KR20030094811A - Multi language input apparatus for communications equipment and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A device of inputting multi languages for a communication apparatus and a multi-language inputting method using the same are provided to supply a letter font to a display by deciding an inputted letter, and to display the supplied letter font, thereby easily inputting various languages. CONSTITUTION: A display(30) displays predetermined letters and numbers. A font storage(50) stores letter fonts for many languages consisting of alphabet or changed alphabet. A keypad(10) has 3 vowel keys where 3 vowels are consecutively arranged one by one, has many consonant keys where consonants are arranged, and inputs the rest 2 vowel keys by overlapping 2 neighboring vowel keys among the 3 vowel keys. A key signal generator(20) generates a predetermined key signal. A microcomputer(60) selects a language based on the generated key signal, decides an inputted letter, and displays a corresponding letter font on the display(30).

Description

Multilingual input device for communication device and multilingual input method using same {MULTI LANGUAGE INPUT APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a character input device for a communication device, and more particularly, to a communication device for easily inputting various languages in a communication device having a limited number of key buttons operable as in a general telephone or a mobile phone. A multilingual input apparatus and a multilingual input method using the same.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the electronics industry, miniaturization and multifunctionalization of various personal digital assistants, including general landline and mobile telephones, have been implemented. One of the typical additional functions provided in such communication devices is a text input function.

That is, in a conventional mobile phone or some landline phones, one or more consonants, vowels, or alphabets of Korean characters are placed on each numeric key, and according to the number of operations and the operation time of each key. By inputting the corresponding Hangul or alphabet letters, it provides a function to send a simple memo or text message. To this end, a conventional general communication device includes a processor or a module for generating and displaying a character code corresponding to the input key signal.

However, most of these common communication devices are only English or Korean input. That is, in the conventional general communication device, only English consonants and vowels of alphabets and Korean characters are arranged on a keypad, so that only English messages and Korean messages can be input.

If it is possible to input the languages of various countries by simple key operation in such a communication device, it will be possible to improve the overall function of the communication device and at the same time satisfy the needs of various users. In addition, in the conventional general communication device, there is a problem in that alphabet key arrangements are arranged in a uniform order without considering user's operation convenience.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned, multi-language input for a communication device that can input a message of various languages through a simple key operation in a communication device of a limited number of key buttons, such as a general phone or a mobile phone An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a multilingual input method using the same.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, a multi-language input device for a communication device that requires the input of characters only a few key buttons, the display unit for displaying a predetermined character and number; A font storage unit for storing a character font for a plurality of national languages consisting of alphabets or modified alphabets; Three vowels of the alphabet have three vowel keys arranged one after the other and a plurality of consonant keys arranged with a plurality of consonants of the alphabet, the remaining two vowels of the alphabet between the three vowel keys A keypad disposed at each one of the keypads and configured to simultaneously input two adjacent vowel keys by overlapping operation; A key signal generator for generating a predetermined key signal corresponding to each key operation provided in the keypad; Selecting a language for the plurality of countries based on the key signal provided from the key signal generator, discriminates the input character from the number of input of the consonant key or the vowel key and provides the corresponding character font to the display unit The present invention provides a multilingual input device for a communication device including a microcomputer for display.

According to another aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, a built-in character font for a plurality of national languages consisting of alphabets or modified alphabets, three of the vowels of the alphabet are arranged in succession one by one Vowel keys and a plurality of consonant keys arranged in plural consonants of the alphabet, and the remaining two vowels of the alphabet are arranged one by one between the three vowel keys to simultaneously manipulate two adjacent vowel keys simultaneously. A multilingual input method in a communication device having a keypad configured to input, the method comprising: switching the operation mode of the communication device to a message writing / input mode based on a user's operation to select the plurality of national languages; Stage 1; A second step of switching an operation mode of the communication device to an input mode for the selected language when any language among the plurality of national languages is selected; A third step of determining a character to be input by recognizing a type and a number of times of input of the key signal when an arbitrary key signal is input by an operation of the keypad; A fourth step of reading a font corresponding to the determined character and displaying the input character through a display means; And a fifth step of storing or transmitting the input text based on the user's operation when the message writing / input mode is terminated.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a multilingual input device for a communication device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a key arrangement structure for the keypad shown in FIG. 1; FIG.

3 is a view showing a character configuration for each country that can be supported in the multilingual input device according to the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing process according to the multilingual input method according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: key pad 20: key signal generator

30: display unit 40: reserved word storage unit

50: font storage unit 60: microcomputer

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a multilingual input apparatus according to the present invention, which includes a keypad 10, a key signal generator 20, a display unit 30, a reserved word storage unit 40, and a font storage unit. 50 and the microcomputer 60 are comprised.

First, each constituent means of the multilingual input device shown in FIG. 1 is a form embedded in a general communication device, rather than each of independent independent constituent means within the communication device, and shares the constituent means normally provided in the information communication device. It is preferable to configure so that.

And. In the present invention, the communication device is a personal communication means capable of transmitting and receiving predetermined data by wire or wirelessly, and means a general telephone or a mobile telephone. Therefore, each of the configuration means shown in Figure 1 is configured to transmit the input character in connection with the transmission and reception interface means, voice signal processing means and data modulation and demodulation means provided in a conventional communication device. However, since such a configuration is a means generally configured in a general communication device, the embodiments described below only describe the configuration and operation of the multilingual input device according to the present invention in detail, and those skilled in the art from the embodiments described below. The multilingual input device of the present invention may be easily applied to a communication device.

Referring to FIG. 1, the function of each component is described in detail. The keypad 10 is a key input means provided in a communication device equipped with a multilingual input device according to the present invention, for example, a general telephone or a mobile telephone. In general, a plurality of function keys and numeric keys are included. In particular, the keypad 10 is further arranged with a character for multilingual input to each conventional numeric key provided for telephone number input according to the present invention. The character arrangement structure of the keypad 10 and its operation method will be described in detail later with reference to FIG. 2.

The key signal generation unit 20 is a means for generating a corresponding key signal based on an operation of the keypad 10. The key signal generation unit 20 generates a predetermined key signal corresponding to a key button operated by a user and will be described later. ).

The display unit 30 is a means for displaying numbers and characters, and displays various menu screens and characters input from the keypad 10 according to the present invention under the control of the microcomputer 60 to be described later. The display unit 30 is typically composed of an LCD or the like in a communication device.

On the other hand, the reserved word storage unit 40 is a means for storing frequently used words or abbreviations, and recently used emoticons (Emoticon), the user switches the operation mode of the communication device to the text input mode, When a reserved word input menu is selected, such an abbreviation or emoticon may be selected and input. Here, the abbreviation means an abbreviation indicating a specific phrase such as 4u (for you), 2u (to you), etc. The abbreviation may be input / stored by the user by operating the keypad. For example, the emoticon may be something like ^^ or ^ o ^.

In addition, the font storage unit 50 pre-stores the character fonts for a plurality of countries as a means for storing the fonts for all characters inputtable by the communication device. These various fonts are read by the microcomputer 60 and displayed on the display unit 30 described above.

The microcomputer 60 is a means for controlling the overall operation of the multilingual input apparatus according to the present invention. The microcomputer 60 switches operation modes and functions based on a key signal provided from the key signal generator 20. In addition, when a key signal for inputting a predetermined number or letter is input through the key signal generation unit 20, the microcomputer 60 reads a font corresponding to the font from the font storage unit 50 and displays the display unit 30. Display via. In particular, in this process, the microcomputer 60 recognizes the number of key signals for the same key input through the key signal generator 20, and reads and displays characters corresponding to the recognized number from the font storage unit 50. do.

Meanwhile, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a key arrangement of the keypad 10 shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, three vowels (A, O, U) are placed side by side, and the remaining two vowels (E, I) are placed between each vowel key. At this time, two vowel keys disposed between each vowel key are configured to be input when two adjacent vowel keys are operated simultaneously. In addition, three consonants of the alphabet are arranged on each of the remaining seven numeric keys, and the three consonants arranged on each key may be appropriately disposed in consideration of the frequency of use when inputting characters. That is, in the multilingual input apparatus according to the present invention, consonants and vowels of alphabets are efficiently separated and arranged for the user's convenience.

First, as a language that can be input using the keypad 10 having such a key arrangement structure, all alphabet-based languages having alphabets as the basic character structures can be input. For example, it is possible to input Italian, Dutch, etc. having the same alphabetical arrangement as English, and input such as Danish, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Swedish, Norwegian, and Czech having a modified vowel.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating this, and shows the characters of each country corresponding to each alphabet arranged on the keypad 10. A detailed description with reference to the drawings is as follows.

First, among the letters for each language shown in the drawing, Italian and Dutch use the same letter as the English alphabet. Therefore, if the user wants to input the vowel 'a' or 'o' or 'u', the user inputs the key 1, 2, or 3 where the vowel is placed, and enters 'e' or 'i'. If you want to do this, each of the adjacent two keys, that is, the key 1 and the key 2 or the key 2 or key 3 is inputted by overlapping operation.

Each consonant is selectively inputted by repeatedly operating the corresponding key button on which the consonant is arranged. That is, in the case where it is desired to input 'b' among 'c' 'd' 'b' arranged on the fourth key, the fourth key is repeatedly inputted three times within a predetermined time.

On the other hand, in Danish, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Swedish, Norwegian, and Czech shown in FIG. In other words, for Danish, the variant vowel of 'a' 'And' Has a ',' a collection of variants of 'o' 'And each German variant , , Has, In addition, Portuguese, Spanish and Hungarian, Vietnamese, Swedish, Norwegian, and Czech also have their respective collections of variations as shown in the figure. Such a modified vowel can be selectively inputted by repeatedly operating the vowel key as in the above-described consonant input method.

On the other hand, in the case of German, Spanish, and Czech, as well as transformed vowels, as well as transformed vowels, as shown in the same drawing, the German ' 'And Spanish' And Czech Is equivalent to this. Such modified consonants can also be input by repeatedly manipulating the keys arranged with the basic English alphabet for the character, wherein each consonant key disposed on the keypad 10 has three consonants arranged on one key. Therefore, the basic consonants arranged on the corresponding keys are sequentially input up to three times of operation, and these modified consonants are inputted at the time of four times of operation.

For example, if the user operates the eighth key of the keypad 10 four times while the operation mode of the multilingual input device is switched to the German input mode, the microcomputer 60 may turn off the key signal generator 20. Based on the provided key signals, the consonant of 's' in English,' Will recognize that 'is being typed, and that character' 'Is read from the font storage unit 50 and displayed on the display unit 30. Similarly, variant consonants in Spanish, In this case, the input of the multilingual input device is made possible by inputting the seventh key four times while the operating mode is switched to the Spanish input mode.

On the other hand, in the case of Czech as shown in FIG. All have seven modified consonants, where As in the above-described German or Spanish, inputting is possible by manipulating the key on which the basic alphabet t is arranged, that is, the 9th key four times. But each consonant And d ', and , Wow The basic alphabets of are c and d, r and s, y and z, each of which is arranged in keys 4, 8 and 0, respectively, as shown in FIG. Therefore, if you operate the number 4 key four times Is entered, and 5 times Is input. And if you operate the 8 key four times Is entered, and 5 times Is input. Similarly, if key 0 is operated four times Is entered, and 5 times Is input.

As a result, in the multilingual input apparatus according to the present invention, the vowels of the alphabet letters are divided into three key buttons, and the vowels and the vowels for each language are selectively input according to the number of repetitive operations of the key buttons. You will be able to enter all the languages of the various countries in the family.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the overall operation of the multilingual input apparatus as shown in FIG. 1, which will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, when a user operates the keypad 10 and attempts to switch the overall operation of a communication device equipped with a multilingual input device as shown in FIG. 1 to a message writing or input mode, the microcomputer 60 generates a key signal. On the basis of the key signal provided from the unit 20, the overall operation mode of the multilingual input device is switched to the message writing / input mode (step S401), and then, by the internal control algorithm, the national language that can be supported by the multilingual input device is selected. The menu to be selected is displayed on the display unit 30 (step S403).

Accordingly, the user selects a language to be input by using a function key or a selection key included in the keypad 10 (step S405). The microcomputer 60 responds to the operation mode of the multilingual input device by the user. The mode is set to the input mode for the selected language (step S407).

Through the above process, in a state in which a predetermined language is selected from various languages provided by the multilingual input apparatus, the user operates the keypad 10 to directly input a predetermined character or reserve a reserved word previously stored in the reserved word storage unit 40. And emoticons, etc.). If the user inputs a reserved word mode key through the keypad 10 to input a reserved word (step S411), the microcomputer 60 responds to the input of the multilingual input device. The operation mode is switched to the reserved word input mode (step S413).

Accordingly, the user selects a pre-stored reserved word or inputs an abbreviation, reads the reserved word selected or input by the user in the microcomputer 60 from the reserved word storage unit 40, and fonts a character font corresponding to the read reserved word. The data is read from the storage unit 50 and displayed on the display unit 30 (step S417).

When the user ends the reserved word mode by operating the keypad 10 (step S419), the microcomputer 60 ends the reserved word input mode in response to this, and then returns to the above-described step S407.

On the other hand, when the operation mode of the multilingual input device is switched to the input mode of the language selected by the user through the above-described step S407, when the user operates the keypad 10 to input a predetermined character key (step S409) The microcomputer 60 determines the type of the key signal provided from the key signal generation unit 20 and the number of times of input (operation) to recognize the character input by the user (step S421). Then, the font corresponding to the recognized character is read from the font storage unit 50 and provided to the display unit 30 so that the character input by the user is displayed (step S423).

Subsequently, the microcomputer 60 repeatedly performs the process after the above-described step S421 whenever the user manipulates the keypad 10 to input a predetermined character, thereby displaying the character input by the user. Display via

When the message writing / input is completed through each of these processes, the user inputs a corresponding key signal through the keypad 10, and the microcomputer 60 responds to the message writing / input of the multilingual input device. The mode is terminated (step S425), and the message created based on the user's key operation is stored or transmitted in the form of SMS (step S427).

As a result, in the multilingual input apparatus according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, a language of various countries can be selected and input through easy key manipulation using a keypad 10 configured by dividing consonants and vowels of the alphabet. It becomes possible. In particular, a language having a modified consonant and a modified vowel can be easily input, and all vowels can be expressed with only three keys.

The embodiments and drawings described above are only for the purpose of describing the contents of the invention in detail, and are not intended to limit the scope of the technical idea of the invention, the present invention described above is common knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs. As those skilled in the art can have various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, it is not limited to the embodiments and the accompanying drawings. And should be judged to include equality.

As described above, according to the present invention, a communication device having a limited number of key buttons has an effect of selectively inputting languages of various countries through simple key manipulation, and in particular, all alphabets having modified consonants and modified vowels. There is an effect that can easily enter the language of the series.

Claims (9)

In the multi-language input device for a communication device that requires the input of characters only a few key buttons, A display unit which displays predetermined letters and numbers; A font storage unit for storing a character font for a plurality of national languages consisting of alphabets or modified alphabets; Three vowels of the alphabet have three vowel keys arranged one after the other and a plurality of consonant keys arranged with a plurality of consonants of the alphabet, the remaining two vowels of the alphabet between the three vowel keys A keypad disposed at each one of the keypads and configured to simultaneously input two adjacent vowel keys by overlapping operation; A key signal generator for generating a predetermined key signal corresponding to each key operation provided in the keypad; Selecting a language for the plurality of countries based on the key signal provided from the key signal generator, discriminates the input character from the number of input of the consonant key or the vowel key and provides the corresponding character font to the display unit Multilingual input device for a communication device including a microcomputer to display. The method of claim 1, It is configured to further include a reserved word storage unit for storing a plurality of reserved words and emoticons, And the microcomputer reads a character font corresponding to the selected reserved word from the font storage unit and displays it on the display unit when the stored reserved word is selected from the key signal input unit. The method of claim 1, The consonant key is a multi-language input device for a communication device, characterized in that consisting of seven keys each arranged three consonants of the alphabet. The method of claim 1, And said plurality of languages for each country are languages having modified consonants or modified vowels using the alphabet as a basic character. The method of claim 4, wherein The plurality of national languages include English, Danish, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and Czech. The method of claim 5, The microcomputer selects the plurality of national languages based on the key signals provided from the key signal generator, and arranges consonants and vowels corresponding to the selected languages on the consonant keys and the vowel keys of the keypad, respectively. When the selected language is a language having a modified vowel or a modified consonant, the modified consonant or the modified vowel is recognized and displayed on the display unit based on the number of inputs of the consonant key and the vowel key. Input device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, Each of the vowel keys and the consonant keys, the multilingual input device for a communication device, characterized in that configured using a numeric key provided to perform the dialing of the communication device. The method of claim 7, wherein The communication device is a multi-language input device for a communication device, characterized in that the general wired telephone using a public public telephone network or a mobile telephone using a mobile communication network. Built-in character fonts for a number of national languages consisting of alphabets or modified alphabets, three vowel keys in which three vowels of the vowels of the alphabet are arranged one by one, and a plurality of consonants of the alphabet Multilingual input in a communication device having a key pad having a consonant key of and having the remaining two vowels of the alphabet arranged one by one between the three vowel keys and configured to simultaneously input two adjacent vowel keys simultaneously In the method, A first step of switching the operation mode of the communication device to a message writing / input mode according to a user's operation to select the plurality of languages for each country; A second step of switching an operation mode of the communication device to an input mode for the selected language when any language among the plurality of national languages is selected; A third step of determining a character to be input by recognizing a type and a number of times of input of the key signal when an arbitrary key signal is input by an operation of the keypad; A fourth step of reading a font corresponding to the determined character and displaying the input character through a display means; And a fifth step of storing or transmitting the input text based on the user's operation when the message writing / input mode is terminated.