KR100790410B1 - Method and apparatus for inputting character - Google Patents

Abstract

A character input method and a device for the same are provided to allocate repeated keys to keys where characters are not allocated, and to store characters inputted right before a user presses the repeated keys, then to enable the user to equally use the repeated keys as the keys right before pressing the repeated keys, thereby remarkably improving deterioration of inputting efficiency. A user presses keys where characters are allocated in character input mode(S300). If a key input signal is inputted, a controller stores ID information of pressed keys(S310). The controller sequentially reads codes of characters allocated to the pressed keys to output the read codes on a display(S320). If the user presses another key, the controller stores the currently displayed character(S340), and checks whether the currently pressed key is a repeated key(S350). If so, the controller sequentially outputs characters allocated to the keys corresponding to the stored ID information on the display(S360). If another key is inputted, the controller stores the currently displayed character as an input character(S380).

Description

Character input method and apparatus {Method and apparatus for inputting character}

1 is a diagram illustrating a keypad arrangement and a letter assigned to each key of a mobile communication terminal according to the related art.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a character input apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a character input method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a mobile communication terminal using the Cheonjiin method, which is one of the conventional Hangul input methods.

The present invention relates to a character input method and apparatus, and in particular, the present invention relates to a character input apparatus and a character input method for inputting a character by assigning a plurality of characters to each limited key, such as a mobile communication terminal or a TV remote control.

As mobile terminals become more popular and become a necessity of life, users are using more mobile terminals as a means of communication than ordinary landline phones.

However, in the case of such wireless communication, simple communication of a doctor or notification of an event is generally transmitted due to a higher cost than wire communication, and thus the necessity of inputting text using a mobile terminal is increased. to be.

On the other hand, since the mobile communication terminal has a limitation on its size for carrying, there is a limit on the number of keys that can be included in the mobile communication terminal. When a text message is transmitted using a mobile communication terminal having such a limited number of keys, or a memo or a phone book is input, a plurality of characters are assigned to each of the limited number of keys, and the corresponding keys are sequentially pressed. Each time, the characters assigned to the key are displayed to the user sequentially. However, when the number of characters to be assigned is large, there is a problem that a user must press the same key many times in order to input one character.

1 is a diagram illustrating a keypad arrangement and a letter assigned to each key of a mobile communication terminal according to the related art. As shown in FIG. 1, in the case of assigning an English alphabet to a keypad of a mobile communication terminal, three to four alphabets should be allocated to one key.

In addition, when the user inputs the word "baba" using the mobile communication terminal as shown in FIG. 1, the key should be sequentially pressed nine times as follows.

"baba": keystrokes: 2, 2, →, 2, →, 2, 2, →, 2

In this example, the user inputs "b" and enters "→" (reference numeral 101) indicating that the input of the alphabet has been completed in order to enter "a" assigned to the same key, or the mobile communication terminal inputs a letter of the character. Wait for the time (approximately 2-3 seconds) to recognize that the input is completed. If you press the "2" key again without pressing the "→" key or waiting for a predetermined time, the mobile terminal does not recognize that the user enters "a" after entering "b" and the letter "c" assigned to the same key. This is because it is recognized as input.

On the other hand, Table 1 below describes the characters assigned to each key for inputting Japanese in a typical mobile communication terminal as shown in FIG.

As shown in Table 1, since five letters are assigned to one key for Japanese input, the above-described problem of the prior art is further exacerbated.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to input a letter assigned to the same key, as in the prior art, without additionally pressing an unnecessary button not directly related to the character input, or waiting for a certain time, efficiently and quickly It is to provide a character input method and apparatus that can input.

Character input device of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, the keypad portion having a plurality of keys for inputting numbers and special characters; A memory unit for storing character codes assigned to a plurality of keys and storing characters input by a user; A display unit for displaying a character assigned to a key pressed by a user among a plurality of keys; And sequentially read the codes of the letters assigned to the key (first key) pressed by the user from the memory unit according to the number of times the user presses the first key, and output them to the display unit. In the case of pressing the repetition key assigned to, the character currently displayed by the display unit is stored in the memory unit as an input character, and the codes of the characters assigned to the first key are sequentially stored according to the number of times the user presses the repetition key. And a control unit for reading from the unit and outputting the unit to the display unit.

In addition, when the user presses a key other than the repetition key (second key), the controller inputs a character currently displayed to the user, and sequentially assigns the letters assigned to the second key according to the number of times the user presses the second key. Can be displayed as

In addition, the above-described text input device may be implemented by any one of a mobile communication terminal, a TV remote control, a GPS terminal, and a computer keyboard.

In addition, the character input method of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, (a) the user assigned to the key (first key) pressed by the user in sequence according to the number of times the user pressed the key (first key) Displaying to the; And (b) when the user presses a predetermined repetition key, inputs the character displayed to the current user, and in accordance with the number of times the user presses the repetition key for the letters assigned to the key (first key) pressed by the user in step (a). Sequentially displaying to the user.

In addition, in the above-described character input method, (c) when the user presses a key other than the repeat key (second key), the character currently displayed to the user is input, and the characters assigned to the second key are input by the user. The method may further include displaying sequentially according to the number of presses.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a description will be given of preferred embodiments of the present invention with a focus on an example in which the text input device is implemented as a mobile communication terminal. However, it should be noted that the character input apparatus of the present invention is not applied only to a mobile communication terminal to be described later, but is applied to all input means (for example, a TV remote controller) for inputting a character by assigning a character to a numeric key.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a character input apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the character input apparatus of the present invention includes a keypad 210, a display 220, a controller 250, a memory 240, and a buffer 230.

First, the keypad unit 210 is the same as the keypad unit 210 of the general mobile communication terminal, the letter assigned to the corresponding key is displayed on the surface of each key, when the user presses the corresponding key to generate a key input signal Output to the controller 250.

The display unit 220 outputs a text code input from the controller 250 to the user.

The memory unit 240 stores a program for driving a function processed by the controller 250, a predetermined program for implementing convenience and basic functions of a user, and the like. In addition, the memory unit 240 stores a character code assigned to each key, stores text data, image data, video data, etc. input by a user, and receives a predetermined key input signal from the controller 250. The character code corresponding to the key is output to the controller 250.

Elements constituting the memory unit 240 generally include a flash memory unit 240 (flash memory), a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and the like. The dual flash memory unit 240 stores basic real-time operating system (OS) and call processing software of the mobile communication terminal when the character input device of the present invention is a mobile communication terminal. Variables and states are read from RAM and run. In addition, the ROM is configured as an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), stores nonvolatile data that can be electrically erased, or stored again, and performs input / output according to a command of the controller 250. The data stored in these ROMs include NAM (number assignment module), parameters, other storage data (telephone number and name, text message, video, etc.) that can be used semi-permanently without being erased. In addition, the flash memory unit 240 is a non-volatile memory unit 240 in which the processing speed is fast and data is preserved. When the software of the mobile communication terminal is upgraded, new software is stored in this portion.

The buffer unit 230 stores key identification information input by the user. However, it should be noted that the buffer unit 230 is a component logically set in order to explain an important concept of the present invention, and is physically included in the memory unit 240 and implemented.

The controller 250 controls a call or an overall operation of the mobile communication terminal. Since this operation is a known fact, a detailed description thereof will be omitted, and only the functions related to the character input method of the present invention will be described.

When the controller 250 receives the key input signal from the keypad 210, the controller 250 inquires the character code of the corresponding key from the memory unit 240, outputs it to the display unit 220, and displays the character code. In particular, since a plurality of characters are assigned to the keys of the present invention as in the conventional method, the controller 250 sequentially stores codes of the letters assigned to the corresponding keys from the memory unit 240 according to the number of times the user presses the keys. It reads and outputs it to the display part 220. FIG.

On the other hand, if a key different from a previously input key is input, the controller 250 stores identification information of the currently input key in the buffer unit 230 and stores the character currently displayed to the user as an input character in the memory unit 240. Save it.

In addition, when the repetition key is input, the controller 250 stores the character currently displayed to the user in the memory unit 240 as an input character, and inputs a key indicated by the identification information stored in the buffer unit 230, that is, a repetition key. The character assigned to the key input immediately before the data is sequentially read from the memory unit 240 according to the number of times the user presses the repeat key and output to the display unit 220.

Thereafter, when a key other than the repetition key is input, the controller 250 stores the character currently displayed to the user as an input character, stores identification information of the corresponding key in the buffer unit 230, and the user stores the key. The character code assigned to the corresponding key is sequentially read from the memory unit 240 and output to the display unit 220 according to the number of pressing times.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a character input method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, when the text input method of the present invention is described, when a user writes an SMS message, enters a memo, or registers a name and address in the phonebook, the user is assigned a text in the text input mode. Press the key (S300).

When a key input signal is input from the keypad 210, the controller 250 stores identification information of a key pressed by the user in the buffer 230 (S310). In the example of the mobile communication terminal illustrated in FIG. 1, when the user wants to input the name "barbara", the user first presses the number 2 key, and the control unit 250 stores the identification information for the key number 2 in the buffer unit. Save to 230.

Thereafter, the controller 250 sequentially reads codes of characters assigned to the keys pressed by the user from the memory unit 240 according to the number of times the user presses the keys and outputs them to the display unit 220 (S320). In the above example, a and b are sequentially displayed to the user when the user presses the numeric key 2 twice.

After "b" is displayed on the display unit 220, the user presses the repetition key "*" (in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is assumed that the repetition key is assigned to "*") in order to input "a", and then the control unit When the user presses the same key every time the user presses a key to determine whether the key pressed by the user is different from the key previously pressed by the user, the user performs the above-described step S320 when the user presses the same key. If a different key is pressed, the flow proceeds to step S340, which will be described later.

When the user presses another key, the controller 250 stores the character displayed to the current user ("b" in the above example) in the memory unit 240 as an input character (S340), and the key pressed by the current user is If it is not the repetition key, the control proceeds to step S310 described above (S350).

When the key pressed by the user is a repeat key (“*”), the controller 250 may select the characters assigned to the key (number 2 key) corresponding to the identification information stored in the current buffer unit 230. The display unit 220 sequentially outputs the display panel 220 according to the number of pressing times (S360).

On the other hand, each time the user presses a key, the controller 250 checks whether the key is different from the previously pressed key and repeats step S360 when the key is the same key (S370). The displayed character (" a " in the above-described example) is stored in the memory unit 240 as an input character, and the other key pressed is performed from the above-described step S310 (S380).

In the above example, in order for the user to input "barbara" according to the character input method of the present invention, a total of 13 keys (key inputs: 2, 2, *, 7, 7, 7, 2, 2, *, 7 , 7, 7, 2) sequentially, which is 15 times according to the conventional method (key input: 2, 2, →, 2, 7, 7, 7, 2, 2, →, 2, 7, 7, It can be seen that the character input efficiency is remarkably improved compared to having to press the key of 7, 2) or wait 2 seconds instead of entering the "→" key.

In particular, as described above with respect to the prior art, when the user inputs "baba" according to the prior art, a total of 9 times (key input: 2, 2, →, 2, →, 2, 2, →, 2 ), But the input method of the present invention requires only a total of six times (key inputs: 2, 2, *, 2, 2, *), which improves the input efficiency by 33.3% compared to the conventional method. It is effective.

On the other hand, when using the mobile communication terminal as shown in Figure 4 to input the word "contact" according to the input method that is a typical example of the Hangul input method, 0, 2, 2, 1, 5, →, 5, A total of 11 key inputs are required by sequentially inputting 5, 1, 2, and 4, whereas according to the present invention, 0, 2, 2, 1, 5, *, *, 1, 2, 4 are sequentially inputted. Since a total of 10 key inputs are required, it can be seen that the present invention is more efficient in the case of Korean.

The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like, which are also implemented in the form of a carrier wave (for example, transmission over the Internet). It also includes. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

As described above, the present invention assigns a repetition key to a key to which a character is not assigned, saves the character entered immediately before the user presses the repetition key, and simultaneously uses the repetition key with the previous key, that is, In order to continuously input characters assigned to the same key, which is a problem of the conventional character input method, by displaying and inputting the characters assigned to the previous key to the user, wait for a certain time or enter a key input. After pressing the indicating button (→), the same button must be pressed again, thereby reducing the inconvenience and input efficiency.

Claims (6)

(a) sequentially displaying characters assigned to the key (first key) pressed by the user according to the number of times the user presses the key (first key); And (b) When the user presses a predetermined repetition key, the character displayed to the current user is inputted, and the number of times the user presses the repetition key on the characters assigned to the key (first key) pressed by the user in the step (a). Character input method comprising the step of sequentially displaying to the user according to. The method of claim 1, (c) When the user presses a key other than the repeating key (second key), the character currently displayed to the user is input, and the letters assigned to the second key are sequentially ordered according to the number of times the user presses the second key. Character input method further comprising the step of displaying. A recording medium in which the method for inputting characters according to claim 1 or 2 can be read by a computer, and recorded with executable program code. A keypad unit having a plurality of keys for inputting numbers and special characters; A memory unit storing character codes assigned to the plurality of keys and storing characters input by a user; A display unit for displaying a letter assigned to a key pressed by a user among the plurality of keys; And The codes of characters assigned to the key (first key) pressed by the user are sequentially read from the memory unit according to the number of times the user presses the first key, and output to the display unit. When the repetition key assigned to any one of the keys is pressed, a character currently displayed by the display unit to the user is stored as the input character in the memory unit, and the user codes codes of the character assigned to the first key. And a control unit which sequentially reads from the memory unit and outputs the result to the display unit according to the number of times of pressing. The method of claim 4, wherein the control unit When the user presses a key other than the repeat key (second key), the user inputs a character displayed to the current user, and sequentially displays the letters assigned to the second key according to the number of times the user presses the second key. Character input device characterized by the above-mentioned. The method of claim 4 or 5, wherein the character input device Character input device, characterized in that implemented in any one of a mobile terminal, a TV remote control, a GPS terminal, and a computer keyboard.

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