KR20060024523A - Keypad and charactor input device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a keypad for character input and a character input apparatus using the same. The keypad is arranged in a crisscross shape (+), and includes five vowel pads each having at least one vowel arranged so that vowels are not overlapped, and sequentially arranged in a circle around the vowel pad, and at least one consonant It characterized in that it comprises a plurality of consonant pads arranged so as not to overlap each other. According to the present invention, it is easy to learn, and it is advantageous in that character input is possible quickly and easily by reducing unnecessary moving lines.

Character, Korean, Keypad, English, Japanese, Direction Key

Description

Keypad and Character Input Device {keypad and charactor input device}

1 is a block diagram illustrating a character input device according to the present invention.

2 is a keypad shown in FIG.

3A to 3C are diagrams for explaining a keypad arrangement of Korean, Japanese, and English.

The present invention relates to a keypad and a character input apparatus using the same, and more particularly, to a keypad using a direction key and a numeric key arranged in a circle around the keypad and a character input apparatus using the same.

In general, for text input in a small information device such as a mobile phone or PDA, a method of inputting characters by adding them to the numeric keypad of a 3 × 4 array of a telephone method and pressing them is used. Various character input methods for inputting characters have been proposed. The conventional character input method using the numeric keypad of the 3 x 4 array is burdened with miniaturization due to the fundamental reason that a large number of characters must be written on one key, and has to bear the inconvenience of input due to complicated notation. In addition, Korean Patent Publication No. 1998-50677, which is a method of arranging and inputting characters on radioactive surfaces, arranges all characters sequentially so that learning is very easy due to the simplicity of character input. I could not expect the efficiency of. In addition, the patent application 2004-14431 filed by the applicant of the present application relates to a jog code character input method for jogging the characters according to the writing order of the characters and inputting the jog codes using only the direction keys. There is an advantage, but there was a problem that a separate learning is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and arranges a number pad in a circle along a direction key and its surroundings, and places vowels with a high frequency and a small number on the direction keys, respectively, and no consonants overlap in the number pad. It is an object of the present invention to provide a keypad and a text input device using the same, which can be quickly and easily inputted while being easy to learn and minimize space.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a preferable keypad arrangement and a character input device using the same according to a construction algorithm of Korean, Japanese and English.

Keypad for text input to achieve the above object of the present invention is arranged in a cross-shaped (+), five vowel pads each arranged with at least one vowel so that vowels do not overlap, and the vowel pad And are sequentially arranged in a circular shape, and include a plurality of consonant pads arranged so that at least one consonant does not overlap each other.

In addition, the above-described character input apparatus using the keypad includes a character input means and a character combination means for combining characters in accordance with a signal from the character input means, wherein the character input means has a crisscross shape (+). 5 vowel pads each having at least one vowel disposed so as not to overlap vowels, and a plurality of vowel pads arranged sequentially in a circle around the vowel pad, and arranged so that at least one consonant does not overlap each other. Characterized by including a consonant pad.

In this case, 12 consonant pads are additionally written 0 to 9, *, #, it is preferable to arrange sequentially in the clockwise order. In addition, it is preferable that the vowel pad has a function of a direction key by displaying up, down, left, right, and middle directions together so that it can be used as a direction key. Further, it is preferable to arrange function keys for character set selection, number / symbol selection, erasing, space, etc. between the vowel pad and the consonant pad.

A Hangul input device for achieving another object of the present invention described above is a Hangul input device comprising a character input means and a Hangul combination means for combining consonants and vowels according to a signal from the character input means. Are arranged in a crisscross shape (+), and each of the five vowel pads arranged so as not to overlap the group of 'ㅏㅑ' 'ㅗㅛ' 'ㅓㅕ' 'ㅜㅠ' 'ㅣ ㅡ' The plurality of consonant pads may be disposed in a sequential order and disposed so that at least one consonant does not overlap with each other according to a frequency of use and geometrical characteristics. In this case, the vowel groups of 'ㅗ 모음', 'TT ㅠ', 'ㅓ ㅠ', 'ㅏ ㅑ', 'ㅡ ㅣ' are respectively placed on the vowel pads of the up, down, left, right and middle. 12 consonant pads, and each consonant pad includes' ㄱ ㄲ ',' ㄴ ',' ㄷ ㄹ ',' ㄹ ',' ㅁ ',' ㅅ ㅃ ',' ㅅ ㅆ ',' ㅇ ',' ㅈ ㅉ ',' It is preferable to arrange the consonant groups so that the consonants are not overlapped with each other.

In addition, the Japanese language input apparatus includes a Japanese character input means and a Japanese language combining means for combining Japanese characters according to a signal from the character input means, wherein the character input means is arranged in a cross shape (+), and pronunciation Five vowel pads arranged so that the vowel representative characters do not overlap each other, and a plurality of consonant pads arranged sequentially in a circle around the vowel pad and arranged so that the consonant representative characters do not overlap each other in pronunciation. It is characterized by. In this case, the vowel representative letters correspond to the phonetic symbols A, E, U, E, and O, respectively, the consonant pads are ten, and the consonant representative letters are the phonetic symbols k, s, t, n, h, m, The letter input means may further include a selection pad that selects at least a pronunciation sound, a half sound, and a rhythm in Japanese pronunciation.

In addition, the English input device includes an English input device comprising a character input means and an English combination means for combining English according to a signal from the character input means, wherein the character input means is arranged in a cross shape (+), and Five vowel pads arranged so that A, I, U, E, and O do not overlap with each other, and are sequentially arranged in a circle around the vowel pad, and at least one consonant is not overlapped according to the frequency of use and geometric characteristics. It characterized in that it comprises a plurality of consonant pads disposed. At this time, the vowel pads are arranged in the upper, lower, left, right, middle keys U, I, A, E, O, respectively, and the consonant pads are 'B', 'C D', 'F G', 'H J ',' K L ',' M N ',' P Q ',' R ',' S T ',' V W ',' X Y ',' Z 'consonant groups are preferably arranged.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a character input apparatus according to the present invention. The keypad 10, the screen display unit 20, a memory 30 for storing character codes, and the like, and a controller 40 in charge of overall operation are illustrated in FIG. It is composed of

FIG. 2 illustrates an arrangement of a keypad 10 for inputting a character shown in FIG. 1, and a direction key including up, down, left, right, and center of a crisscross (+) is disposed at a central portion thereof, and surroundings thereof. Numerical keys such as 0 to 9, *, and # are sequentially arranged clockwise in (circular or deformed shape). In addition, between the arrow keys and the numeric keys, a character set selection key 21 for selecting a character set, a number / symbol selection key 23 for selecting a number or a symbol arranged on the numeric keys, a clear 25, and a space 27 And function keys are additionally arranged. The keypad shown in FIG. 2 has a structural characteristic to minimize unnecessary space, and is also a rearrangement of the numeric keypad and the direction keys of the 3x4 array separately disposed in portable information devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. By adopting such a keypad structure, a new character input method that is completely different from the conventional character input method can be introduced. In other words, if you use the five directional keys located in the center as a keypad for vowel input with a small number, but use a numeric keypad located near the center as a keypad for consonant input, more efficient character input It is possible. The character arrangement relation for each charset will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3C.

3A to 3C show examples of a keypad arrangement for inputting Korean, Japanese, and English according to the present invention, respectively.

First, FIG. 3A illustrates a keypad arrangement for inputting Korean characters, and shows that the Korean alphabet is separately disposed on the direction keys and the numeric keys. Hangul consonants are arranged sequentially clockwise in alphabetical order so as not to overlap each of the circular number pads. That is, each of the twelve consonant pads includes' ㄱ ㄲ ',' ㄴ ',' ㄷ ㄹ ',' ㄹ ',' ㅁ ',' ㅂ ㅃ ',' ㅅ ㅆ ',' ㅇ ',' ㅈ ㅉ ',' ',', ',', ', And', 'and' 경 ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ',', ','. , ㅋ ',' ㅌ, ㅌ 'consonants are placed on one key each. In addition, five directional keys in the center are arranged with a group of 'ㅏ ㅑ', 'ㅓ ㅕ', 'ㅗ ㅛ', 'TT ㅠ', and 'ㅣ ㅡ', respectively. That is, the double vowels corresponding to the short vowels are arranged on one key, and the short vowels |, ㅡ are placed on one key. At this time, in order to input the rhythm (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ) or double vowel (ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ), press the key twice within a predetermined time or press a separate extension key (not shown). It can be configured to be input by. In addition, the vowels ㅔ, ㅔ, ㅚ, ㅟ, ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅒ, ㅖ, ㅙ, ㅞ, ㅢ and the like, which are not separately arranged, can be input by a combination of vowel keys.

Subsequently, FIG. 3B illustrates a keypad arrangement for Japanese input, wherein Japanese characters (Hiragana or Gadana) can be arranged in five vowel groups and 10 consonant lines according to the arrangement of vowels and consonants, and 46 except for duplicates. exist. At this time, five vowel representative characters (e.g., あ, い, う, え, お) representing each of the five vowels are placed on the direction keys of the center, and ten consonant representative characters representing each of the ten consonant lines (example For example, あ さ た な は ゃ わ わ) is placed on the numeric keys 0 to 9, respectively, and * and # are used as selection keys for selecting the sound of the sound (half tone) and the yo, respectively. Therefore, each character of hiragana (or katakana) can be input by pressing one consonant representative character and one vowel representative character one by one, and the sound and the sound of the corresponding character can be additionally input by using a selection key. The halftone sound can be input by pressing the sound picking key twice within a predetermined time. At this time, the five vowel representative characters can be replaced with phonetic symbols such as A, I, U, E, O, respectively. Likewise, the ten vowel characters also include. (Non-consonant), K, S, T, N, H, May be replaced by M, Y, R, W.

Figure 3c shows a keypad arrangement for English input, the English vowels A, I, U, E, O are arranged so that they do not overlap the central direction key, English consonants one or more consonants in consideration of frequency and geometric characteristics Place each number key so that it does not overlap. That is, U, I, A, E, and O are placed in order on the up, down, left, right, and middle direction keys, and 'B' 'CD' 'FG' 'on the 0 ~ 9, *, # keys respectively. It is preferable to arrange HJ '' KL '' MN '' PQ '' R '' ST '' VW '' XY '' Z '.

Although the technical spirit of the present invention has been described in detail according to the above-described preferred embodiment, it should be noted that the above-described embodiment is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. In addition, those skilled in the art will understand that various embodiments are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. In particular, the above-described embodiment may be structurally changed depending on whether the screen display unit is employed, and the above-described memory and the control unit may be connected by a separate device such as a computer by using a wireless communication method such as wired or infrared ray or Bluetooth. It can be implemented programmatically. In addition, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that applications and modifications of the present invention are possible in fields requiring text input such as mobile information devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, remote controllers, and telephones.

According to the present invention described above, a new character input method is provided by introducing a direction key generally disposed in a mobile phone, PDA, etc. as a key for character input. In particular, the keypad structure according to the present invention, which has a small number but frequently uses a vowel on the central direction key and consonants on a circular number key around the center, can reduce unnecessary movement of the finger, thereby enabling faster input. In addition, it is possible to maximize space efficiency, which is important in portable information devices. In addition, clear separation of the letters allows you to easily become familiar with the character input method while minimizing the input error.

Claims (16)

A character input apparatus comprising character input means and character combination means for combining characters in accordance with a signal from the character input means, The character input means may be arranged in a crisscross shape (+), and five vowel pads in which at least one vowel is disposed so as not to overlap the vowel; And And a plurality of consonant pads arranged sequentially in a circle around the vowel pad and arranged such that at least one consonant does not overlap each other. The character input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the consonant pads are arranged sequentially in a clockwise order. The character input apparatus of claim 1, wherein the consonant pads are 12, and any one of numbers 0 to 9, *, and # are additionally arranged. The character input device of claim 1, wherein the vowel pad has a direction indication added to one of 'up, down, left, right, and center'.  The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of function pads including at least deletion, space, and character set selection functions are added. A Hangul input device comprising a Hangul combining means for combining consonants and vowels in accordance with a signal from a character input means and a signal from the character input means, The character input means is arranged in a crisscross (+), 'vo' '' '' '' '' 'five' vowel pads respectively arranged so as not to overlap the group '| And a plurality of consonant pads arranged sequentially in a circle around the vowel pad and arranged such that at least one consonant does not overlap with each other according to the frequency of use and geometric characteristics. The method of claim 6, wherein the vowel pad has 'ㅗ ㅛ', 'TT ㅠ', 'ㅓ ㅕ', 'ㅏ ㅑ', '-ㅣ' respectively disposed on the upper, lower, left, right, and middle keys. Hangul input device. The method of claim 6, wherein the consonant pads are twelve, and each consonant pad includes 'a', 'b', 'c', 'r', 'ㅁ', 'ㅂ ㅃ', 'ㅅ ㅆ', Hangul input device characterized in that the 'ㅇ', 'ㅈ ㅉ', 'ㅊ', 'ㅋ', 'ㅌ pt', 'ㅎ' consonant groups are arranged in sequence so as not to overlap each other.  A Japanese input device comprising Japanese character combining means for combining Japanese characters according to a signal from the character input means and the character input means, The character input means includes five vowel pads arranged in a crisscross shape (+) and arranged so that the vowel representative characters do not overlap each other in pronunciation; And And a plurality of consonant pads arranged sequentially in a circle around the vowel pad and arranged so that the phonetic representative characters do not overlap each other in pronunciation. The Japanese input device of claim 9, wherein the vowel representative characters correspond to phonetic symbols A, E, U, E, and O, respectively. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the consonant pad is ten, and the consonant representative characters correspond to the phonetic symbols k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, and non-sonic, respectively. Input device. 10. The Japanese input device according to claim 9, wherein the character input means further comprises a selection pad for selecting at least a pronunciation sound, a semitone sound and a consonant sound in Japanese pronunciation. An English input device comprising a character input means and an English combination means for combining English according to a signal from the character input means, The character input means is arranged in a crisscross (+), five vowel pads arranged so that vowels A, I, U, E, O do not overlap; And And a plurality of consonant pads arranged sequentially in a circle around the vowel pad and arranged such that at least one consonant does not overlap according to a frequency of use and geometric characteristics. 15. The English input device of claim 13, wherein the vowel pad is disposed with U, I, A, E, and O on the up, down, left, right, and middle keys, respectively. The method of claim 13, wherein the consonant pads are twelve, and each consonant pad includes' B ',' C D ',' F G ',' H J ',' K L ',' M N ',' P Q. ',' R ',' S T ',' V W ',' X Y ',' Z 'English input device, characterized in that arranged in order not to overlap each other. Five vowel pads arranged in a crisscross shape (+) and each of which at least one vowel is disposed so as not to overlap the vowels; And And a plurality of consonant pads arranged sequentially in a circle around the vowel pad and arranged such that at least one consonant does not overlap each other.

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