JPH0158543B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an information retrieval device such as an electronic dictionary, and is particularly characterized by a display method when reading out desired contents.

For example, in electronic dictionaries that translate words between different languages, conventional methods for specifying a desired word include inputting the spelling of the word directly using the letter keys, and inputting the initial letter of the word, category, etc.
There is a method in which only a part of the spelling is specified and a desired word is searched from the contents stored in memory in advance.

The latter method has the advantage that it requires fewer keys and is easy to operate, but has the disadvantage that it is unclear how long it will take for the desired word to be read.

The present invention relates to an information retrieval device that adopts the latter method, and aims to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional device described above. The feature is that it also displays where in the group the contents (namely, headings such as words) are located.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to Examples.

FIG. 1 shows the appearance of an electronic English-Japanese dictionary which is an embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a character forwarding key that specifies the first letter of an English word in alphabetical order each time it is pressed, and 2 is a 1
The character return key specifies the initial letter in reverse alphabetical order each time you press it. 3 is the word search key that calls up the next word. 4 is the translation key that translates English words into Japanese words. 5 is the power-on key. power key,
6 is a display section consisting of a liquid crystal display board or a fluorescent display board; 7
8 is a word display part of the display part 6, and 8 is a word display part of the display part 6.

FIG. 2 shows a control block diagram of this embodiment.
11 is a microprocessor; ROM (read only memory) 12 stores control programs;
A RAM (random access memory) 13 used as registers and flags, an arithmetic control section 14, an input/output buffer, etc. are built in and communicated via an internal bus 15. 16 is a key input device including a character forward key 1, a character return key 2, a word search key 3, and a translation key 4; 17 is a display section; 18 is a display section 17
A display control unit 19 is a kind of memory that stores lighting and non-lighting in correspondence with each segment of 19, as well as a group of English word spellings and a Japanese word spelling group, and a display control unit 19 that stores words having the initial letter corresponding to the initial letter. This is a memory that stores the starting address and the number of English words that have that initial letter.

20 is a key strobe signal, 21 is a key input signal, 22 is an address bus, and 23 is a data bus.

In the control block diagram of FIG. 2, the microprocessor 11 outputs a key strobe signal to the key input device 16, and by reading the key input signal, determines the presence or absence of a pressed key and its type. Furthermore, the microprocessor 11 specifies the address of the memory 19 according to the pressed key, reads the contents, and writes a display pattern to the display control section 18 based on the read data, thereby displaying a desired pattern on the display section 17. display.

The operation of this embodiment will be explained in detail according to the flowchart of FIG. Note that in this flowchart, symbols are defined as follows.

The F ₁ flag indicates that the text forwarding key has already been pressed, the F ₂ flag indicates that the word search key has already been pressed, and the F ₃ flag indicates that the word search key is being held down. SC is a character code buffer, N is a word counter, C is a counter, and Cm is a constant.

Here, an example of a memory map of data stored in the memory 19 is shown in FIG. In the area shown in FIG. 1, in correspondence with the initial letter, the start addresses of words having that initial letter (address A, address B, etc.) and the number of recorded words of words having each initial letter are stored. ing. In the area shown in FIG. 2, English words are recorded in alphabetical order, and in the area shown in FIG. 3, Japanese translations of the English words stored in the area in FIG. 2 are stored in the corresponding order. There is. The number of words in FIGS. 2 and 3 may be counted by attaching a code to each word and counting this code.

In FIG. 3, when the power key 5 is pressed to turn on the power, initialization such as resetting the _F1 flag and _F2 flag is performed in step, and then the key is read in step.

If the character advance key is pressed and the _F1 flag is not set, step →→→
1 is input to the character code buffer SC and the _F1 flag is set. Here, the character code 1 means the character "A". Next, proceed to step →, and the number of stored English words with that letter as the first letter is read out, and the number of words counter N is read out.
The characters and number of words are displayed.

Next, if the character feed key is pressed while the _F1 flag is set, the process advances to step →→, where the character code buffer SC is counted up, and then advances to step N→→, and the same process as above is performed. The number of characters and words are displayed. Also, if the count has been counted up to "Z" when proceeding to the step, proceed to step Y → and return to "A" again, then proceed to step → and the number of characters and words will be displayed. be done.

If the character feed key is pressed and the F ₁ flag is not set, the program proceeds to step Y → N → →, 26 is input to the character code buffer SC, and after the F ₁ flag is set, the program advances to step →
The number of characters and words will be displayed. Here, the character code 26 means the character "Z". Also,
If the character return key is pressed while the _F1 flag is set, the process advances to steps Y→Y→, where the character code buffer SC counts down, and then advances to step N→→, where the number of characters and words is counted down. is displayed. Also, if the countdown is down to "A" when you advance to the step, you will advance to step Y → and return to "Z" again, then advance to step → and the number of letters and words will be displayed. Ru.

Next, when the word search key is pressed, the process proceeds to steps Y→N→→ and the character code buffer is
After the first word of the word whose initial character is SC is searched and read, and the _F2 flag is set, the process advances to step 1 and displays that word. When the word search key is pressed again, this time
_F2 flag is set, so step Y
→Y→〓〓→→〓〓, the next word stored in alphabetical order is read out, and after the word number counter N is counted down, the word and the number of words are displayed. At this time, if the word search key is kept pressed, step 〓〓Y
→〓〓N→〓〓→〓〓N→〓〓 loop, the time length is counted by counter C, and C=Cm
When reaching step 〓〓〓〓Y→〓〓, the _F3 flag is set, then return to step〓〓, go to step →〓〓, the next word is read out, and word count counter N is displayed. After the word is counted down, the word and the number of words are displayed. From then on, if the word search key is held down, the steps 〓〓Y→〓〓
The next word is sequentially read out through a loop of Y→〓〓→→〓〓→〓〓, the word counter N counts down, and the words and remaining number are displayed one after another. When you release the word search key, step 〓〓N
→ to reset the _F3 flag, then return to step and wait for the next key to be pressed.

After the desired word has been called out in this way, if you press the translation key, the process advances to step Y→→〓〓, the translated word for that word is read out, and after the _F1 flag and _F2 flag are reset, Proceed to the step and the translation will be displayed.

Note that in this flowchart, other processing means performing processing other than the above processing, such as numerical calculation, for example.

An example of the operating procedure for calling up a desired English word and translating it according to this embodiment is shown in FIGS. 1 and 5. This figure shows the display contents of the display section 6 until the word "BOAT" is translated.

When the character forwarding key 1 is pressed after pressing the power key 5, the initial letter "A" and the number of words 241 are displayed on the display. Next, press the text key again and the display will change to the initial letter "B" and the number of words 210. This means that 210 words with the initial letter "B" are stored. Next, press word search key 3,
Display is the first recorded word starting with “B” “BABY”
Replaced by By continuing to press the word search key 3 for a predetermined period of time, or by releasing it and pressing it again, the word display area will change to the next recorded word, "BABY-".
SIT", the number of remaining words display section will be changed to 1.
Replaces the countdown 209. By repeating the same operation of the word search key 3, release the word search key 3 when the display changes to "BOAT92", and then press the translation key 4.
``Boat, Kobune'' is displayed as the Japanese translation.

In this embodiment, the flowchart in FIG.
The system is configured to sequentially determine whether keys are on or off, and when a key is determined to be on, a predetermined process is executed. It may be configured such that the key is detected and the process directly proceeds to a predetermined process for that key.

In this embodiment, when the initial letter is displayed, the number of recorded words having that initial letter is also displayed, so it can be easily seen how many words are recorded in each group.

Further, in this embodiment, the number of remaining words in the recorded word groups that share the initial letter is displayed, but it may be configured to display the proportion of the number of remaining words as a percentage. In that case, this ratio may be graphically displayed on the analog side. Furthermore, instead of the initial letter in this example, multiple letters from the beginning of the word can be used to group words, and in that case, the desired word can be found in a shorter time than using the initial letter. can be called.

As described above, the present invention, when displaying headings,
Since the displayed heading is configured to simultaneously display where it is located in the group to which it belongs, it is possible to grasp the speed at which the specified group is being read, and to know when the desired heading is being read. It is possible to reduce the operator's frustration caused by not knowing whether the
Further, according to the present invention, such display can be realized without requiring a special display device and in a relatively simple process.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an electronic English-Japanese dictionary which is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is a flowchart explaining the operation of the embodiment, and FIG. 1 to 3 are diagrams showing an example of each storage area of a memory map in the same embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing changes in display contents in one operation example of the same embodiment. 1...Character forward key, 2...Character return key, 3
...Word search key, 4...Translation key, 5...Power key, 6...Display section, 7...Word display part, 8
. . . word remaining number display portion, 11 . . . microprocessor, 16 . . . key input device, 17 .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 In an information retrieval device that specifies headings in groups and sequentially calls the headings within the specified group, the number of recorded headings belonging to each group is also stored in the memory, and a search is performed based on the number of heading searches and the number of recorded headings. Find out where the searched heading is located in the group to which it belongs, and display this together with the searched heading. At the beginning of the word search, the number of words included in the group to which the word belongs is displayed, and the number of words in the group to which the word belongs is displayed at the beginning of the word search, and the number of words in the group to which the word belongs is displayed at the beginning of the word search. An information retrieval device characterized in that the number of words displayed is counted down and displayed.