JP4885817B2 - Character input device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a character input device.

  In recent years, mobile terminals such as mobile phones have been widely used, and the number of users has been increasing. In particular, recently, it has been widely and routinely performed to exchange e-mails and exchange messages using portable terminals such as cellular phones and PDAs.

  Conventionally, when inputting characters to create e-mail or other text on a small mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, the user can use a mechanical key placed on the mobile terminal according to the specifications of each terminal. Various input modes, such as pressing the touch panel arranged in front of the keys displayed on the display unit, or the terminal recognizing handwritten characters on the touch panel by the user. There is. Among them, the most popular input mode in mobile phones is that a user inputs a character by pressing a mechanical key arranged on the terminal.

  Since a portable terminal having a plurality of mechanical keys is small and has a limited surface area of a housing, the number of keys that can be installed in the terminal body is also limited. When characters are input using such a portable terminal, various characters must be input using a few keys. In order to enter and separate many types of characters using a limited number of keys, you can basically distinguish characters to be entered based on the number of key presses, the order in which multiple keys are pressed, etc. (For example, “a” is input by pressing “1” again after pressing the “1” key, and pressing the “2” key after “1” is “ ”,“ 1 ”followed by“ 3 ”,“ 2 ”followed by“ 1 ”is“ ka ”, etc.).

  As described above, various techniques have been proposed for reducing the labor of input when input is performed using a limited number of keys. For example, when the number key “2” corresponding to “ka line” is pressed, a plurality of character candidates including the characters “ka line” such as “ka” “ki” “ku” “ke” “ko” A table is displayed on the display unit in association with a plurality of keys in the input unit, and the user can select and input characters from the candidates displayed in the table, thereby reducing the number of keys. There has been known a mobile phone that allows various characters to be input according to the number of times of pressing (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2001-274888 A

  However, even if a mobile phone as described in Patent Document 1 is used, for example, when an input error is made, the user first uses the cross direction key or the like to the location where the input error is made. In general, the cursor is moved, the erroneously entered character is deleted with a clear key or the like, and then the input operation is performed again to input a correct character. Such a key operation leads to an increase in the number of key presses, and increases the labor and burden for the user.

  In addition, the most popular input method in Japan as a character input method using a mobile phone is to assign a plurality of characters such as each line of hiragana to each numeric key and press the same key multiple times. Thus, according to the number of times of pressing, a so-called “multi-tap method” in which a plurality of characters assigned to each key are switched and input in order. That is, for example, “A” is pressed once for the “A” key, “A” is pressed twice for “A”, “I” is “U” for 3 consecutive times, and so on. In this method, kana characters on the line are sequentially input according to the number of times the key is continuously pressed. This method is an input method in which the operation based on the operation is intuitive and very easy to understand. From the viewpoint of the number of times the key is pressed, the user can use the key more than in the case of the mobile phone described in Patent Document 1 above. The number of times that must be pressed is considerably higher. Therefore, on the premise that normal input operation is performed by the multi-tap method, and further considering the correction operation in case of an input error, the actual character input operation as a whole requires a considerable number of key presses. On the other hand, the current situation is a considerable amount of labor and burden.

  In particular, a small terminal such as a mobile phone is often structured to easily cause an operation error due to the fact that the keys are densely packed, and even if the user intends to press the correct key, May have accidentally pressed an adjacent key. In addition, the mobile phone is often operated while the user is moving from its intended use. In such a case, the input operation is performed while always watching and checking the screen displaying the input result. Is not limited. For this reason, in an actual input operation by the mobile terminal, there is a need to constantly perform an operation for correcting an input error.

  The erroneous input as described above is not limited to the case of the mobile terminal, and similarly occurs in the case of a character input device used when performing a transfer operation using, for example, a bank ATM.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention made in view of such circumstances is to provide a character input device capable of easily correcting a character erroneously input by an incorrect key operation with less effort.

The invention of the character input device according to claim 1 that achieves the above object is as follows:
An input unit that has a plurality of keys each assigned a plurality of characters and receives an input by pressing the key;
A display unit for displaying an input result to the input unit;
An input mode for determining whether the input mode to the input unit is a one-point press input by pressing one key or a slide input to move to another key while maintaining the press to one key A discriminator;
When the input mode determination unit determines that the input mode to the input unit is the one-point press input, the input mode is assigned to the one key according to the number of times the one key is pressed. A plurality of characters are sequentially displayed on the display unit, and when it is determined that the input mode to the input unit is the slide input, the number of input by pressing the one key is The character of the display unit is changed so that the character displayed on the display unit is changed to a character displayed in response to a pressing input of the same number of times as the pressing of the one key among the characters assigned to the other keys. A control unit for controlling the display;
It is characterized by providing.

The invention according to claim 2 is the character input device according to claim 1,
The controller is
When it is determined that the input mode to the input unit is the slide input, the number of times of input by pressing the one key after the pressing of the one key is released and the other key is pressed Control to change the character displayed on the display unit to a character displayed in response to a pressing input of the same number of times as the pressing of the one key among the characters assigned to the other keys. It is characterized by doing.

  According to the present invention, when it is determined that the input mode to the input unit is a slide input, the character displayed on the display unit is assigned to another key according to the number of times of input by pressing one key. Since the display part is controlled so that it is changed to a character that is displayed in response to the same number of times of pressing input as pressing one key, for example, when creating e-mail text, If a character is erroneously input, it can be easily corrected with little effort, and the burden of the user pressing the key when correcting the input mistake is significantly reduced.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In each of the following embodiments, a foldable mobile phone will be described as an example of a character input device. However, the application of the present invention is not limited to a foldable terminal or a mobile phone. For example, it can be applied to various character input devices such as PDA and ATM.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing the configuration of the mobile phone 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The cellular phone 10 is a folding type that can be opened and closed by a hinge portion at the center of the main body, and FIG. 1 shows an open state. An input unit 5 is provided on one of the two surfaces that appear when the mobile phone 10 is opened, and the input unit 5 has a shape such as a key or button on a liquid crystal screen or the like as shown in a partially cutaway view. A key display unit 11 that draws and displays these arrangements, and a touch panel 12 that is arranged on the front surface of the key display unit 11 and directly accepts an input by a user's finger or the like are arranged. A display unit 14 including a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display for displaying information is provided. In addition, the mobile phone 10 has various functional units included in a normal mobile phone, such as a voice output unit configured with a speaker that outputs voice of a call, music playback sound, and the like, and a voice input unit configured with a microphone. However, description of these details is omitted.

  In the mobile phone 10 according to the present embodiment, instead of arranging various keys and buttons as mechanical switches on the main body of the mobile phone 10, the key display unit 11 displays the shape and arrangement of keys as images. When the user presses the image portion on which the key is displayed, the touch panel 12 corresponding to the position is pressed, and an input signal corresponding to the press is output from the pressed position of the touch panel 12.

  In FIG. 2, the schematic front view of the open state of the mobile telephone 10 is shown. Here, as an example, the display of each display unit at the time of creating an e-mail is illustrated. An e-mail text creation / editing screen is displayed on the display unit 14, and an operation key group necessary for e-mail text creation / editing is selected from a template according to the application on the key display unit 11 of the input unit 5. indicate. The user presses a key of the operation key group displayed on the key display unit 11 (actually presses the touch panel 12), and inputs characters constituting the e-mail. In the display unit 14 of FIG. 2, a fixed part of an e-mail character input by the user is displayed at the top of the screen, and the current input point is indicated by a square cursor. The mobile phone 10 of the present embodiment employs the above-described multi-tap method as a normal character input method, and FIG. 2 shows that the user presses the “1 / A line” key five times from the key display unit 11. The figure shows a state where “o”, which is the fifth character in the row, is input by continuously pressing. In response to the input of the character “O”, various selection candidates for words starting with “O” are displayed at the bottom of the display unit 14, and the user selects a candidate from these and confirms the input character. .

  FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the mobile phone 10 according to the present embodiment. The mobile phone 10 includes the key display unit 11, the input unit 5 including the touch panel 12, and the display unit 14, an input mode determination unit 13 that determines a mode of input to the touch panel 12, and an input Between a plurality of templates for displaying the shape and arrangement of keys and buttons on the key display unit 11 and information such as various settings of the mobile phone 10 and a base station via an antenna A communication unit 16 that transmits and receives information including voice data and e-mail data, and a control unit 17 that controls the entire mobile phone 10 including these functional blocks are provided.

  Note that the function of performing a voice call with another terminal by exchanging with the base station using the communication unit 16 or exchanging messages by e-mail is the communication performed by a conventional mobile phone. The details are omitted here.

  For the convenience of explanation, the storage unit 15 can store the input information, can store various applications in advance, and also serves as a work memory and a buffer. In addition, the storage unit 15 stores a Japanese input application for inputting hiragana and converting it into kanji when creating a sentence such as an e-mail. When a character is input, a correspondence between a user input to the input unit and a character to be output according to the input is stored.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the multi-tap method is used as a method for inputting Japanese kana characters. FIG. 4 is a table showing the correspondence between user input to the input unit and characters to be output in response to the input when inputting kana characters by the multi-tap method stored in the storage unit 15. FIG.

  As can be seen from FIG. 4, when the number “1” key corresponding to “A” is continuously pressed once, twice, three times, four times, and five times, it is output accordingly. The characters that change will change to “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “O”, followed by the sixth, seventh, etc., followed by “A”, “I”, When the eleventh and subsequent consecutive presses are performed, the first “a” character is returned, and the subsequent steps are repeated. Since there are no small kana characters in “ka line”, when the number “2” key corresponding to “ka line” is continuously pressed, “ka” to “ko” are displayed from the first time to the fifth time. Although it is output, pressing after the sixth time is the same as repeating from the first time. Kana characters “A line” to “Ra line” are assigned to the numbers “1” to “9”, respectively, and “Wa line” is assigned to the key “0”. Keys of symbols other than numerals are associated with various symbols and line feeds as shown in the figure.

  The input by the multi-tap method based on such a table is the same as the method based on the Japanese input application built in the mobile phone terminals that are widely used at present, and therefore detailed description will be omitted as appropriate. In the present specification, the vertical arrangement of the table shown in FIG. 4, that is, the arrangement of the characters “A, I, U, E, O…” is called a “line” such as “A”. A horizontal arrangement, that is, an arrangement of characters “A, K, S, T, etc.” is called a “stage” such as “Adan”.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 5, the key display part 11 and the touch panel 12 which comprise the input part 5 of the mobile telephone 10 which concerns on this Embodiment are demonstrated. FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a state in which the user's fingertip 50 is about to touch a key displayed on the key display unit 11 of the mobile terminal 10 (actually on the touch panel 12). Note that only some of the plurality of keys displayed on the key display unit 11 are illustrated, and the other parts are omitted. Further, when the user's fingertip 50 presses the touch panel 12, the portion to be pressed is not a single point but has a certain area.

  For the “1 / A row” key displayed on the key display unit 11, the inside defined by the displayed key image is defined as a key display range 40. In correspondence with the position of the key display range 40, a portion that actually accepts an input such as a user's finger on the touch panel 12 is defined as an effective area 41. In the present embodiment, the effective area 41 is defined slightly inside the key display range 40 in consideration of the fact that the user's fingertip 50 has a certain area of the pressing area 51. Accordingly, for example, the key display range 40 and the effective area 41 can be combined, or the effective area 41 can be defined outside the key display range 40. The same applies to keys such as “2 / ka line” and “3 / sa line” in addition to the “1 / A line” key, and the key display range for all the keys displayed on the key display unit 11. And set the effective area respectively. By associating the contact portions (XY coordinates) of a large number of touch switches on the touch panel 12 with the respective effective areas correlated with the keys displayed in the key display ranges of the key display unit 11, the touch panel 12 A signal corresponding to the position pressed and input by the user is output.

  Next, a normal character input process based on a single key press and a line change process based on a touch panel slide input according to the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 6A is a diagram schematically illustrating a state in which the user's fingertip 50 is pressing the “1 / A row” key on the touch panel 12. As shown in the figure, when the pressing area 51 of the user's fingertip 50 presses the “1 / A line” key displayed on the key display unit 11, the touch panel 12 corresponding to the key display range 40 of the key display unit 11 is displayed. Because the effective area 41 is also pressed, the touch panel 12 generates a signal corresponding to the pressed position. When the control unit 10 receives a signal generated by pressing the effective area 41, the control unit 10 determines a pressed position (for example, XY coordinates) on the touch panel 12, and performs a process to be executed when the position is input. , By reading the storage unit 15, each functional unit is controlled to perform a corresponding process. In this case, since the “1 / A line” key has been pressed, if the mode is to enter a character, the first press according to the correspondence table shown in FIG. Control is performed so that the characters “a” are displayed on the display unit 14.

  After the input, when the user releases the fingertip 50 from the touch panel 12, the input mode determination unit 13 determines that this input is a one-point press input. As described above, the input mode determination unit 13 detects the pressing of a predetermined area on the touch panel 12 and then releases the pressing without substantially changing the pressing position (pressing area). Determines that this input is an input for pressing one point. Thereafter, when an input of one point pressing is detected again in the same effective area, the control unit 17 regards this as a plurality of continuous inputs, and originally follows the correspondence table shown in FIG. The displayed character is changed to the character after the second time. That is, if the character “A” is originally displayed on the display unit 14, the character is changed to “I”, and if the character “I” is originally displayed, it is changed to “U”. Similarly, for example, if the “1 / A line” key is pressed twice in succession from the display of “U”, the character is changed to “O”.

  In addition, when the key pressed by the user is changed in the middle, when the one-point press input is detected in a key effective area different from the last one-point press input, the control unit 17 The input by pressing the last one point is confirmed, and it is determined that another new character has been input. That is, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 6A, when the “1 / A line” key area of the touch panel 12 is pressed four times continuously by the user's fingertip 50, the control unit 17 displays the display unit 14. Control is performed to display the character “e”, and thereafter, when the finger is once released from the touch panel 12 and the pressed key is changed, control is performed to determine the character “e” being displayed. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 6B, when the area of the “2 / ka line” key (the effective area 43 of the key display range 42) is continuously pressed twice, the control unit 17 confirms “e”. Control is performed to display "ki" after the character. By doing so, the characters “Eki” are displayed on the display unit 14.

  As described above, a character is displayed on the display unit 14 based on an operation of pressing a single point on the touch panel 12, and the characters displayed on the display unit 14 are sequentially changed and displayed in response to a continuous single point press. Since this series of processing is the same as processing for normal character input in a known mobile phone, this processing is referred to as “normal input processing” in this specification.

  On the other hand, after the last press on the effective area of a key is detected, the user's fingertip 50 does not leave the touch panel 12 as it is, and an input is made to move to the effective area of another key while pressing. The input mode determination unit 13 determines this input as “slide input”. As described above, the input mode determination unit 13 detects that a predetermined area of the touch area on the touch panel 12 has been pressed, and the pressing position (pressing area) is set to the predetermined position without releasing the pressing. An input that changes beyond the area and moves the pressing range to another effective area is determined as a slide input. When this slide input is detected on the touch panel 12, the control unit 17 performs processing different from the normal input processing described above.

  That is, when the slide input is performed, the control unit 17 performs the slide input of the character “stage” displayed on the display unit 14 by the press operation when the press operation that is the starting point of the slide input is performed. The character displayed on the display unit 14 is changed based on the “line” of the character assigned to the key corresponding to the effective area as the end point. In other words, the control unit 17 uses the character displayed on the display unit 14 as the starting point of the characters assigned to the end point of the slide input according to the number of times the key that is the starting point of the slide input is pressed. Change the character to be displayed in response to the same number of key presses.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, when “A” is displayed on the display unit 14 by pressing the “1 / A line” key once, the finger is released from the touch panel 12. If, as shown in FIG. 6B, the input to the “2 / ka line” key (the effective area 43) is made as it is, the display on the display unit 14 changes from “a” to “ka”. (See FIG. 4). Also, when the “1 / A line” key is pressed twice and “I” is displayed, if the finger is slid to the “2 / K line” key without being released, Change from "I" to "Ki". Similarly, when the “3 / Sa line” key is pressed three times and “S” is displayed, if the finger is slid to the “1 / A line” key without being released, Is changed from “su” to “u”.

  As described above, when a slide input is performed on the touch panel 12, the character displayed at the time of pressing that is the starting point of the slide input remains the same “column” and corresponds to the end point key of the slide. In this specification, the process of changing and displaying the characters “line” to be displayed is referred to as “line change process”.

  Next, the operation at the time of character input by the mobile phone 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, at the time of start, the control unit 17 reads out the Japanese input application from the storage unit 15 so as to shift to a mode in which characters can be input when creating sentences such as e-mails. To do.

  In step S101, the control unit 17 determines whether or not there is an input from the user on the touch panel 12, and when the input is detected, the input is the above-described slide. The input mode discrimination unit 13 discriminates whether or not it is an input (step S102). When the input mode determination unit 13 determines that the input is not a slide input but a one-point press input, the control unit 17 controls to perform the above-described normal input process (step S103). If it is determined in step S102 that the input is a slide input, the control unit 17 controls to perform the above-described line change process (step S104), returns to step S101, and returns to the next input. Be prepared for.

  In this way, for example, when the user is inputting a character when creating an e-mail sentence, as shown in FIG. When you try to input the character “ku”, but accidentally press the “1 / a row” key next to the “2 / ka row” key three times to display the “u” character If an input error is noticed, the third press of the “1 / A row” key slides the finger to the “2 / A row” key as shown in FIG. 8B. Thus, the character of “u” can be changed to “ku”. Similarly, when trying to input the characters “I am always indebted”, as shown in FIG. 8C, when I made a mistake and entered “Always,” instead of “Ke” If you notice a mistake that you should enter “SE” ”, press the“ 2 / KA ”key from the“ 2 / KA ”key that is pressed when“ KE ”is displayed. If the user slides the finger, the character “ke” can be changed to “se” as shown in FIG.

  Also, even if the first press is erroneously input, there is no need for the trouble of first deleting the erroneously input character using the clear key or the like and then re-entering it correctly as in the prior art. That is, for example, when it is desired to input “OK”, the key of “2 / K line” should be pressed after “Yoshi”, but the key of “3 / S line” is erroneously pressed and “ When the character “sa” is displayed, the character displayed on the display unit 14 is changed from “sa” to “ka” by sliding the finger to the “2 / ka line” key while pressing the key. After the change, the character “ka” can be changed to “ku” by simply pressing the “2 / ka line” key twice.

  Therefore, when using the mobile phone 10 according to the present embodiment, when the kana character is input and the user notices that the character is displayed by mistakenly pressing the key, the displayed character is displayed. Can be corrected by a simple and less troublesome operation without having to delete and re-enter the key, thereby significantly reducing the number of key presses.

  Although the present embodiment has been described as performing line change processing by performing slide input on the touch panel 12, depending on the configuration of the input unit of the terminal, mechanical keys may be used instead of the touch panel. You can also use the slide input. For example, the input unit 110 of the mobile terminal 100 as shown in FIG. 9 has mechanical keys instead of a touch panel, but a so-called “frameless key” in which the keys are adjacent to each other at a narrow interval. Adopted. In the case of a portable terminal having such an input unit, for example, if the key “1 / A row” is first pressed and the pressed finger is slid to “2 / K row” as it is, the key can be used. The signal to be output is the first press of the “1 / A row” key, then the simultaneous press of the “1 / A row” and “2 / A row” keys, and then the “2 / A row” only key. Can be detected as a press. Therefore, if such an input is determined as “slide input”, the line change processing of the present embodiment can be applied even to an input using a mechanical key instead of a touch panel.

  In the above, the line change processing when the adjacent key is erroneously input has been described. However, when the slide input is performed up to a key at a position beyond the adjacent key, the end point of the slide input is performed. The line conversion process is performed to change the character to the line corresponding to the key. However, in actual input operations, it is assumed that an erroneous input when pressing a key is often caused by pressing a key adjacent to the key that should be pressed. For example, the range of slide input in which the change process is performed can be set to be limited to adjacent keys.

  In this way, when the range of slide input for performing the line change process is limited to a relatively narrow range such as an adjacent key, the slide is performed only after completely moving from one key to another key. Instead of determining as an input, it may be determined as a slide input when a slide input is detected in a “predetermined direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, etc.)” exceeding a predetermined threshold. For example, the input mode determination unit 13 actually sets “4” when a predetermined amount of movement is detected from the “1 / A row” key in the direction of “4 / Ta row” (downward in FIG. 2). It is determined that the movement is a slide input before the slide input completely shifts to “/ t”.

  In this way, since the slide input to the adjacent keys is detected at a relatively early stage, the correction operation can be performed with a small amount of movement for the user.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a mobile phone 20 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The mobile phone 10 according to the first embodiment described above corrects an input error when the user notices an input error while inputting characters. In the present embodiment, the mobile phone 10 has already been corrected. A description will be given of a mobile phone that can easily correct an input error with little effort when an input error is recognized later with respect to input characters.

  FIG. 10 is a schematic front view of the mobile phone 20 according to the present embodiment. The mobile phone 20 is a folding type that can be opened and closed by a hinge portion at the center of the main body, and FIG. 10 shows an open state. An input unit 21 composed of a plurality of mechanical keys is arranged on one of two surfaces that appear when the mobile phone 10 is opened, and a liquid crystal display or an organic display for displaying various information is arranged on the other surface. A display unit 23 composed of an EL display or the like is arranged.

  In the present embodiment, since the slide input described in the first embodiment is not a feature, the input unit 21 will be described as a mechanical key, not a touch panel. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the input unit can be configured by a touch panel. When the input unit 21 of the mobile phone 20 presses each mechanical key arranged, a signal corresponding to each key is output according to the press. Since the mobile phone 20 is the same as the mobile phone 10 described in the first embodiment except that the input unit 21 is configured with a mechanical key, the first embodiment. The same description as in FIG.

  FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram of the mobile phone 20 according to the present embodiment. In addition to the input unit 21 and the display unit 23 described above, the mobile phone 20 includes a timer 22 for measuring the key pressing time of the input unit 21, information such as a Japanese input application and various settings of the mobile phone 20. A storage unit 24 that stores information, a communication unit 25 that transmits and receives information including voice data and e-mail data to and from the base station via an antenna, and the entire mobile phone 20 including these functional blocks. And a control unit 26. The display unit 23 and the communication unit 25 can be the same as the display unit 14 and the communication unit 16 described in the first embodiment.

  In the storage unit 24 of the mobile phone 20, when the kana character is input by the multi-tap method described with reference to FIG. 4 of the first embodiment, the user input to the input unit and the output should be performed according to the input Correspondence with characters is stored. The timer 22 measures the time from when input is started by the user pressing a key on the input unit 21 until the user releases the key by releasing the key. Based on the key pressing time measured by the timer 22 in this manner, the control unit 26 determines that the pressing is “short pressing” if the pressing is within a predetermined time threshold, and the pressing is determined for a predetermined time. If the threshold value is exceeded, the pressing is determined as “long pressing”. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the timer 22 and the control unit 26 constitute an input time detection unit.

  In the present embodiment, when a character is input and a sentence is being created, a key is “long pressed” on the display unit 23 while the cursor is positioned on the predetermined character. The “row changing process” described in the first embodiment is performed. That is, the control unit 26, based on the long key press input, the “column” of the character displayed at the cursor position on the display unit 23 and the “line” of the character assigned to the long pressed key. Based on the above, the display unit 23 is controlled to change the character displayed at the cursor position. More specifically, when the control unit 26 inputs the character displayed at the cursor position among the characters assigned to the key long pressed on the character displayed at the cursor position on the display unit 23. The character is to be displayed according to the same number of times the key is pressed. When the key input is “short press”, the “normal input process” described in the first embodiment is performed. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the display unit 23, the input unit 21, and the control unit 26 constitute a character selection unit.

  Next, the operation at the time of character input of the mobile phone 20 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, it is assumed that the mobile phone 20 is creating a sentence such as an e-mail in the character input mode, and has already input some kana characters before Kanji conversion by a normal input operation.

  In step S201, the control unit 26 determines whether or not there is an input from the user on the key of the input unit 21 by detecting a signal from the input unit 21, and if an input is detected, a timer Based on the pressing time measured in 22, it is determined whether or not the input is “long pressing” (step S202). If it is determined that the input is not long press (short press), the control unit 26 performs control so as to perform the normal input process described in the first embodiment (step S203). If it is determined in step S202 that the input is “long press” of the key, the control unit 26 indicates that the character displayed at the cursor position on the display unit 23 is pressed and pressed. It is determined whether it belongs to the kana character line assigned to the key (step S204).

  That is, for example, when the “7 / Machine” key is pressed for a long time when the cursor is at the character position “Mu”, the character displayed at the cursor position is changed to the long-pressed key. It belongs to the line of the assigned kana character (Ma, Mi, Mu, Me, Momo), but for example, when the cursor is at the position of the character "Mu", the key of "3 / Sa line" is If the key is pressed for a long time, the character displayed at the cursor position belongs to the line of the kana character (sa, s, s, s, so) assigned to the key that is being pressed for a long time. Absent.

  In step S204, if the character at the cursor position does not belong to the kana line of the key that is being pressed long, that is, the cursor is positioned at a character position that is different from the line corresponding to the key that was pressed and pressed. If there is, it is assumed that this input is intended to correct the character on which the cursor is positioned, and line change processing is performed on the character (step S205). In step S204, if the character at the cursor position belongs to the kana line of the key that is being pressed long, that is, the cursor is at the character position on the same line as the line corresponding to the key that was pressed and pressed. If there is, it is assumed that this input is not intended to be corrected by the line change process (that is, it is not regarded as a long press), and normal input processing is performed (step S203), and the next input is returned to step S201. Be prepared for.

  By doing this, line change processing can be performed on characters that have already been entered, so even if you notice an input mistake after entering a kana character, you can easily enter the wrong character. In addition, the correction can be made by a less troublesome operation, and the number of key presses can be considerably reduced.

  For example, when creating a text of an e-mail, while the user intends to input the characters “I am always indebted”, the key position to be pressed is mistaken, and FIG. As you can see, after you finish typing the word "I'm always afraid", you realize that you should correct it to "se" instead of "ke". Originally, the “se” character should be entered by pressing the “3 / sa line” key four times in succession, but the adjacent “2 / ka line” key was accidentally pressed four times. In FIG. 13A, “ke” has been input.

  In such a case, the cursor is first moved to the position “ke”, which is a location to be corrected, based on the user's operation such as a direction key (see FIG. 13B). Here, in order to correct the character “ke” to “se”, when the key “3 / sa line” corresponding to “sa line” to which the character “se” belongs is held down, the line change process is performed accordingly. As shown in FIG. 13C, the character “ke” is changed to “se”. This makes it possible to correct the intended correct character. Accordingly, there is no need to repeat the correct input again after deleting the character to be corrected by pressing the clear key at the location to be corrected, as in the prior art.

  Also, after the line change process in step S205 in FIG. 12, if the setting is made so that the correction mode can be continued, the process returns to step S201 and the subsequent input is continued, for example, FIG. As shown in (), even if “ku” is input at a place where “se” should be input, it can be corrected by a simple operation. That is, when inputting, not only the key to be pressed but also the number of times of pressing can be corrected. In this case, first move the cursor to the “ku” position, then press and hold the “3 / sa line” key to change the line, and change the “ku” character to “su”. To do. After that, the character of “su” can be changed to “se” by performing a normal input process by pressing the “3 / sa line” key for a short time.

  In the above description, as an application situation of the present embodiment, a state in which a kana character has already been input and is converted into a kanji character and confirmed is described. However, it is also possible to select the kana character portion after the kanji has been determined with the cursor, and to perform line change processing on the selected character in accordance with an operation such as a long key press. .

  Further, the line change process may be performed only in the correction mode by means such as switching between the normal input mode and the correction mode as appropriate.

  In addition, this invention is not limited only to the said embodiment, Many deformation | transformation or a change is possible. For example, both the first and second embodiments have been described as a mobile phone in which the input unit and the display unit are separated. However, if the input unit is configured to include a touch panel, for example, a PDA It is also possible to apply the character input device of the present invention to a case in which such an input unit and a display unit are integrated.

  In the first embodiment described above, the input operation on the touch panel is performed using the user's finger. However, the present invention is not limited to such an operation. For example, a pen-type device such as a stylus is used. Various input methods can be used in accordance with the mode of the input unit, such as operating using.

  Furthermore, in the above-described first embodiment, the input mode determination unit 13 is described as determining whether “input by pressing one point” or “slide input”. Although it is not distinguished from “short press”, a timer is provided to discriminate between long press and short press as in the second embodiment, and normal input according to “short press” of the key Processing may be performed. In this case, in the first embodiment, the normal input process is also performed for the “long press” of the key. However, depending on the length of the long press time of the predetermined key, the key is pressed. It is preferable that the kana characters assigned to the characters change in order and the transition of the kana characters stops when the long press of the key is released. Such an embodiment can be applied to the case where an input unit using a touch panel is used and the case where an input unit constituted by mechanical keys is used. In this way, when performing the normal input process, it is not necessary to repeatedly press the key many times even when the kana characters are changed in order.

  In the second embodiment, it has been described that the normal input process is performed by “short press” of the key and the line change process is performed by “long press”. However, the key is pressed by the “long press” of the key. Depending on the length of time, the “normal input process” in which the kana characters assigned to the key transition in order may be performed, and the line change process may be performed in response to the “short press”. Such an input method is particularly suitable when the second embodiment is implemented using an input unit including a touch panel.

1 is a schematic perspective view showing a configuration of a mobile phone according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic front view of the open state of the mobile phone shown in FIG. It is a functional block diagram of the mobile phone shown in FIG. It is a figure explaining matching with the character which should be output according to the user's input with respect to an input part memorize | stored in the memory | storage part of the mobile telephone shown in FIG. It is a conceptual diagram explaining operation | movement of the mobile telephone shown in FIG. Similarly, it is a conceptual diagram explaining operation | movement of the mobile telephone shown in FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the mobile phone shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen displayed on the display part of the mobile telephone shown in FIG. It is a schematic front view of the open state of the mobile telephone which is a modification of 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic front view of the open state of the mobile telephone which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the mobile phone shown in FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the mobile phone shown in FIG. 10. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen displayed on the display part of the mobile telephone shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

5, 21, 110 Input unit 10, 20 Portable terminal 11 Key display unit 12 Touch panel 13 Input mode determination unit 14, 23 Display unit 15 Storage unit 16 Communication unit 17 Control unit 22 Timer 40, 42 Key display range 41, 43 Effective area 50 User's fingertip 51 Press area

Claims (2)

An input unit that has a plurality of keys each assigned a plurality of characters and receives an input by pressing the key;
A display unit for displaying an input result to the input unit;
An input mode for determining whether the input mode to the input unit is a one-point press input by pressing one key or a slide input to move to another key while maintaining the press to one key A discriminator;
When the input mode determination unit determines that the input mode to the input unit is the one-point press input, the input mode is assigned to the one key according to the number of times the one key is pressed. A plurality of characters are sequentially displayed on the display unit, and when it is determined that the input mode to the input unit is the slide input, the number of input by pressing the one key is The character of the display unit is changed so that the character displayed on the display unit is changed to a character displayed in response to a pressing input of the same number of times as the pressing of the one key among the characters assigned to the other keys. A control unit for controlling the display;
A character input device comprising: The controller is
When it is determined that the input mode to the input unit is the slide input, the number of times of input by pressing the one key after the pressing of the one key is released and the other key is pressed Control to change the character displayed on the display unit to a character displayed in response to a pressing input of the same number of times as the pressing of the one key among the characters assigned to the other keys. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein:

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