INPUT DEVICE AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM CONTAINING PROGRAM EXECUTED BY THE INPUT DEVICE

• US 20120326964A1
• Filed: 03/28/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: URAKAWA, Yutaka
• Granted Patent: US 10,095,407 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00411 the display also being used for user input, e.g. touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception

Abstract

A character input device, including: a display control section to display, in a first region, an operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to characters and to display, in a second region, another operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to characters, the characters corresponding to the respective operational-element groups displayed in the first and the second regions being different in type; a first input processing section to perform, upon detection of an operation on the first region, input processing of a character specified by the operation, among the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the first region correspond; and a second input processing section to perform, upon detection of an operation on the second region, input processing of a character specified by the operation, among the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the second region correspond.

Claims

1. An input device for inputting characters, comprising:

a display control section configured to display, in a first region, an operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to characters and to display, in a second region, another operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to characters, the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the first region correspond and the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the second region correspond being different from each other in type;

a first input processing section configured such that, where an operation on the first region is detected, the first input processing section carries out input processing of a character specified by the operation, among the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the first region correspond; and

a second input processing section configured such that, where an operation on the second region is detected, the second input processing section carries out input processing of a character specified by the operation, among the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the second region correspond.

2. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the display control section is configured such that, where an operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to any one of letters, numerals, and symbols each as one type of the characters is displayed in the first region, an operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to any one of the rest of the letters, the numerals, and the symbols is displayed in the second region.

3. The input device according to claim 1, configured such that the characters can be inputted for each of a plurality of input items and further comprising an input-acceptance-state establishing section configured to establish a state in which input of characters for any of the plurality of input items is acceptable,

wherein the display control section is configured to display, in the first region, the operational-element group corresponding to the state to be established by the input-acceptance-state establishing section.

4. The input device according to claim 1, wherein the display control section is configured such that, when input of the characters for a certain input item is accepted in an instance where a plurality of operational-element groups exist each as a candidate of the operational-element group which is displayable in one of the first region and the second region, one of the plurality of operational-element groups is displayed in the one of the first region and the second region on the basis of characters which have been already inputted.

5. The input device according to claim 4, further comprising a count section configured to count a number of the characters for each type which have been already inputted,

wherein the display control section is configured to display, in the one of the first region and the second region, one of the plurality of operational-element groups composed of operational elements corresponding to a type of characters whose number counted by the count section is the largest.

6. The input device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a change-request accepting section configured to accept a request for changing an operational-element group that is being displayed in the first region to another operational-element group;

a first change section configured to change the operational-element group that is being displayed in the first region to another operational-element group where the change-request accepting section accepts the request; and

a second change section configured to change, in accordance with the change by the first change section, the operational-element group that is being displayed in the second region, to another operational-element group composed of operational elements, characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the first region correspond and characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the second region correspond being different from each other in type.

7. A computer-readable recording medium containing a program executed by an input device for inputting characters, wherein the program includes:

a display control step of displaying, in a first region, an operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to characters and displaying, in a second region, another operational-element group composed of operational elements corresponding to characters, the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the first region correspond and the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the second region correspond being different from each other in type;

a first input processing step of carrying out, where an operation on the first region is detected, input processing of a character specified by the operation among the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the first region correspond; and

a second input processing step of carrying out, where an operation on the second region is detected, input processing of a character specified by the operation among the characters to which the operational elements of the operational-element group displayed in the second region correspond.