METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TEXT ENTRY OF TONE MARKS

• US 20080186211A1
• Filed: 02/06/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: HARMAN, ROBERT M.
• Application Number:
  US11/671,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20080186211A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 341/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

A method and apparatus for entering text including tone marks and integral diacritics, such as Vietnamese, uses a compact keypad (110). The compact keypad has letters in alphabetical sequence, including letters with integral diacritics (142, 143, 146, 148) in the same order as they arrive in the Vietnamese alphabet series. The five tone marks (154,155,157,158,159) are positioned on five separate keys (124, 125, 127, 128, 129) of the compact keypad (110). The apparatus has an associated method (300) where a processor determines if a previous keypress represents a neutral vowel (350) and modifies the neutral vowel with a tone mark 360 if a current keypress has an associated tone mark.

Claims

1. A method for text entry comprising:

receiving a first keypress;

displaying a first character associated with the first keypress;

receiving a second keypress;

determining if the first character is a neutral vowel;

modifying the first character with a tone mark, if the second keypress represents a tone mark.

2. A method of claim 1, wherein receiving a first keypress further comprises:

setting a key buffer to represent a character associated with the first keypress.

3. A method of claim 2, wherein displaying comprises:

entering a codepoint for a displayed character from the key buffer to a display buffer.

4. A method of claim 2, wherein receiving a second keypress further comprises:

checking if the second keypress is on a key represented by the key buffer.

5. A method of claim 4, wherein checking further comprises:

committing the first character, if the second keypress is not on the key represented by the key buffer.

6. A method of claim 4, wherein checking further comprises:

deciding if a time out occurs between the first keypress and the second keypress, if the second keypress is on the key represented by the key buffer.

7. A method of claim 6, wherein deciding further comprises:

committing the first character, if the time out occurs.

8. A method of claim 6, wherein deciding further comprises:

incrementing the key buffer, if no time out occurs.

9. A method of claim 6, wherein committing further comprises:

setting the key buffer to represent a character associated with the second keypress.

10. A method of claim 2, wherein determining further comprises:

ascertaining if the key buffer represents a tone mark, if the first character is not the neutral vowel.

11. A method of claim 9, wherein ascertaining further comprises:

bypassing all tone marks associated with the key represented by the key buffer.

12. A method of claim 1, wherein modifying further comprises:

graphically combining the neutral vowel with the tone mark to create a composite character on a display.

13. A keypad layout comprising:

a first key associated with a first tone mark; and

a second key associated with a second tone mark.

14. The keypad layout according to claim 13 comprising:

a third key associated with a third tone mark.

15. The keypad layout according to claim 14 comprising:

a fourth key associated with a fourth tone mark.

16. The keypad layout according to claim 15 comprising:

a fifth key associated with a fifth tone mark.

17. The keypad layout according to claim 13, wherein each tone mark is explicitly shown on an assigned key.

18. The keypad layout according to claim 17, wherein the first key explicitly shows the first tone mark.

19. The keypad layout according to claim 17, wherein the second key explicitly shows the second tone mark.

20. The keypad layout according to claim 13, wherein multiple letters from an alphabet series are assigned to a key.

21. The keypad layout according to claim 20, wherein a character with an integral diacritic is assigned to the key in an order in which the character arrives in the alphabet series.

22. The keypad layout according to claim 20, wherein the alphabet series is a Vietnamese alphabet series.