JP4922990B2 - Key input device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a key input device for inputting kana characters, English letters, numbers, symbols, etc. to a mobile phone, a personal computer, etc., and in particular, the operation of character input even though it is small and can be operated with one hand by using a small number of keys. The present invention relates to an excellent key input device.

  Key input devices are widely used for information input to personal computers, mobile phones, and the like. A key input device for a personal computer employs a QWERTY type key input device in which 26 keys for alphabets and 10 keys for numbers are arranged. On the other hand, for a PDA (personal digital assistant) such as a mobile phone or an electronic notebook, a small key input device with a reduced number of keys is adopted. In this small-sized key input device for PDA, keys are arranged in a matrix and a plurality of kana characters and alphabetic characters are assigned to one key, and a target character is selected by the number of consecutive keystrokes.

  For example, as a typical key arrangement for a mobile phone, 10 numeric keys “1” to “9”, “0” are assigned to “a” line, “ka” line, “sa” line, and so on. There is one assigned 5 kana each. In such an assignment, for example, when “O” is selected, the “1” key must be pressed five times. In addition, there are 7 keys to which 3 letters are assigned such as “ABC”, “DEF”, “GHI”, etc., for inputting English letters, and the same key is repeated 3 times in order to select the last assigned letter. You have to hit the key. Since such a keystroke operation is required many times, this method has a problem that the input operation is complicated and character input cannot be accelerated.

  As a method for reducing the number of keystrokes when inputting characters as described above, 12 keys arranged in a matrix of 4 × 3 are provided, of which 5 keys are “A”, “I”, “U”, Key arrangements have been proposed in which vowels "E" and "O" are assigned one by one and 2 to 4 consonants are assigned to the remaining seven keys (see Patent Documents 1 and 2). However, in the case of this arrangement, it is unclear how to input a long sound "-" or a continuous long sound "-" that is frequently used in Japanese input. In addition, since the standard Romaji input method is adopted, for example, “K” and “Gyo” including stuttering must be input together with “K + Y + A” and “G + Y + O”, respectively, and the consonant before the stuttering. Goodbye. Such an input method is difficult to understand, and it is confusing how to input, causing the input speed to decrease. In addition, since 26 letters of the alphabet are assigned to 12 keys, there are 6 keys to which letters of 3 to 4 letters are assigned. In order to select the third to fourth characters with these keys, it is necessary to continuously press the key 3 to 4 times, and there is a problem that the input speed is lowered. Furthermore, the vowel keys are assigned to the upper part and the consonant keys are assigned to the lower part, and the fact that the left and right of the “consonant + vowel” written in Romaji is not aligned also deteriorates the operability.

Further, in Patent Document 3, in order to solve the problem of the input of the long sound “−” in the above-mentioned Patent Documents 1 and 2, the first long sound “−” is input to one of the five vowel keys. A proposal to set 2 characters is presented. However, the operation method is complicated, and it is not clear how to input a continuous long sound "-" such as "Dar".
JP-A-10-207601 JP-A-10-207608 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-272403

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems of the prior art, and the problem is a key input device for inputting kana, English, numbers, symbols, etc. to a mobile phone, a personal computer, etc. An object of the present invention is to provide a key input device which is small and can be operated with one hand by using a key, but has excellent character input operability.

The invention according to claim 1 for solving the above problem is a key input device for inputting kana, English letters, numbers, symbols, etc. to a mobile phone, a personal computer, etc. Arranged in a three-column matrix, the vowel keys “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, and “O” are assigned to the second row key in order from the first row key. Are “K”, “S”, “T”, “N”, “H” in order from the first row key, and “MY” as the consonant key in the first row key from the first row key. , “RW” and auxiliary keys “Prompt / 拗”, “-, .. Other”, “Feed” are assigned, and when a vowel key is pressed, a kana character corresponding to the vowel is input, If a vowel key is pressed after the second key of the consonant key in the second row, the combination of these consonants and vowels is read in Roman characters. Kana characters are input to respond, "M Y", "R
For the “W” key, when the vowel key is pressed after the key is pressed once, the kana characters corresponding to the romanized readings of the combination of the vowels consonant “M” and “R” are respectively When a vowel key is pressed after they have been pressed twice in succession, kana characters corresponding to the Romaji readings of the combinations of vowels consonant “Y” and “W” are input, and “K”, When the vowel key is pressed after the “S”, “T”, and “H” keys have been pressed twice in succession, the vowels that were hit with “G”, “Z”, “D”, and “B”, respectively When the phonetic kana character corresponding to the combination of roman characters is input, and the vowel key is pressed after the “H” key is pressed three times in succession, the combination of the vowels with “P” is read. The corresponding half-spoken kana character is entered and "N" When the key is played twice in succession, the kana character of the sound repellent “n” is input, and after the “T” key is pressed once following the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗”, the “U” key is pressed. When a key is pressed, the kana character of the prompt sound “tsu” is input, and after the key of the auxiliary key “prompt / 打” is pressed, the “MY” key is pressed once or twice continuously, followed by the vowel key. When the key is played, the vowel keys “key”, “yu”, “yo” corresponding to the consonant “Y” and the vowels that were struck are keyed, followed by the key of the auxiliary key “promotion / 拗”. In this case, the kana characters “a”, “i”, “ぅ”, “e”, “ぉ” corresponding to the vowel struck are entered, and the auxiliary keys “−,”.
“Other” includes parentheses such as “-”, punctuation “,” and punctuation “.”, “() /“ ”“ ”, ○ ● ◎ → ← ↑ ↓ ↓, etc. If a symbol, code, etc., which is assigned and assigned to the sequential position equal to the number of keystrokes is selected and entered by continuous keystrokes, and the auxiliary key “Send” is keyed, the character input operation until immediately before is terminated. So that the next character input is accepted, and if the “Send” key is pressed again after this state, the next character input is made after a space for one character. The key input device is characterized by being configured.

  The key input device of this configuration arranges as few as 15 main keys in 5 rows and 3 columns, and the five vowel keys of “A row” are “ka row” to “ha” in order from the top in the third column. The row consonant keys are arranged in order from the top in the second column, and the consonant keys in “ma row / ya row” and “ra row / wa row” are arranged in order from the first row in the first column. It has the advantage of being easy to remember and operate. In addition, the consonant key is arranged on the left side of the vowel key and is matched with the consonant and vowel arrangement of the input character, so that the input is easy to understand. The prompting sound and the roaring sound are not input together with the immediately preceding or succeeding character as in the conventional romaji kana conversion method, but can be input independently as independent characters, so that the keystroke operation is very easy to understand. In addition, long sounds can be easily input with a single keystroke, and there are advantages that a large number of symbols, codes, and the like can be input despite the small number of keys. Also, by adopting a modified romaji kana conversion method, it is necessary compared to the conventional method in which five characters such as “A line” and “Ka line” are assigned to one key and selected by the number of keystrokes. The number of keystrokes can be reduced to about 2/3.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the key input device according to the first aspect, the second vowel “a” as a vowel used for input of the “ma” row and the “ra” row is used for the second column key. ”,“ I ”,“ u ”,“ e ”,“ o ”are further assigned in order from the first line key, and the“ MY ”and“ RW ”keys are pressed once in a state of accepting new character input. After that, when the second vowel key is pressed, kana characters corresponding to the romanized readings of the combinations of the second vowels that are typed as consonant “M” and “R” are input. This is a key input device.

  With such a configuration, the consonant keys in the “ma” and “ra” rows and their vowel keys are arranged in the first row and the second row adjacent to each other, so that one-hand key input using the thumb is performed. The moving distance of the thumb at the time becomes shorter and it becomes easier to press the key, and high-speed keying becomes possible.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the key input device according to the second aspect, the “MY” and “RW” keys are continuously pressed twice in a state of accepting new character input. When a two-vowel key is pressed, kana characters corresponding to the Romaji readings of the combinations of the second vowels that are hit with the consonants “Y” and “W” are input, and the new character input is received in a state where the character is received. When the second vowel key is pressed after the “MY” key is pressed once or twice continuously after the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗” is pressed, the consonant “Y” is recorded as the vowel. If the corresponding vowel “nya”, “yu”, “yo” is struck by the second vowel key after the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗” is struck, the vowel sound corresponding to the vowel second vowel “ It is configured so that kana characters such as `` a '', `` i '', `` ぅ '', `` e '', `` ぉ '' are entered. A key input device, characterized in that there.

  With such a configuration, the consonant keys of the “Y” and “W” rows and their vowel keys are arranged adjacent to each other in the first and second columns, so that one-handed key input using the thumb is performed. The moving distance of the thumb at the time becomes shorter and it becomes easier to press the key, and high-speed keying becomes possible.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the key input device according to the second aspect, after the “MY” and “RW” keys are pressed once in a state of accepting a new character input, the third column When the vowel key is pressed, a kana character corresponding to the romanized reading of the combination of the vowels that are struck with consonants “Y” and “W” is input instead of the consonants “M” and “R”. When the vowel key in the third column is pressed after the “MY” key is pressed once or twice continuously after the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗” is pressed in a state where a simple character input is accepted When the consonant “Y” and the vowel corresponding to the vowel that was struck are “nya”, “yu”, “yo”, and the vowel key in the third row is pressed after the key of the auxiliary key “promotion / 拗” Is entered with kana characters “a”, “i”, “ぅ”, “e”, “ぉ” corresponding to the struck vowel. A key input device, characterized in that are configured to.

  With such a configuration, the number of keystrokes of the consonant key when the “ya” line and the “wa” line are input can be reduced to one.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the key input device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the vowel “U” or the second vowel “u” is selected after the selection of the consonant “W”. In this case, the key input device is configured to input the muddy sound of the kana character “U”.

  Since there is no kana character corresponding to the Roman character “WU”, if the “m” muffled sound is input in this case, the “m” muddy sound used for a foreign word can be input.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the key input device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, the English characters assigned to the first and second row keys are the first character for each key, For the “MY” and “RW” keys, “M” and “R” are called the first character of each key, and “Y” and “W” are called the second character of each key.・ "X" is assigned to the 拗 key as the first character and "Z" is assigned as the second character. The third column key is assigned with "B", "C", "D", “F” and “G” are assigned to the second row key as the second character in the order of “J”, “L”, “P”, “Q” and “V” in order from the first row key. In the “-, ..” key, the second character group is a comma “,”, a period “.”, A colon “:”, followed by “@ #; * ¥ &% $ !? ± − × ÷ ≒ <> ≦ ≧ ∴ ∵ ∞ ”and other symbols are assigned, and in addition to the 15 keys, an input mode selection key for selecting the kana input mode, alphabet input mode, and numeric input mode is provided. When the kana input mode is selected by the input mode selection key, the character input operation described in each claim is performed. When the alphabet input mode is selected by the input mode selection key, the first character is selected. When a key having an alphabetic character is pressed once and then another key is pressed, the first character of the key that has been pressed once is input, and the key having the alphabetic character as the first character is continuously keyed twice. When the key is pressed, the second character of the key that has been continuously pressed twice is input, and when the “−,. Yo Symbols are selected in the order of “,”, “.”, “:”, “@”, −−, followed by the symbol that was selected when a key other than the “−,. When the auxiliary key “Send” is pressed, the character input operation until immediately before is terminated and the state shifts to a state where the next character input is accepted, and when the “Send” key is pressed again after that state. Is a key input device configured to shift to a state in which a space for one character is left and the next character input is accepted.

  In a conventional key input device with a reduced number of keys (for example, see Patent Document 1), 3 to 4 alphabetic characters are assigned to one key. However, in the key input device of this configuration, only two alphabetic characters are assigned. Since it is not assigned, there is an advantage that high-speed input is possible. In addition, there is an advantage that a large number of symbols, codes, etc. can be input despite the small number of keys.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the key input device according to the sixth aspect, the numbers “2”, “4”, “6”, “8” are sequentially assigned to the third column key from the first row key. , “0” is assigned to the second row key as the third character in order from the first row key, and the input mode is selected. When the number input mode is selected by the key, when a key having a number as the third character is pressed, the number that is the third character of the key that has been pressed is input, and “-,... When the key or “Feed” key is pressed, the same input process as when the “-, .. Other” key or “Feed” key is pressed when the alphabet input mode is selected is performed. The key input device is configured as follows.

  In the key input device of this configuration, ten numbers are divided into five rows and arranged in two rows, so that the arrangement is easy to understand and has an advantage of high-speed input. In addition, there is an advantage that a large number of symbols, codes, etc. can be input despite the small number of keys.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a key input device according to the present invention will be described according to modes.
(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is an external view of a mobile phone 2 that employs a key input device 1 according to the first embodiment. A key input device 1, a function key group 4, a display device 5, a speaker 6, and a microphone 7 are attached to the outer surface of the mobile phone 2. The function key group 4 includes a power key 4a, a telephone on / off key 4b, and a five-contact input type key 4c. The five-contact input type key 4c is a switch having a total of five input contacts in the center and four surroundings. Menu display, registration / reading of a telephone number, registration / reading of an e-mail address, transmission / reception of an e-mail, etc. It is a key switch for executing various functions.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the key input device 1 includes a main key group 10 including 15 main keys 11 to 13, 21 to 23, 31 to 33, 41 to 43, and 51 to 53 arranged in five rows and three columns. , An input mode key 14, a full-width / half-width key 15, and a clear key 16. The following characters are engraved on each key top of the main key. That is, the vowel characters represented by alphabets “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “O” in order from the first row key are included in the third column key, and one row is provided in the second column key. The consonant characters represented by alphabets “K”, “S”, “T”, “N”, and “H” in order from the first key are displayed in the order of “MY”, “ The consonant character represented by the alphabet “RW” is engraved with the letters “Prompt / 拗”, “-, .. Other”, and “Feed” on the three auxiliary keys from the third row of the first column. It is. These characters will be referred to as the first characters for each key. However, as an exception, for the “MY” key 11 and the “RW” key 21, “M” and “R” are referred to as the first character, and “Y” and “W” are referred to as the second character.

  Further, the following second characters are engraved on the keys other than the “MY” key 11, the “RW” key 21, and the “feed” key 51. That is, the characters “B”, “C”, “D”, “F”, and “G” are sequentially assigned to the third column key from the first row key, and the characters “B”, “C”, “F”, and “G” are sequentially assigned to the second column key from the first row key. The letters “J”, “L”, “P”, “Q”, “V” are engraved respectively. In addition, two letters “XZ” are engraved on the “prompt / 拗” key 31. The characters “X” and “Z” are used only in the alphabet input mode as will be described later. In this mode, “X” is treated as the first character and “Z” is treated as the second character. Further, the “−, .. other” key 41 is imprinted with “,.: Other” as the second character group.

  Furthermore, a total of 10 keys in the second and third rows are engraved with numbers 0 to 9 as third characters as follows. That is, the numbers “2”, “4”, “6”, “8”, and “0” are sequentially assigned to the third column key from the first row key, and the numbers “2”, “4”, “6”, “0” are sequentially assigned to the second column key from the first row key. Numbers “1”, “3”, “5”, “7”, “9” are engraved.

  The input mode key 14 is used to switch the character input mode to three types of a kana input mode, an alphabet input mode, and a number input mode. The full-width / half-width key 15 is for designating full-width and half-width of the input character. The clear key 16 is a key for erasing retroactively from the latest input character each time it is pressed.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the mobile phone 2 including the key input device 1. The key input device 1 includes the main key group 10 including the 15 keys described above, the input mode key 14, the full-width / half-width key 15, the clear key 16, the input circuit 60, and the key input control circuit 61. ON / OFF contact signals of the main key group 10, the input mode key 14, the full-width / half-width key 15, and the clear key 16 are read into the key input control circuit 61 via the input circuit 60. The key input control circuit 61 includes a microcomputer, detects the ON / OFF state of each key, determines an input character according to a predetermined logic, and outputs it to the main body control circuit 62 of the mobile phone 2. . Since the main body control circuit 62 is also provided with a microcomputer, the key input control circuit 61 may be configured integrally with the main body control circuit 62. In addition to the input of the function key group 4 signal through the input circuit 63, the main body control circuit 62 is connected to the display device 5, the communication circuit 8 with the antenna, the speaker 6, and the microphone 7.

  Next, a description will be given of the logic for determining the character that the key input control circuit 61 outputs to the main body control circuit 62 in accordance with the operation of each key of the key input device 1. Characters that can be input by the key input device 1 are three kinds of characters and symbols such as kana, English (alphabet), and numerals, and symbols. The operator inputs the three types of characters by operating the input mode key 14 in advance. The input mode key 14 is a switch that switches between a kana input mode, an alphabet input mode, a numeric input mode, and a first kana input mode by pressing the key. The key input control circuit 61 stores the selected input mode. Then, an input character is determined according to a logic predetermined for each mode, and is output to the main body control circuit 62.

  First, an input method when the kana input mode is selected will be described. Kana input in the Kana input mode is similar to Roman input. However, since the operation and conversion method of the present invention is different from the operation and conversion method of the conventional Roman character kana conversion method using the QWERTY keyboard adopted in the personal computer, the method of the present invention is hereinafter referred to as a modified Roman character kana conversion method. I will call it.

  For the vowel of “A row”, “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “E” assigned as the first character in the third column of the main key group 10 arranged in the fifth row and the third column. Enter "O" key. In the modified Roman alphabet kana conversion method, when any vowel key is pressed, the input character is determined including the case of character input accompanied by a consonant below “ka line” described later. Therefore, if any vowel key is pressed after the previous character is confirmed, the corresponding vowel character is immediately output. And it returns to the state which receives the next character input. According to this rule, the vowel character “A line” can be input by simply pressing the corresponding vowel key once. In the present embodiment, since the five vowel keys “A” are arranged in order from the top in the third column, there is an advantage that the key arrangement is easy to remember and easy to operate.

  Characters from “ka line” to “ha line” are entered by inputting Roman characters using the English consonant key assigned as the first character in the second column and the vowel key in the third column. The “K”, “S”, “T”, “N”, and “H” keys arranged as the first character in the second column are “ka line”, “sa line”, “ta line”, “ This is a key to input the consonant of “Nana Line” and “Ha Line”. For example, when inputting the character “ka”, the keys are successively pressed in the order of “K” and “A” keys. When the vowel “A” key is pressed, the character “ka” is determined and output.

  The “ma line” and “ra line” characters are input by pressing the vowel key after the “MY” and “RW” key once. For “ya row”, the “MY” key is continuously pressed twice, and then the vowel key is pressed for input. Similarly, for “Wa”, the “RW” key is continuously pressed twice, and then the vowel key is pressed and input. However, as an exception, when the vowel “U” is selected after the consonant “W”, the character of “m” is input.

  In this embodiment, the consonant keys “ka row” to “ha row” are arranged in order from the first row of the second column, and the consonant keys of “ma row” and “ra row” are the first row of the first column. Since they are arranged in order from the eyes, the key arrangement is easy to remember and has the advantage of being easy to operate. These consonant keys are arranged on the left side of the vowel key to match the consonant and vowel arrangement of the input character, thereby facilitating input. For “Ya Line” and “Wa Line”, the consonant key must be pressed twice in succession, but since the frequency of use of characters in these lines is low, the influence on operability is small. In addition, there is an advantage that characters of “U” muddy used for foreign words can be input.

  The input of the characters “ga line”, “za line”, “da line”, and “ba line” which are muddy sounds is made by pressing the corresponding consonant “K”, “S”, “T”, “H” keys of 2 Keys are entered by consecutive keystrokes followed by keystrokes. For example, when “Z” is input, it is input by sequentially pressing “S”, “S”, and “U” keys in this order. A conceivable consonant “G”, “Z”, “D”, and “B” may be followed by a method of keying a vowel, but such a consonant must be arranged as the second character. The selection of the second character similarly requires two consecutive keystrokes, and the key arrangement must be remembered, so it is more inconvenient than the two consecutive keystrokes.

  The “pa line” character, which is a semi-voiced sound, is input by pressing the corresponding consonant “H” key of the clear sound three times in succession, and then pressing the vowel key. For example, in the case of inputting “pe”, the input is confirmed by pressing the key successively in the order of “H”, “H”, “H”, “E”. Although it is conceivable to input by inputting “P” and “E” as in the conventional Roman character input, “P” must be arranged as the second character, so two consecutive keystrokes are required for selection. You must also remember the key layout. The operation is easier if the “H” key whose arrangement is known is pressed three times.

  The prompt sound “tsu” character is input by successively pressing in the order of “prompt / 拗”, “T”, and “U” keys. The sound “tsu” is usually used by being sandwiched between two characters. The prompting sound “t” is usually followed by a letter accompanied by a consonant. For this reason, for example, the word “Iso” is written as two consonants of the letters following the prompt sound “tsu” like “ISSO” in Roman letters and “ATTA” as “ATTA”. In the conventional romaji kana conversion method, characters are input as written in romaji. This method is difficult to understand because the two consonant characters that follow the prompting sound are different for each word. In the modified Romaji-kana conversion system of this embodiment, the prompt sound “tsu” is input as an independent character by consecutive keystrokes of the “prompt / 拗”, “T”, and “U” keys regardless of the preceding and following characters. Therefore, there is an advantage that the operation is easy to understand. Moreover, since these three keys are arranged in order from the left in the third row, there is an advantage that they are easy to operate.

  The input of the characters “ya”, “yu”, and “yo” is performed by inputting “ya”, “yu”, and “yo” characters after the “prompt / 拗” key is pressed, respectively. For example, in the case of a roaring sound “nya”, the keys are input in the order of “prompt / 拗”, “MY”, “MY”, and “A” keys. In this case, since there is no stuttering using the consonant “M”, the number of keystrokes of the “MY” key may be one. The input of the characters “a”, “i”, “ぅ”, “e”, and “ぉ” is the input of the “prompt / 拗” key followed by the vowels “a”, “i”, “u”, Enter "e" and "o".

  In the conventional Romaji-kana conversion method, it is necessary to input the characters “nya”, “yu”, and “yo” together with the immediately preceding consonant. For example, the word “kya” is entered as “KYA” and three English letters in Roman letters. This method has a drawback that it is difficult to understand the input English characters. For example, “Nya” must be input as “DYA”, and “Byo” must be input as “BYO”, which often causes the user to be confused in selecting an English character to be input, which causes the keystroke speed to slow down. On the other hand, in the modified Roman alphabet kana conversion method of the present embodiment, the characters “nya”, “yu”, and “yo” are input as independent characters regardless of the immediately preceding character. After the previous character is input as an independent character, the stuttering is also input as an independent character. For example, in the case of inputting “Kya”, after confirming the character input of “Kya”, the roar “ya” is input as an independent character. Therefore, there is an advantage that the keystroke speed can be increased without being confused about the selection of English characters to be input.

  In addition, although not strictly stuttering, when expressing readings of foreign words in kana, the vowels should be the same size as the stuttering, such as “kua”, “kui”, “kue”, “kuan”. May be represented. In this case, in the modified Roman alphabet kana conversion method of this embodiment, the corresponding vowel key is keyed and input as an independent character after the keying of the “prompt / 拗” key. For example, in the case of the input of “She”, after confirming the input of “She”, the user inputs the key “E” in the order of “Prompt / 拗” and “E”. In the conventional romaji kana conversion method, “SEE” must be input as “SYE” and “TSUA” must be input as “TSA”. The modified Romaji-kana conversion system of this embodiment has an advantage that it is possible to increase the keystroke speed because there is no room for such inconvenience.

  The sound repellent “n” character is input by continuously pressing the “N” key twice.

The long sound “-” is input when another key is pressed after the auxiliary key “-, .., etc.” is pressed once. To enter a continuous long sound "-", enter the key in the order of "-,. Other", "Feed", "-,. Other" keys.

Auxiliary keys “-, .., etc.” include a long sound “-” followed by a punctuation mark “,”, punctuation marks “.”, “(”, “)”, “/”, ““ ”,“ ””, ““ ",""," ・ "," ○ "," ● "," ◎ "," → "," ← "," ← "," ↑ "," ↓ "and other bracket symbols, general symbols, connecting arrows, etc. It is. These symbols, symbols, and the like are selected in order from the top depending on the number of times the “−,. Then, when a key other than the “-, ..” key is pressed, the symbol, code, etc. selected immediately before are input. It is difficult to memorize the correspondence between the number of keystrokes and symbols. As a countermeasure, when the “-, .. other” key is pressed once, a list of symbols, etc. assigned to the “-, .. other” key is displayed on the display device 5.
. Each time the “other” key is pressed, the cursor may be moved so that the selected symbol is known. According to such an input method of symbols, codes and the like of this embodiment, a large number of symbols and codes can be input with one key.

  As described above, in the modified Roman character kana conversion system of this embodiment, as few as 15 main keys are arranged in 5 rows and 3 columns, and the five vowel keys of “A row” are in the third column in order from the top. The consonant keys “ka line” to “ha line” are arranged in order from the first line of the second column, and the consonant keys of “ma line” and “ra line” are arranged in order from the first line of the first column. Therefore, the key arrangement is easy to remember and has an advantage of easy operation. Further, since the consonant key is arranged on the left side of the vowel key and matches the consonant and vowel arrangement of the input character, there is an advantage that the input is easy. The prompting and roaring sounds are not input together with the immediately preceding or following character as in the conventional romaji kana conversion method, but can be input independently as independent characters, making the keystroke operation very easy to understand and high-speed input. Has the advantage of being able to. In addition, long sounds can be easily input with a single keystroke, and there are advantages that a large number of symbols, codes, and the like can be input despite the small number of keys. Also, by adopting a modified romaji kana conversion method, five characters such as “A line” and “Ka line” are assigned to one key, and one character is selected from the five characters by the number of keystrokes. Compared with the system, the required number of keystrokes is reduced to about 2/3, thereby having an effect of enabling high-speed input.

  Next, the case where the alphabet input mode is selected will be described. Since the alphabet consists of 26 characters, there are 12 characters other than 14 English characters used in the kana input mode. In the present embodiment, the remaining 12 characters are assigned one for each key in the third and second columns, and two for the “prompt / 拗” key in the first column. That is, the characters “B”, “C”, “D”, “F”, and “G” are sequentially applied from the first row for the third column, and “J”, “ The characters “L”, “P”, “Q”, and “V” are assigned as the second character of each key. The “prompt / 拗” key in the first column allocates two characters “X” and “Z” as “XZ”. In this case, in the alphabet input mode, “X” is treated as the first character and “Z” is treated as the second character.

  When inputting the first character of each key as an input method, when the other key is pressed after the corresponding key is pressed once, the first character pressed immediately before is determined and input. When inputting the second character of each key, the corresponding key is pressed twice and then the other keys are pressed. If the key is pressed twice continuously, the second character is determined and input at the end of the continuous key pressing. When the same first character is continuously input, for example, when “EE” is input, keys are pressed in the order of “E”, “SEND”, and “E” keys. When the “Send” key is pressed, the first character “E” is determined. When another key is pressed after the second “E” key is pressed, the second character “E” is determined and entered. Is done. In the alphabet input, it is indispensable to enter a space as a word separator, but the space is entered by pressing the “Send” key.

  Symbols, symbols, and the like necessary for inputting English characters are input using “,...: Other” assigned as the second character group of the “−,. This “,.: Other” key has a comma “,”, a period “.”, A colon “:”, and “@ #; 〜 ＋ ＋ ＋ − − × ÷ ≒ <> ≦ ≧ ∴ ∵ ∞ ”etc., many symbols, signs, etc. are assigned. These symbols, symbols, etc. are selected and input by the number of consecutive keystrokes of the “, ..: other” key in the same manner as the “-, .. other” keys in the kana input mode.

  In a conventional key input device with a reduced number of keys (see, for example, Patent Document 1), three or four English characters are assigned to one key. However, in the key input device 1 of the present embodiment, two or two English characters are assigned. Since only English letters are assigned, there is an advantage that high-speed input is possible. In addition, there is an advantage that a large number of symbols, codes, etc. can be input despite the small number of keys.

  Next, the case where the number input mode is selected will be described. Ten numbers are assigned as third characters to the keys in the second and third rows. That is, for the second column, the numbers “1”, “3”, “5”, “7”, “9” are sequentially added from the first row, and for the third column, “2”, “ Numbers “4”, “6”, “8”, and “0” are assigned. When these keys are pressed with the number input mode selected, the assigned numbers are immediately input. Input of symbols, symbols, etc. in the numeric input mode is the same as in the case of the alphabet input mode, and the “,.

  In the present embodiment, ten numbers are divided into five pieces and arranged in two rows, so that the arrangement can be easily understood and high-speed input can be performed. Further, there is an advantage that a large number of symbols, codes, and the like can be input despite the small number of keys.

  As described above, the key input device 1 according to the present embodiment employs the modified Roman character kana conversion method, so that it is easy to understand the kana characters with a small number of keystrokes at a high speed even though the number of keys is as small as 15. Has the advantage that it can. Even in English character input, since only two alphabets are assigned to one key, high-speed input is possible. Further, there is an advantage that a large number of symbols, codes, and the like can be input despite the small number of keys. Since the entire character arrangement corresponding to the three types of character input of kana input, alphabetic input, and numeric input is arranged in an easy-to-understand manner, the operability is enhanced.

(Second Embodiment)
In the present embodiment, a change is made to the input method of the kana input mode in the first embodiment. The input method of the alphabet input mode and the number input mode is the same as that of the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a key layout of the key input device 1a. 2 is different from the key arrangement of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 in that the second column key has “a”, “i”, “u”, “e”, “o” in order from the first row key. It is a point assigned by adding an alphabet. These “a”, “i”, “u”, “e”, and “o” are called second vowels.

  This second vowel is used in place of the vowel key in the third column when inputting the “ma”, “ra”, “ya”, and “ra” rows. That is, when inputting the characters in the “ma” and “ra” lines, the second vowels “a”, “i”, and “u” are input after pressing the “MY” and “RW” keys once, respectively. , “E”, “o” are selected and keyed. Thereby, the kana character corresponding to the Roman character reading of the combination of the consonant and the second vowel is input. When inputting characters in the “ya” and “wa” lines, the second vowel “a” is input after the “MY” and “RW” keys are continuously pressed twice in a state where new character input is accepted. , “I”, “u”, “e”, “o” are selected and keyed. Thereby, the kana character corresponding to the Roman character reading of the combination of the consonant and the second vowel is input. However, as an exception, when the second vowel “u” is selected after the consonant “W”, the character of “m” is input.

  To input the roaring sound “nya”, “yu”, “yo”, the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗” is pressed in a state where a new character input is accepted, and then the “MY” key is pressed once or 2 After the second consecutive keystroke, the second vowel key is depressed. The input of the characters “A”, “I”, “ぅ”, “E”, “ぉ” is performed by pressing the auxiliary key “Prompt / ら れ る” in a state where a new character input is accepted, This is done by pressing the 2 vowel key.

  With such a configuration, consonant keys and their vowel keys in the “ma”, “ra”, “ya”, and “ra” rows are adjacent to each other in the first and second columns. . For this reason, the moving distance of the thumb when performing one-hand key input using the thumb is shortened, and it is easier to hit the key than in the first embodiment, and high-speed keying is possible. In addition, “U” muddy characters used for foreign words are also simplified.

(Modified embodiment)
(Part 1) In the first and second embodiments, the input mode key 14 is used to switch the character input to three types: the kana input mode, the alphabet input mode, and the number input mode. The hiragana input and the katakana input may be selected by dividing into two modes of the katakana input mode.

(Part 2) In English input mode, it is often necessary to select uppercase and lowercase letters. For the selection, the alphabet input mode may be divided into upper case alphabet input mode and lower case alphabet input mode. Moreover, you may attach the key which can select a capital letter input and a small letter input instead of dividing in that way. Further, the function of the clear key 16 may be transferred to the function key group 4 and the key 16 may be used for selection of capital letter / small letter input.

(No. 3) In the second embodiment, when inputting characters in the “ya” and “wa” lines, the second vowel “ “a”, “i”, “u”, “e”, “o” were selected and keyed. Alternatively, the “MY” and “RW” keys may be pressed once and then the third vowel key may be selected and pressed. In addition, the input of the characters “nya”, “yu”, and “yo” is a state in which a new character input is accepted, and the “MY” key is pressed once after the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗” is pressed or 2 You may make it carry out by pressing a key continuously. The input of the characters “a”, “i”, “ぅ”, “e”, “ぉ” should be made by typing the vowel key in the third row following the key entry of the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗”. Also good. In this way, the number of keystrokes of the consonant key when inputting a “ya” line, a “wa” line or a roar can be reduced to one.

1 is an external view in which a key input device 1 according to the present invention is applied to a mobile phone 2. FIG. 3 is a key layout diagram of the key input device 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a hardware configuration of a mobile phone 2 including a key input device 1. FIG. It is a key arrangement figure of the key input device 1a which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  In the drawings, 1, 1a is a key input device, 2 is a mobile phone, 4 is a function key group, 5 is a display device, 10 is a main key group, 14 is an input mode key, 15 is a full-width / half-width key, and 4c is 5 contacts. Indicates an input type key.

Claims (7)

A key input device for inputting kana, English letters, numbers, symbols, etc. to mobile phones, personal computers, etc.
Fifteen keys are arranged in a matrix of 5 rows and 3 columns, and “A”, “I”, “U”, “E”, “O” are used as vowel keys for the third column key in order from the first row key. ”Is a consonant key in order from the first row key for the second column key, and“ K ”,“ S ”,“ T ”,“ N ”,“ H ”are from the first row key to the first column key. In order, “MY”, “RW” as consonant keys, “Prompt / 拗”, “-, .. Other”, “Feed” as auxiliary keys are assigned.
When the vowel key is pressed, a kana character corresponding to the vowel is input,
When the vowel key is pressed following the second key of the consonant key in the second row, a kana character corresponding to the Roman character reading of the combination of the consonant and the vowel is input,
For the “MY” and “RW” keys, when the vowel key is pressed after they are pressed once, the combination of the consonant “M” and “R” and the vowels that are struck is read in Roman letters. If the corresponding kana characters are sung twice and then the vowel keys are struck, the kana characters corresponding to the romanized readings of the combinations of the vowels that are struck with the consonant “Y” and “W” are input. And
When the vowel key is pressed after the “K”, “S”, “T”, and “H” keys are continuously pressed twice, “G”, “Z”, “D”, “B”, respectively. ”Is entered, and the syllabic kana characters corresponding to the romanized reading of the combination of vowels
When the vowel key is pressed after the “H” key has been pressed three times in succession, a semi-voiced kana character corresponding to the Roman character reading of the combination of the vowels that are “P” is input,
When the “N” key is pressed twice in succession, the kana character “N” is input,
When the “U” key is pressed after the “T” key is pressed once after the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗” is pressed, the kana character of the prompt “tsu” is input,
If the vowel key is continuously pressed after the “M Y” key is pressed once or twice continuously after the auxiliary key “prompt /「 ”is pressed, the consonant“ Y ”is recorded as a vowel. If the corresponding stuttering “nya”, “yu”, “yo” is keyed after the keystroke of the auxiliary key “promotion / 補助”, the stuttering “ah”, “ ”,“ ぅ ”,“ e ”,“ ぉ ”kana characters are entered,
In addition to the long sound "-", punctuation mark ",", punctuation mark ".", The auxiliary keys "-,., Etc." include parentheses such as "() /"""""-○ ● ◎ → ← ↑ ↓, General symbols, connecting arrows, etc. are assigned, and symbols, codes, etc. assigned to sequential positions equal to the number of keystrokes are selected and input by continuous keystrokes.
When the auxiliary key “SEND” is pressed, the character input operation until immediately before is terminated and the state shifts to a state where the next character input is accepted, and the “SEND” key is pressed again after this state. The key input device is configured to shift to a state in which a space for one character is left and the next character input is accepted.   The key input device according to claim 1, wherein the second column key includes second vowels “a”, “i”, “u”, “u” as vowels used for inputting “ma” and “ra” rows. “e” and “o” are further assigned in order from the first line key, and the second vowel key is pressed after the “MY” and “RW” keys are pressed once in a state of accepting a new character input. In some cases, the key input device is configured to input kana characters corresponding to the Romaji reading of the combination of the second vowels struck with consonants “M” and “R”. In the key input device according to claim 2, when the second vowel key is pressed after the “MY” and “RW” keys are continuously pressed twice in a state of accepting a new character input, Kana characters corresponding to the Romaji readings of the combination of the second vowels that are struck with consonants “Y” and “W” are input,
When a second vowel key is pressed after the “MY” key is pressed once or continuously twice after the auxiliary key “prompt / 拗” is pressed in a state of accepting a new character input, a consonant “Y”, “Yu”, “yo” corresponding to the vowel that was struck “Y” will be struck when the second vowel key is struck after the auxiliary key “prompt 拗” A key input device configured to input kana characters “拗”, “ぃ”, “ぅ”, “ぇ”, and “ぉ” corresponding to the second vowel. In the key input device according to claim 2, when a vowel key in the third row is pressed after the “MY” and “RW” keys are pressed once in a state of accepting a new character input, Kana characters corresponding to the Romaji reading of a combination of vowels that are struck with consonants “Y” and “W” instead of consonants “M” and “R” are input,
When a vowel key in the third row is pressed after the “MY” key is pressed once or twice continuously after the auxiliary key “prompt / 促” is pressed in a state of accepting a new character input Is the consonant “Y” and the vowel sound “nya”, “yu”, “yo” corresponding to the vowel that was struck, and the vowel key in the third row is pressed after the auxiliary key “prompt 拗” The key input device is configured so that the kana characters “a”, “i”, “ぅ”, “e”, and “ぉ” corresponding to the struck vowel are input to .   5. The key input device according to claim 1, wherein when the vowel “U” or the second vowel “u” is selected following the selection of the consonant “W”, the kana character “U” A key input device configured to input muddy sound. 6. The key input device according to claim 1, wherein an English character assigned to the first row and second row keys is changed to a first character for each key, and an "MY" and "RW" key. , "M", "R" will be called the first letter of each key, "Y", "W" will be called the second letter of each key,
The “prompt / 拗” key is additionally assigned with “X” as the first character and “Z” as the second character, and “B”, “C”, “D”, “F”, “G” are the second column keys, and the characters “J”, “L”, “P”, “Q”, “V” are the second in order from the first row key . Additional allocation as characters,
The “-, .., etc.” key includes a comma “,”, a period “.”, A colon “:”, followed by “@ #; * ¥ &% $!? ~ = + ± −
× ÷ ≒ <> ≦ ≧ ∴ ∵ ∞
In addition to the 15 keys, an input mode selection key for selecting a kana input mode, an alphabet input mode, or a number input mode is provided.
When the kana input mode is selected by the input mode selection key , the character input operation described in each claim is performed,
When the alphabet input mode is selected by the input mode selection key, when a key having an alphabetic character as the first character is pressed once and then any other key is pressed, the key pressed once When a key having an alphabetic character is input twice as the first character, the second character of the key that is pressed twice is input, and the second character group is additionally allocated. When the “-, .., etc.” key is pressed, the symbols are selected in the order of “,”, “.”, “:”, “@”, And −, according to the number of consecutive keystrokes. When a key other than the “-, ..” key is pressed, the selected symbol is input. When the auxiliary key “Feed” is pressed, the previous character input operation is terminated and the next character is terminated. Transitions to a state that accepts input and continues to that state Key input device, characterized in that as a separate word is arranged to shift to the state of accepting the next character input when the "forward" key has been keyed again Te. 7. The key input device according to claim 6 , wherein numbers “2”, “4”, “6”, “8”, “0” are assigned to the third column key in order from the first row key. In order from the first row key, the numbers “1”, “3”, “5”, “7”, “9” are additionally assigned as third characters, respectively.
When the number input mode is selected by the input mode selection key, when a key having a number as the third character is pressed, a number that is the third character of the key that is pressed is input, When the “-, .. Other” key and “Feed” key are pressed, the “-,. Other” key and “Feed” key are respectively pressed when the alphabet input mode is selected. A key input device configured to perform similar input processing.