JP2531502B2 - Character processing method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character processing method suitable for use in a personal computer, a word processor, a graphic workstation, etc. The present invention relates to a character processing method used for output or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a character / graphics input / output device conventionally applied to a personal computer, a word processor or the like,
A combination of a keyboard input as an input device and a CRT as a display output device has been generally used.

However, when inputting a Japanese sentence in this type of device, inconvenience may occur when inputting with a keyboard. First, if one key is assigned to one Kanji character, the number of keys is 200.
Even if the number of required keys exceeds 0, and even if the necessary number of keys are arranged, it takes time for the beginner to find the key position corresponding to the kanji to be input, which means that the operability is low.

Also, a device for inputting kana or romaji from a keyboard by using kana-kanji exchange means, etc. and then converting into kanji according to the reading is also widely used, but for many Japanese, a typewriter is used. In addition, it is unfamiliar to begin with, and requires several typing operations to input one Kanji character. Furthermore, the reading of kanji is not uniquely determined, and when converting from reading to kanji,
Usually, there are many candidates for Kanji, and the Kanji displayed as the first candidate is not always the target Kanji. Therefore, it often happens that you have to re-select from the candidates that are presented. The number of movements will increase further.

Therefore, an online handwritten character recognition device has been developed as a new input method for word processors and the like for people whose typewriters are not generally used.

FIG. 1 shows a personal computer 1001 using a digitizer 1010 with a display as an example of such an online handwritten character input device. The personal computer body 1002 is provided with a CRT 1003 and a floppy disk drive 1004, and a digitizer 1010 with a display is connected via a cable 1006. The digitizer with display 1010 has a graphic display attached below a transparent digitizing tablet 1011. When the tip of the dedicated pen 1012 contacts the tablet 1011, the pen tip position at that time is detected and input as coordinate information to the personal computer main body 1002. Also, by the personal computer main body 1002,
It is possible to display on a graphic display attached to the lower side of the tablet 1011. As the transparent tablet, for example, an electromagnetic induction method or the like is used so that the contact position of the pen tip on the tablet surface can be input as coordinates.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the operation surface 1101 of the tablet 1011. The dedicated pen 1012 is placed at an arbitrary position on the operation surface 1101.
By touching, the coordinates of the corresponding point on the surface 1011 are input to the personal computer main body 1002. For example, regions 1110, 1111, 1112, and 1113 are respectively CR
T1003 Corresponds to "Move right", "Move up", "Move left" and "Move down" of the cursor displayed on the area 1110.
When the dedicated pen 1012 is touched inside, the cursor on the CRT1003 moves one character to the right. That is, the functions of the keyboard are realized on the tablet 1011 by making the respective functions assigned to the keys of the keyboard correspond to the partial areas of the tablet 1011. Also, the area 1120
Is the graphic input area, at least area 1120
Underneath is attached a graphic display as described above. When a character or figure is drawn by the dedicated pen 1012 in the area 1120, the locus of the pen tip of the dedicated pen 1012 changes in coordinates and is input to the personal computer main body 1002 from time to time. And the personal computer body is
This trajectory is displayed as it is on the graphic display below the area 1120. As a result, the operator can input a character graphic while checking the trajectory of the pen tip, as if using the dedicated pen 1012 to draw a character or graphic on a paper with a pencil. That is, the personal computer main body 1002
Inputs data on the trajectory of the pen tip as a time-series coordinate change.

FIG. 3 shows a display screen 1301 of the CRT 1003, where D1 is a display area for input characters and the like, D2 is a display area for characters that can be considered as candidates, and CM is a cursor.

Now, in FIG. 2, the operator writes "Shin" in the area 1120, and then touches the pen tip on the area 1114 so that the personal computer main body 1002 recognizes that the input of one character is completed. During this period, the personal computer main body 1002 recognizes the handwritten character and determines the input character. As a result, the character written in the area 1120 is recognized as "T", and the first character in FIG.
The line is displayed in the first digit d11 and the cursor CM is
Move to the second digit of the line d12. Then, in the display area D2, the characters "Tai", "Yu", "Kou", and "Shin" are displayed in order from the left, including the characters that have been added as candidates. At this time, by selecting the area 1134 with the dedicated pen 1012, “Shin” is selected, and then by touching the area 1115, “Shin” is selected.
Is confirmed, and “Shin” is displayed in the 1st line and 1st digit d11 as a general display character. In the above, an example in which the operator was determined to be "Ta" when he intended to input "Shin" was given.
When the user intends to input “T”, the user simply touches the area 1115 to complete one character input.

When inputting a special symbol such as a space, a punctuation mark, or a line feed, the operator points these areas 1141 to 1144 with a pen tip and confirms the display contents displayed on the CRT screen. Input processing will proceed.

[0011]

However, in such a conventional apparatus, one character is written in the area 1115, or one of the characters or the symbol is recognized by handwriting by instructing the special symbol indicating areas 1141 to 1144, and then the character is recognized one by one. Since it is necessary to select and correct characters and symbols while referring to the CRT screen, not only will the character input speed be extremely slowed down, but the operator would also have to look at the CRT and digitizer alternately. There was a problem that the eyes of the person were tired.

In addition, the number of candidate characters is generally different depending on the characters to be input together with such a problem. In this case, the area D2 is made to correspond to the character having a large number of candidate characters.
There was also the problem of having to prepare.

The present invention eliminates such conventional problems, and provides a character processing method which can reduce the area for displaying candidate characters and can improve the operability of the operation for displaying the candidate characters. To aim.

[0014]

In order to achieve such an object, a handwritten character entered in a character input box is input, the input handwritten character is recognized to derive a plurality of candidate characters, and The character input frame is divided to set a plurality of display areas, and the derived plurality of candidate characters are displayed one by one in order from the upper order in each of the set display areas.

[0015]

According to the present invention, a plurality of candidate characters derived by recognizing entered handwritten characters and derived are displayed in a display area set by dividing the character input frame in which the handwritten characters are entered. It is not necessary to separately provide an area for displaying characters, and there is no need for a configuration for clearly indicating the correspondence between handwritten characters and candidate characters, and a plurality of candidate characters can be viewed at the same time. Further, since it is not necessary to change the position of the hand when writing a handwritten character and when selecting an appropriate character from the candidate characters, operability is good.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 4 shows a structural example of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, 2000 is a CPU that controls each unit and executes processing described later with reference to FIG. 6 or 8.
Is. Reference numeral 2003 is a CRT, and 2004 is a floppy disk as an external storage medium and its drive unit. These respective units 2003 and 2004 are respectively the units 10 in FIG.
The same as 03 and 1004 can be used. 2005
Is a ROM storing the processing procedure shown in FIG. 6 or FIG.
Is a RAM having an area for expanding the Kanji dictionary read from the floppy disk 2004 when the device is started up and a work area for processing.
Is. In addition, 2010 is a digitizer with a display that has a graphic display under a transparent tablet, 2012
Is a pen.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the operation surface 2101 of the digitizer 2010. Here, with respect to the same area as the area on the operation surface 1101 in the conventional apparatus, the corresponding portions are designated by the same reference numerals.

Reference numeral 2120 is a graphic input / display area. In this example, a graphic display is provided at least below this area to enable display. Here, in order to recognize one Kanji character, a tablet that can digitize the pen tip with a resolution of 3 dots / mm or more is required. Actually, the resolution is 10 lines / mm, 100 points / It is common to use an electromagnetic induction type of about a second sample. However, the graphic display located below this need not be as dense as it used to be, for example area 2120 to 2 cm.
When the size is about 2 cm, it is sufficient to use a graphic display of about 3 dots / mm. At this time, by making one display dot of the graphic display correspond to the tablet coordinate positions of a plurality of points near the display dot, the locus of the pen tip at the time of input may be displayed thickly.

Further, in this example, the characters recognized by referring to the dictionary expanded in the RAM 2006 are replaced with the handwritten characters and displayed on the graphic display below the area 2120.

If there are a plurality of candidate characters, the display area of the display is displayed by dividing the display area so that they are displayed. Usually, most kanji can be expressed in 16 dots x 16 dots, and even complex characters such as "amazing" can be expressed like printed characters with a resolution of 24 dots x 24 dots. Therefore, in this example, since the display area is 2 cm × 2 cm and the graphic display of 3 dots / mm is used, the area 2120 may be divided into four and the candidate characters may be displayed in the respective divided areas. In this way, regarding the characters displayed in each divided area, the operator selects a character by touching the area in which the character desired to be input is displayed with a pen. Also, in this example, 4
Characters are displayed in three of the three divided areas.

In FIG. 5, 1141 to 1144 are special symbol input areas, which indicate blanks, punctuation marks, reading marks, and line breaks, respectively. When the operator desires to input these special symbols, the input is performed by pointing these areas with a pen tip. That is, when the pen tip touches these areas 1141 to 1144, it is treated that the corresponding symbols have been input, and the symbols are displayed in the area 2120. Spaces and line breaks are displayed on the area 2120 as

[0023]

[Outside 1]

[0024]

[0025]

[Outside 2]

It can be As a special symbol,
Of course, in addition to these, a comma, a period, a colon, or the like can be provided.

FIGS. 6A and 6B show an example of an input / output processing procedure in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. Also,
7A to 7E show an example of a sequential display state of the display area 2120 in the process of processing. Here, as in the case of the conventional example, the character "shin" is written in the area 2120,
An example of inputting one Kanji character will be described. First, before input, the display surface is as shown in FIG. Here, when the operator writes the letter “Shin” in the area 2120 with the dedicated pen 2012, the display surface of the area 2120 becomes as shown in FIG. 7 (A). The processing procedure at this time proceeds to step S2 because the pen position is determined to be within the area 2120 in step S1.
The handwritten character recognition process starts. Then, when the pen touches the area 1114, the handwriting input is completed and the candidate character is extracted. The processing up to this point is the same as in the conventional example.

At the end of step S2, the CPU 2000 causes the RAM 2006
It is assumed that "Ta", "Yu", "Ko" and "Shin" are extracted as candidate characters with reference to. In this case, the number of candidate characters is 4, and it is not a multiple of 3 instead of 1. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S5 through steps S3 and S4, the fifth candidate, the sixth candidate and the blank are registered, and the number of candidate characters is temporarily set as 6. And proceed to step S6.

Here, the area 2120 is displayed with the boundary line L as shown in FIG. 7B, and the areas 2120a, 2120b, 2120c and
Divide into 4 small areas of 2120d. Then, step S7
By displaying "other" in the area 2120d at,
Notifying that there is a candidate character other than the currently displayed candidate character, when this area is selected thereafter, it is used when changing the output menu of the candidate character. In step S8, the number N indicating the candidate ranking is set to "1".
By doing so, the output menu is initialized, and in steps S9, S10 and S11, the candidate characters are output in the typefaces in the areas 2120a, 2120b and 2120c, respectively, as shown in FIG. 7C.

At this time, if the operator inputs "Shin", the characters "Shin" are not displayed, so
By touching the area 2120d where "other" is displayed with the pen tip, the process proceeds from step S12 to step S13, and the number is updated so that the next candidate character is output from the fourth candidate. In step S14, it is determined whether or not the number N exceeds the total number of candidate characters. If the determination is affirmative, step S15
After initialization is performed in step S9, the process proceeds to step S9. If a negative determination is made, the process directly proceeds to step S9 and the process is repeated. The display screen when the step S12 is reached again is as shown in FIG. 7 (D). Then, the operator touches the area 2120a with a pen to determine that the input character is “Shin” in step S16. That is, the input character is determined in any of steps S16 to S17 depending on the position of the pen tip designated by the operator. After this confirmation, in step S19 shown in FIG. 6 (B), the character is enlarged and displayed in the area 2120, and this processing ends.

Further, when inputting a special special symbol such as a blank, ".", ",", And a line feed, the pen tip touches areas 1141, 1142, 1143, 1144, etc., so that a negative determination is made in step S1. At S20, the input characters are treated as blank, ".", "," And line feed, respectively, and step
The process ends after S19. For blanks, line breaks, etc.
As described above, as the representation on the area 2120, for example,

[0032]

[Outside 3]

And

[0034]

[Outside 4]

Input can be confirmed by displaying using symbols such as. Further, when there is only one candidate in the handwritten character recognition, an affirmative judgment is made in step S3, the input character is confirmed in step S21, and the process proceeds to step S19 to display without dividing the area 2120. .

As described above, in the present embodiment, after inputting a handwritten character in the handwritten character area, if there is one candidate character as a result of character recognition, it is displayed in the handwritten character area in a type-type expression of the character, When there are multiple candidate characters, divide the handwritten character area into multiple parts, output a menu list of candidate characters in each type of divided area, and output the corresponding character from the candidate characters. By touching the divided area where is displayed with a pen, the selected character is displayed in the entire handwritten character area. Also, the special symbols are displayed in the handwritten area. Therefore, there is no complication of having to alternately see the character editing screen such as the CRT screen and the character input screen such as the tablet, and inputting successive characters and symbols while looking only near the handwritten character input area of the tablet. Work can be done, and the work can be carried out while checking the characters actually input to the personal computer or the like without looking away.

[Second Embodiment] FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the present invention. The same processing steps as those in FIG. 6 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. In this embodiment,
Even when the number of candidate characters is 1, no special treatment like the processing shown in FIG. 6 is performed. Therefore, the procedure of steps S3 and S21 in FIG. 6 is not performed. When it is determined in step S1 that the pen tip is not in the handwritten character area 2120, the character corresponding to the pen position is set as the input character in step S20 (step S20 in FIG. 6). Instead, in step S120,
The character corresponding to the pen position is registered as a candidate character, the number of candidate characters is set to 1, and the handwritten character recognition process of step S2 is simulated. As a result, the region 1120 is divided in steps S6 to S18, regardless of whether handwritten character input or special symbol instruction input is performed, and candidate characters are displayed in a typeface representation in each of the divided partial regions, and the pen tip is displayed. The character selected by the menu is used as the input character. In this embodiment, since the input character is not enlarged and displayed again in the area 2120, step S19 in FIG. 6B is unnecessary, and instead step S1 is performed after the processing of steps S16 to S18.
Insert 9 to enable clearing the display of area 2120. In this example, "ENTER" on the tablet
Characters can be input without the area 1115, which means that the number of keywords not particularly seen by beginners can be reduced and a system that is easy to use can be realized. Of course, clearing the area 2120 is not performed in step S119. After the character input is completed, it may be executed in the main procedure that gives an instruction to start the input of one character, or may be executed before the start of the input of one character.

Although the input of Chinese characters has been described in these two embodiments, the present invention can of course be applied to the input of other characters such as hiragana and figures.

In the above-described two embodiments, the display area is divided into a plurality of areas and the candidate characters are displayed in the divided areas. However, such division is not performed and the candidate characters are placed at a predetermined time. It is also easy to display the characters sequentially or in accordance with the operator's instruction operation in the display area so that the character displayed at the time when the operator gives an instruction becomes the input character.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of candidate characters derived by recognizing written handwritten characters are displayed in a display area set by dividing a character input frame in which the handwritten characters are written. Therefore, it is not necessary to separately provide an area for displaying a plurality of candidate characters, and there is no need for a configuration for clearly indicating the correspondence between handwritten characters and candidate characters. it can. Further, since it is not necessary to change the position of the hand when writing a handwritten character and when selecting an appropriate character from the candidate characters, operability is good.

[0041]

[0042]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a general configuration example of a character / graphic input / output device.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a tablet as an input / display device used in a conventional character / graphic input / output device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a display state of a CRT screen when a character / graphics input operation is performed in the conventional apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a character / graphic input / output device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a tablet as an input / display device used in the device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of an input processing procedure according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

7A to 7E are explanatory diagrams showing an example of sequential display states in the process of the process according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of an input processing procedure according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1003,2003 CRT 1004,2004 Floppy disk 1010,2010 Tablet 1012,2012 Pen 1101,2101 Tablet operation surface 1120,2120 Input / display area 1141 to 1144 Special symbol input area

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A handwritten character entered in a character input frame is input, the input handwritten character is recognized to derive a plurality of candidate characters, and the character input frame is divided to set a plurality of display areas. A character processing method, wherein the derived plurality of candidate characters are displayed one by one in order from the higher order in each of the plurality of set display areas. 2. The character according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus for executing the character processing method is an input / output integrated apparatus in which an input unit and a display unit are arranged in an overlapping manner. Processing method. 3. When the number of the derived plurality of candidate characters is greater than the number of the plurality of display areas, the candidate characters displayed in the plurality of display areas are switched each time an update instruction is received. The character processing method according to claim 1. 4. The character displayed in the designated display area is selected as a recognition result by selectively designating a plurality of display areas set by dividing the character input frame. The character processing method according to claim 1.