JP4748604B2 - CHARACTER INPUT SUPPORT METHOD, DEVICE, PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM THEREOF - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a character input support method, apparatus and program, and a storage medium thereof, and particularly to improve the operability of character input by enabling easy input of various characters, numbers, symbols and the like with a small number of operators. The present invention relates to a character input support method, apparatus, program, and storage medium thereof.

  As a character input device that replaces a keyboard, Patent Document 1 discloses a character input support technology for a small terminal with a limited number of key switches such as a mobile phone. In this prior art, 50 sounds of “a” line, “ka” line, “sa” line... “Ra” line, and “wa” line are assigned to the numeric keys “1” to “0”. For example, with the key set in the “A” line, the characters “A” can be input when pressed once, “I”, etc. can be input when pressed twice.

Patent Document 2 discloses a method of inputting characters using a GUI (Graphical User Interface) displayed on a display. In character input using the GUI, a GUI including a character arrangement in the order of Japanese syllabary is displayed on the display, and the user selects an input character from the character arrangement by operating the mouse.
JP 58-52722 A JP-A-8-55003

  In the technique of Patent Document 1, although the number of keys to be operated is smaller than that of a keyboard, a large number of keys still have to be operated. In the technique of Patent Document 2, when a character is selected, a pointing device such as a mouse must be operated two-dimensionally on the mouse pad, so that a relatively large operation space is required. Further, if a trackball or a joystick is used as a pointing device, the operation space can be reduced. However, these pointing devices require a two-dimensional complicated operation in order to move the cursor in a desired direction. In addition, since the two-dimensional pointing device has a complicated structure and is difficult to reduce in size, there is a technical problem that the input device cannot be reduced in size.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and to provide a character input support method, apparatus, and program, and a storage medium thereof, which can input a wide variety of characters with a small number of operators and simple operations.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following means in a character input support device for inputting a character by moving the cursor on a display on which a character group to be input is displayed. There are features.

  (1) Character map output means for displaying a character map in which character groups are arranged two-dimensionally on the display, and movement representing the operation direction and operation amount from the first operator for detecting the operation in the first and second directions A movement control means for inputting a signal and moving the cursor on the character map, and a character cutting means for cutting a character selected by the cursor by inputting a decision signal from the second operation element for detecting an ON operation The movement control means moves the cursor on the character map in the left-right direction according to the operation amount in response to the operation in the first direction, and performs the operation in the second direction. In response, it is moved up and down in accordance with the operation amount.

  (2) Left / right one side movement mode in which the cursor is moved to one side in the left / right direction in response to the operation in the first direction, and the cursor is moved up / down in response to the operation in the second direction. A vertical one-side movement mode for moving in one direction according to the operation amount, and a left / right other-side movement mode for moving the cursor in the left / right direction according to the operation amount in response to the operation in the first direction. And an up / down other side movement mode that moves the cursor to the other in the up / down direction according to the operation amount in response to the operation in the second direction, and the operation in the second direction is performed in the left / right one side movement mode. When detected, the mode changes to the up / down one side movement mode. When an operation in the first direction is detected in the up / down one side movement mode, the mode changes to the left / right other side movement mode, and the left / right other side movement mode moves to the second direction. Operation detected A transition to the upper and lower second side movement mode is the operation in the first direction is characterized by left and right transition whereas the side moving mode is detected in the vertical second side movement mode.

  (3) The operation in the first direction and the operation in the second direction with respect to the first operator are operations in opposite directions.

  According to the present invention, the following effects are achieved.

  According to the feature (1) described above, a desired character can be selected from a two-dimensionally arranged character group by only a simple operation in two directions, ie, an operation in the first direction and an operation in the second direction. Become.

  According to the above feature (2), the cursor can be moved upward and downward, and left and right.

  According to the above feature (3), it is possible to select a desired character from a two-dimensionally arranged character group only by operating the first operator in one dimension.

  DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the best embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of a mobile phone terminal to which a character input support system according to the present invention is applied, and an input operation unit 1 and a display unit 2 are provided on its exterior. In the input operation unit 1, numeric keys Tk1 to Tk12 mainly used for inputting dial numbers, function selection keys Fk1 to Fk4 mainly used for function selection, and the operation amount and operation direction can be input. A jog dial switch 5 is arranged.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a character input support system mounted on the mobile phone, and here, illustrations of components unnecessary for the description of the present invention are omitted.

  The jog dial switch 5 is determined in response to pressing of the dial unit in addition to the jog dial 51 that outputs a movement signal SG1 representing the operation direction and operation amount according to the operation amount (rotation angle) in the vertical direction. A jog switch 52 that outputs a signal SG2 is provided. The output signals SG1 and SG2 of the jog dial switch 5 are input to the main control unit 4.

  In the storage unit 3, the RAM 31 provides a work area to the main control unit 4 and temporarily stores programs and data. The ROM 32 stores programs and data in a nonvolatile manner. The RAM 3 has a character group storage area 33 for storing various character groups such as a hiragana group, a katakana group, a kanji group, an alphabet group, a number group, and a symbol group.

  In the main control unit 4, the character input support unit 41 includes a movement control unit 411, a character cutout unit 412, and a character map output unit 413. The character map output unit 413 selectively reads a character group from the character group storage area 33 and displays it on the display 2 as a two-dimensional character map in the XY directions. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display example of the character map. FIG. 3A shows an example of a hiragana character map, and FIG. 3B shows an example of an alphabet character map. .

  The movement control unit 411 moves the cursor in the XY direction on the character map displayed on the display 2 based on the movement signal SG1 representing the rotation direction and rotation angle of the jog dial 51. The character cutout unit 412 cuts out the character selected by the cursor based on the determination signal SG2 output when the jog switch 52 is turned on, and provides the cutout character to the conversion unit. The conversion unit 42 converts the extracted character string into a word or a phrase. The application execution unit 43 has an e-mail function and a web function, and uses the converted words and phrases for e-mail creation and keyword input.

  FIG. 4 is a state transition diagram showing the operation of the main control unit 4, and mainly shows the operations of the character input support unit 41 and the conversion unit 42.

  When the main control unit 4 is activated, first, a transition is made to the “first input mode (no input)” of FIG. At this time, an input screen shown in FIG. 6 as an example is displayed on the display 2. Here, when the jog dial 51 is rotated downward (hereinafter referred to as “down scroll”), the state transits to the “second input mode (during input, with character map)”. A character map in which the current character group is two-dimensionally arranged is displayed on the display 2 by the character map output unit 413. FIG. 7 shows a state where a character map of hiragana characters is displayed.

  In the “second input mode”, the cursor is moved by the movement control unit 411 by scrolling the jog dial 51 up and down. FIG. 5 is a state transition diagram showing a control procedure of the movement control unit 411 in the “second input mode”.

  Immediately after the transition from the “first input mode” to the “second input mode”, that is, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled down from the state of FIG. 7, the cursor moves rightward on the character map in response to the downward scroll. Transition to “right movement mode”. In the “right movement mode”, the cursor is moved rightward to a predetermined position by repeating downward scrolling. Next, when the jog dial 51 is rotated upward (hereinafter referred to as “up scroll”), the cursor shifts to “down movement mode” in which the cursor moves downward on the character map in response to the up scroll. In the “downward movement mode”, the cursor is moved downward to a desired position by repeatedly scrolling up.

  Next, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled down again, the cursor shifts to a “left shift mode” in which the cursor moves in the left direction on the character map in response to the downward scroll. In the “left movement mode”, the cursor is moved leftward to a desired position by repeatedly scrolling down. Next, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled up again, the cursor shifts to an “upward movement mode” in which the cursor moves upward on the character map in response to the upward scroll. In this “upward movement mode”, the cursor is moved upward to a desired position by repeating upward scrolling. Next, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled down again, the mode shifts to the “right movement mode”. Thereafter, each operation mode is repeated cyclically.

  Next, the operation of the “second input mode” will be described in detail by taking the case of inputting “bell” as an example. When the “first input mode” is changed to the “second input mode” and the jog dial 51 is scrolled down from the state shown in FIG. 7, the “right movement mode” is changed. In this “right movement mode”, as shown in FIG. 8, the cursor is moved to the “sa” position by repeatedly scrolling down. Next, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled up, the mode changes to “downward movement mode”. In this “downward movement mode”, as shown in FIG. 9, the scrolling is repeated to move the cursor to the “su” position.

  In addition, when the cursor is moved to the “sa” position in the X direction in the first “right movement mode”, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, the jog dial 51 is scrolled up to shift to the “downward movement mode”, and the upward scrolling is repeated to move the cursor to the “n” position. Next, the jog dial 51 is scrolled down to transit to the “upward movement mode”, and further, the downward scrolling is repeated to move the cursor to the “su” position.

  Thus, in this embodiment, the downward scroll of the jog dial 51 is assigned to the movement of the cursor in the X-axis direction, and the upward scroll is assigned to the movement of the cursor in the Y-axis direction. Further, the first downward scroll is assigned to the rightward movement of the screen, and the downward scroll after the upward scrolling is assigned to the leftward movement of the screen. That is, the left and right moving directions by the bottom scroll are switched every time the top scroll is performed. Similarly, the first upward scroll is assigned to the downward movement of the screen, and the upward scroll after the downward scroll is assigned to the upward movement of the screen. That is, the up and down movement direction by the up scroll is switched every time the down scroll is performed.

  Note that immediately after the transition from the “first input mode” to the “second input mode”, that is, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled up from the state of FIG. 7, the transition to the “downward movement mode” is made. In any of the movement modes, when the jog switch 52 is pressed (hereinafter referred to as “click”), a transition is made to “third input mode (during input, no character map)” in FIG. At this time, the selected character is cut out on the display 2 as shown in FIG.

  Next, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled down again, the mode shifts to the “second input mode”, and the character map is displayed again as shown in FIG. 13. Therefore, the cursor is moved up, down, left, and right as described above. To select “Z” as the second character. Here, when the jog switch 52 is clicked, the mode is shifted again to the “third input mode”, and the second character “ZU” is also cut out as shown in FIG.

  Returning to FIG. 4, when the jog switch 52 is clicked in the “third input mode”, it is determined whether or not there is a conversion history for the current cut character (string). If there is a conversion history, a transition is made to “prediction conversion mode”, and if there is no conversion history, a transition is made to “conversion mode”. If it is clicked without scrolling in the “predictive conversion mode”, it changes to the “conversion mode”. When the jog dial 51 is scrolled up in the “third input mode”, the cursor is backspaced and the input characters are deleted.

  In the “conversion mode”, conversion candidates for the “tin” are displayed as shown in FIG. Here, as shown in FIG. 16, when the jog dial 51 is scrolled up and down to determine a candidate and the jog switch 52 is clicked, the character “bell” is determined as shown in FIG. Transition to “1-input mode”. Similarly, in the “predictive conversion mode”, the jog dial 51 is scrolled up and down to determine a candidate, and when the jog switch 52 is clicked, the character is determined and the mode is shifted to the “first input mode”.

  When the jog switch 52 is clicked again in the “first input mode”, the mode changes to the “cursor movement mode”. In the “cursor movement mode”, the cursor is moved left and right on the determined character string as shown in FIG.

  Further, when a click is detected in the “cursor movement mode”, a transition is made to the “delete mode”. In this “deletion mode”, the left and right characters are sequentially deleted from the cursor position in accordance with the vertical scrolling of the jog dial 51. For example, as shown in FIG. 18, when the cursor is scrolled up in a position of “U”, the characters before the cursor position are sequentially deleted as shown in FIG. Further, when scrolling downward, as shown in FIG. 20, the subsequent characters are deleted in order from the cursor position.

  Further, when a click is detected in the “deletion mode”, a transition is made to the “character group switching mode”. In this “character group switching mode”, as the jog dial 51 is scrolled up and down, the character group displayed on the display as a character map is cyclically switched from hiragana to katakana to symbols to hiragana. When a click is detected in the “character group switching mode”, the process returns to the “first input mode”.

  In the above-described embodiment, the input device is the jog dial switch 5, the cursor movement signal is a signal for detecting the scroll operation of the jog dial 51, and the determination signal is a signal for detecting the click operation of the jog switch 52. Although described, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, if a mouse is used as the input device, the movement signal may be a signal for detecting a mouse wheel scroll operation, and the decision signal may be a signal for detecting a mouse button click operation.

1 is a front view of a mobile phone terminal to which a character input support system according to the present invention is applied. It is a functional block diagram of the character input assistance system which concerns on this invention. It is the figure which showed the example of a display of a character map. It is a state transition diagram showing the operation of the main control unit. FIG. 10 is a state transition diagram illustrating an operation of “second input mode”. It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "character input mode." It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "cursor movement mode". It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "deletion mode". It is the figure which showed the example of a display of the display in "deletion mode".

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 ... Display, 3 ... Memory | storage part, 5 ... Jog dial switch, 33 ... Character group storage area, 41 ... Character input support part, 42 ... Conversion part, 43 ... Application execution part, 51 ... Jog dial, 52 ... Jog switch, 411 ... Movement control unit, 412 ... Character cutout unit, 413 ... Character map output unit

Claims (8)

In a character input support device for inputting a character by moving the cursor on a display on which a character group to be input is displayed,
A character map output means for displaying a character map in which character groups are arranged two-dimensionally on a display;
A movement control means for inputting a movement signal representing an operation direction and an operation amount from a first operator that detects an operation in the first and second directions, and moving the cursor on the character map;
A character cutout means for inputting a decision signal from a second operation element for detecting an on operation and cutting out a character selected by the cursor;
The movement control means includes
A left / right one side movement mode in which a cursor is moved to one side in the left / right direction in response to an operation in the first direction according to the operation amount;
An up / down one side movement mode for moving the cursor to one of the up / down directions according to the operation amount in response to the operation in the second direction;
A left / right other side movement mode in which a cursor is moved in response to an operation in the first direction to the other in the left / right direction according to the operation amount;
An up and down other side movement mode for moving the cursor to the other of the up and down direction according to the operation amount in response to the operation in the second direction,
When an operation in the second direction is detected in the left / right one side movement mode, a transition is made to the up / down one side movement mode, and when an operation in the first direction is detected in the up / down one side movement mode, the left / right movement is detected. Transition to the other side movement mode, when an operation in the second direction is detected in the left and right other side movement mode, transition to the upper and lower other side movement mode, and in the upper and lower other side movement mode, to the first direction When the operation is detected , the character input assisting device shifts to the left / right one side movement mode . The character input support device according to claim 1 , wherein an operation in the first direction and an operation in the second direction with respect to the first operator are operations in opposite directions. The moving signal is a signal for detecting the scrolling of the mouse wheel, the character input assist device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the determination signal is a signal for detecting the click operation of the mouse button. The moving signal is a signal for detecting the scroll operation of the jog dial, the character input assist device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the determination signal is a signal for detecting the click operation of the jog switch. In the character input support method of inputting a character by moving the cursor on the display on which the character group to be input is displayed,
A procedure for displaying a character map with two-dimensional character groups on the display;
A procedure of inputting a movement signal representative of the operation direction and the operation amount from the first operator that detects the operation in the first and second directions, and moving the cursor on the character map;
Inputting a decision signal from a second operator that detects an on-operation, and cutting out the character selected by the cursor;
The procedure for moving the cursor is as follows:
A left / right one side movement mode in which a cursor is moved to one side in the left / right direction in response to an operation in the first direction according to the operation amount;
An up / down one side movement mode for moving the cursor to one of the up / down directions according to the operation amount in response to the operation in the second direction;
A left / right other side movement mode in which a cursor is moved in response to an operation in the first direction to the other in the left / right direction according to the operation amount;
An up and down other side movement mode for moving the cursor to the other of the up and down direction according to the operation amount in response to the operation in the second direction,
When an operation in the second direction is detected in the left / right one side movement mode, a transition is made to the up / down one side movement mode, and when an operation in the first direction is detected in the up / down one side movement mode, the left / right movement is detected. Transition to the other side movement mode, when an operation in the second direction is detected in the left and right other side movement mode, transition to the upper and lower other side movement mode, and in the upper and lower other side movement mode, to the first direction A character input support method , wherein when an operation is detected, a transition is made to the left / right one side movement mode . The character input support method according to claim 5 , wherein an operation in the first direction and an operation in the second direction with respect to the first operator are operations in opposite directions. A character input support program for causing a computer to execute the character input support method according to claim 5 or 6 . A storage medium storing the character input support program according to claim 7 so as to be readable by a computer.

Images