality of words is performed by the user and the contents of the first operation of the operation means by the user, the plurality of words specified by the user are recognized And a sentence or sentence including all of a plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from among one or more sentence or sentence components recorded in advance on a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device. The display control means controls display of the sentence searched by the search means or the constituent element of the sentence on the display device.

  The recognizing means recognizes the word every time the user directly designates a new word while the user performs the first operation by the operating means, and further notifies the display controlling means to display the word. Before the word is notified from the recognizing means, all the words included in the one or more sentences that are controlled to be displayed on the display device are displayed in the first display form. When the first word is notified, the word is displayed in a second display form different from the first display form, and thereafter, every time a new word is notified from the recognition means, the word is recognized. One or more words notified in the past from the means are displayed in the second display form, and a new word notified immediately before from the recognition means is different from the first display form and the second display form. The display in the third display form is controlled. It is possible.

  The user further uses the operation means to control a sentence or a sentence component including all of the plurality of words displayed in the second display form or the third display form on the display device under the control of the display control means. When the second operation of the operation unit is performed by the user, the search unit performs a second operation for instructing the search until the second operation is performed after the first operation is performed. Or a sentence including all of the plurality of words displayed in the second display form or the third display form on the display device at the time when the second operation is performed. It is possible to search for sentence components.

  The constituent elements of the sentence are phrases composed of a plurality of words, and the recording medium or the recording apparatus includes an index including a plurality of phrases as items, and a plurality of phrases included as items in the index. A dictionary composed of the main text is recorded in advance, and the search means includes all of the plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from the index of the dictionary recorded in advance on the recording medium or recording device. One or more phrases can be searched, and the display control means can control to display a list of one or more phrases searched by the search means on the display device.

  Furthermore, in this case, the user uses the operation means to further specify a second one for directly specifying a predetermined one from a list of one or more phrases displayed on the display device under the control of the display control means. When the user performs the second operation of the operation means, the search means further performs the phrase specified by the second operation from a dictionary pre-recorded in the recording medium or the recording device. The display control means can further control display of the text searched by the search means on the display device.

  In addition, the recording medium or the recording apparatus records in advance a dictionary composed of an index including a plurality of example sentences as items, and a text including a text for each of the plurality of example sentences included as items in the index. The means searches for one or more example sentences including all of the plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from the dictionary index pre-recorded in the recording medium or the recording device, and the display control means It is possible to control display of a list of one or more example sentences searched for by the display device.

  Furthermore, in this case, the user further uses the operation means to select a second one for directly specifying a predetermined one from a list of one or more example sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the display control means. When the second operation of the operation means is performed by the user, the search means can further perform the second operation from a dictionary recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device. The text for the specified example sentence can be searched, and the display control unit can control display of the text searched by the search unit on the display device.

  The information processing method according to the present invention includes display control for a predetermined display device, control for recognizing the operation content of an operating device operated by a user, and information recorded in advance on a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device. It is an information processing method of the information processing apparatus which performs control to search. Specifically, in the information processing method of the present invention, the first display control step for controlling display of one or more sentences on the display device, and the control of the first display control step by the user using the operating device. When an operation for directly specifying each of the plurality of words is performed from among one or more sentences displayed on the display device, the plurality of words specified by the user are recognized from the contents of the operation. A recognition step and a sentence or sentence component including all of a plurality of words recognized by the processing of the recognition step from one or more sentence or sentence components recorded in advance in the recording medium or recording device. A search step for searching; and a second display control step for controlling display of the sentence or sentence component searched by the processing of the search step on the display device.

  The program of the present invention controls display on a predetermined display device, control for recognizing the operation content of an operating device operated by a user, and searches for information recorded in a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device in advance. A program to be executed by a computer that performs control. Specifically, the program of the present invention displays the first display control step for controlling display of one or more sentences on the display device, and the user controls the first display control step using the operating device. A recognition step of recognizing a plurality of words designated by the user from the contents of the operation when an operation for directly designating each of the plurality of words is performed from one or more sentences displayed on the device And a sentence or sentence component including all of a plurality of words recognized by the recognition step processing from one or more sentences or sentence components recorded in advance on the recording medium or recording device. It includes a search step, and a second display control step for controlling display of the sentence or sentence component searched by the processing of the search step on the display device.

  In the information processing apparatus, method, and program of the present invention, display control for a predetermined display device, control for recognizing the operation content of an operating device operated by a user, and a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device in advance. Control is performed to search the recorded information. In detail, the user uses the operation device (or the operation means of the information processing apparatus of the present invention. However, only the operation device is referred to below), and the user can select from one or more sentences displayed on the display device. When an operation for directly specifying each of the plurality of words is performed, a plurality of words specified by the user are recognized from the contents of the operation, and a sentence or a sentence structure including all of the recognized plurality of words The element is retrieved from the recording medium or the recording device, and the retrieved sentence or sentence component is displayed on the display device.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a phrase or sentence search including a plurality of words desired by the user. In particular, the user can directly select a plurality of words included in a sentence on the display screen by a simple and time-consuming operation, and a search for a phrase or sentence including the selected plurality of words can be realized.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. Correspondences between constituent elements described in the claims and specific examples in the embodiments of the present invention are exemplified as follows. This description is to confirm that specific examples supporting the invention described in the claims are described in the embodiments of the invention. Therefore, even though there are specific examples that are described in the embodiment of the invention but are not described here as corresponding to the configuration requirements, the specific examples are not included in the configuration. It does not mean that it does not correspond to a requirement. On the contrary, even if a specific example is described here as corresponding to a configuration requirement, this means that the specific example does not correspond to a configuration requirement other than the configuration requirement. not.

  Further, this description does not mean that all the inventions corresponding to the specific examples described in the embodiments of the invention are described in the claims. In other words, this description is an invention corresponding to the specific example described in the embodiment of the invention, and the existence of an invention not described in the claims of this application, that is, in the future, a divisional application will be made. Nor does it deny the existence of an invention added by amendment.

  According to the present invention, an information processing apparatus is provided. This information processing apparatus (for example, the information processing apparatus having the hardware configuration of FIG. 10 and the functional configuration of FIG. 11) has one or more sentences (for example, “She displayed in the text area 51 of FIG. 20). Display control means (for example, the display control in FIG. 11) that controls the display of a text including “was standing in the front of the classroom” on a predetermined display device (for example, the display unit 32 in FIGS. 10 and 11). Part 33) and a first operation (for example, FIG. 21 to FIG. 21) for directly designating each of a plurality of words from one or more of the sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the display control means. For example, an operation such as “in”, “front”, and “of” is directly specified from “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” Operation means (operation) performed by the user (for example, Recognizing means for recognizing a plurality of the words designated by the user from the contents of the first operation of the operating means by the user (operation unit 31 in FIGS. 10 and 11) (for example, recognition in FIG. 11) Unit 34) and a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device (for example, the ROM 12, the storage unit 18, or the removable recording medium 21 having the dictionary storage unit 36 of FIG. 11 as one area). Search means (for example, FIG. 11) for searching for a sentence or sentence component including all of the plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from among one or more sentences or sentence components recorded in advance in And the display control means controls the display device to display the sentence searched by the search means or the component of the sentence. .

  In this information processing apparatus, the recognizing unit starts the step S2 while the user is performing the first operation by the operating unit (for example, the “word / phrase / example search process” in FIG. 16 is started). From the time when it is determined that the jump key 31B is pressed in the above process until the “determine” key 31D is pressed), each time the user directly designates a new word, the word is recognized, and further The display control means is notified (for example, it is determined that the “&” key 31C has been pressed in the process of step S7 or S13 in FIG. 16), and the display control means before the word is notified from the recognition means. In the first display form (for example, as shown in FIG. 20, the background is white, and the characters are all displayed in one or more of the sentences that are controlled to be displayed on the display device. Black display When the first word is notified from the recognition means (for example, when it is determined that the “&” key 31C is pressed in step S7 in FIG. 16), The word is displayed in a second display form different from the first display form (for example, reverse display such as “in” shown in FIG. 22) (for example, the process of step S8 in FIG. 16 is executed). Thereafter, every time a new word is notified from the recognition means (for example, every time it is determined that the “&” key 31C is pressed in the processing of step S13 in FIG. 16), the recognition means sends a past word. One or more words notified to the user are displayed in the second display form (for example, the process of step S14 in FIG. 16 is executed), and the new word notified immediately before from the recognition unit is The first display form and the The display is controlled in a third display form different from the second display form (for example, blinking display such as “the” shown in FIG. 23) (for example, the process of step S15 in FIG. 16 is executed). )

  The user further includes all of the plurality of words displayed in the second display form or the third display form on the display device under the control of the display control means using the operation means. A second operation for instructing a search for a sentence or a sentence component (for example, an operation of pressing the “decision” key 31D in FIG. 11) is performed, and the search unit is operated by the user. When the above operation is performed (for example, when it is determined that the “determine” key 31D is pressed in the process of step S12 in FIG. 16), the second operation is performed after the first operation is performed. Are recognized by the recognizing means before being displayed, and as a result, when the second operation is performed, a plurality of images displayed in the second display form or the third display form on the display device. Of the word Search for the components of the sentence or sentence including a hand (for example, executes the processing of step S31 in FIG. 18) can be made to.

  In this information processing apparatus, the constituent elements of the sentence are phrases composed of a plurality of words (for example, “in front of” composed of “in”, “front”, and “of”), The recording medium or the recording device includes an index including a plurality of phrases as items, and a dictionary (for example, an English phrase dictionary described later) including a text for each of the plurality of phrases included as items in the index. And the search means includes all of the plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from the index of the dictionary recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device. One or more phrases are searched (for example, the process of step S31 in FIG. 18 is executed), and the display control unit is configured to search for one or more of the phrases searched by the search unit. It is possible to control display of the display device (for example, the corresponding list displayed in the corresponding list display area 53 of FIG. 26) (for example, the process of step S32 of FIG. 18 is executed). .

  Further, in this case, the user further directly designates a predetermined one from a list of one or more phrases that are displayed on the display device under the control of the display control means, using the operation means. When the second operation of the operation unit is performed by the user, the search unit performs the second operation (for example, an operation described later corresponding to the processing of steps S33 to S36 in FIG. 18). (For example, when it is determined in step S36 in FIG. 18 that the “determine” key 31D has been pressed), the second from the dictionary recorded in advance on the recording medium or the recording device. 18 is searched for (for example, the text for “in front of 0” on the second line in the corresponding list display area 53 in FIG. 26). The display control means further displays the text retrieved by the search means on the display device (for example, displays the screen of FIG. 27 on the display unit 32 of FIG. 11). (For example, the process of step S38 in FIG. 18 is executed).

  In the information processing apparatus, the recording medium or the recording apparatus includes an index including a plurality of example sentences as items, and a text for each of the plurality of example sentences included as items in the index. A dictionary (for example, an English example dictionary to be described later) is recorded in advance, and the search means is recognized by the recognition means from the index of the dictionary recorded in advance on the recording medium or the recording device. One or more example sentences including all of the plurality of the words are searched (for example, the process of step S46 in FIG. 19 is executed), and the display control means searches for the one or more example sentences searched by the search means. (For example, the corresponding list displayed in the corresponding list display area 53 in FIG. 29) is controlled to be displayed on the display device ( In example, it is possible to perform a process of step S47 in FIG. 19).

  Furthermore, in this case, the user further directly designates a predetermined one from a list of one or more example sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the display control means using the operation means. A second operation (for example, an operation to be described later corresponding to the processing in steps S48 to S51 in FIG. 19) is performed by the user, and the search unit is configured to perform the second operation of the operation unit by the user. Is performed (for example, when it is determined that the “determine” key 31D is pressed in the process of step S51 in FIG. 19), the contents of the dictionary recorded in advance on the recording medium or the recording device To the example sentence specified in the second operation (for example, an example sentence such as “He was given a caution for parkin...” On the first line in the corresponding list display area 53 of FIG. 29). The display control means controls to display the text searched by the search means on the display device (for example, execute the process of step S52 of FIG. 19) (for example, execute the process of step S52 of FIG. 19). (The process of step S53 of FIG. 19 is executed).

  According to the present invention, an information processing method is provided. This information processing method (for example, the method corresponding to the “word / phrase / example search process” in FIGS. 16 to 19) is controlled by a display control for a predetermined display device (for example, the display unit 32 in FIG. 10) and operated by the user. Control for recognizing the operation content of the operating device (for example, the operation unit 31 in FIG. 10), and a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device (for example, the ROM 12, the storage unit 18, the removable recording medium 21 in FIG. 10). ) Is an information processing method of an information processing apparatus (for example, an information processing apparatus having the hardware configuration of FIG. 10 and the functional configuration of FIG. 11) that performs control to search for information recorded in advance. Specifically, the information processing method includes a first display control step (for example, the process of step S1 in FIG. 16) for controlling display of one or more sentences on the display device, and the user performs the operation device. When an operation for directly designating each of the plurality of words is performed from among one or more of the sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the first display control step, the operation is performed. And a recognition step for recognizing a plurality of the words designated by the user (for example, processing in steps S3 to S15 in FIG. 16), and one or more pre-recorded on the recording medium or the recording device A search step (for example, a diagram) of searching for a sentence or a sentence component including all of the plurality of the words recognized by the process of the recognition step from the sentence or sentence components. Steps S31 and S37 of FIG. 8 and Steps S46 and S52 of FIG. 19 and second control for displaying on the display device the sentence or the constituent elements of the sentence retrieved by the process of the retrieval step. Display control steps (for example, steps S32 and S38 in FIG. 18 and steps S47 and S53 in FIG. 19).

  Furthermore, according to the present invention, a program corresponding to the information processing method of the present invention described above and a recording medium on which the program is recorded are provided.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of an information processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 10 shows a hardware configuration example of an information processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

  In the information processing apparatus of FIG. 10, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 performs various processes according to a program recorded in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12 or a program loaded from a storage unit 18 to a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13. Execute the process. The RAM 13 also appropriately stores data necessary for the CPU 11 to execute various processes.

  The CPU 11, ROM 12, and RAM 13 are connected to each other via a bus 14. An input / output interface 15 is also connected to the bus 14.

  The input / output interface 15 includes an input unit 16 including an operation unit 31 including a keyboard and a mouse, an output unit 17 including a display unit 32 including a display, a storage unit 18 including a hard disk, and a modem and a terminal adapter. A communication unit 19 is connected. The communication unit 19 controls communication with other information processing apparatuses (not shown) via a network (not shown) including the Internet.

  A drive 20 is connected to the input / output interface 15 as necessary, and a removable recording medium 21 made of a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like is appropriately installed, and a computer program read therefrom Are installed in the storage unit 18 as necessary.

  In the present invention, the information processing apparatus having the hardware configuration shown in FIG. 10 has the following first to fourth functions. In other words, the first function is a display control function that controls display of one or more sentences on the display unit 32. The second function is a recognition function that recognizes one or more words selected by the user from one or more sentences displayed on the display unit 32 by realizing the first function. The third function is one or more recognized by realizing the second function from one or more sentences or sentence components stored in advance in the ROM 12, the storage unit 18, the removable recording medium 21, or the like. This is a search function that searches for sentences or sentence components that contain all of the words. Note that the sentence component includes, for example, the phrase “in front of” described above, as well as the composition of a broad concept including an arbitrary number of arbitrary words among the words constituting the sentence. Points to the element. Further, when such an information processing device functions as a dictionary, if, for example, a phrase is adopted as a component of a sentence, the sentence includes, for example, each sentence constituting the body of the phrase, It is a sentence of a broad concept that includes an example sentence including the phrase. The fourth function is a display function for controlling the display unit 32 to display a sentence or a constituent element of the sentence retrieved by realizing the third function.

  When the information processing apparatus having the hardware configuration shown in FIG. 10 realizes at least the first to fourth functions, the functional configuration is as shown in FIG. 11, for example. That is, FIG. 11 shows a configuration example of functional blocks of an information processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 11, when the information processing apparatus having the hardware configuration in FIG. 10 realizes at least the first function to the fourth function, in addition to the operation unit 31 and the display unit 32 described above, Furthermore, functional blocks such as a display control unit 33 to a search unit 35 and a dictionary storage unit 36 are provided. Functional blocks such as the display control unit 33 to the search unit 35 are configured as software modules executed by the CPU 11 in FIG. 10, for example. The dictionary storage unit 36 is configured as an area of the ROM 12, the storage unit 18, or the removable recording medium 21 in FIG. 10, for example.

  Hereinafter, the details of the operation unit 31 to the dictionary storage unit 36 will be described in random order.

  The operation unit 31 includes an up / down / left / right key 31A, a jump key 31B, an “&” key 31C, an “enter” key 31D, and a keyboard 31E. The functions assigned to the up / down / left / right key 31A, the jump key 31B, the “&” key 31C, and the “decision” key 31D will be described as appropriate in various descriptions to be described later.

  The display unit 32 displays various screens as shown in FIGS. 12 to 15 and FIGS. 20 to 29, which will be described later, based on the control of the display control unit 33, for example. That is, the display control unit 33, for example, based on various information supplied from the recognition unit 34 and the search unit 35 described later, various sentences (example sentences, phrases, texts about words, etc.) and various components of the sentence ( Image data including a phrase or a word is generated, and an image (screen) corresponding to the image data is displayed on the display unit 32. As described above, the display control unit 33 is an example of a functional block that realizes the first function and the fourth function described above.

  The recognition unit 34 recognizes one or more words input by the user operating the keyboard 31E. In addition, when the user presses at least one of the up / down / left / right keys 31A to 31D, an operation for directly specifying one or more words from the text displayed on the display unit 32 is performed. In the case, one or more words designated by the operation are recognized. The recognition result of the recognition unit 34 is supplied to the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35. Thus, the recognition unit 34 is an example of a functional block that implements the second function described above.

  The operation of directly specifying a word (display of the word) on the screen of the display unit 32 is hereinafter referred to as a specifying operation. That is, the designation operation referred to here is displayed on the screen of the display unit 32 only by depressing the up / down / left / right key 31A to the “decision” key 31D without the manual input operation of characters by the keyboard 31E. A GUI (Graphical User Interface) operation in which each of one or more words is directly designated on the screen. Further details of the user specifying operation will be described later with reference to FIG. 16 and subsequent drawings.

  Specifically, the recognition unit 34 includes a single word recognition unit 34A, a continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B, and a discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C.

  For example, when the user inputs only one word by operating the keyboard 31E, the single word recognition unit 34A recognizes the single word and notifies the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35 of it. In addition, the single word recognition unit 34A, for example, when the user performs a designation operation and directly designates only one word on the screen, the single word recognition unit 34A recognizes the single word and notifies the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35. Notice.

  For example, when the user operates the keyboard 31E and inputs a plurality of words connected by “&”, the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B recognizes each of the plurality of words and displays the display control unit 33 and the search unit. 35. Specifically, for example, as in the conventional example described above, when the user inputs “in & front & of” by operating the keyboard 31E, the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B performs “in”, “front” "And" of "are recognized and notified to the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35.

  In addition, the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B has directly specified a plurality of words arranged side by side from the text displayed on the display unit 32 by the user performing a designation operation on the screen. In this case, each of the plurality of words is recognized and notified to the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35. Specifically, for example, although not shown, a character string “in front of” in which “in”, “front”, and “of” are successively arranged on the display screen of the display unit 32 is actually displayed. When “in front of” is directly designated on the screen by the user performing a designation operation, the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B recognizes each of “in”, “front”, and “of”. Then, the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35 are notified.

  When the user performs a designation operation, the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C directly designates a plurality of words arranged discontinuously from the text displayed on the display unit 32 on the screen. Each of the plurality of words is recognized and notified to the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35. Specifically, for example, the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” Is displayed on the display screen of the display unit 32 as in the conventional example described above, and the user performs a designation operation. When “in” and “front of” except “the” of “in the front of” existing in the sentence are directly designated on the screen, the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C Each of “in”, “front”, and “of” is recognized and notified to the display control unit 33 and the search unit 35.

  As described above, the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment further includes the non-continuous multiple word recognition unit 34C in addition to the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B, so that one or more sentences displayed on the display unit 32 are displayed. Regardless of the continuous arrangement and the non-continuous arrangement, it is possible to easily recognize a plurality of words directly designated on the screen by the user's designation operation.

  The search unit 35 selects a sentence or sentence component including all of one or more words recognized by the recognition unit 34 from one or more sentence or sentence components stored in advance in the dictionary storage unit 36. The information is retrieved and provided to the display control unit 33. Thus, the search unit 35 is an example of a functional block that realizes the third function described above.

  That is, the dictionary storage unit 36 is a dictionary composed of one or more sentences or sentence components. Specifically, in the present embodiment, for example, an English word dictionary, a national language dictionary, an English example dictionary, and an English phrase dictionary Is stored in advance.

  The English word dictionary is composed of an index that includes English words (hereinafter referred to as English words), and a text that includes explanations and example sentences for each of a plurality of English words that are listed in the index. Dictionary data. The Japanese language dictionary includes an index that includes Japanese words (hereinafter referred to as Japanese words), and a text that includes explanatory texts and example sentences for each of a plurality of Japanese words that are listed in the index. Dictionary data composed of An English example dictionary is a dictionary composed of an index that includes example sentences composed of a plurality of English words, and a text that includes each of a plurality of example sentences themselves and their Japanese translations. It is data. An English phrase dictionary is dictionary data composed of an index that includes English phrases (idioms) and a text that includes explanations and example sentences for each of the phrases that are listed in the index. . The dictionary data referred to here may be text data, image data, or other forms of data.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the English word dictionary, the national language dictionary, the English example dictionary, and the English phrase dictionary are stored in advance in the dictionary storage unit 36. Therefore, the search unit 35 in the example of FIG. An English word search unit 35A to an English phrase search unit 35D are provided.

  That is, for example, when one English word is recognized and notified by the single word recognition unit 34A, the English word search unit 35A is activated by a search mode switching unit 35E described later. Then, the English word search unit 35A searches the English word dictionary itself stored in the English word dictionary index stored in the dictionary storage unit 36 or an English word including the English word as a part thereof, This is supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a list of supplied English words, that is, a corresponding list including the supplied English words as items.

  Note that the English word that contains the notified English word in part is, for example, the word “sin” that contains “in” in the front, such as “sin” (Sin, etc.) "Words that contain" in "in the back, and English words that contain" in "in the middle, such as" dining (meals, etc.) ". That is, the English word search unit 35A can search for English words such as so-called “front match”, “back match”, or “wild card”.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the user performs a designation operation similar to the procedure 3 described above, as in the conventional example described above. That is, the user performs a designation operation for directly designating “in” on the screen, such as pressing the “decision” key 31D in a state where the screen of FIG. Suppose you went. In this case, the single word recognition unit 34A recognizes “in” and notifies the search unit 35 of it. As a result, the English word search unit 35A is activated by a search mode switching unit 35E described later, and “in” itself or “in” is partly included in the English word dictionary index stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. An English word including it is searched and supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control part 33 displays the screen of FIG. 3 on the display part 32, for example. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, in the corresponding list display area 3, a corresponding list including “in” itself or an English word partially including “in” as an item is displayed.

  As described above, the “determination” key 31D is assigned a command input function for determining the current selection (designation) of the display screen of the display unit 32. The current selection target indicates, for example, “in” that is highlighted in the screen of FIG. 2 described above.

  Furthermore, it is assumed that the user performs the same operation as that in the conventional procedure 4 described above. That is, assume that the user operates the up / down / left / right key 31A to move the cursor (symbol 4 of the middle finger in FIG. 3) and presses the “OK” key 31D. Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the user presses the “OK” key 31D while the screen of FIG. In this case, the user's operation is to display an item such as “English-Japanese in (sound inn) [“ enclosure inclusion ”is a basic meaning ...” (hereinafter abbreviated as “in”) at the top of FIG. It can be said that this is a designation operation directly designated above. Therefore, when the English word search unit 35A detects such a designation operation, the English word search unit 35A searches the English word dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36 for a text about “in” and sends the text to the display control unit 33. At the same time, the display control unit 33 is notified of such “in”. Then, the display control part 33 displays the screen of FIG. 4 on the display part 32, for example. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, such “in” is displayed in the item name display field 2, and the text about the “in” is displayed in the text display area 1.

  In this way, the up / down / left / right key 31A is assigned a command input function for moving the operation target up / down / left / right on the screen displayed on the display unit 32. For example, in the example of FIG. 3, the operation target indicates a finger symbol 4, that is, a cursor.

  More generally, when a predetermined item (English word) is specified from the corresponding list displayed on the display unit 32 by the user's specifying operation, the English word search unit 35A stores the information in the dictionary storage unit 36. The body of the designated item (English word) is searched from the English word dictionary that has been specified, the body is supplied to the display control unit 33, and the target item (English word) of the body is displayed. Notify unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display each of the supplied text and the notified item.

  Similar to the English word search unit 35A, the Japanese language search unit 35B is activated by the search mode switching unit 35E described later when a single Japanese word is recognized and notified by the single word recognition unit 34A, and is stored in the dictionary memory. From the index of the Japanese dictionary stored in the unit 36, the notified Japanese word itself or a Japanese word partially including the Japanese word is retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a list of supplied Japanese words, that is, a corresponding list including the supplied Japanese words as items.

  The Japanese word partially including the notified Japanese word includes, for example, “ai” such as “love” when the Japanese word “ai” is notified. A word, a word including “ai” such as “deai” in the back, and a Japanese word including “ai” such as “love” in the middle. That is, the national language search unit 35B can search for Japanese words such as so-called “forward match”, “backward match”, or “wild card”.

  Thereafter, when a predetermined item (Japanese word) is designated by the user's designation operation from the corresponding list displayed on the display unit 32, the national language search unit 35B stores the Japan stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. The body of the designated item (Japanese word) is searched from the word dictionary, the body is supplied to the display control unit 33, and the target item (Japanese word) of the body is displayed. Notify Then, although not shown, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display each of the supplied text and the notified item.

  Thus, the English word search unit 35A and the national language search unit 35B are functional blocks that mainly operate when the word unit recognition unit 34A operates. That is, as described above, when the single word recognition unit 34A operates, either the English word search unit 35A or the national language search unit 35B is mainly activated by the search mode switching unit 35E described later.

  On the other hand, the English example search unit 35C and the English phrase search unit 35D are functional blocks that operate mainly when the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C operates. That is, when the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C operates, either one of the English example search unit 35C and the English phrase search unit 35D is mainly used as a search mode switching unit 35E described later. It is started by.

  The English example search unit 35C, when a plurality of English words are recognized and notified by the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C, is an index of the English example dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. The example sentences including all of the notified plurality of English words are searched for and supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a list of supplied example sentences, that is, a corresponding list including the supplied example sentences as items.

  Thereafter, when one predetermined item (example sentence) is designated from the corresponding list displayed on the display unit 32 by the user's designation operation, the English example search unit 35C stores the English stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. The body (example sentence itself and its Japanese translation) of the specified item (example sentence) is searched from the example dictionary, and the text is supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display the supplied text and the plurality of English words notified from the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C.

  Specifically, for example, the information processing apparatus of the present invention having the functional configuration of FIG. 11 has at least a jump mode and a manual input search mode as its operation modes, as in the conventional information processing apparatus. . The processing of the English example search unit 35C in the jump mode will be described later with reference to FIG. 16 and subsequent drawings. Here, the processing of the English example search unit 35C in the manual input search mode will be described with reference to FIGS. To explain. That is, FIGS. 12 and 13 show examples of screens displayed on the display unit 32 of FIG. 11 in accordance with the processing of the English example search unit 35C in the manual input search mode.

  When the operation mode of the information processing apparatus of the present invention having the functional configuration of FIG. 11 shifts to the manual input search mode, for example, the screen shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 12, an image for directly specifying a dictionary on the screen (hereinafter referred to as a dictionary specifying image) is displayed in the text display area 51, and an item name display field 52 is used as an input area. Function.

  The user presses the up / down / left / right key 31A to invert a predetermined one of the messages such as “National language”, “English word”, “English phrase”, and “English example” in the dictionary selection image. Can be displayed. That is, in the dictionary selection image, the reverse display itself is an operation target, and the reverse display is freely moved to the left and right by pressing the up / down / left / right key 31A. In addition, messages such as “National language”, “English word”, “English phrase”, and “English example” correspond to the national language dictionary, English word dictionary, English phrase dictionary, and English example dictionary, respectively. Accordingly, the user performs a designation operation such as pressing the up / down / left / right key 31A to freely move the reverse display to the left or right while the dictionary selection image is displayed in the text display area 51. Can be specified directly on the screen.

  For example, in the state of FIG. 12, the English example dictionary is designated by the user. In this state, the user can use the keyboard 31E and the “&” key 31C to input a plurality of English words into the input area 52 by separating them with “&”.

  That is, English words are input to the input area 52 by the keyboard 31E, and “&” is input to the input area 52 by the “&” key 31C. As described above, a function for inputting “&” is assigned to the “&” key 31C. Of course, the function of the “&” key 31C can be assigned to a predetermined key of the keyboard 31E.

  Specifically, for example, when the user wants to examine an example sentence including the phrase “in front of”, the user uses the keyboard 31E and the “&” key 31C to perform “IN & FRONT & OF” as shown in FIG. What is necessary is just to make it input into the input area 52. FIG. Here, it is assumed that the user can input each English word without distinguishing between uppercase and lowercase letters.

  In this state, when the user presses the “decision” key 31D, the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B recognizes “IN”, “FRONT”, and “OF” and notifies the search unit 35 of them. Then, the English example search unit 35C of the search unit 35 is activated by a search mode switching unit 35E described later, and notified from the indexes of the English example dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36, “IN”, “ One or more example sentences including “FRONT” and “OF” are retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33. Each English word included in the example sentence may be uppercase or lowercase. That is, in this case, the recognition unit 34 is notified of capital letters “IN”, “FRONT”, and “OF”, but as an item included in the corresponding list, as shown in FIG. More example sentences including “in”, “front”, and “of”.

  In this case, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display the screen shown in FIG. That is, the text display area 51 functions as a corresponding list display area, and the corresponding list display area 51 includes English words “IN”, “FRONT”, and “OF” (both uppercase and lowercase letters). A hit list with example sentences as items is displayed. In addition, a character string “IN & FRONT & OF” input by the user is displayed in the input area 52.

  Thereafter, the user depresses one or more of the up / down / left / right keys 31A to move the cursor (symbol 61 of the finger in FIG. 13) to the left position of the desired item (example sentence), and depresses the “OK” key 31D. By performing a designation operation such as, a desired item (example sentence) can be designated directly on the screen. In this case, although not shown, the English example search unit 35C reads the text (example sentence itself and its example) about the item (example sentence) designated by the user from the English example dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. Japanese translation etc.) is retrieved and the text is supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display the supplied text and the character string “IN & FRONT & OF” input by the user.

  The processing of the English example search unit 35C in the manual input search mode has been described above with reference to FIGS.

  Returning to FIG. 11, similarly to the English example search unit 35C, the English phrase search unit 35D, when a plurality of English words are recognized and notified by the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C, From the index of the English phrase dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36, a phrase including all of the notified plural English words is retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a list of supplied phrases, that is, a corresponding list including the supplied phrases.

  Thereafter, when a predetermined item (sung phrase) is designated from the index displayed on the display unit 32 by a user's designation operation, the English phrase search unit 35D stores the English phrase dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. The body (descriptive text, example sentence, etc.) of the specified item (spoken phrase) is searched from among the text, and the text is supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display the supplied text and the plurality of English words notified from the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C.

  Here, similarly to the above-described English example search unit 35C, the processing of the English phrase search unit 35D in the manual input search mode will be described with reference to FIGS. That is, FIG. 14 and FIG. 15 show an example of a screen displayed on the display unit 32 of FIG. 11 in accordance with the processing of the English phrase search unit 35D in the manual input search mode. The processing of the English phrase search unit 35D in the jump mode will be described later with reference to FIG. 16 and subsequent drawings.

  When the operation mode of the information processing apparatus of the present invention having the functional configuration of FIG. 11 shifts to the manual input search mode, for example, the screen shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 14, the dictionary selection image is displayed in the text display area 51, and the item name display field 52 functions as an input area.

  In the example of FIG. 14, since the “English phrase” message is highlighted, the English phrase dictionary is designated by the user. Similarly to the screen of FIG. 12 described above, even when the screen of FIG. 14 is displayed on the display unit 32, the user can use the keyboard 31E and the “&” key 31C to input a plurality of English words “ “&” Can be input to the input area 52.

  Specifically, for example, when the user wants to examine the phrase “in front of”, the user may input “IN & FRONT & OF” in the input area 52 as shown in FIG. Here again, it is assumed that the user can input each English word without distinguishing between uppercase and lowercase letters.

  In this state, when the user presses the “decision” key 31D, the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B recognizes “IN”, “FRONT”, and “OF” and notifies the search unit 35 of them. Then, the English phrase search unit 35D of the search unit 35 is activated by a search mode switching unit 35E described later, and is notified from the indexes of the English phrase dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. One or more phrases including “FRONT” and “OF” are retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33. As in the example sentence, each English word included in the phrase may be an uppercase letter or a lowercase letter. That is, in this case, the recognition unit 34 is notified of capital letters “IN”, “FRONT”, and “OF”, but as an item included in the corresponding list, as shown in FIG. More example sentences including “in”, “front”, and “of”.

  In this case, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display the screen shown in FIG. That is, the text display area 51 functions as a corresponding list display area, and the corresponding list display area 51 includes English words “IN”, “FRONT”, and “OF” (both uppercase letters and lowercase letters). A hit list is displayed. In addition, a character string “IN & FRONT & OF” input by the user is displayed in the input area 52.

  Thereafter, the user operates the up / down / left / right key 31A to move the cursor (symbol 61 of the middle finger in FIG. 15) to the left position of the desired item (phrase) and presses the “determine” key 31D. By performing the designation operation, it is possible to directly designate a desired item (phrase) on the screen. In this case, although not shown in the figure, the English phrase search unit 35D has a text (descriptive text or example sentence) about an item (sung phrase) selected by the user from the English phrase dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. Etc.) and the text is supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display the supplied text and the character string “IN & FRONT & OF” input by the user.

  The processing of the English phrase search unit 35D in the manual input search mode has been described above with reference to FIG. 14 and FIG.

  Returning to FIG. 11, as described above, the search mode switching unit 35E activates a predetermined one of the English word search unit 35A to the English phrase search unit 35D as a function block to be used. That is, the search mode switching unit 35E shifts to an appropriate search mode based on the recognition content of the recognition unit 34 and the operation content of the operation unit 31, and operates the functional block corresponding to the transferred search mode. In the example of FIG. 11, the search mode includes an English word search mode for searching for English words from an English word dictionary, a Japanese search mode for searching for Japanese words from a Japanese dictionary, and an English example dictionary. An English example search mode for searching English examples and an English phrase search mode for searching for English idioms from an English phrase dictionary are provided.

  Specifically, for example, when the current operation mode is the manual input search mode, the search mode switching unit 35E monitors the operation content of the user operation unit 31 to thereby display the text display area in FIG. 12 and FIG. In the dictionary designation image displayed in 51, which dictionary is designated by the user is recognized, and the mode is shifted to the search mode using the recognized dictionary. Then, the search mode switching unit 35E operates a functional block corresponding to the shifted search mode among the English word search unit 35A to the English phrase search unit 35D. Specifically, for example, if the “decision” key 31D is pressed while the screen of FIG. 12 is displayed on the display unit 32, the search mode switching unit 35E recognizes that the English example dictionary is designated by the user. Thus, the English example search mode is entered, and the corresponding English example search unit 35C is operated. For example, if the “determine” key 31D is pressed while the screen of FIG. 14 is displayed on the display unit 32, the search mode switching unit 35E recognizes that the English phrase dictionary is designated by the user and The mode is shifted to the search mode, and the corresponding English phrase search unit 35D is operated.

  On the other hand, for example, when the current operation mode is a jump mode, which will be described later, the search mode switching unit 35E monitors which functional block of the recognition unit 34 has supplied English words, and the monitoring result Based on the above, make the appropriate search mode. Then, the search mode switching unit 35E operates a functional block corresponding to the shifted search mode among the English word search unit 35A to the English phrase search unit 35D. Specifically, for example, when one English word is supplied from the single word recognition unit 34A, the search mode switching unit 35E shifts to the English word search mode and operates the corresponding English word search unit 35A. . Further, for example, when one Japanese word is supplied from the single word recognition unit 34A, the search mode switching unit 35E shifts to the national language search mode and operates the corresponding national language search unit 35B. Furthermore, for example, when a plurality of English words are supplied from the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the discontinuous multiple word recognition unit 34C, the search mode switching unit 35E selects between the English example search mode and the English phrase search mode. Shift to either one. Then, the search mode switching unit 35E operates the English example search unit 35C corresponding to the English example search mode when the mode is shifted to the English example search mode, and the English phrase search unit corresponding thereto when the mode is shifted to the English phrase search mode. Operate 35D. At this time, whether the search mode switching unit 35E shifts to the English example search mode or the English phrase search mode can be designated directly on the screen by performing a predetermined designation operation by the user. it can. However, this designation operation will be described later with reference to the drawing such as FIG.

  Heretofore, the hardware configuration example and the functional configuration example of the information processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied have been described.

  Note that the hardware configuration and functional configuration of the information processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied only need to be a configuration capable of realizing the above-described first function to fourth function, and the above-described FIG. 10 and FIG. Needless to say, the examples are not limited. That is, for example, the display control unit 33 to the search unit 35 in FIG. 11 are configured by software modules in the present embodiment, but are not limited to the present embodiment, and may be configured by hardware. Alternatively, it may be configured by a combination of software and hardware. Further, the unit of each functional block is not limited to the unit shown in FIG. 11 and may be an arbitrary unit. In other words, as long as the functions of the operation unit 31 to the dictionary storage unit 36 shown in FIG. 11 are comprehensively included, a functional configuration in which any number of function blocks of any function are arbitrarily combined may be used. .

  However, here, the hardware configuration and the functional configuration of the information processing apparatus are the configurations shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, respectively, and the display control unit 33 through the search unit in FIG. Reference numeral 35 denotes a software module. That is, it is assumed that the CPU 11 in FIG. 10 appropriately loads each of the display control unit 33 to the search unit 35 into the RAM 13 or the like and executes it.

  Next, processing when the information processing apparatus having the functional configuration of FIG. 11 operates in the jump mode will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. Hereinafter, such processing is referred to as “word / phrase / example search processing”.

  Hereinafter, for the purpose of easily understanding the “word / phrase / example search process”, FIGS. 20 to 29 will be referred to as appropriate during the description of the “word / phrase / example search process”. That is, FIG. 20 to FIG. 29 show examples of screens displayed on the display unit 32 of FIG. 11 when the “word / phrase / example search process” is executed.

  In step S <b> 1 of FIG. 16, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a text screen. The operation mode of the information processing apparatus at the time of processing in step S1 may be a manual input search mode or a jump mode. However, here, for example, the manual input search mode is assumed. Further, for example, here, for the purpose of clarifying the comparison with the above-described conventional example, the screen of FIG. 20 similar to the screen of FIG. 1 described above is displayed on the display unit 32 as a result of the process of step S1. Suppose that

  In step S2, the recognition unit 34 determines whether or not the jump key 31B is pressed.

  If it is determined in step S2 that the jump key 31B has not been pressed, the process returns to step S1, and the subsequent processes are repeated. That is, in this example, unless the jump key 31B is pressed, the loop process of steps S1 and S2 is repeatedly executed, and the screen of FIG.

  Thereafter, when the jump key 31B is pressed, it is determined as YES in Step S2, and the operation mode of the information processing apparatus shifts to the jump mode. As a result, the process proceeds to Step S3. Thus, the jump key 31B is assigned a function for shifting to the jump mode. Note that some other functions are also assigned to the jump key 31B, and specific examples thereof will be described later.

  In this manner, when the operation mode of the information processing apparatus shifts to the jump mode, in step S3, the display control unit 33 reversely displays the words on the screen. Note that, as in the present case, in the process of step S3 immediately after it is determined as YES in the process of step S2, for example, it is assumed that the word displayed at the upper left corner on the screen is highlighted. When only a part of a word is displayed at the upper left corner on the screen, the part is regarded as a word. That is, in this case, as shown in FIG. 21, among the words displayed in the text display area 51, “K” displayed at the upper left corner is highlighted in the process of step S3.

  Hereinafter, a position where a word or the like that is highlighted in the display screen of the display unit 32 is displayed is referred to as a reversed position. That is, in this case, “ke” is the reverse position.

  In step S4, the recognizing unit 34 determines whether the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed.

  In step S4, when the recognizing unit 34 determines that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, it recognizes which word on the screen is designated by the user by the pressing operation, The recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33. Thereby, a process progresses to step S5.

  In step S5, the display control unit 33 moves the reverse position to the word recognized by the recognition unit 34, returns the process to step S3, and reverse-displays the moved word at the reverse position.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the user presses a right key (not shown) of the up, down, left, and right keys 31A (a key that moves the reverse position to the right) a plurality of times. In this case, the recognition unit 34 determines in step S4 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, and based on the number of times the right key has been pressed, any word on the screen has been designated by the user. And the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33. For example, in order to facilitate comparison with the above-described conventional example, “in” in the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” Displayed in the text display area 51 of FIG. Is recognized by the recognition unit 34 and notified to the display control unit 33.

  In this case, the display control unit 33 moves the reversal position to “in” in step S5, returns the process to step S3, and reverse-displays “in” as shown in FIG.

  Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S4, and it is determined again whether the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S4 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S6.

  In step S6, the recognizing unit 34 determines whether or not the “OK” key 31D has been pressed.

  The pressing of the “OK” key 31D at the time of the process in step S6 means that the user desires to check one English word that is currently highlighted. Therefore, if it is determined in step S6 that the “OK” key 31D has been pressed, the processing in steps S16 to S22 in FIG. 17 is executed. As a result, the text of one English word that is highlighted when it is determined in step S6 that the “determine” key 31D is pressed is retrieved from the English word dictionary and displayed on the display unit 32. It will be.

  Specifically, when the recognition unit 34 determines that the “decision” key 31D is pressed in step S6 of FIG. 16, the word single unit recognition unit 34A searches for one English word highlighted at that time. 35 is notified. The search mode switching unit 35E of the search unit 35 shifts the search mode to the English word search mode and activates the English word search unit 35A. Thus, the process proceeds to step S16 in FIG.

  In step S <b> 16, the English word search unit 35 </ b> A searches and displays the highlighted English word itself or an English word partially including the English word from the index of the English word dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. It supplies to the control part 33.

  Then, in step S17, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a corresponding list including the English words searched in the process of step S16 as items.

  Specifically, for example, in this case, since “in” is an inverted English word as shown in FIG. 22, it is not shown, but is displayed in the corresponding list display area 3 of FIG. A corresponding list is displayed on the display unit 32.

  In step S18, the English word search unit 35A determines whether the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed.

  In step S18, when the English word search unit 35A determines that the up / down / left / right key 31A is pressed, which item (English word) in the corresponding list is designated by the user by the pressing operation. And the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the user presses an upper key (a key for moving the cursor upward) or a lower key (a key for moving the cursor downward) of the up / down / left / right keys 31A a plurality of times. In this case, the English word search unit 35A determines in step S18 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, and based on the number of times the up key and down key are pressed, Word) is designated by the user, and the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33. Thereby, a process progresses to step S19.

  In step S19, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor to the item (English word) recognized by the English word search unit 35A, and returns the process to step S18.

  Specifically, for example, in order to facilitate comparison with the conventional example described above, a corresponding list similar to the corresponding list displayed in the corresponding list display area 3 of FIG. It is assumed that the up key is pressed twice while the cursor is positioned at “IN”, which is the third item from the top. In this case, the English word search unit 35A recognizes that “in”, which is the first item from the top in FIG. 3, is designated by the user in step S18, and notifies the display control unit 33 of the recognition result.

  Then, in step S19, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor position from the top in FIG. 3 to “in” which is the first item, that is, the corresponding list display state is changed to the display state similar to FIG. The process returns to step S18. For example, if it is determined in step S18 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S20.

  In step S20, the English word search unit 35A determines whether or not the “OK” key 31D has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S20 that the “OK” key 31D has not been pressed, the process returns to step S18, and the subsequent processes are repeated.

  On the other hand, it is determined in step S20 that the “decision” key 31D has been pressed, that is, the “decision” key 31D being pressed immediately before the start of the processing in step S20 is displayed in the corresponding list. This means that the user desires to check the item (English word) pointed to by the cursor when the “OK” key 31D is pressed among the existing items (English words).

  Therefore, when the English word search unit 35A determines in step S20 that the “determine” key 31D has been pressed, the item of the cursor position is selected from the English word dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36 in step S21. The text about (English word) is retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33.

  Then, in step S22, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a text about the English word searched in the process of step S21. That is, the display screen of the display unit 32 jumps to the searched item (English word).

  Specifically, for example, for the item (English word) where the cursor is placed when it is determined YES in the process of step S20, the cursor 4 is placed in the corresponding list display area 3 of FIG. It is assumed that the item is the same as the top item, that is, the item “in”. In this case, as a result of the processing in steps S21 and S22, a screen similar to that in FIG. 4 described above is displayed on the display unit 32.

  This completes the “word / phrase / example search process”.

  In the foregoing, the “word / phrase / example search process” in the case where the user desires to search for one English word has been described. Note that the “word / phrase / example search process” in the case where the user wants to check one Japanese word is basically the above-described process flow. That is, after it is determined as YES in step S6 in FIG. 16, the processes in steps S16 to S22 in FIG. 17 are executed.

  Next, the “word / phrase / example search process” when the user desires to examine example sentences and phrases composed of a plurality of English words will be described.

  In this case, since a plurality of English words are designated by the user, it is determined in the process of step S6 in FIG. 16 that the “OK” key has not been pressed. Then, in step S7, the recognition unit 34 determines whether or not the “&” key 31C has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S7 that the “&” key 31C has not been pressed, the process returns to step S4, and the subsequent processes are repeated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S7 that the “&” key 31C has been pressed, the determination result is notified to the display control unit 33, and the process proceeds to step S8.

  In step S8, the display control unit 33 fixes the reverse display, and in step S9, the display control unit 33 blinks and displays the word following the fixed reverse display word. As described above, the “&” key 31C is assigned a function for confirming a word designated by the user in the jump mode. That is, in the jump mode, when a word designated by the user is confirmed by pressing the “&” key 31C, the confirmed word is displayed in a fixed reverse display.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the screen of FIG. 22 is displayed on the display unit 32 at the start of the process of step S8. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 22, “in” in “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” Displayed in the text display area 51 is highlighted, and the user's “ It is assumed that “in” is confirmed as a word designated by the user by pressing the & key 31C. In this case, as shown in FIG. 23, the reverse display of “in” is fixed in the process of step S8, and “the” following the word “in” is blinked in the process of step S9.

  In step S10, the recognition unit 34 determines whether the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed.

  In step S10, when the recognizing unit 34 determines that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, by the pressing operation, in addition to the fixed highlighted word, any word on the screen is displayed by the user. It recognizes whether it has been newly designated and notifies the display control unit 33 of the recognition result. Thereby, a process progresses to step S11.

  In step S11, the display control unit 33 moves the blinking display to the word recognized by the recognition unit 34, returns the process to step S10, and repeats the subsequent processes.

  Specifically, for example, in the state where the screen of FIG. 23 is displayed on the display unit 32, the user presses a right key (not shown) of the up / down / left / right keys 31A (a key for moving the blinking display to the right) once. Just press it. In this case, the recognition unit 34 determines in step S10 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, recognizes that the number of times the right key has been pressed is 1, and recognizes that “front” has been designated by the user, The recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33. Then, in step S11, the display control unit 33 moves the blinking display to “front” as shown in FIG. 24, and returns the process to step S10.

  Thereafter, for example, if it is determined in step S10 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S12.

  In step S12, the recognizing unit 34 determines whether or not the “OK” key 31D has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S12 that the “OK” key 31D has been pressed, the process proceeds to step S31 in FIG. However, the processing after step S31 will be described later.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S12 that the “OK” key 31D has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S13.

  In step S <b> 13, the recognition unit 34 determines whether or not the “&” key 31 </ b> C has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S13 that the “&” key 31C has not been pressed, the process returns to step S10, and the subsequent processes are repeated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S13 that the “&” key 31C has been pressed, the determination result is notified to the display control unit 33, and the process proceeds to step S14.

  In step S14, the display control unit 33 fixes the blinking word in reverse display, and in step S15, causes the word following the fixed reverse display word to flash. Thereafter, the process returns to step S10, and the subsequent processes are repeated.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the screen of FIG. 24 is displayed on the display unit 32 at the time of the process of step S14. That is, at this time, as shown in FIG. 24, “in” in “She was standing in the front of the classroom” displayed in the text display area 51 is highlighted and “front” ”Is displayed in a blinking manner, and“ front ”is further confirmed as a word designated by the user in addition to“ in ”by the user's pressing operation of the“ & ”key 31C. In this case, as shown in FIG. 25, “in” and “front” are fixed in the process of step S14, and “of” following the word “front” flashes in the process of step S15. It will be.

  Thereafter, the loop processing of steps S10 to S15 is repeated until the “OK” key 31D is pressed.

  For example, assume that the “OK” key 31D is pressed while the screen of FIG. 25 is displayed on the display unit 32. That is, “in” and “front” of “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” Displayed in the text display area 51 are highlighted and “of” is blinking. In this state, it is assumed that the “OK” key 31D is pressed.

  The user operation in this case, that is, the user operation such as pressing the “decision” key 31D immediately before the start of the process of step S12, designates all of a plurality of English words currently highlighted or blinked by the user. This means that the user desires to confirm the phrase as a confirmed word, and to examine a phrase or example including a plurality of confirmed words. In other words, in this case, it means that the user desires to examine a phrase or an example including “in”, “front”, “of” such as “in front of”.

  Accordingly, it is determined in step S12 that the “decision” key 31D has been pressed, and the processing in and after step S31 in FIG. 18 is executed. As a result, when the “decision” key 31D is pressed, the display is highlighted or blinked. The text about the phrase or example including a plurality of displayed English words is retrieved from the English phrase dictionary or the English example dictionary and displayed on the display unit 32.

  Specifically, when the recognition unit 34 determines that the “decision” key 31D has been pressed in step S12 of FIG. 16, the continuous multiple word recognition unit 34B or the non-continuous multiple word recognition unit 34C of the same is displayed in reverse video or The search unit 35 is notified of a plurality of flashing English words. Then, the search mode switching unit 35E of the search unit 35 temporarily shifts the search mode to, for example, the English phrase search mode, and once activates the English phrase search unit 35D. As a result, the process proceeds to step S31 in FIG.

  Specifically, for example, in this case, in “She was standing in the front of the classroom.”, “In”, “front”, and “of” are non-consecutive English words. The word recognition unit 34C notifies the English phrase search unit 35D of “in”, “front”, and “of”. Then, the search mode switching unit 35E of the search unit 35 temporarily shifts the search mode to, for example, the English phrase search mode, and once activates the English phrase search unit 35D. As a result, the process proceeds to step S31 in FIG.

  In step S31, the English phrase search unit 35D searches the index of the English phrase dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36 for a phrase that includes all the highlighted or blinking words, and displays the phrase in the display control unit 33. Supply.

  Then, in step S <b> 32, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a corresponding list including the phrase retrieved in the process of step S <b> 31 as an item.

  Specifically, for example, in this case, in step S31, the English phrase search unit 35D selects “in”, “front”, “of” from the indexes of the English phrase dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. Is retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, in step S32, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a screen as shown in FIG. That is, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 26, a corresponding list including items including phrases including “in”, “front”, and “of” is displayed in the corresponding list display area 53.

  In step S33, the search mode switching unit 35E determines whether or not the jump key 31B is pressed.

  If it is determined in step S33 that the jump key 31B has been pressed, the process proceeds to step S41 in FIG. 19 to execute a process for shifting from the English phrase search mode to the English example search mode. Details of the processing after step S41 will be described later.

  Thus, in addition to the function for shifting to the jump mode described above, a function for shifting to the search mode is also assigned to the jump key 31B. That is, the user can switch from the English phrase search mode to the English example search mode or vice versa by pressing the jump key 31B in the jump mode.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S33 that the jump key 31B has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S34. In step S34, the English phrase search unit 35D determines whether the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed.

  If the English phrase search unit 35D determines in step S34 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, which item (English phrase) in the corresponding list is designated by the user by the pressing operation. And the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the user presses an upper key (a key for moving the cursor upward) or a lower key (a key for moving the cursor downward) of the up / down / left / right keys 31A a plurality of times. In this case, the English phrase search unit 35D determines in step S34 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, and based on the number of times the up key and down key are pressed, Is recognized by the user, and the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  When the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33, the process proceeds to step S35. That is, in step S35, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor to the item (English phrase) recognized by the English phrase search unit 35D, and returns the process to step S33.

  Specifically, for example, in the state in which the screen of FIG. 26 is currently displayed on the display unit 32, that is, the cursor (symbol 61 of the finger in FIG. 26) is the first item from the top “English-Japanese get in front of oneself”. It is assumed that the down key is pressed once in a state of pointing to ((Abbreviated US)).

  In this case, the English phrase search unit 35D determines in step S34 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, and the second item from the top in FIG. ... ”Is designated by the user, and the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  Then, in step S35, although not shown, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor to the left of [[...] in front of [English-Japanese in front of 0 <human being>], which is the second item from the top. The position is moved, and the process returns to step S33.

  Thereafter, for example, if it is determined in step S33 that the jump key 31B is not pressed, and it is determined in step S34 that the up / down / left / right key 31A is not pressed, the process proceeds to step S36.

  In step S36, the English phrase search unit 35D determines whether or not the “determine” key 31D has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S36 that the “OK” key 31D has not been pressed, the process returns to step S33, and the subsequent processes are repeated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S36 that the “decision” key 31D has been pressed, that is, if the “decision” key 31D is pressed immediately before the processing in step S36, the “decision” key 31D is depressed. This means that the user desires to check the item (English phrase) on which the cursor is placed at the time when the cursor is placed.

  Therefore, if the English phrase search unit 35D determines in step S36 that the “determine” key 31D has been pressed, the item at the cursor position is selected from the English phrase dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36 in step S37. The text about (English phrase) is retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33.

  Then, in step S38, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a text about the phrase searched for in the process of step S37. In other words, the display screen of the display unit 32 jumps to the searched item (phrase).

  Specifically, for example, the item (English phrase) on which the cursor is placed when it is determined YES in step S36 is “Eiwa in front of”, which is the second item from the top in FIG. 0 Let's say [de ...] in front of <person>. In this case, as a result of the processes in steps S37 and S38, for example, the screen shown in FIG. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 27, the item display area 52 displays “in front of 0”, which is the item on which the cursor is placed when it is determined YES in the process of step S36. In the text display area 51, the text for the item is displayed.

  This completes the “word / phrase / example search process”.

  As described above, the “word / phrase / example search process” in the case where the user desires to examine the phrase including a plurality of English words included in the text displayed in the text display area 51 has been described.

  Next, the “word / phrase / example search process” when the user desires to examine an example including a plurality of English words included in the text displayed in the text display area 51 will be described.

  In this case, the processing is exactly the same as the above-described “word / phrase / example search processing” for the phrase until the process proceeds to step S32 in FIG. Then, as described above, after the hit list is displayed on the display unit 32 in the process of step S32 and the jump key 31B is pressed, the search mode switching unit 35E, in step S33, It is determined that the jump key 31B has been pressed, it is recognized that a search mode switching instruction has been made by the user, and the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33. Then, the process proceeds to step S41 in FIG. 19, and a search mode switching process is executed.

  In step S <b> 41, the display control unit 33 displays a multi search selection screen on the display unit 32.

  The multiple search selection screen is a screen that allows the user to specify either the English phrase search mode or the English example search mode as the search mode. Specifically, for example, when the jump key 31B is pressed while the screen of FIG. 26 described above is displayed on the display unit 32, the screen of FIG. The screen of FIG. 28 is an example of the multi-search selection screen. More precisely, the image (screen) displayed in the display area 54 in FIG. 28 is an example of a multi-search selection screen.

  When the multi-search selection screen according to the process of step S41 is displayed on the display unit 32, in step S42, the search mode switching unit 35E determines whether the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed.

  If the search mode switching unit 35E determines in step S42 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, the user has designated any item (sung phrase or example) on the multi-search selection screen by the pressing operation. And the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the user presses an upper key (a key for moving the cursor upward) or a lower key (a key for moving the cursor downward) of the up / down / left / right keys 31A a plurality of times. In this case, the search mode switching unit 35E determines in step S42 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, and any item on the multi-search selection screen based on the number of times the up key and the down key are pressed. It is recognized whether (spoken phrase or example) is designated by the user, and the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  When the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33, the process proceeds to step S43. That is, in step S43, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor to the item (phrase or example) recognized by the search mode switching unit 35E, and returns the process to step S42.

  Specifically, for example, in the state where the multi-search selection screen of FIG. 28 is currently displayed in the display area 54, that is, the cursor (symbol 61 of the middle finger in FIG. 28) is the first item from the top “English phrase”. It is assumed that the down key is pressed once in the state where it is arranged in “Check”.

  In this case, the search mode switching unit 35E determines in step S42 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, and recognizes that the second item from the top in FIG. The recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  Then, in step S43, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor position to “search for an English example”, which is the second item from the top (not shown), and returns the process to step S42.

  Thereafter, for example, if it is determined in step S42 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S44.

  In step S44, the search mode switching unit 35E determines whether or not the “OK” key 31D has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S44 that the “OK” key 31D has not been pressed, the process returns to step S42, and the subsequent processes are repeated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S44 that the “decision” key 31D has been pressed, that is, if the “decision” key 31D is pressed immediately before the start of the processing in step S44, the “decision” key 31D is This means that the user has designated a search mode corresponding to the item (sentence or example) on which the cursor is placed when the button is pressed. Therefore, when it is determined in step S44 that the “OK” key 31D has been pressed, the search mode switching unit 35E further determines in step S45 whether or not the cursor indicates “Check English phrase”.

  If it is determined in step S45 that the cursor indicates “Check English phrase”, it means that the English phrase search mode has been designated by the user. The “example search process” is executed. That is, if it is determined in step S45 that the cursor indicates “Check English phrase”, the process returns to step S31 of FIG.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S45 that the cursor does not indicate “Check English phrase”, that is, if the cursor indicates “Check English example”, the English example search is performed. Means that the mode was specified by the user. Therefore, in this case, the search mode switching unit 35E shifts from the English phrase search mode to the English example search mode and activates the English example search unit 35C. As a result, the processes of steps S46 to S53 are executed as “word / phrase / example search process” for the example.

  For example, the jump key 31B is pressed while the screen of FIG. 26 is displayed on the display unit 32 following the screen of FIG. 25, and as a result, the above-described multi-search screen of FIG. 28 is displayed. Assume that the cursor is moved to “Check English Examples” and the “OK” key 31D is pressed. That is, “in” and “front” of “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” Displayed in the text display area 51 are highlighted and “of” is blinking. Following the screen, the jump key 31B is pressed in a state where an item list including phrases including “in”, “front”, and “of” is displayed on the display unit 32. As a result, the multi-search in FIG. Assume that the screen is displayed, and then the cursor is moved to “Check English Examples” and the “OK” key 31D is pressed. In this case, the user's series of operations means that the user desires to examine an example including “in”, “front”, and “of” such as “in front of”.

  Therefore, when the “Enter” key 31D is pressed while the cursor on the multi-search screen indicates “Check English examples”, it is determined YES in the process of step S44, and the process of step S45 is performed. As a result, the English example search mode is entered and the English example search unit 35C is activated. The English text search unit 35C and the display control unit 33 mainly execute the processing from step S46 onward, and the text about the example including “in”, “front”, “of” such as “in front of” Is retrieved from the English example dictionary and displayed on the display unit 32.

  Specifically, in step S46, the English example search unit 35C searches the index of the English example dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36 to search for and display examples including all highlighted or blinking words. It supplies to the control part 33.

  Then, in step S47, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a corresponding list including the examples retrieved in the process of step S46 as items.

  Specifically, for example, in this case, in step S46, the English example search unit 35C selects “in”, “front”, “of” from the indexes of the English example dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36. Is retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33. Then, in step S47, the display control unit 33 displays a screen as shown in FIG. 29 on the display unit 32, for example. That is, as shown in FIG. 29, a corresponding list including items as examples including “in”, “front”, and “of” is displayed in the corresponding list display area 53.

  In step S48, the search mode switching unit 35E determines whether or not the jump key 31B is pressed.

  If the jump key 31B is pressed in step S48, the process returns to step S41, and the multi-search selection screen is displayed again on the display unit 32.

  As described above, in this way, the user specifies that the user presses the jump key 31B in a state in which the corresponding list having either one of the example and the phrase is displayed in the corresponding list display area 53. By performing the operation, the English phrase search mode and the English example search mode can be freely designated during the jump mode.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S48 that the jump key 31B has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S49. In step S49, the English example search unit 35C determines whether the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed.

  If the English example search unit 35C determines in step S49 that the up / down / left / right key 31A is pressed, which item (English example) in the corresponding list is designated by the user by the pressing operation. And the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  Specifically, for example, it is assumed that the user presses an upper key (a key for moving the cursor upward) or a lower key (a key for moving the cursor downward) of the up / down / left / right keys 31A a plurality of times. In this case, the English example search unit 35C determines in step S34 that the up / down / left / right key 31A has been pressed, and based on the number of times the up key and down key have been pressed, (Example) is recognized by the user, and the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  When the recognition result is notified to the display control unit 33, the process proceeds to step S50. In step S50, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor to the item recognized by the English example search unit 35C (English example), and returns the process to step S48.

  For example, in the state where the screen of FIG. 29 is displayed on the display unit 32, that is, the cursor (symbol 61 of the middle finger in FIG. 29) is the first item from the top “Eiwa He was given a caution for parkin. Suppose that the down key is pressed three times in the state of “”.

  In this case, in step S49, the English example search unit 35C recognizes that the fourth item from the top in FIG. 29 is “English-Japanese The cat came right in front of a. The result is notified to the display control unit 33.

  Then, in step S50, although not shown, the display control unit 33 moves the cursor position to the left of the fourth item from the top, “The Japanese came came in front of a... Is returned to step S48.

  Thereafter, for example, if it is determined in step S48 that the jump key 31B is not pressed, and it is determined in step S49 that the up / down / left / right key 31A is not pressed, the process proceeds to step S51.

  In step S51, the English example search unit 35C determines whether or not the “OK” key 31D has been pressed.

  If it is determined in step S51 that the “OK” key 31D has not been pressed, the process returns to step S48, and the subsequent processes are repeated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S51 that the “decision” key 31D is pressed, that is, if the “decision” key 31D is pressed immediately before the processing in step S51, the “decision” key 31D is pressed. This means that the user desires to check the item (example for English) where the cursor is placed at the time when the cursor is placed.

  Therefore, if the English example search unit 35C determines in step S51 that the “determine” key 31D has been pressed, the item at the cursor position is selected from the English example dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 36 in step S52. The text about (English example) is retrieved and supplied to the display control unit 33.

  Then, in step S53, the display control unit 33 causes the display unit 32 to display a text about the example retrieved in the process of step S52. That is, the display screen of the display unit 32 jumps to the searched item (example).

  Specifically, for example, the item (example for English) where the cursor is located when it is determined as YES in the process of step S51 is the fourth item from the top in FIG. "right in front of a ..." In this case, as a result of the processing in steps S52 and S53, although not shown, a text including an example itself such as “The cat came right in front of a... It will be.

  This completes the “word / phrase / example search process”.

  As described above, mainly referring to FIG. 19, “word / phrase / example search processing” in the case where the user desires to examine an example including a plurality of English words included in the text displayed in the text display area. Explained.

  In other words, as described above, when the user desires to examine each of a single word included in the text displayed in the text display area, and a phrase and example including a plurality of English words, “word / phrase / example search” The processing was explained. In other words, the “word / phrase / example search processing” in FIGS. 16 to 19 refers to a phrase or example including a single word or a plurality of English words from the text displayed in the text display area. Shows an example of processing executed by the information processing apparatus of the present invention when checking (searching).

  In the above-described example, the search for the phrase and the example is made only for the English language, but the information processing apparatus of the present invention executes the same processing as the series of processes described above for the English phrase and the example. Of course, you can search for phrases and examples in other languages including Japanese.

  As described above, the information processing apparatus according to the present invention executes the “word / phrase / example search process”, so that it is possible for the user to perform the operation from the text displayed on the display unit 32 with a simple and time-consuming operation. This makes it possible to search not only for a single word but also for phrases and examples made up of a plurality of words.

  In particular, this effect becomes more prominent when the user searches for a phrase or example composed of a plurality of discontinuous words included in the text. That is, in the conventional technology, the user “manually inputs a plurality of words in a predetermined input area and jumps to other items (examples, phrases, etc.)” or “designates a single word on the display screen. However, according to the present invention, a plurality of words on the display screen can be directly designated on the screen regardless of the continuous arrangement or the non-continuous arrangement. The operation of “jumping to another item” can be performed.

  Specifically, for example, as described above, the user discovers a group of words such as “in” and “front of” from the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom” on the display screen. Suppose that the word “in front of” consisting of these words is considered to be a possible phrase, and you want to examine the meaning of the word “in front of”. In this case, conventionally, it is necessary to take a long procedure such as the procedure 1 to the procedure 9 described above, and the above-described problem occurs. On the other hand, in the present invention, it is possible to obtain an effect of simply performing an operation of a simple and short procedure such as the following procedure 1 to procedure 5, that is, an effect capable of solving the above-described problem. . In addition, in order to distinguish each next procedure from each conventional procedure mentioned above, it calls this invention procedure.

  The present invention procedure 1 means that when the text shown in FIG. 20 (FIG. 1) is displayed in the text display area 1, that is, when the process of step S1 in FIG. 16 is executed. The user sees the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom.” And finds words such as “in” and “front of” from them. Refers to the procedure up to determining that there is a possibility of a phrase.

  According to the procedure 2 of the present invention, the user shifts the operation mode of the information processing apparatus to the jump mode, and the “She was standing in the front of the” displayed in the text display area 1 as shown in FIG. This refers to the procedure for highlighting the word "in" in the sentence "classroom." The process of the information processing apparatus of the present invention corresponding to the operation of the procedure 2 of the present invention is the process of steps S2 to S7 in FIG. 16, as described above.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, the user uses the up / down / left / right key 31A and the "&" key 31C to read "in", "front", "front", "She was standing in the front of the classroom" This refers to the procedure until each “of” is specified directly on the screen. That is, according to the third aspect of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 23 to 25, “in” and “front” in the sentence “She was standing in the front of the classroom” are highlighted. And the procedure until “of” blinks. The processing of the information processing apparatus of the present invention corresponding to the operation of the procedure 3 of the present invention is the processing of steps S8 to S15 in FIG. 16, as described above.

  According to the present invention procedure 4, when the user presses the “decision” key 31D, as shown in FIG. 26, “in”, “front”, “of” are decided as designated words, and decided as designated words. This refers to the procedure for displaying on the display section 32 a corresponding list with the phrase including “in”, “front”, and “of”. The process of the information processing apparatus of the present invention corresponding to the operation of the procedure 4 of the present invention is the process of step S12 (YES) in FIG. 16 and steps S31 and S32 in FIG. 18 as described above.

  According to the procedure 5 of the present invention, when the user presses the up / down / left / right key 31A, the item (the second item from the top in FIG. 26) showing the phrase “in front of” is moved to the cursor (in FIG. Symbol) is moved, and the “until” key 31D is pressed to jump the screen of the display unit 32 to “in front of”, that is, “in front of” as shown in FIG. The procedure until the main body is displayed on the display unit 32 is indicated. As described above, the processing of the information processing apparatus of the present invention corresponding to the operation of the procedure 5 of the present invention is the processing of steps S33 to S38 in FIG.

  By the way, when the above-described series of processing is executed by software, a program constituting the software is installed in a dedicated hardware, or various programs can be installed by installing various programs. For example, a general-purpose personal computer that can execute the function is installed from a network or a recording medium.

  For example, a program that can comprehensively execute the functions of the display control unit 33 to the search unit 35 shown in FIG. 11 is installed. Note that the form of the program is not particularly limited as long as the above-described series of processes can be executed as a whole. For example, a module configuration including modules corresponding to each of the display control unit 33 to the search unit 35, or a module in which an arbitrary number of arbitrary functional blocks of the display control unit 33 to the search unit 35 are combined, Or it is good also as a module structure containing the module in which at least 1 function of the display control part 33 thru | or the search part 35 was divided | segmented. Or the program which has only one algorithm may be sufficient.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 10, a recording medium including such a program is distributed to provide a program to the user separately from the apparatus main body, and a magnetic disk (floppy disk) on which the program is recorded is distributed. Removable recording media consisting of optical disk (including compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), DVD (digital versatile disk)), magneto-optical disk (including MD (mini-disk)), or semiconductor memory (Package medium) 21 is not only configured, but also includes a ROM 12 on which a program is recorded and a hard disk included in the storage unit 18 provided to the user in a state of being incorporated in the apparatus main body in advance.

  In the present specification, the step of describing the program recorded on the recording medium is not limited to the processing performed in time series along the order, but is not necessarily performed in time series, either in parallel or individually. The process to be executed is also included.

It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining the operation procedure in case a user investigates the meaning of "in front of" using the conventional information processing apparatus, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structural example of the information processing apparatus with which this invention is applied. It is a functional block diagram which shows the functional structural example of the information processing apparatus to which this invention is applied. It is a figure explaining manual operation search mode which is one of the operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining manual operation search mode which is one of the operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining manual operation search mode which is one of the operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. It is a figure explaining manual operation search mode which is one of the operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, Comprising: It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen. 12 is a flowchart for explaining an example of “word / phrase / example search processing” corresponding to a jump mode which is one of operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11; 12 is a flowchart for explaining an example of “word / phrase / example search processing” corresponding to a jump mode which is one of operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11; 12 is a flowchart for explaining an example of “word / phrase / example search processing” corresponding to a jump mode which is one of operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11; 12 is a flowchart for explaining an example of “word / phrase / example search processing” corresponding to a jump mode which is one of operation modes of the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19; FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen displayed on the information processing apparatus of FIGS. 10 and 11 in accordance with the “word / phrase / example search process” of FIGS. 16 to 19;

Explanation of symbols

  11 CPU, 12 ROM, 13 RAM, 18 storage unit, 21 removable recording medium, 31 operation unit, 31A up / down / left / right key, 31B jump key 31BC “&” key, 31D “OK” key, 31E keyboard, 32 display unit 32 display Control unit, 34 recognition unit, 34A single word recognition unit, 34B continuous multiple word recognition unit, 34C discontinuous multiple word recognition unit, 35A English word search unit, 35 search unit, 35B national language search unit, 35C English example search unit, 35D English phrase search section, 35E search mode switching section, 36 dictionary storage section, 51 text display area, 52 item display area, 53 corresponding list display area, 54 multi-search screen display area

Claims (9)

Display control means for controlling one or more sentences to be displayed on a predetermined display device;
An operation means in which a user performs a first operation for directly designating each of a plurality of words from one or more of the sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the display control means;
Recognizing means for recognizing a plurality of the words designated by the user from the content of the first operation of the operating means by the user;
A sentence or sentence component including all of the plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from among one or more sentence or sentence components recorded in advance in a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device. And a search means for searching,
The information processing apparatus, wherein the display control unit controls the display unit to display the sentence retrieved by the retrieval unit or a component of the sentence. The recognizing means recognizes the word each time the user directly designates a new word while the user performs the first operation by the operating means, and further, the display control means Notify
The display control means displays in a first display form all the words included in one or more of the sentences that are controlled to be displayed on the display device before the word is notified from the recognition means. Further, when the first word is notified from the recognition means, the word is displayed in a second display form different from the first display form, and thereafter, a new word is displayed from the recognition means. Each time a word is notified, one or more words notified in the past from the recognition means are displayed in the second display form, and the new word notified immediately before from the recognition means, The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein display is controlled in a third display form different from the first display form and the second display form. The user further includes all of the plurality of words displayed in the second display form or the third display form on the display device under the control of the display control means using the operation means. Perform a second operation to command the search for a sentence or sentence component;
When the second operation of the operation unit is performed by the user, the search unit is recognized by the recognition unit between the time when the first operation is performed and the time when the second operation is performed. As a result, a sentence or sentence including all of the plurality of words displayed in the second display form or the third display form on the display device when the second operation is performed. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the component is searched. The component of the sentence is a phrase composed of a plurality of words,
The recording medium or the recording apparatus stores in advance a dictionary composed of an index including a plurality of phrases as items, and a text composed of a text for each of the plurality of phrases included as items in the index,
The search means searches for one or more phrases including all of the plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from the index of the dictionary recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit controls the display unit to display a list of one or more of the phrases searched by the search unit. The user further uses a second control unit to directly specify a predetermined one from a list of one or more phrases that are displayed on the display device under the control of the display control unit. Perform the operation of
When the second operation of the operation unit is performed by the user, the search unit is further configured by the second operation from the dictionary recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device. Search the body for the specified phrase,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the display control unit further controls the display unit to display the text searched by the search unit. The recording medium or the recording device pre-records an index including a plurality of example sentences as items, and a dictionary composed of a text for each of the plurality of example sentences included as items in the index,
The retrieval means retrieves one or more example sentences including all of the plurality of words recognized by the recognition means from the index of the dictionary recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device. ,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit controls the display device to display a list of one or more example sentences searched by the search unit. The user uses the operation means to further specify a predetermined one from a list of one or more example sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the display control means. Perform operation 2
When the second operation of the operation unit is performed by the user, the search unit is further configured by the second operation from the dictionary recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device. Search the text for the specified example sentence,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the display control unit controls the display unit to display the text searched by the search unit. Information processing apparatus for performing display control on a predetermined display device, control for recognizing operation contents of an operation device operated by a user, and control for retrieving information recorded in a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device Information processing method,
A first display control step for controlling display of one or more sentences on the display device;
The user uses the operation device to perform an operation for directly designating each of the plurality of words from one or more of the sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the first display control step. If performed, a recognition step for recognizing the plurality of words specified by the user from the content of the operation;
A sentence or sentence component including all of the plurality of the words recognized by the process of the recognition step from among one or more sentence or sentence components recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device. A search step to search;
A second display control step for controlling display of the sentence or the component of the sentence searched by the processing of the search step on the display device. Executed on a computer that performs display control for a predetermined display device, control for grasping operation details of an operation device operated by a user, and control for searching for information recorded in a predetermined recording medium or a predetermined recording device. A program that
A first display control step for controlling display of one or more sentences on the display device;
The user uses the operation device to perform an operation for directly designating each of the plurality of words from one or more of the sentences displayed on the display device under the control of the first display control step. If performed, a recognition step for recognizing the plurality of words specified by the user from the content of the operation;
A sentence or sentence component including all of the plurality of the words recognized by the process of the recognition step from among one or more sentence or sentence components recorded in advance in the recording medium or the recording device. A search step to search;
And a second display control step for controlling the display of the sentence or the component of the sentence searched by the processing of the searching step on the display device.

Images