JPH05181898A - Electronic dictionary - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the power consumption by retrieving and outputting preceding and next dictionary information by rotation of a rotor to quickly retrieve, display, and output desired language information without complicated key operation. CONSTITUTION:This dictionary is provided with a dictionary information storage means, an input means 12, a first retrieving means, a display means 9, and a second retrieving means which selectively retrieves first and second language information stored in a dictionary information storage means just before and after first language information by the rotation operation of a freely rotatable rotor 10 and displays these retrieved information after retrieving first and second language information by the first retrieving means to display them on the display means 9. When dictionary information stored in the dictionary information storage means is successively outputted, preceding and next information are successively read out by normal and reverse rotation operation of the rotor 10 and are displayed out on the display means 9. Thus, desired language information is quickly retrieved and outputted, and the battery consumption per unit time is reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic dictionary, and more particularly to an electronic dictionary which retrieves and outputs second language information corresponding to the first language information input by an input means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an electronic dictionary such as an English-Japanese dictionary is used when an English word or sentence (hereinafter referred to as a word) is input. The memory storing the information is searched, and the Japanese word or the like corresponding to the searched English word or the like is output. As this output method, a display means, for example, a method of displaying and outputting by a liquid product display is the mainstream, but other methods of outputting by voice, and
There is a method of printing out with a printer.

[0003]

In an electronic dictionary constructed as an English-Japanese dictionary, a character string constituting an English word or the like is input from a keyboard as an input means, and an English word corresponding to the input character string is input. , The conversion instructing means determines whether or not the word matches the English word stored in advance in the memory, and if the word matches, the English word and the Japanese information stored corresponding to the word are displayed on the display. Output is displayed and a series of search operations is completed.

In many conventional electronic dictionaries having the above-mentioned structure, the previous / next information calling means (previous / next information) is used for the purpose of outputting the previous / next information of the English words stored in the memory after the search operation is completed. Many proposals have been made to provide a calling key) on the keyboard so that the calling means can sequentially display and output previous / next information.

In the case of English words, each English word is stored in the memory in the alphabetical order of the composed character strings,
When searching for an English word with a long character string, for example, "int
When searching for "resting", a predetermined character string, for example, "inter", starts from the end of the character string forming the English word.
After executing the search process, the previous / next information calling means often causes the desired English word “interesting” to be displayed and output.

However, according to the above-mentioned retrieval method, if the desired English word is stored next to the English word first displayed and output, the calling means only needs to be operated once. The number of English words that can be stored in the memory is increasing at a low cost and the desired English words may not be output without operating the calling means multiple times.
There is a problem that the operation becomes complicated. At the same time, it requires a long processing time for displaying and outputting the dictionary information multiple times, and a long processing time for searching for a desired English word. There is a problem that the battery consumption per hit is large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. An object of the present invention is to eliminate the complexity of operation with a simple structure and to quickly search and output desired language information, and An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic dictionary with reduced battery consumption per hour.

[0008]

In order to achieve such an object, the electronic dictionary of the present invention stores dictionary information composed of first language information and second language information corresponding to the first language information. Dictionary information storage means, input means for inputting language information, first search means for searching the dictionary information storage means for second language information corresponding to the first language information input by the input means, Display means for displaying the second language information searched by the search means and first language information corresponding to the second language information, the first language information and the second language corresponding to the first language information After the information is retrieved by the first retrieval means and displayed on the display means, the information is operated by the rotating operation of the rotatable rotor and is stored in the dictionary information storage means before and after the first language information. One language information and a pair of the first language information Second language information selectively retrieved, characterized in that a second search means for displaying on said display means for.

[0009]

When the dictionary information stored in the dictionary information storage means is sequentially output, the forward / reverse rotation operation of the rotor sequentially reads and outputs the previous / next information.

[0010]

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

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a plan view of an electronic dictionary according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

The electronic dictionary in this embodiment is constructed as an English-Japanese dictionary and a Kanji dictionary. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is an electronic dictionary, and a keyboard 12, a display 9 and a rotator 10 as input means for inputting language information are provided on the upper surface thereof. Characters (alphabet) on the keyboard 12
A key 2, a power on / off key 3, a clear key 4, a Japanese key 5, an English key 6, a cursor key 7 and a conversion key 8 are provided.

The character key 2 is for inputting a word in the first language. The power on / off key 3 turns on / off the power. The clear key 4 is an instruction to erase the language information displayed on the display 9. The Japanese key 5 and the English key 6 are mode keys for selectively switching the input language. After pressing the Japanese key 5,
"Kana" is input by the Roman character / kana conversion processing by the character key 2, and after pressing the English key 6, the "alphabet" for inputting English words is input as it is by the character key 2. The cursor key 7 is used to move the cursor on the display 9 and switch the display screen of the display 9. The conversion key 8 is for instructing execution of a search process for the word input by the character key 2. The display 9 displays the input data.

The rotator 10 stores the dictionary information retrieved and output by the conversion key 8 in the memory before
This is an instruction to output the next dictionary information. When the forward rotation (clockwise in the figure), the next information is sequentially output, and when the backward rotation (counterclockwise in the figure), the previous information is sequentially output.

FIG. 2 shows a display example of the display 9 of the electronic dictionary 1 configured as an English-Japanese dictionary. When the character key 2 is used to input "go" and the conversion key 8 is pressed, a search process is executed. , The first language information “g” as shown in FIG.
“O” and the corresponding Japanese translation “[go] ...” as the second language information are displayed and output on the display unit 9. Figure 2
The “→” mark displayed in the lower right portion of the display 9 in (a) indicates that another screen exists, and when the right cursor key of the cursor key 7 is pressed, another screen is displayed (not shown).

When the rotor 10 is normally rotated at a speed equal to or lower than a predetermined rotation speed V in the above-mentioned state, English and Japanese, which are the dictionary information of the memory following "go", are simultaneously displayed in FIGS. 2B and 2C. The display is output to the display 9 as described above.

Here, the rotor 10 is rotated at the predetermined rotation speed V.
When the normal rotation is performed as described above, FIGS. 2 (d), (e), (f),
English is displayed and output on the display 9 in the order of storing the dictionary information in the order of (g). Further, at this time, by displaying only English as the first language information, the memory retrieval process and the display process are simplified, the processing speed is increased, and the desired English word can be promptly displayed and output.

Next, when the rotation of the rotor 10 is stopped when "goatee" is displayed on the display 9, the operation of sequentially searching the first language information is stopped, and at the same time, the first language at the time of the stop. The second language information corresponding to the information is retrieved and displayed and output simultaneously on the display 9 (FIG. 2 (h)).

Further, inside the electronic dictionary main body 1, a control circuit and a power source (battery) for controlling the operation of each of the above-mentioned constituent parts and for executing a search process are stored.

The circuit configuration of this control circuit is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, 11 is a central processing unit (hereinafter,
The CPU) controls the operation of the entire electronic dictionary and also searches for language information input from the keyboard 12 having various keys 2 to 8. This CPU 11 includes a keyboard 12, a read-only memory (hereinafter, RO
M, random access memory (hereinafter, RA)
14 and a display driving device 15 are connected.

The ROM 13 displays characters on the control program area 13a storing a control program executed by the CPU 11 for controlling the operation of the entire electronic dictionary, the dictionary information area 13b storing dictionary information used for retrieval, and the display 9. A character font information area 13c storing character font information is provided.

The RAM 14 includes a work area 14a for temporarily storing calculation data relating to the calculation of the CPU 11, and a ROM.
It is composed of a display composition area 14b for processing dictionary information in 13 into display information using font information.

The display 9 visually displays input information such as language information input as an original language from the keyboard 12 and output information such as post-search language information output from the CPU 11, and is displayed on the display drive unit 15. Connected, CPU11
Is driven by the display drive device 15 based on the instruction.

Next, a CPU based on the control program stored in the control program area 13a in the ROM 13
The control procedure of 11 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 5.

First, in step 1 of FIG. 4, the character key 2
Is operated to wait until an English word is input, and when the English word is input, it is determined in step 2 whether or not the conversion key 8 is operated. When the conversion key 8 is operated, the process proceeds to step 3 to determine the head address A of the dictionary information area 13b to be searched based on the head character of the input English word, and sequentially output the words from the address A. Then, the process proceeds to the next step 4, and it is determined whether or not the output word and the input word match. If they do not match, the read address A of the dictionary information area 13b is incremented in step 5, and the process returns to step 3.

When the output word and the input word match in step 4, the process proceeds to step 6 and the dictionary information area 13
All translated words (Japanese) following the headword (English) in b are stored in the work area 14a of the RAM 14 as dictionary information. Then in step 7, work area 1
The dictionary information stored in 4a is stored in the font information area 1
The display information obtained by combining the character display information stored in 3c with the character display information is stored in the display combining area 14b.
After that, the process proceeds to step 8 and the display driving device 15 outputs and displays the data on the display 9.

At this point, a series of dictionary information retrieval processing ends,
In step 9, it is determined whether or not a new English word is input by the character key 2. When a new English word is input, the processing from step 2 onward is performed. If no new English word is input in step 9, the process proceeds to step 10 to determine whether or not the rotor 10 has been rotated. When the rotation operation is not performed, the process returns to step 9.

Further, when the rotor 10 starts to rotate, the pulse interval time t generated in association therewith is calculated in step 1 of FIG.
The count is 1, and the process proceeds to the next Step 12 to determine whether or not the rotor 10 is further rotating. When the rotation of the rotor 10 is confirmed, whether or not the pulse interval time t is a preset reference time T or more in the next step 13,
That is, the rotation speed of the rotor 10 is determined. If the pulse interval time t is longer than the reference time T, a process of displaying all normal dictionary information on the display 9 is executed.

That is, in order to read the dictionary information stored next to the dictionary information stored below the address A in the dictionary information area 13b currently displayed on the display 9 in step 8 of FIG. In step 14, the address A is incremented, and the dictionary information pointed to by the incremented address A is read in the next step 15 and stored in the work area 14a.
In the next step 16, the font information and composition processing are performed,
In the next step 17, the display is output on the display unit 9.

Further, when the pulse interval time t is shorter than the reference time T, that is, when the rotor 10 is rotating at a speed equal to or higher than a predetermined rotation speed, the processing from step 18 onward in FIG. 5 is executed. That is, the first language information (English) as heading information
This is a process of outputting only the order of being stored in the dictionary information area 13b.

In step 18, step 1 above
As in the case of 4, the address A indicating the current information is incremented, and only the English information as the heading information designated by the incremented address A is stored in the work area 14a from the dictionary information area 13b in step 19, and then the next step In step 20, it is combined with the font information, and in step 21, it is displayed and output to the display device 9.

In this case, the information to be read is only English information, and the reading process, the display information synthesizing process, and the displaying process are simplified, so that the processing time is shortened.

Next, at step 22, it is judged whether or not the rotor 10 is further rotating, and when the rotation of the rotor 10 is confirmed and at the same time there is a relation of t <T, step 18 of FIG. Display processing of only the heading information (English) 21 to 21 is sequentially repeated.

When the rotation of the rotor 10 is not confirmed in step 22, that is, when it is determined that the rotor 10 is stopped, in step 23, the second language information (Japanese) designated by the currently designated address A is displayed. It is read from the dictionary information area 13b, combined with the first language information (English) stored in advance in the work area 14a and stored, combined with font information in step 24, and all dictionary information displayed on the display 9 in step 25. It is output (FIG. 2 (h)). Then, the process returns to step 9 in FIG.

Next, the structure of the rotor 10 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 6 shows the rotor 10 in the electronic dictionary body 1.
FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view showing the structure in the vicinity, FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line AA in the assembled state of FIG. 6, FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 7, and FIG.
FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG. 8.

The rotor 10 comprises a rotor main body 16 which is a knob portion and a rotor sub body 17. The rotor main body 16 is rotatably fitted in a recess 19 on the upper surface of the upper wall 18 a of the case 18 of the electronic dictionary body 1. Rotor sub body 17
Is located on the lower surface side of the upper surface wall 18a of the case 18, and a shaft 20 protruding in the center of the upper surface thereof rotates in a shaft hole 21 bored in the center of the recess 19 of the upper surface wall 18a of the case 18. The rotor main body 16 and the rotor sub body 1 are freely fitted and fixed in the fitting hole 22 at the center of the lower surface of the rotor main body 16.
7 and 7 rotate integrally with each other around a shaft 20.

A contact plate 23 is fixed to the lower surface of the rotor sub-body 17 by welding or the like. One end 23a of the contact plate 23 is always in conduction with an annular common contact 25 formed on the upper surface of the printed board 24 as shown in FIG. The other end 23b of the contact plate 23 is sequentially connected to a plurality of pulse contacts 26 formed on the upper surface of the printed circuit board 24 so as to be concentric with the common contact 25 in accordance with the rotating operation. On the printed circuit board 24, a circuit that constitutes the keyboard 12, and a control circuit and a power supply circuit that include various electronic components shown in FIG. 3 are formed by printing.

FIG. 10 shows a rotor 1 constructed as described above.
6 is a timing chart showing pulses generated by contact of the contact plate 23 with the common contact 25 and the pulse contact 26 to determine the rotation speed of 0.

FIG. 10A shows a reference pulse generated from the CPU 11 at regular intervals. FIG. 10B shows a case where the rotor 10 rotates at a speed lower than the reference value. When the rotor 10 rotates, the contact plate 23 causes the common contact 25 and the pulse contact 26 to make a pulse at certain intervals. Occurs. When the rotor 10 rotates slower than the reference value, the pulse generation intervals T ₁ and T ₂ are lengthened by the plurality of pulse contacts 26 provided. However, as shown in FIG. 10C, when the rotor 10 rotates slower than the reference value, the pulse generation intervals T ₃ and T ₄ become shorter. This pulse generation interval T ₁ ,
By comparing T ₂ and T ₃ , T ₄ with the reference pulse T ₀ , the respective time t can be measured, whereby
It is possible to determine whether this time t is larger or smaller than the preset reference time T (step 13 in FIG. 5).

[Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In the first embodiment described above, the rotor 1
As a means for detecting the rotation speed of 0, the printed circuit board 24
This is a method of measuring the interval between pulses generated at a predetermined interval in response to the rotation speed by a contact plate 29 which is in contact with the common contact 25 and the pulse contact 26 and which is interlocked with the rotor 10. The instability of the contact pressure of the contact plate 23 due to mechanical contact, the pulse waveform generated by foreign matter on the printed board 24, etc. becomes irregular,
It is expected that pulse omissions will occur and interfere with accurate measurement.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the rotational speed of the rotor 10 is optically detected, so that the pulse waveform is always stabilized and the accurate rotational speed can be measured.

In this embodiment, parts having the same functions as those of the first embodiment described above are designated by the same reference numerals in the drawings, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, the rotary sub-body of the rotor 10 is an encoder plate 27. The encoder plate 27 has slits 2 along the radial direction at equal intervals in the circumferential direction.
A plurality of 8 are provided. Further, a photo interrupter 29 is arranged on a part of the peripheral edge of the encoder plate 27.

When the operator rotates the rotor main body 16, the encoder plate 27 rotates integrally with the operator, and every time the slit 28 passes through the photo interrupter 29, a predetermined pulse is generated from the photo interrupter 29. To do. The rotation speed of the rotor 10 is detected by measuring the intervals at which the pulses are generated. According to this embodiment, the pulse generation state is stable because the detection unit is an optical switch.

[Third Embodiment] Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

In the first embodiment described above, the rotor 1
When 0 starts rotating, the dictionary information search processing and the display processing of only the first language information are executed by the measurement of the rotation speed with the pulse generated in the initial stage.
When 0 is rotated by a slight amount, the next information display process is executed, or the display information change process is executed in a state where the rotation speed is unstable, which causes screen processing against the operator's will. Is assumed to be performed.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the rotation detecting operation of the rotor 10 is delayed for a certain period of time to prevent the retrieval processing of the next dictionary information due to an erroneous operation, and the rotation speed is detected based on the sum of a plurality of pulse intervals which generate the detection. The calculation prevents the operator from erroneously determining the rotation speed due to the uneven rotation of the rotor 10.

That is, as shown in the timing chart of FIG. 12, the pulse P generated from the rotor 10 is compared with the reference pulse CLK generated from the CPU 11 (FIG. 12A).
When determining (FIG. 12 (b)), the rotor 10 is rotated at a predetermined number of times, for example, at the stage where the generation of the pulse is confirmed three times without immediately performing the process even if the first pulse is generated. It is determined that it has been done. Also, regarding the detection of rotation speed,
By calculating the average value of each pulse interval time at a stage where a predetermined pulse interval after the pulse is generated three times, for example, four times, is measured, and comparing the average value t with the reference time T, By determining whether or not to perform the following process, it is possible to prevent the operator from malfunctioning due to uneven rotation of the rotor 10.

The control procedure described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The flowchart shown in FIG. 13 is to be replaced with the processing between steps 8 and 14 in the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 in the above-mentioned first embodiment.

That is, in step 26 of FIG. 13, it is determined whether or not a new word is input. If no new word is input, it is determined in the next step 27 whether or not the rotor 10 is rotating. When the rotation of the rotor 10 is confirmed, that is, when pulse generation is recognized, the next step 28
At, it is judged whether or not the pulse is generated three times or more, and if it is not three times or more, the process returns to step 26.

When the rotation of the rotor 10 is confirmed in step 28, it is determined whether all the next dictionary information is displayed and output on the display 9, or only the first language information is displayed and output on the display 9. Therefore, in step 29, it is determined whether or not there are five or more pulses generated from the rotor 10. If it is not five times or more, the processing of displaying and outputting all the next dictionary information on the display 9 is executed after step 14 of FIG. In addition, in step 29, when it is recognized that the pulse is generated 5 times or more, in step 30, the average time t of the pulse intervals T ₁ , T ₂ , T ₃ , and T ₄ is calculated, and the calculated value, That is, the stabilized pulse interval time t is the reference time T
It is determined in step 31 whether or not the above.

In step 31, the pulse interval time t
Is smaller than the reference time T, the process of searching and outputting only the first language information is executed after step 18 in FIG. If the pulse interval time t is greater than or equal to the reference time T, the processing for searching and outputting all the next dictionary information after step 14 in FIG. 5 is executed.

[Fourth Embodiment] Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In the above-described first embodiment, the case of using the English-Japanese dictionary has been described as an example. However, in this embodiment, "kana" as Japanese is input, and this is used as a kanji character or a kanji magic word. It is a so-called kanji dictionary that is converted into information.

FIG. 14 shows a display example of the display 9.

That is, when the Japanese key 5 is pressed, it is converted to the kana input mode, and when the alphabet key 2 is used to input romaji, it is converted to the kana character and displayed on the display unit 9.

For example, when "JITEN" is input, it is converted into "jiten" and displayed on the display unit 9. Then, when the conversion key 8 is pressed, the kanji "dictionary" corresponding to "jiten" is read from the kanji data corresponding to the kana character stored in the ROM 13, is combined with the font information, and is displayed on the display 9
"Jiten" as a heading and "Dictionary" as kanji information
Is displayed.

FIG. 14A shows a state where the search is completed. When the rotor 10 is rotated below a predetermined rotation speed,
Fig. 14 shows "Jiden / Autobiography" as the next information of "Jiten".
As shown in FIG. 14 (b), the display 9 is displayed, and “Jensha / Bicycle” is sequentially output as shown in FIG. 14 (c) and “Jensha Sogyo / Bicycle” is output as shown in FIG. 14 (d). To do.

Here, when the rotor 10 is rotated at a speed equal to or higher than a predetermined rotation speed, only the "kana" information as a headword is retrieved and output, and "shinnou" is sequentially displayed as shown in FIG. 14 (e).
As shown in FIG. 14 (f), “sito” is shown in FIG.
Each is displayed on the display 9 as shown in (g). And
When the rotation of the rotor 10 is stopped at the stage where "Shito" is displayed, the kanji data "private road" as the second language information is retrieved and combined and output as shown in FIG. 14 (h).

At this time, only the "kana" information as the first language information is searched and displayed and output on the display unit 9, so that the processing speed is increased and desired language information can be quickly searched and displayed.

[0065]

As described above, according to the electronic dictionary of the present invention, it is possible to retrieve and output the previous / next dictionary information by rotating the rotor, so that a desired key operation can be performed without complicated key operations. Language information can be quickly searched and displayed and output. Moreover, since the processing can be performed quickly, power consumption can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an electronic dictionary according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a display device in the electronic dictionary.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the electronic dictionary.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control procedure executed by a CPU of the electronic dictionary.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control procedure executed by a CPU of the electronic dictionary.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing a structure near a rotor of the electronic dictionary.

7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in the assembled state of FIG.

8 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG.

9 is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG.

10 is a timing chart of pulses generated from the rotor of the electronic dictionary shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view showing a structure near a rotor of an electronic dictionary according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a timing chart of pulses generated from the rotor of the electronic dictionary according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a control procedure executed by a CPU of the electronic dictionary.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a display device in the electronic dictionary according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 display device (display means) 10 rotor 11 CPU (first, second, third search means, comparison means) 12 keyboard (input means) 13 dictionary information storage means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A dictionary information storage means for storing dictionary information composed of first language information and second language information corresponding to the first language information, input means for inputting the language information, and input by the input means. Corresponding to the second language information and the second language information searched by the first search means for searching the dictionary information storage means for the second language information corresponding to the retrieved first language information. Display means for displaying the first language information, and the first language information and the second language information corresponding to the first language information are searched by the first searching means to be rotatable after being displayed on the display means. The first language information stored in the dictionary information storage means and the second language information corresponding to the first language information are selectively operated before and after the first language information by operating the rotor. Second search for searching and displaying on the display means An electronic dictionary including means. 2. A measuring means for measuring the rotating speed of the rotor, a comparing means for comparing the rotating speed of the rotor measured by the measuring means with a preset reference value, and a comparison of the comparing means. A third search means for selectively searching the first language information stored in the dictionary information storage means and the second language information corresponding to the first language information based on the result and displaying the second language information on the display means. The electronic dictionary according to claim 1, wherein: