JP2012079198A - Character input apparatus, information processing device, character input method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a controlled variable required for character input more easily to comprehend with intuitive operability.SOLUTION: When there is key input from a key input unit 15, each time a key is depressed once, a plurality of characters allocated to the key are cyclically displayed. When any different key is depressed in a state where a desired character is displayed, input of the character being displayed at that time is determined. On a display unit 13 in which a touch panel 14 is mounted, on the other hand, a pallette 20 is displayed to which lower-case letters and double-consonant characters are assigned. When a character (lower-case letter or double-consonant character) on the pallette 20 is tap-operated, input of a character at the position where the tap operation is performed is determined.

Description

  The present invention relates to a small terminal such as a mobile phone, and relates to a character input device, an information processing device, a character input method, and a program for inputting hiragana or katakana lower case letters and phonic characters.

  A mobile communication terminal device such as a mobile phone is in a situation where the number of keys to be mounted cannot be increased due to a demand for miniaturization of the housing. For this reason, various techniques have been put to practical use in order to input various characters with a small number of keys. For example, in Japanese character input, a plurality of characters are assigned to each key of a numeric keypad for entering a telephone number, and each time the key is pressed, ”→“ I ”→“ U ”… →“ A ”→“ I ”and so on, and with the desired character displayed, a different key is pressed, or a specific key such as the Enter key is pressed Then, the input of the character displayed at that time is confirmed, and the process proceeds to the next character input.

  In the character input method described above, in order to input a desired character, the corresponding key is pressed a plurality of times, and there is a problem that the number of keystrokes increases for character input. In particular, when inputting hiragana or katakana characters in lower case letters and phonic characters by multiple keystrokes to the phone number input keypad, the number of keystrokes for input increases. End up.

  Therefore, Patent Document 1 proposes a character input method in which auxiliary candidate characters such as muffled characters are input with a single click. In this character input method, a virtual keyboard on which 50 sounds are arranged is displayed on the screen, and when any character on the virtual keyboard is tapped, an enlarged key indicating the character and a character tapped around the character are fixed. Displays the characters in the range as the adjacent enlargement key. Further, auxiliary candidate characters for tap characters are also displayed around the enlargement key. The user inputs characters by tapping the enlargement key and characters displayed around it.

JP 2005-182487 A

  Small terminals such as mobile phones are required to have a smaller housing due to their product characteristics, and in addition to the limited number of keys to be mounted, the screen used as a touch panel cannot be made wider than necessary. .

  However, in Patent Document 1 described above, a large display area that can display a virtual keyboard (capable of displaying 50 sounds) is required, and an enlarged key is displayed when one character is input. In such mobile communication terminal devices, there is a problem that the screen becomes invisible by the display.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a character input device, an information processing device, a character input method, and a program capable of solving such problems.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention includes a display unit equipped with a touch panel for detecting a tap operation on a screen and a plurality of keys, and a plurality of characters and symbols are assigned to each key. Input means, palette display control means for displaying a palette assigned a specific character or symbol among a plurality of characters and symbols on the display means, and when a key of the input means is pressed, the key is assigned to the corresponding key. When a character displayed on the display means is tapped by the pallet display control means, the tap position And a character input control unit that assigns a specific character or symbol as an input character.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a display means, an input means comprising a plurality of keys, each of which is assigned a plurality of characters and symbols, and a plurality of characters and symbols. Pallet display control means for displaying a pallet to which a specific character or symbol is assigned on the display means; and when a key of the input means is pressed, the pallet is pressed among a plurality of characters or symbols assigned to the key When the pallet displayed on the display means is tapped by the pallet display control means, a specific character or symbol assigned to the tap position is input. An information processing apparatus comprising character input control means for converting characters.

  Further, in order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention assigns a key to a corresponding key when one of a plurality of keys to which a plurality of characters or symbols are assigned is pressed. Among the plurality of characters and symbols, the step of using the character or symbol corresponding to the number of presses as the input character, and the palette assigned with the specific character or symbol among the plurality of characters or symbols is displayed on the display unit Detecting a tap operation on the palette displayed on the display unit, and detecting a tap operation on the palette, and inputting a specific character or symbol assigned to the tap position when the tap operation is detected. A character input method comprising the steps of:

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention provides a computer of an information processing apparatus that includes a display unit and a plurality of keys. The keys include a plurality of characters and symbols assigned to the keys. When any one of the keys is pressed, a key character input function that uses a character or a symbol corresponding to the number of times of pressing among the plurality of characters or symbols assigned to the corresponding key as the input character, Among the symbols, a palette display function for displaying a palette assigned with a specific character or symbol on the display unit, a tap operation detection function for detecting a tap operation on the palette displayed on the display unit, When a tap operation is detected, a program that executes a palette character input function that uses a specific character or symbol assigned to the tap position as an input character is executed. It is.

  According to the present invention, even an apparatus having a small screen can be more easily understood with intuitive operability, and the amount of operations required for lowercase conversion in character input, input of accelerating characters, and the like can be reduced.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the external appearance of the mobile telephone (information processing apparatus) by embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the mobile telephone (information processing apparatus) by this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of 1 structure of the palette displayed on a screen when inputting a small letter and a prompt character in the information processing apparatus (cellular phone) by this embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of a movement of the palette displayed on a screen in the information processing apparatus (cellular phone) by this embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the operation | movement at the time of character input in the information processing apparatus (cellular phone) by this embodiment. It is a figure showing change with a keystroke (input key), an input character (input character candidate), and a fixed character in the case of inputting the word "cache" using a conventional method. It is a figure showing the keystroke (input key) and the input from a palette in the case of inputting the word "cache" using the character input method by this embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an appearance of a mobile phone (information processing apparatus) according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the mobile phone 1 includes a display unit 13 composed of a liquid crystal display, a touch panel 14 mounted on the screen of the display unit 13, a key input unit 15 composed of various function keys, a numeric keypad, and the like. When characters are input, the display unit 13 displays a palette 20 to which hiragana or katakana lowercase letters and prompting characters are assigned. The user directly touches a character (a lowercase letter or a sounding letter) desired to be input from the pallet 20 and inputs the key with a single keystroke (touch).

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the mobile phone (information processing apparatus) according to the present embodiment. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the part corresponding to FIG. In FIG. 2, the communication unit 10 performs a voice call, data transmission / reception, and the like via a telephone communication network. The ROM 11 stores programs, various operation parameters, and the like. The RAM 12 stores changeable parameters, various data, and the like. The display unit 13 includes a liquid crystal display and displays various data and images. In particular, in the present embodiment, a palette 20 (see FIG. 1) to which lowercase letters and prompting characters are assigned is displayed. The pallet 20 is smaller than the display screen and can move on the screen. A method of using the pallet 20 will be described later.

  The touch panel 14 is provided on the screen of the display unit 13, detects a tap operation by the user, and transmits a detection result to a control unit described later. The key input unit 15 includes various function keys and a numeric keypad. In particular, in the present embodiment, in the same way as an existing mobile phone, in addition to numeric input, a plurality of characters are assigned to each key of the numeric keypad. For example, in the case of “A line”, “ Each time the “1” key is pressed once, a cyclic display is made such as “A” → “I” → “U” ... → “A” → “I”.

  The control unit 16 executes the program stored in the ROM 11 described above to control the operation of each unit. In particular, in this embodiment, character input control by the control unit 16 will be described. The control unit 16 controls display of the pallet 20 on the display unit 13, character input based on the detection result of the tap operation on the pallet 20 by the touch panel 14, and character input corresponding to the numeric keypad operation of the key input unit 15. .

  More specifically, the control unit 16 determines the hiragana or katakana capital letters as one of the lines A to W for each key of the numeric keypad for inputting the telephone number, as in the conventional case. For example, in the case of "A line", "A"-> "I"-> "U" ...-> "A"-> "I" every time multiple characters are assigned to one line and the key is pressed once When a different key is pressed while a desired character is displayed in a cyclic display, the input of the character displayed at that time is confirmed and the process proceeds to the next character input.

  However, for Hiragana or Katakana lowercase letters and phonic characters, a palette 20 to which Hiragana or Katakana lowercase letters and phonic characters are assigned is displayed on the screen equipped with the touch panel 14, and the characters (lowercase letters or or By directly touching and selecting the sound-prompting character), an operation of conventionally pressing the key a plurality of times and selecting the target character is input with a single keystroke (touch).

  For this reason, in the character input method according to the present embodiment, the amount of operation is reduced when inputting lowercase letters and prompting characters continuously in foreign words or the like, compared to the conventional input method.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration example of a palette displayed on the screen when inputting lowercase letters and sounding characters in the information processing apparatus (mobile phone) according to the present embodiment. In the example shown in the figure, the palette 20 is divided into 10 squares, and “a”, “i”, “ぅ”, “e”, “ぉ”, and “t” in the lower row as lowercase letters and prompting characters. , “Nya”, “yu”, “yo”, and “ゎ” are displayed.

  Since the display of the palette 20 itself may conceal the created text or the conversion candidate display area, the display position of the palette 20 can be moved by a user operation as shown in FIG. Further, the display / non-display of the palette 20 can be arbitrarily performed by a user operation. That is, the control unit 16 performs a process of moving the display position of the displayed palette 20 based on a user operation on the touch panel 14 (touching the palette with a finger → moving the finger as it is).

  Further, in FIG. 3, ten characters are displayed on the palette 20, but the order and number of characters displayed on the palette 20 are arbitrary, and can be customized according to the installed device. The palette 20 can avoid hiding the display area. For example, if the display range of the palette 20 is to be minimized, the number of characters displayed on the palette may be reduced (for example, 10 or less).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when inputting characters in the information processing apparatus (mobile phone) according to the present embodiment. When inputting characters, first, the palette 20 is displayed on the display unit 13 (step S1). Next, it is determined whether or not there is a key input from the key input unit 15 (step S2). If there is a key input from the key input unit 15, whether the pressed key has changed from the key pressed immediately before. It is determined whether or not (step S3). This is to determine whether to display the character assigned to the pressed key as an input candidate character or to confirm the input character corresponding to the key pressed immediately before.

  If the pressed key is different from the key pressed immediately before, the character input immediately before is determined as a conversion candidate character (step S4), and then the character corresponding to the pressed key is input. They are displayed as characters on the screen of the display unit 13 (display area for conversion candidates (not shown)) (step S5). On the other hand, when the pressed key is the same as the key pressed immediately before, the next character corresponding to the number of times the pressed key is pressed is used as the input character to display the screen of the display unit 13 (not shown conversion candidate display area). (Step S5).

  Next, based on whether a key other than the character input key is pressed, it is determined whether or not the character input is completed (step S10). If the character input continues, the process returns to step S2. On the other hand, when the character input is finished, the processing is finished.

  On the other hand, when there is no key input from the key input part 15, it is determined whether it is a tap input to the palette 20 (step S6). If it is a tap input to the palette 20, a character corresponding to the tap position is displayed as an input character on the screen of the display unit 13 (not shown conversion candidate display area) (step S7). It is determined as a conversion candidate character (step S8). Next, it is determined whether or not the character input is completed (step S10). If the character input continues, the process returns to step S2. On the other hand, when the character input is finished, the processing is finished.

  If there is no key input from the key input unit 15 and no tap input to the palette 20, other processing (character input termination, conversion, alphanumeric switching, etc.) is executed (step S9), and character input is performed. It is determined whether or not the process has been completed (step S10). If character input continues, the process returns to step S2. On the other hand, when the character input is finished, the processing is finished.

  Next, the character input method according to the present embodiment and the character input method of the conventional mobile phone terminal will be described by comparing the amount of operation required when inputting “cache” including lowercase letters and phonic characters. To do.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing changes in keystrokes (input keys), input characters (input character candidates), and fixed characters when the word “cache” is input using the conventional method. . As shown in FIG. 6, in the conventional method, the number “2” key is pressed twice to input “ki”, and then the number “8” key is pressed once, and “lowercase conversion” is set to 1 to make it lowercase. It is necessary to do it once. Similarly, it is necessary to press the key four, two, or three times to input “a”, “t”, “si”, and “u”, respectively, and 13 key operations are required in total.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing keystrokes (input keys) and input from a dedicated palette when the word “cache” is input using the character input method according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, in the character input method according to the present embodiment, the number “2” key is pressed twice for “ki” input, and the number “3” key is pressed twice for “shi” input. Although it is necessary to press the button, the selection on the pallet 20 is completed by pressing once for each character to input “a”, “t”, and “u”, and the total number of operations is 7 times. Shortened to

  According to the present invention, the operation (input of lowercase letters and sounding characters) in which a key is pressed a plurality of times until a target character is displayed at the time of character input is selected from characters displayed on a dedicated palette. With the same number of keystrokes, it is possible to obtain the same results as those that required several keystrokes, so the amount of button (key) operation required to enter lowercase letters and prompting characters can be greatly reduced. .

  In the above-described embodiment, a mobile phone has been described as an information processing device. However, in a device that performs input using a PDA or a portable terminal, options such as a plurality of characters and functions are assigned to one key of the keyboard. Any terminal device that selects the input content by pressing the key multiple times may be used, and similarly, labor saving of input can be achieved.

1 Mobile phone 10 Communication unit 11 ROM
12 RAM
13 Display Unit 14 Touch Panel 15 Key Input Unit 20 Palette

Claims (10)

Display means equipped with a touch panel for detecting a tap operation on the screen;
An input means consisting of a plurality of keys, each of which is assigned a plurality of characters and symbols,
Pallet display control means for displaying on the display means a palette assigned with a specific character or symbol among a plurality of characters and symbols;
When a key of the input means is pressed, among the plurality of characters and symbols assigned to the key, a character or symbol corresponding to the number of presses is set as an input character, and the display means is displayed by the palette display control means. A character input device comprising: character input control means for inputting a specific character or symbol assigned to the tap position when the pallet displayed on the screen is tapped. 2. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein the palette display control unit assigns at least hiragana or katakana phonic characters and hiragana or katakana lowercase letters as specific characters and symbols assigned to the palette. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein the palette display control unit changes a display position of the palette with respect to the display unit. The character input device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the palette display control means changes the number of characters assigned to the palette. Display means;
An input means consisting of a plurality of keys, each of which is assigned a plurality of characters and symbols,
Pallet display control means for displaying on the display means a palette assigned with a specific character or symbol among a plurality of characters and symbols;
When a key of the input means is pressed, among the plurality of characters and symbols assigned to the key, a character or symbol corresponding to the number of presses is set as an input character, and the display means is displayed by the palette display control means. An information processing apparatus comprising: a character input control unit configured to input a specific character or symbol assigned to the tap position when the pallet displayed on the screen is tapped. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the palette display control unit assigns at least hiragana or katakana phonic characters and hiragana or katakana lowercase letters as specific characters and symbols to be assigned to the palette. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the palette display control unit changes a display position of the palette with respect to the display unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the palette display control unit changes the number of characters assigned to the palette. When one of the keys with multiple characters or symbols assigned to each key is pressed, it corresponds to the number of presses among the multiple characters or symbols assigned to the key. Using a character or symbol as an input character,
Displaying a palette assigned a specific character or symbol among the plurality of characters and symbols on a display unit;
Detecting a tap operation on the palette displayed on the display unit;
And a step of inputting a specific character or symbol assigned to the tap position as an input character when a tap operation on the palette is detected. In a computer of an information processing apparatus including a display unit and a plurality of keys,
Corresponds to the number of presses among the multiple characters and symbols assigned to the corresponding key when one of the multiple keys or keys assigned to each key is pressed. Key character input function with input characters and symbols as input characters,
A palette display function for displaying a palette assigned a specific character or symbol among the plurality of characters and symbols on the display unit,
A tap operation detection function for detecting a tap operation on the palette displayed on the display unit;
When a tap operation on the palette is detected, a program for executing a palette character input function using a specific character or symbol assigned to the tap position as an input character.

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