JP2007193388A - Information processor, data input method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processor improving convenience of a user by allowing easy input of data of different types. <P>SOLUTION: An input means is provided having an input state detecting part detecting at least two types of input states by one input key, and an input receiving means is provided for receiving input of at least two types of data assigned to the input key in response to the at least two types of input states detected by the input state detecting part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus capable of inputting two kinds of data with one key.

  In an information processing terminal such as a mobile phone, the input method of “kana characters” and “alphanumeric characters” is divided due to the limited number of keys. Specifically, it is performed by setting an input mode in which each type of character can be input. For example, when inputting the characters “15th”, first enter “15” from the key in the “alphanumeric” mode, and then enter “kichi” from the key in the “kana” mode. And convert it to "day".

  On the other hand, recent character input software (such as conversion software) has an enhanced conversion function, and may display “15 days” in one conversion without changing the mode. However, in such a case, the number of converted candidates increases by putting numbers into conversion candidates, which imposes a load on predictive conversion. In addition, it may be troublesome to select conversion contents to be specified from many conversion candidates.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-244791

  As described above, in an information processing terminal with a limited number of keys, it is difficult to input “kana” and “alphanumeric characters” at the same time. When creating an e-mail, there is a problem that it takes time and effort especially for the user.

  Patent Document 1 described above discloses a technique for detecting two-stage input with one key, that is, when touching and when pressed. What key is touched at the stage of touching? This is a technique for displaying this on the screen and notifying the user, and even after the key is pressed, the displayed characters can only be input, and the above-described problem cannot be solved.

  For this reason, the present invention provides an information processing terminal that improves the inconveniences of the above-described conventional example, and in particular, enables easy input of different types of data and can improve user convenience. For that purpose.

Therefore, an information processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is
An input means having an input state detection unit for detecting at least two types of input states with one input key;
An input receiving means for receiving input of at least two types of data assigned to the input keys according to at least two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit;
It is characterized by having.

  According to the above invention, a plurality of different types of input are possible for a single key, and therefore a plurality of different types of data set corresponding to the plurality of input states can be input. Therefore, when it is desired to input other types of data using the same key, it is only necessary to change the input method for the key without changing the input mode. It is possible to improve the performance.

  In particular, the input state detection unit detects two types of input states for the input key, and the input receiving unit is assigned to the input key according to the two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit. It is desirable that the configuration accepts input of two types of data. At this time, it is more desirable that the input state detection unit is configured to detect contact input and press input to the input key as two types of input states. Further, the input receiving means is characterized in that when a pressing input is received within a predetermined time after receiving a contact input for the same input key, the input of the touch input is canceled and the pressing input is received. .

  In this way, by limiting the number of input states for the key to two types, input by the user is facilitated. In particular, by using two types of input methods for contact input and press input, which can be easily input separately, the input operation by the user is further facilitated, and the convenience can be further improved. At this time, contact is always performed before pressing, but input can be received more appropriately by controlling so that pressing is given priority.

  In addition, the input means includes a plurality of input keys each having an input detection unit, and the input receiving means operates to accept input of the same type of data according to the same type of input state with respect to the plurality of input keys. It is characterized by. The two types of data are, for example, kana characters and alphanumeric characters. Alternatively, the two types of data are kana characters and letters or numbers. Furthermore, the information processing terminal is, for example, a mobile phone.

  This makes it possible to input frequently used characters at the same time when creating a document without changing the input mode, thereby facilitating and speeding up the input operation. Can be improved. In particular, by using a mobile phone with a small number of keys, it is possible to input two types of keys quickly and easily.

Moreover, the program which is the other form of this invention is:
An information processing apparatus including an input unit having an input state detection unit that detects at least two types of input states with one input key;
This is a program for realizing input receiving means for receiving input of at least two types of data assigned to input keys according to at least two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit.

In addition, a data input method according to another aspect of the present invention includes:
A method of inputting data using an information processing apparatus including an input unit having an input state detection unit that detects at least two types of input states with one input key,
The information processing apparatus accepts input of at least two types of data assigned to the input keys according to at least two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit;
It is characterized by that.

  When the input state detection unit is configured to detect two types of input states with respect to the input key, the information processing apparatus is assigned to the input key according to the two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit. It accepts the input of two types of data. At this time, when the input state detection unit is configured to detect contact input and pressing input with respect to the input key as two types of input states, after the information processing apparatus receives the contact input with respect to the same input key It is characterized in that when a pressing input is made within a certain time, the acceptance of the touch input is canceled and the pressing input is accepted.

  Even the program and the data input method configured as described above operate in the same manner as the information processing apparatus, so that the object of the present invention described above can be achieved.

  Since the present invention is configured and functions as described above, according to this, even when it is desired to input other types of data with the same key, the input method for the key is changed without changing the input mode. Thus, it is possible to easily input a plurality of types of data. Therefore, even in an information processing apparatus with a small number of arranged keys, it is possible to easily perform various data input operations and improve the convenience of the user, which is an excellent effect that has never been achieved. Have

  The present invention is characterized in that a plurality of types of input operations can be performed with one key, and a plurality of types of data can be input according to such an input method. Hereinafter, a case where two types of data (kana characters and alphanumeric characters) are input to the mobile phone 1 will be described as an example. However, the information processing apparatus for inputting data is not limited to a mobile phone.

  A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 are external views showing the structure of a mobile phone. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the mobile phone. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a key structure. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation at the time of data input.

[Constitution]
A cellular phone 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a general cellular phone provided with a key unit 2 and a display 3 (display unit) in a casing. In addition, an arithmetic unit 4 such as a CPU, a RAM, and a ROM are provided therein. The cellular phone 1 in this embodiment is mainly characterized by a key unit 2 and a processing unit (function) constructed in the arithmetic device 4. This feature will be described in detail.

  First, the key unit 2 of the mobile phone 1 is provided with a plurality of keys 20 (input keys). For example, as shown in FIGS. Each key 20 (see 20a to 20f) displays two types of data that can be input. For example, the key indicated by reference numeral 20a has a number “1” and a kana character “ "" Is displayed. This can be entered in two types of characters: “1” and “alphanumeric characters” such as “a, b, c” and “kana characters” such as “a, i, u, e, o” It is shown that. In actual input, characters corresponding to the number of inputs are input. That is, when inputting alphanumeric characters, the characters that can be input change in the order of “1 → a → b → c” according to the number of times of input, and when inputting kana characters, “A The characters that can be entered change in the order of “→ I → U → E → O”.

  Whether to enter alphanumeric characters or kana characters depends on the user's input state (input operation) to the key 20. As shown in FIG. 4, the key 20 in this embodiment includes a contact detection unit 21 (input state detection unit) that enables “contact input” by detecting that the user has touched the key 20, and the user A press detection unit 22 (input state detection unit) that enables “press input” by detecting that the key 20 is pressed;

  An example of a specific configuration of the key 20 is shown in FIG. First, the protective sheet 23 and the contact sensation board 21 as the contact detection unit 21 are laminated and pasted on the upper part. The protective sheet 23 is printed with characters, symbols, and the like. The touch-sensitive board 21 is, for example, a thin felt made of carbon fiber sandwiched between electrodes from both sides. When the user's finger touches the key, the contact pressure is detected by the on / off binary value. That is, the contact sensation board 21 detects a change in electrical resistance between the electrodes due to the contact pressure of the finger and transmits the change to the contact detection processing unit 41 described later.

  Further, the key body 24 has a protrusion formed on the back surface thereof, and when the key is pressed, the protrusion presses the metal dome contact 22a constituting the press detection unit 22 installed on the key substrate. When the metal dome contact 22a is depressed by the pressing pressure, the fixed contact 22b that constitutes the pressing detection unit 22 is contacted. The contacts 22a and 22b are connected to the press detection processing unit 42 in order to detect the conduction.

  In addition, the structure which detects the contact or pressing by the key 20 is not limited to what was mentioned above. Moreover, although the case where the two types of input states with respect to the key 20 are contact and pressing was illustrated, it is not limited to this. For example, stepwise pressing may be detected as a plurality of types of input states. Further, the input state is not limited to two types, and may be configured to detect more types of input states.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the arithmetic device 4 of the mobile phone 1 incorporates a predetermined program, so that a contact detection processing unit 41, a press detection processing unit 42, an input reception processing unit 43, and an output are provided. The processing unit 44 is constructed. The details will be described below.

  The contact detection processing unit 41 or the press detection processing unit 42 is connected to the contact detection unit 21 (contact sensation board) or the press detection unit 22 (the metal dome contact 22a and the fixed contact 22b) provided in the key 20 described above. On the basis of the detection information from the key, that is, the electrical resistance value, a touch input or a press input to the key 20 is detected. Then, the detected input state is notified to the input reception processing unit 43.

  The input reception processing unit 43 (input reception unit) inputs any one of the two types of characters assigned to the key 20 in advance according to the notified two types of input (contact / press) input states. Accept. That is, when a contact input is notified, for example, a “kana character” input assigned to the contact input is accepted, and when a press input is notified, an “alphanumeric” input assigned to the press input is accepted. Then, by notifying the received input to the output processing unit 44, the output processing unit 44 outputs the input character to be displayed on the display 3 (display unit).

  In addition, in the input reception process part 43, when the same input state is continuously performed with respect to the same key 20, another character of the same type is inputted according to the number of times as described above. Change to characters (kana or alphanumeric). That is, for the key 20a, according to the number of times of input, “1 → a → b → c” for alphanumeric characters, “A → I → U → E → O” for Kana characters, etc. The input character is changed and displayed on the output processing unit 44.

  Further, the input reception processing unit 43 cancels the reception of the contact input when the same key 20 is pressed within a certain time (for example, within 0.5 seconds) after the contact input is received. It has a function to accept pressing input. This is because there is always a contact before the key is pressed, so that the contact when the key is pressed is erroneously accepted as a contact input.

[Operation]
Next, the operation at the time of data input in the mobile phone 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In the following, it is assumed that “kana characters” can be input by a touch operation on the key 20, and alphanumeric characters can be input by a “pressing operation”.

  First, when a contact input is performed on the “key 2” of the reference numeral 20b of the mobile phone 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the input reception processing unit 43 detects the key input via the contact detection processing unit 41. (Yes determination in step S1). At this time, the input reception processing unit 43 identifies what key the input is for (step S2).

  After that, when the pressing input for “key 2” is not made within a certain time, the contact input is accepted (proceed to “contact” in step S3). Then, since there is a touch input for “key 2” once at this time, the kana character “ka” is input and displayed on the display 3 (step S4). Thereafter, when the user once lifts the finger and touches the same “key 2” again (affirmative determination in step S5), the contact input is performed twice. The character “KI” is input and displayed on the display 3 (step S6). Thereafter, if there is no further touch input for “key 2”, the input character is confirmed (No in step S5, step S10).

  On the other hand, when a key is touched and a pressing input is detected within a certain time, the pressing input is given priority. That is, the process proceeds to “pressing” in step S3. Then, for example, when “Key 3” is pressed, even if “K”, which is a kana character, reacts and is displayed by contact, “Sa” is changed to “3” of alphanumeric characters by subsequent pressing. The input is changed and displayed (step S7). Thereafter, when the same “key 3” is continuously pressed again, “D”, which is the second alphanumeric character of “key 3”, can be input (Yes in step S8, step S9). ). If there is no further touch input for “key 3”, the input character is confirmed (No in step S8, step S10).

  Contrary to the above, “alphanumeric characters” may be input at the time of contact input, and “kana characters” may be input when pressed. That is, the input of “kana characters” or “alphanumeric characters” may be associated with the touch input and the press input.

  Next, the procedure for inputting “15th day” will be described more specifically. In the following, it is assumed that “kana characters” can be input by contact input and “alphanumeric characters” can be input by pressing input. For the key position, refer to FIGS.

  First, “key 1” (20a) is pressed once to input “1”. Subsequently, “key 5” (20e) is pressed once to input “5”. Next, “NA” is displayed by touching “KEY 5” (20e). Subsequently, by releasing the finger and touching the same “key 5” (20e) again (second time), “Ni” is input. Next, “TA” is displayed by touching “KEY 4” (20d). Subsequently, by releasing the finger and touching the same “key 4” (20d) again (second time), “Chi” is input. Then, by inputting a conversion key, it is converted to “15 days”. The conversion method is the same as in the conventional example.

  As a further specific example, an operation procedure for inputting “4 cups” will be described. Hereinafter, as described above, it is assumed that “kana characters” can be input by contact input and “alphanumeric characters” can be input by pressing input. For the key position, refer to FIGS.

  First, “key 4” (20d) is pressed once to input “4”. Next, “key” is displayed by touching “key 6” (20f). Next, “Key 1” (20a) is touched to display “A”. Subsequently, by releasing the finger and touching the same “key 1” (20a) again (second time), “I” is input. After that, by inputting a conversion key, “4 cups” are converted.

  As described above, in the above, since the input of “kana” and “alphanumeric characters” is separated by the two types of input methods (contact and press) for the key 20, the input mode is changed by the function of the mobile phone 1. It is possible to input and convert different types of characters without setting. In addition, even when the enhanced conversion function is used, since the contents to be input as “alphanumeric characters” are originally input as “alphanumeric characters”, “alphanumeric characters” as candidates can be omitted. Therefore, the number of candidates can be reduced, and the user can easily select from the candidates.

  In particular, by using the present invention for the mobile phone 1 having a small number of keys arranged, it is possible to input characters (data) easily and quickly, thereby further improving the convenience for the user. be able to.

  In the above example, Kana characters and alphanumeric characters are input by changing the input method. However, depending on the input method, Kana characters and English characters or Kana characters and numbers can be set. Also good. Also, depending on the input method, other types of different data may be set to be input.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for an information processing apparatus that requires a key input operation. In particular, the present invention can be used for a mobile phone that inputs characters with a small number of keys and has industrial applicability.

It is an external view which shows the structure of a mobile telephone. It is an external view which shows the structure of a mobile telephone. It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of a key. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of a mobile telephone. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the mobile telephone at the time of key input operation.

Explanation of symbols

1 Mobile phone 2 Key unit 3 Display (display unit)
20 Key 21 Contact detection unit 22 Press detection unit 41 Contact detection processing unit 42 Press detection processing unit 43 Input reception processing unit 44 Output processing unit

Claims (14)

An input means having an input state detection unit for detecting at least two types of input states with one input key;
Input receiving means for receiving input of at least two types of data assigned to the input keys according to the at least two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit;
An information processing apparatus comprising: The input state detection unit detects two types of input states for the input key,
The input receiving means receives input of two types of data assigned to the input key according to the two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the input state detection unit detects a touch input and a press input with respect to the input key as two types of input states.   The input receiving means cancels the reception of the touch input and receives the press input when the press input is received within a certain time after the touch input is received with respect to the same input key; The information processing apparatus according to claim 3. The input means includes a plurality of input keys each having the input detection unit,
The input receiving means operates to receive an input of the same type of data according to an input state of the same type for the plurality of input keys;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, 3 or 4.   6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the two types of data are kana characters and alphanumeric data.   6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the two types of data are kana characters and alphabetic characters or numbers.   8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the information processing apparatus is a mobile phone. An information processing apparatus including an input unit having an input state detection unit that detects at least two types of input states with one input key;
Input receiving means for receiving input of at least two types of data assigned to the input keys according to the at least two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit;
A program to realize When the input state detection unit is configured to detect two types of input states for the input key,
The input receiving means receives input of two types of data assigned to the input key according to the two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit;
The program according to claim 9. When the input state detection unit is configured to detect a touch input and a press input to the input key as two types of input states,
The input receiving means cancels the reception of the contact input and receives the pressing input when the pressing input is performed within a predetermined time after receiving the contact input.
The program according to claim 10. A method of inputting data using an information processing apparatus including an input unit having an input state detection unit that detects at least two types of input states with one input key,
The information processing apparatus accepts input of at least two types of data assigned to the input key according to the at least two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit;
A data input method characterized by that. When the input state detection unit is configured to detect two types of input states for the input key,
The information processing apparatus accepts input of two types of data assigned to the input key according to the two types of input states detected by the input state detection unit.
The data input method according to claim 12, wherein: When the input state detection unit is configured to detect a touch input and a press input to the input key as two types of input states,
The information processing apparatus cancels acceptance of the contact input and accepts the pressing input when the pressing input is performed within a predetermined time after receiving the contact input with respect to the same input key;
The data input method according to claim 13.

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