JP2011248533A - Keyboard display device and keyboard display changeover method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a keyboard display device and a keyboard display changeover method in which letters of desired language can be easily input on a software keyboard during a keyword retrieval for information about a district.SOLUTION: This keyboard display device is provided with a district determination part 17 that determines a district selected by a user operation when a keyword is input, a keyboard information acquisition part 18 that acquires software keyboard information for the official language corresponding to the determined district from a keyboard information storage part 12, and a display control part 19 that displays a software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the district selected by a user operation on the basis of the acquired software keyboard information, and automatically displays a software keyboard corresponding to an official language of the district to which information to be retrieved by the keyword retrieval (such as a destination of a guide route) belongs, regardless of the current position.

Description

  The present invention relates to a keyboard display device and a keyboard display switching method, and is particularly suitable for use in an electronic device that receives various inputs from a user through a software keyboard displayed on a screen.

  There is an electronic device that displays a software keyboard on a screen and inputs a character assigned to the key by pressing a desired key on the software keyboard. For example, when a guidance route is set by a navigation device that provides vehicle travel guidance, a destination may be searched and set by an address. In this case, when the user sequentially presses desired keys on the software keyboard displayed on the screen, the destination address can be input as a search keyword.

  By the way, in a navigation device used in Europe and America, it is necessary to input an address in the language of the country to which the destination belongs. Therefore, in European and American navigation devices, a plurality of types of software keyboards to be displayed on the screen are prepared corresponding to a plurality of languages. However, conventionally, when there is no language character to be input on the software keyboard being displayed, the user has to manually switch the software keyboard, and there has been a problem that the operation is troublesome.

  In addition, there is provided a technique for switching the display screen according to the country where the vehicle is located (for example, switching from a 50-character input screen to an alphabet input screen when moving from Japan to the United States) ( For example, see Patent Document 1). In addition, after one special character is input by the user using the special character input keyboard, the special character input keyboard is automatically changed to the normal character input keyboard without waiting for the switching operation by the user. A technique for switching and displaying is also provided (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP 2000-266557 A JP 2008-134919 A

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, since a software keyboard corresponding to the language of the country where the vehicle is located is automatically displayed, when the destination is outside the country where the vehicle is located The user must manually switch the software keyboard.

  Further, in the technique described in Patent Document 2, when the special characters are entered using the special character input keyboard, it is automatically returned to the original normal character input keyboard. When trying to input characters, the user must manually switch the software keyboard. Moreover, in patent document 2, whenever one special character is input, a display will switch to the original keyboard for normal character input. For this reason, when it is desired to continue to input special characters, it is necessary to manually switch from the normal character input keyboard to the special character input keyboard over and over, which is troublesome.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and allows a user to easily input characters in a desired language on a software keyboard when searching for information on a region such as an address. With the goal.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention determines a region selected by a user operation when performing a keyword search for information about a region, and switches to a software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the selected region. It is displayed on the top.

  According to the present invention configured as described above, it corresponds to the official language of the region to which the information (for example, the destination of the guidance route) to be searched for belongs, regardless of where the currently existing region is. The software keyboard is automatically displayed on the screen. Therefore, the user does not have to perform a troublesome operation of manually switching the software keyboard in accordance with the area to which the information to be searched belongs. In addition, since the display of the software keyboard does not change each time a character is input, a keyword consisting of a desired character string is desired without the user having to manually switch the software keyboard one character at a time. Can be easily entered in any language. This makes it possible to easily input characters in a desired language on the software keyboard when searching for information related to the region.

It is a block diagram which shows the principal part structural example of the navigation apparatus which implemented the keyboard display apparatus by this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the software keyboard displayed by switching in this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen transition at the time of setting the destination in the navigation apparatus by this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation example of the keyboard display apparatus by this embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a main part of a navigation device 100 that implements a keyboard display device 10 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the navigation apparatus 100 of this embodiment includes a map data storage unit 11, a keyboard information storage unit 12, an official language information storage unit 13, an operation unit 14, an operation reception unit 15, a destination setting unit 16, An area determination unit 17, a keyboard information acquisition unit 18, a display control unit 19, and a display unit 20 are provided.

  The map data storage unit 11 stores various types of map data necessary for map display, route search, and the like. This map data also includes data on various facilities that can be the destination of the guide route. The data regarding the facility includes information such as the name, address, telephone number, and position represented by latitude and longitude. Among these, the names and addresses of the facilities are stored in a plurality of languages (official languages in each region) such as English, French, German, Greek, Russian, etc.

  The keyboard information storage unit 12 stores a plurality of software keyboard information corresponding to a plurality of official languages. The software keyboard information includes key layout information on the software keyboard and character information to be drawn on each key. The software keyboard information may have a key layout information and character information separately, or may be a combination of the key layout and characters.

  The official language information storage unit 13 stores official language information for each of a plurality of regions. The official language information is information indicating which official language (English, French, German, Greek, Russian, etc.) is used in which region. There are various division units such as countries and cities. For example, when one official language is used uniformly in one country, the division unit of the region is a country, and the relevant official language is stored in association with the country. Further, when the official language is different for each city or for each region including a plurality of cities in one country, the division unit of the region is a city, and the corresponding official language is stored in association with each city.

  The operation unit 14 is a remote controller, a touch panel, or the like, and the user sets various information (for example, a route guidance destination) to the navigation device 100, or performs various operations (for example, menu selection operation, enlargement / reduction). Various controls are provided for performing operations, manual map scrolling, numerical input, and the like. The operation reception unit 15 receives an operation performed on the operation unit 14 by the user, and outputs key information indicating the operated key.

  The destination setting unit 16 sets the destination of the guidance route according to the operation content of the operation unit 14 received by the operation receiving unit 15. Although there are several patterns of destination setting methods, in this embodiment, a case where a desired facility is searched for an address and set as a destination will be described as an example. In the case of this example, the destination setting unit 16 inputs an address by operating the operation unit 14 through the search screen while displaying a predetermined search screen on the display unit 20 via the display control unit 19. The desired facility is searched using the address as a keyword. Then, the found facility is set as the destination.

  The region determination unit 17 determines where the region selected when the destination address is input as a search keyword through the operation of the operation unit 14 by the user. Generally, when inputting an address on the search screen, each element of the address is input in the order of country (Country) → city (City / Town) → road name (street). In this embodiment, the area determination unit 17 determines which country is selected and which city is selected in the process of such input.

  The keyboard information acquisition unit 18 specifies an official language corresponding to the region determined by the region determination unit 17 with reference to the official language information storage unit 13. Specifically, when the region determined by the region determination unit 17 is any country, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 acquires an official language corresponding to the country from the official language information storage unit 13. When the region determined by the region determination unit 17 is any city, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 acquires an official language corresponding to the city from the official language information storage unit 13. Further, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 acquires software keyboard information corresponding to the specified official language from the keyboard information storage unit 12.

  Based on the software keyboard information acquired by the keyboard information acquisition unit 18, the display control unit 19 displays on the screen of the display unit 20 a software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the region selected through the operation of the operation unit 14 by the user. Display. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a software keyboard displayed by switching to the display unit 20 in the present embodiment. Here, examples other than the commonly used English software keyboard (Greek, German, French software keyboard) are shown.

  Note that only the software keyboard is displayed by switching to the official language of the selected region, and all other information on the search screen is displayed in a predetermined language. The predetermined language is, for example, the official language of the country or city where the vehicle is located. Alternatively, a predetermined language may be set by the user through operation of the operation unit 14.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of screen transition when a destination is set in the navigation device 100 configured as described above according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3A is a screen for selecting a destination search mode. Here, search modes of address search, telephone number search, name search, and genre search can be selected. When an address search is selected from these, the screen changes to FIG.

  FIG. 3B is a screen for the user to input a desired country, in which a character display field 21 in which the input character string is displayed, a software keyboard 22, and various buttons 23 are displayed. . The software keyboard 22 displayed at this stage is in a predetermined language (for example, the official language of the country or city where the vehicle is located, or the language set by the user).

  The various buttons 23 include a list button 23a and a keyboard switching button 23b. When the list button 23a is pressed, a transition is made to the country list display screen shown in FIG. 3C, and a list of selectable countries is displayed. That is, it is possible to input a desired country name using the software keyboard 22 of FIG. 3B, or switch to the country list display screen as shown in FIG. 3C and select the desired country from the list. You can also do it.

  When a desired country is input (selected) on the screen of FIG. 3B or FIG. 3C, the screen transitions to FIG. FIG. 3D is a screen for inputting a city, in which a character display field 21 in which an input character string is displayed, a software keyboard 22 ′, and various buttons 23 are displayed. The software keyboard 22 'displayed at this stage is in the official language of the selected country. That is, which country is selected is determined by the region determination unit 17, and software keyboard information corresponding to the official language of the selected country is acquired by the keyboard information acquisition unit 18. Based on the acquired software keyboard information, the display controller 19 displays a software keyboard 22 ′ corresponding to the official language of the selected country.

  In addition, when the country selected on the screen of FIG. 3B or FIG. 3C has a plurality of official languages (that is, when the official languages are different for each city), the official language information storage unit 13 The official language corresponding to each city is stored in, and the official language corresponding to the country is not stored. In this case, the software keyboard 22 ′ displayed on the screen of FIG. 3D is the same as the software keyboard 22 of a predetermined language displayed on the country input screen of FIG.

  The city input screen of FIG. 3D also includes a list button 23a and a keyboard switching button 23b. When the list button 23a is pressed, a transition is made to the city list display screen shown in FIG. 3E, and a list of selectable cities is displayed. That is, it is possible to input a desired city name using the software keyboard 22 'in FIG. 3D, or switch to the city list display screen as shown in FIG. Can also be selected.

  When a desired city is input (selected) on the screen of FIG. 3D or FIG. 3E, the screen changes to FIG. FIG. 3F is a screen for inputting a road name, and displays a character display field 21 in which an input character string is displayed, a software keyboard 22 ″, and various buttons 23. When the country to which the selected city belongs has only one official language, the software keyboard 22 ″ displayed on the road input screen of FIG. 3 (f) is displayed on the city input screen of FIG. 3 (d). This is the same as the software keyboard 22 'of the one official language displayed in.

  On the other hand, when the country to which the selected city belongs has a plurality of official languages (in the city input screen of FIG. 3D, the software keyboard 22 of the same predetermined language as the country input screen of FIG. 3), the software keyboard 22 ″ displayed on the road input screen of FIG. 3 (f) is the official language of the selected city. That is, which city is selected is determined as the region. Software keyboard information determined by the unit 17 and corresponding to the official language of the selected city is acquired by the keyboard information acquisition unit 18. Then, based on the acquired software keyboard information, the official language of the selected city is converted into the official language of the selected city. A corresponding software keyboard 22 ″ is displayed by the display control unit 19.

  As described above, the keyboard switching button 23b is displayed on the country input screen in FIG. 3B, the city input screen in FIG. 3D, and the road input screen in FIG. When the keyboard switch button 23b is pressed, the currently displayed software keyboard 22 (22 ′, 22 ″) is switched to another language. Thereby, the user can display the displayed software keyboard 22 (22 ′, 22 ″). If you want to input characters in a different language, you can also switch the software keyboard manually.

  Next, the operation (keyboard display switching method) of the keyboard display device according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the keyboard display device according to the present embodiment. Note that the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 starts when “address search” is selected on the search mode selection screen shown in FIG.

  4, first, the display control unit 19 displays a search screen (see FIG. 3B) including the software keyboard 22 of a predetermined language on the display unit 20 (step S1). The operation receiving unit 15 receives an operation for the user to input or select a desired area on the search screen displayed on the display unit 20 under the control of the destination setting unit 16 (step S2). The region determination unit 17 determines whether any region has been selected (input) through the operation of the operation unit 14 by the user (step S3). If no region is selected, the process proceeds to step S14.

  When any region is selected, the region determination unit 17 determines whether or not the selected region is a country (step S4). When the selected region is a country, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 determines whether or not the country has only one official language (step S5). Specifically, it is determined whether or not the official language corresponding to the selected country is stored in the official language information storage unit 13. When the selected country has a plurality of official languages, the official language is stored for each of the plurality of cities for the country, and the official language corresponding to the country is not stored. Therefore, it is possible to determine whether or not the country is a country having only one official language by checking whether or not the official language corresponding to the country is stored in the official language information storage unit 13. is there.

  When it is determined that the selected country is a country having only one official language, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 specifies the official language corresponding to the selected country with reference to the official language information storage unit 13. (Step S6). Then, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 acquires software keyboard information corresponding to the specified official language from the keyboard information storage unit 12 (step S7).

  Further, the display control unit 19 switches the screen display to the software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the country selected by the user operation based on the software keyboard information acquired by the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 (step S7). At this time, the screen is switched from the country input screen in FIG. 3B to the city input screen in FIG. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S14.

  If it is determined in step S5 that the selected country is not a country having only one official language, the process proceeds to step S14 without performing the processes in steps S6 to S8. That is, in this case, in the city input screen of FIG. 3 (d) which is switched from the country input screen of FIG. 3 (b), the software keyboard 22 ′ is a predetermined language displayed on the country input screen of FIG. 3 (b). This is the same as the software keyboard 22.

  If it is determined in step S4 that the selected region is not a country, the region determination unit 17 determines whether or not the selected region is a city (step S9). When the selected region is a city, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 determines whether or not the official language corresponding to the selected city is stored in the official language information storage unit 13 (step S10).

  When it is determined that the official language corresponding to the selected city is stored in the official language information storage unit 13, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 selects the official language corresponding to the selected city as the official language information storage unit. 13 is specified (step S11). Then, the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 acquires software keyboard information corresponding to the specified official language from the keyboard information storage unit 12 (step S12).

  Further, the display control unit 19 switches the screen display to the software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the city selected by the user operation based on the software keyboard information acquired by the keyboard information acquisition unit 18 (step S13). At this time, the screen is switched from the city input screen of FIG. 3D to the road input screen of FIG. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S14.

  If it is determined in step S10 that the official language corresponding to the selected city is not stored in the official language information storage unit 13, the process proceeds to step S14 without performing the processes in steps S11 to S13. That is, in this case, in the road input screen of FIG. 3 (f) that is switched from the city input screen of FIG. 3 (d), the software keyboard 22 ″ is displayed on the city input screen of FIG. 3 (d). Same as'.

  If it is determined in step S9 that the selected area is not a city, the process proceeds to step S14. In this case, the software keyboard is not switched, and only the search screen is switched. In step S14, the destination setting unit 16 determines whether to end the address search. The case where the address search is terminated includes a case where the destination setting is interrupted or a case where the input is completed and the search is completed. If the destination setting unit 16 determines that the address search is not terminated, the process returns to step S2. On the other hand, when the destination setting unit 16 determines that the address search is finished, the process of FIG. 4 is finished.

  As described above in detail, in the present embodiment, when searching for information on a plurality of areas (destinations) by address using an address, the area selected by the user operation is determined, and software corresponding to the official language of the area Switch to the keyboard to display on the search screen.

  According to the present embodiment configured as described above, the software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the region to which the destination belongs is automatically displayed on the screen regardless of where the currently existing region is. . Therefore, the user does not have to perform a troublesome operation of manually switching the software keyboard according to the area to which the destination belongs. In addition, since the display of the software keyboard does not change every time a character is input, the troublesome operation of manually switching the software keyboard one by one by the user is unnecessary. Thereby, when searching for an address for a destination, it is possible to easily input characters in a desired language on the software keyboard.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the destination of the guidance route is searched for an address has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this example. In short, the present invention can be applied as long as a software keyboard for inputting characters is displayed on the screen when searching for information on the region.

  Moreover, although the said embodiment demonstrated and demonstrated as an example the operation | movement at the time of setting the destination of a guidance route, this invention is not limited to this. That is, the present invention can be applied to any system for searching for an address as a keyword.

  In addition, each of the above-described embodiments is merely an example of implementation in carrying out the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention should not be construed in a limited manner. In other words, the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the spirit or main features thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 Keyboard information storage part 13 Official language information storage part 17 Area determination part 18 Keyboard information acquisition part 19 Display control part

Claims (3)

A keyboard display device that displays a software keyboard on the screen for inputting characters when searching for information on a region by a keyword,
A keyboard information storage unit storing a plurality of software keyboard information corresponding to a plurality of official languages;
An official language information storage unit storing official language information for each of the plurality of regions,
An area determination unit for determining an area selected by a user operation when inputting the keyword;
Keyboard information for specifying an official language corresponding to the area determined by the area determination unit with reference to the official language information storage unit, and obtaining software keyboard information corresponding to the specified official language from the keyboard information storage unit An acquisition unit;
A display control unit configured to display a software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the region selected by the user operation on the screen based on the software keyboard information acquired by the keyboard information acquisition unit. Keyboard display device. The keyboard display device according to claim 1, wherein the region determination unit determines a region selected by a user operation when a destination belonging to various countries is input as the keyword in the navigation device. A keyboard display switching method for switching a software keyboard to be displayed on a screen to input characters when searching for information on a region by a keyword,
A first step of determining an area selected by a user operation when inputting the keyword;
A second step of specifying an official language corresponding to the area determined in the first step with reference to an official language information storage unit storing official language information for each of the plurality of areas;
A third step of acquiring software keyboard information corresponding to the official language identified in the second step from a keyboard information storage unit storing a plurality of software keyboard information corresponding to the plurality of official languages;
And a fourth step of switching the display of the screen to the software keyboard corresponding to the official language of the region selected by the user operation based on the software keyboard information acquired in the third step. To change the keyboard display.

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