CHARACTER INPUT DEVICE

• US 20030179185A1
• Filed: 01/27/2003
• Published: 09/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited, NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: TANAKA, Shunsuke, IWAMURA, Keiichi, OTA, Osamu, YAMAGUCHI, Junya, YOSHIHARA, Kazuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,530,031 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items

Abstract

Abstract of Disclosure

A character input device not completely occupying a screen, good in visibility, and enabling input of characters while reducing to a minimum the movement of the fingers and line of sight, which, in the case of input of for example the hiragana 50-character phonetic syllabary of the Japanese language, displays an initial block of the major group lead characters a , ka , sa , ta , na on a first row of a character input region on a display screen and the block of the remaining major group lead characters ha , ma , ya , ra , wa on the second row, allows movement of a focus position or character position by "left" and "right" keys (a → ka → sa → ...), switches the character focused to the block of ha , ma , ya , ra , wa after the focus position reaches na , allows switching between displayed characters by for example using the "down" key to move to the next character (for example, a → i → u → ...) and using the "up" key to move to the furthest character in the group (for example, a → o → ...), and allowing input of the character by using a "decision" key when the character to be input is focused on.

Claims

1. A character input device comprising

a display unit dividing a set of characters into a plurality of groups and simultaneously displaying specific characters of at least two of said groups on a character input region provided on a display screen,

first and second input keys, and

display control unit displaying in an identifiable manner a selected character among the characters displayed on the character input region,

said display control unit switching between identifiably displayed characters or character sets in accordance with operation of said first input keys and replacing an identifiably displayed character with another character belonging to the same group as that character in accordance with operation of said second input keys.

2. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said display control unit:

assigns a specific order to said plurality of groups,

moves the identifiably displayed position in a first direction from the character displayed on the character input region when one input key of said first input keys is operated,

displays the next group of characters on the character input region when said one input key is operated after the identifiably displayed position reaches the last character in the displayed characters,

moves the identifiably displayed position in a direction opposite to the first direction when another input key of said first input keys is operated, and

displays the previous group of characters on the character input region when said other input key is operated after the identifiably displayed position reaches the head character in the displayed characters.

3. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

said first input keys are comprised of a pair of keys and

said display control unit

assigns a specific order to said plurality of groups,

fixes said identifiably displayed position at a specific position of the character input region,

shifts the displayed characters in a first direction and successively displays the previous group of characters in the character input region when one input key of said first input keys is operated, and

shifts the displayed characters in an opposite direction to the first direction and successively displays the next group of characters in the character input region when the other input key of said first input keys is operated.

4. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, wherein

said second input keys are comprised of a pair of keys and

said display control unit

replaces the currently identifiably displayed character or characters displayed in the same row or column as said character with other characters belonging to the same group as said character when one input key of said second input keys is operated,

displays the head character of said group when said one input key is operated after the last character of the characters belonging to that group is displayed,

replaces the currently identifiably displayed character or characters displayed in the same row or column as said character with other characters belonging to the same group as said character when the other input key of said second input keys is operated, and

replaces the displayed character with the last character of said group when said other input key is operated after the head character of the characters belonging to that group is displayed.

5. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said display control unit divides specific characters of the groups into a plurality of rows or columns, displays them in a predetermined order, and switches the identifiably displayed character to a character of another row or column when a warp key is operated.

6. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, which displays the identifiably displayed character in bold face.

7. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, which displays the characters smaller in the row or column direction around the identifiably displayed character.

8. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, which displays a center character in an identifiable manner, displays characters of the previous or next group in the row direction or column direction, and displays characters belonging to the same group as the focused character in the column direction or row direction.

9. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, which displays characters displayed in said character input region three-dimensionally by one of a block shape and cylindrical shape.

10. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, which

provides the screen of the display unit with a text region on which selected or input characters are displayed and

displays said character input region at the cursor position of said text region.

11. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, wherein

said second input keys are comprised of numeral keys of 0 to 9 and

said display control unit replaces the currently identifiably displayed character with a character belonging to the same group as said character and separated by exactly a number of positions corresponding to a selected numeral key when a numeral key is operated.

12. A character input device as set forth in claim 1, which moves the identifiably displayed position or displayed character set at a predetermined time interval when a first input key is operated and switches between displayed characters at a predetermined time interval when a second input key is operated.

13. A program for character input which selects a character from a set of characters displayed on a display and inputs the selected character, said program making a computer execute:

processing for dividing a set of characters into a plurality of groups and simultaneously displaying specific characters of at least two of said groups on a character input region provided on a display screen,

processing for displaying in an identifiable manner a selected character among the characters displayed on the character input region and switching between identifiably displayed characters or character sets in accordance with operation of said first input keys, and

processing for replacing an identifiably displayed character with another character belonging to the same group as that character in accordance with operation of said second input keys.