JP2009157748A - Input device, mobile terminal apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an input device that smoothly performs input, and to provide a mobile terminal apparatus and program. <P>SOLUTION: A generation unit 14 allows a display device to display vowels. When a first selection unit 12 detects that a user has selected either of the vowels, the generation unit 14 generates a plurality of input candidates consisting of characters or character strings associated with the vowel selected, and the display unit 11 displays the candidates on the display device. When a second selection unit 13 detects that the user has selected the desired input candidate from among the plurality of input candidates displayed on the display device, a decision unit 15 decides the selected input candidate as the input character. In such an arrangement, the input character is intuitively selected by selecting the input character on the basis of the vowel, thereby performing the input smoothly. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an input device including a touch panel, a portable terminal device including the input device, and a program.

  Currently, mobile terminal devices such as mobile phones, PHS (Personal Handyphone System), and PDA (Personal Digital Assistance) are widely used. In such a portable terminal device, for example, a Japanese text input operation such as creating an e-mail is frequently performed. However, the mobile terminal device is limited in the number of keys that can be arranged due to its nature. For this reason, conventionally, various proposals have been made to improve the ease of input operations (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  For example, in Patent Document 1, 5 characters in the 50-sound table and the first character of each row are assigned to the input key, and the key assigned 5 characters in that row has a function as a conventional character input key. It is disclosed that a function for specifying characters on each line is assigned and kana characters and symbols are input. Specifically, when a key assigned with “u”, which is the third character in the line, is pressed after the key assigned with the first character “ka”, the third character in the “ka” line is pressed. The character “ku” will be entered.

Further, in Patent Document 2, a plurality of representative character groups are displayed, and when one representative character is selected from them, a divided character group to which the selected representative character belongs is displayed, from which a desired character is displayed. It is disclosed that the selected character is confirmed when is selected. Specifically, the representative characters “a” to “wa” consisting of the first characters of each line of 50 sounds are displayed on the touch panel, and when “NA” is selected from these, the character group “ “NA” to “NO” are displayed, and when “Nu” is selected from these, “Nu” is determined as an input character.
JP 2002-099377 A JP 2005-258653 A

  However, in the past, in order to determine an input character, it is necessary to specify which line of the 50 characters the character belongs to, and the user has to think about the line to which the input character belongs. In some cases, it was difficult to perform smoothly.

  Then, this invention aims at providing the input device, portable terminal device, and program which can perform input smoothly.

  The input device according to the present invention is made to solve the problems as described above, and is selected by a first selection unit that allows a user to select a vowel, a display unit that displays characters, and a first selection unit. Generating means for generating a plurality of input candidates related to vowels and displaying them on the display means; second selecting means for selecting arbitrary input candidates from the input candidates displayed on the display means; And a confirmation means for confirming an input candidate selected by the selection means as an input character.

  In the input device, the first selection unit may cause the user to select a vowel from the vowels displayed on the display unit. Further, the first selection unit and the second selection unit may be constituted by a touch panel provided on the display screen of the display unit.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable terminal device including the above-described input device and an information processing unit that performs information processing including an input character determined by the input device.

  Further, the program according to the present invention generates a plurality of input candidates related to the vowel selected by the first selection means for causing the computer to select a vowel, a display means for displaying characters, and the first selection means. Generation means to be displayed on the display means, second selection means for selecting an arbitrary input candidate from the input candidates displayed on the display means, and the input candidate selected by the second selection means as an input character This is a program for functioning as a confirmation means for confirmation.

  According to the present invention, since an input character can be selected intuitively by selecting an input character based on a vowel, input can be performed smoothly.

[First Embodiment]
Hereinafter, a first embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration of input device>
As shown in FIG. 1, the input device 1 according to the present embodiment includes a display unit 11, a first selection unit 12, a second selection unit 13, a generation unit 14, and a determination unit 15. Is done.

  The display unit 11 is a functional unit that displays characters and the like on a known display device such as a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), or an FED (Field Emission Display).

  The first selection unit 12 is a functional unit that detects a user operation input from devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pointing device, a button, and a touch panel.

  The second selection unit 13 is a functional unit that detects a user operation input from devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pointing device, a button, and a touch panel.

  The generation unit 14 is a functional unit that causes the first selection unit 12 to select a vowel, generates input candidates including characters or character strings related to the selected vowel, and displays the input candidates on the display unit 11.

  The confirmation unit 15 is a functional unit that causes the second selection unit 13 to select an arbitrary input candidate from the input candidates displayed on the display unit 11, and confirms this as an input character.

  Such an input device includes, for example, a calculation device such as a CPU, a memory, a storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disc Drive), a user interface that detects input of information from the outside such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pointing device, a button, and a touch panel. , And a computer having a display device such as a CRT, LCD or FED, and a program installed in the computer. That is, the hardware device and the software cooperate to control the hardware resources by a program, and the display unit 11, the first selection unit 12, the second selection unit 13, the generation unit 14, and the determination described above. Unit 15 is realized.

<Operation of input device>
Next, the operation of the input device 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  When a character input is requested by the user, the generation unit 14 displays vowels on the display unit 11 (step S1). Thereby, “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “O” are displayed on the display device.

  When the vowel is displayed on the display device and the first selection unit 12 detects that the user has selected any vowel (step S2: YES), the generation unit 14 generates a character related to the selected vowel. Alternatively, a plurality of input candidates consisting of character strings are generated (step S3). Examples of input candidates to be generated include a character having a selected vowel and a word having a selected vowel input in the past. These can be generated, for example, by recording past input characters in a memory and extracting them from the memory. In addition, the character to produce | generate may be not only the character which consists of one word, but the character string which consists of several words. The generated characters may be words, idioms, proper nouns, proverbs, and the like.

  For example, when the user selects the vowel “U”, vowels such as “KU”, “SU”, “TSU”, “NU”, “FU”, “MU”, “YU”, “RU”, etc. ”Is generated. In addition, for example, input candidates including a character string starting with a character whose vowel is “U”, such as “Shoe”, “Sparrow”, and “Tired” are generated.

  When generating a plurality of input candidates, the generation unit 14 causes the display unit 11 to display the input candidates on the display device (step S4).

  When the second selection unit 13 detects that a plurality of input candidates are displayed on the display device and the user has selected a desired input candidate from these (step S5: YES), the confirmation unit 15 selects the selected input. A candidate is determined as an input character (step S6).

  When the character input is further continued (step S7: YES), the input device 1 returns to the process of step S1. On the other hand, when the input ends (step S8: NO), the input device 1 ends the operation.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, by selecting an input character based on a vowel, it is possible to select the input character intuitively, so that input can be performed smoothly.

  In the present embodiment, the generation unit 14 has been described as an example in which the vowel selected by the first selection unit 12 is displayed on the display unit 11, but the vowel is not displayed on the display unit 11. May be. For example, vowels may be displayed on keys, buttons, etc., and vowels may be selected based on the vowels.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described. In the present embodiment, the input device 1 according to the first embodiment described above is applied to a mobile terminal device.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the mobile terminal device 2 according to the present embodiment includes a control device 20, a display device 50 that displays information processed by the control device 20, and an overlay on the display device 50. The control device 20 includes a control unit 30 and a storage unit 40.

  The control unit 30 receives the output from the display control unit 31 that controls output to the display device 50, the panel control unit 32 that controls input from the touch panel 60, and the touch panel 60, generates input candidates, and displays the display device 50. A vowel type discriminating unit 33 that outputs to the character, a character input unit 34 that receives the output from the vowel type discriminating unit 33 and controls character input, a communication function, a mailer, a voice reproduction function, a recording function, a recording function, and an imaging function. And an application 35 for realizing various functions of the mobile terminal device 2 such as a moving image reproduction function, a game function, a document creation function, and a table creation function.

  The storage unit 40 includes a kana-kanji conversion dictionary 41 that indicates each relationship when hiragana is converted to kanji, and history information 42 that includes information on past input characters.

  The display device 50 is composed of a known display device.

  The touch panel 60 is a transparent panel and outputs pressed position information.

  Such a portable terminal device 2 detects an input of information from the outside such as an arithmetic device such as a CPU, a storage device such as a memory and an HDD (Hard Disc Drive), a keyboard, a mouse, a pointing device, a button, and a touch panel. The computer includes an input device, a computer having a display device such as a CRT, LCD, or FED, and a program installed in the computer. That is, when the hardware device and software cooperate, the above hardware resources are controlled by a program, and the above-described control unit 30 and storage unit 40 are realized.

<Character input operation of portable terminal device>
Next, a character input operation in the mobile terminal device 2 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the portable terminal device 2, when inputting Japanese while using the mailer function or the document creation function, the application 35 requests the character input unit 34 to switch the character input mode (step S11). Then, the character input unit 34 activates the vowel type discrimination unit 33.

  The vowel type discrimination unit 33 causes the display control unit 31 to display the hiragana vowel and the selection button on the display device 50 (step S12). For example, in the case of a display device 50 having a rectangular display screen as shown in FIG. 5A, an input character area 51 for displaying input characters on the upper side and a selection area 52 for displaying vowels and selection buttons on the lower side. It may be arranged. In this selection area 52, for example, as shown in FIG. 5B, vowels are displayed in the upper row and selection buttons are displayed in the lower row. Specifically, in the case of FIG. 5 (b), the upper row is the vowel “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “O” characters, and the lower row is the selection button. “Mode”, “blank”, “carriage return”, “cancel”, and “decision” characters are displayed in a single row in the form of button-like icons. Here, the “mode” indicates a change in input mode such as hiragana, katakana, and alphabet. “Blank” indicates an input of a space. “Line feed” indicates a line feed of a sentence. “Cancel” indicates cancellation of the immediately preceding operation. “Determination” means determination of various operations.

  When the vowel and the selection button are displayed on the display device 50, when the panel controller 32 detects that the user has pressed an area on the touch panel 60 corresponding to any vowel (step S13: YES) ), The vowel type determination unit 33 acquires the hiragana corresponding to the vowel (step S14). For example, when “U” is selected, the vowel type discriminating unit 33 selects “KU”, “SU”, “TSU”, “NU”, “FU”, “MU”, “YU”, “RU”, etc. The character whose vowel is “u” is output. This can be acquired by, for example, registering a 50-sound table together with the Kana-Kanji conversion dictionary 41 and searching from the 50-sound table.

  When the hiragana is acquired, the vowel type discrimination unit 33 generates a character or a character string corresponding to the hiragana as an input candidate (step S15). This is performed by extracting characters or character strings from the Kana-Kanji conversion dictionary 41 and the history information 42. Specifically, the vowel type discriminating unit 33 extracts, from the kana-kanji conversion dictionary 41, the kanji that becomes the first character of the acquired hiragana reading. Further, from the history information 42, a character or character string input in the past in which the acquired hiragana is the first character is extracted. In this way, a plurality of input candidates corresponding to each acquired hiragana are generated.

  When the input candidate is generated, the vowel type determination unit 33 causes the display control unit 31 to display the input candidate on the display device 50 (step S16). For example, as shown in FIG. 5C, input candidates generated by the vowel type discriminating unit 33 are displayed in the upper row of the selection area 52, and muddy dots and selection buttons are displayed in the lower row. Is done. FIG. 5C shows a case where “A” is selected as a vowel, and “Ai”, “Kaki”, “Sashimi”, “Ta”, “N” are input candidates in the upper row. Is displayed. In the lower row, muddy points “”, “°” and selection buttons “continue”, “cancel”, “decision” are displayed. Here, “continuation” indicates that further character input is performed. Further, in the selection region 52, arrows are marked at the upper ends of both ends of the upper row. When the user presses the arrow, the input candidates scroll in the horizontal direction. Thereby, even when all the input candidates cannot be displayed in the selection area 52 at a time, all the input candidates can be displayed.

  When the input candidate and the selection button are displayed on the display device, the panel control unit 32 detects that the user has pressed down an area on the touch panel 60 corresponding to any of the input candidates (step S17: YES), the character input unit 34 determines the input candidate as an input character. When the input character is confirmed, the character input unit 34 displays the input character in the input character area 51 in the display device 50 as shown in FIG. 5A, for example. Thereby, the user can recognize that the input character has been confirmed.

  When the character input is continued, for example, when an area corresponding to the “continue” selection button on the touch panel 60 is pressed (step S18: YES), the character input unit 34 returns to the process of step S11. On the other hand, when the character input is terminated, for example, when an area corresponding to the “OK” selection button on the touch panel 60 is pressed (step S18: NO), the character input unit 34 determines the character string to be input (step S19). ), The character input operation is terminated.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, by selecting an input character based on a vowel, it is possible to select the input character intuitively, so that input can be performed smoothly.

  In other words, according to the present embodiment, when inputting characters, it is only necessary to select vowels first, so that input characters can be selected intuitively. Further, since it is only necessary to select from a few choices of five vowels, it is possible to save the trouble of thinking about the line to which the input character belongs, and as a result, the input character can be selected smoothly.

  Further, when a vowel is selected, a plurality of input candidates related to this vowel are generated, and an input character may be selected from them, so that the input character can be selected smoothly.

  The arrangement of the input character area 51 and the selection area 52 in the display device 50 of the mobile terminal device 2 is not limited to the form shown in FIG. 5A, and can be set as appropriate. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, an input character area 51 is arranged on the left side of the display device 50, and a selection area 52 is arranged on the right side. In this selection area 52, vowels and selection buttons may be arranged in the vertical direction. . Further, as shown in FIG. 7, contrary to FIG. 6, a selection area 52 on the left side and an input character area 51 on the right side may be arranged. In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, an input character area 51 may be arranged at the upper end of the display device 50 and a selection area 52 may be arranged at the lower end, and these may be separated.

  The present invention can be applied to small terminal devices such as mobile phones, PHS, and PDAs.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the input device which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the input device which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the portable terminal device which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the portable terminal device which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. (A) is a schematic diagram showing an example of a portable terminal device, (b) is a diagram showing an example of a selection area displaying vowels and selection buttons, and (c) is an example of a selection area displaying character selection candidates and selection buttons. FIG. It is another structural example of a portable terminal device. It is another structural example of a portable terminal device. It is another structural example of a portable terminal device.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input device, 2 ... Portable terminal device, 11 ... Display part, 12 ... 1st selection part, 13 ... 2nd selection part, 14 ... Production | generation part, 15 ... Determination part, 20 ... Control apparatus, 30 ... Control 31: Display control unit, 32 ... Panel control unit, 33 ... Vowel type discrimination unit, 34 ... Character input unit, 35 ... Application, 40 ... Storage unit, 41 ... Kana-Kanji conversion dictionary, 42 ... History information, 50 ... Display Device 51 ... Input character area 52 ... Selection area 60 ... Touch panel.

Claims (5)

First selection means for allowing a user to select a vowel;
Display means for displaying characters;
Generating means for generating a plurality of input candidates related to the vowel selected by the first selection means and displaying the input candidates on the display means;
Second selection means for selecting arbitrary input candidates from input candidates displayed on the display means;
An input device comprising: a determining unit that determines an input candidate selected by the second selecting unit as an input character. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the first selection unit causes the user to select a vowel from vowels displayed on the display unit. The input device according to claim 2, wherein the first selection unit and the second selection unit include a touch panel provided on a display screen of the display unit. An input device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
A portable terminal device comprising: information processing means for performing information processing including an input character determined by the input device. Computer
First selection means for allowing a user to select a vowel;
Display means for displaying characters,
Generating means for generating a plurality of input candidates related to the vowel selected by the first selecting means and displaying the input candidates on the display means;
Second selection means for selecting an arbitrary input candidate from input candidates displayed on the display means;
A confirmation means for confirming the input candidate selected by the second selection means as an input character;
Program to function as.

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