Reduced keyboard text input system for the Japanese language

• US 6,646,573 B1
• Filed: 12/03/1999
• Issued: 11/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: America Online Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kushler, Clifford A., Bradford, Ethan R., Flinchem, Edward P., Matsuo, Daiju
• Primary Examiner(s): EDWARDS JR, TIMOTHY
• Application Number:
  US09/454,406
• Time in Patent Office: 1,439 Days
• Field of Search: 341/22, 341/28, 400/110, 379/93.18, 379/93.27, 379/368, 345/171, 707/535, 707/536
• US Class Current: 341/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0233 Character input methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0235 using chord techniques G06F3/0234 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0236 using selection techniques to select from displayed items

Abstract

A reduced keyboard system for the Japanese language which uses word-level disambiguation of entered keystroke sequences, and which enables the user to select the desired interpretation of an ambiguous input key sequence as kana, and then select the desired textual interpretation associated with the selected kana interpretation. The system uses a highly compressed database format which has several advantages in terms of reduced size and minimal processing requirements during operation. Also disclosed is a reduced keyboard system which uses sequences of two keystrokes to specify each syllable, including the syllables with palatalized vowels that are written with two kana each. Input sequences of keystrokes are interpreted as ordered pairs of keystrokes which select a character according to its position in a two-dimensional matrix. The first keystroke of each ordered pair specifies the row of the matrix in which the desired character appears, and the second keystroke of each pair specifies the column. The organization of the characters in the first five columns of the matrix conforms to the manner in which the Japanese syllabary is learned and conceptualized by a native Japanese speaker. An additional three columns are organized in a manner that corresponds with the natural model of how the syllables with palatalized vowels are formed (each as a combination of two kana). Up to two more specialized columns are added to handle two special cases that do not fit into the simple patterns of the first eight columns.

Claims

1. A system for generating input sequences of Japanese phonetic kana characters entered by a user, the input system comprising:

a. a user input device having a plurality of input means, each of the plurality of input means associated with a plurality of characters, an ordered input sequence pair being generated each time a sequence of two input means is selected by manipulating the user input device;

b. a memory associating each syllable of the Japanese syllabary with one or more ordered input sequence pairs, wherein;

each of the following sets of Japanese syllables is associated with a set of ordered input sequence pairs, all members of each said associated set of ordered input sequence pairs having the same input means as the first element, and wherein the first element is a different input means for each set, said sets of syllables comprising;

{A, I, U, E, O}, {KA, KI, KU, KE, KO, KYA, KYU, KYO}, {SA, SHI, SU, SE, SO, SHA, SHU, SHO}, {TA, CHI, TSU, TE, TO, CHA, CHU, CHO}, {NI, NJ, NU, NE, NO, NYA, NYU, NYO}, {HA, HI, FU, HE, HO, HYA, HYU, HYO}, {MA, MI, MU, ME, MO, MYA, MYU, MYO}, {YA, YU, YO}, {RA, RI, RU, RE, RO, RYA, RYU, RYO}, and {WA, WO}; and

each of the following sets of Japanese syllables is associated with a set of ordered input sequence pairs, all members of each said associated set of ordered input sequence pairs having the same input means as the second element, and wherein the second element is a different input means for each set, said sets of syllables comprising;

{A, KA, SA, TA, NA, HA, MA, YA, RA, WA}, {I, KI, SHI, CHI, NI, HI, MI, RI}, {U, KU, SU, TSU, NU, FU, MU, YU, RU}, {E, KE, SE, TE, NE, HE, ME, RE}, {O, KO, SO, TO, NO, HO, MO, YO, RO, WO}, {YA, KYA, SHA, CHA, NYA, HYA, MYA, RYA}, {YU, KYU, SHU, CHU, NYU, HYU, MYU, RYU}, and {YO, KYO, SHO, CHO, NYO, HYO, MYO, RYO};

c. a display to depict system output to the user; and

d. a processor coupled to the user input device, memory and display, said processor comprising;

a sequence identifying component for classifying each selection of an input means as a first or second selection of an ordered pair of selections, and identifying from the memory the Japanese syllable associated with each completed input sequence pair; and

an output component for displaying the identified Japanese syllable associated with each generated input sequence pair as the textual interpretation of the generated input sequence.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein upon receiving the first input of a generated input sequence pair, the processor causes the output display to display the set of Japanese syllables associated with the set of ordered input sequence pairs, all members of said associated set of ordered input sequence pairs having the received input means as the first element.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein each syllable in the displayed set of Japanese syllables is displayed in association with an indication of the input means comprising the second element of the ordered input sequence pair associated with said syllable.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein there are ten input means associated with a plurality of characters.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein there are nine input means associated with a plurality of characters, such that the two sets of characters {A, I, U, E, O} and {YA, YU, YO} are both associated with ordered input sequence pairs having the same input means as the first element.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the Japanese syllables small TSU and N are associated with sets of ordered input sequence pairs having distinct input means as the second element, respectively.

7. A disambiguating system for disambiguating ambiguous input sequences entered by a user and generating textual output in the Japanese language, the disambiguating system comprising:

a. a user input device having a plurality of inputs, each of a plurality of said plurality of inputs is associated with a plurality of characters, an input sequence being generated each time an input is selected by manipulating the user input device, the generated input sequence having a textual interpretation that is ambiguous due to the plurality of characters associated with said inputs;

b. a memory containing data used to construct a plurality of Yomikata objects, each of the plurality of Yomikata objects associated with an input sequence and a frequency of use, wherein each of the plurality of Yomikata objects comprises a sequence of kana which corresponds to the phonetic reading to be output to the user, said Yomikata objects including completed word and phrase objects, stem objects comprising a sequence of the initial kana of a yet uncompleted word or phrase object, and objects that are both a completed word or phrase and a stem of a word or phrase, and wherein all word, phrase and stem objects are constructed from data stored in the memory in a tree structure comprised of a plurality of nodes, each node associated with an input sequence and with one or more Yomikata objects;

c. a display to depict system output to the user; and

d. a processor coupled to the user input device, memory and display, the processor constructing the one or more Yomikata objects from the data in the memory associated with each generated input sequence and identifying at least one candidate object with the highest frequency of use, wherein said candidate object is a word or phrase object when at least one word or phrase object is associated with the generated input sequence, and wherein said candidate object is a stem object when no word or phrase object is associated with the generated input sequence, and generating an output signal causing the display to display the at least one identified candidate object associated with each generated input sequence as a textual interpretation of the generated input sequence.

8. The system of claim 7 in which one or more kana which include special diacritic marks including dakuten and handakuten are associated with the same input with which the corresponding kana without special diacritic marks is associated.

9. The system of claim 7 in which the user input device includes an additional input that is associated with the special diacritic marks including dakuten and handakuten, and in which text objects that include one or more of the kana which include these special diacritic marks are associated with input sequences that include one or more activations of this additional input.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein one or more Yomikata object in the tree structure in memory is associated with one or more Midashigo objects, wherein each Midashigo object is a textual interpretation of the associated Yomikata object, and wherein each Midashigo object is comprised of a sequence of characters comprised of any combination of kanji, hiragana katakana, symbols, letters and numbers, and wherein each Midashigo object is associated with a frequency of use.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the frequency of use associated with each Yomikata object corresponds to the sum of the frequencies of use of all Midashigo objects associated with said Yomikata object.

12. The disambiguating system of claim 10, wherein

a. one of the plurality of inputs is an unambiguous Selection input, wherein the user may accept the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Selection input;

b. the user may select an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, each selection of said unambiguous Selection input selecting a Yomikata object from the identified one or more Yomikata objects in the memory associated with the generated input sequence, said alternate Yomikata object having a decreasing frequency of use;

c. one of the plurality of inputs is an unambiguous Conversion input, wherein the user may select the Midashigo object having the highest frequency of use associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Conversion input;

d. the user may select an alternate Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Conversion input, each selection of said unambiguous Conversion input selecting a Midashigo object from the identified one or more Midashigo objects in the memory associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use, said alternate Midashigo object having a decreasing frequency of use;

e. after the user has selected an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, the user may select the Midashigo object having the highest frequency of use associated with said selected Yomikata object as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Conversion input; and

f. after the user has selected an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, the user may select an alternate Midashigo object associated with said selected Yomikata object as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Conversion input, each selection of said unambiguous Conversion input selecting a Midashigo object from the identified one or more Midashigo objects in the memory associated with the selected Yomikata object, said alternate Midashigo object having a decreasing frequency of use.

13. The disambiguating system of claim 12, wherein

a. a selection of any one of the plurality of inputs associated with one or more characters following one or more selections of said unambiguous Selection input is processed as the first input of a new input sequence;

and

b. a selection of any one of the plurality of inputs associated with one or more characters following one or more selections of said unambiguous Conversion input is processed as the first input of a new input sequence.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein one or more kana syllables are specified unambiguously by additional subsequences of one or more inputs, such that when the user selects the unambiguous Selection input following an input sequence of one or more inputs associated with one or more characters including one or more subsequences which unambiguously specify one or more kana syllables, the processor identifies from the one or more constructed Yomikata objects only those Yomikata objects which contain the same unambiguously specified one or more kana syllables in the same positions.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the one or more kana syllables are specified unambiguously by an ordered pair of keystrokes.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the one or more kana syllables are specified unambiguously by selecting the input with which the syllable is associated one or more times, wherein each syllable that is associated with each input is associated with a unique number of times that the input is to be selected to unambiguously generate the syllable.

17. The disambiguating system of claim 7, wherein one of the plurality of inputs is an unambiguous Selection input, wherein the user may accept the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Selection input, such that a following selection of one of the plurality of inputs associated with one or more characters is processed as the first input of a new input sequence.

18. The disambiguating system of claim 17, wherein the user may select an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, each selection of said unambiguous Selection input selecting a Yomikata object from the identified one or more Yomikata objects in the memory associated with the generated input sequence, said alternate Yomikata object having a decreasing frequency of use, and such that a selection of one of the plurality of inputs associated with one or more characters following one or more selections of said unambiguous Selection input is processed as the first input of a new input sequence.

19. The disambiguating system of claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of inputs that is associated with a plurality of characters is also associated with a numeric digit, such that each generated input sequence has a numeric textual interpretation that is composed of said numeric digits due to the numeric digit associated with each input, and wherein said numeric interpretation is included among the Yomikata objects that the user may select as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input.

20. The disambiguating system of claim 19, wherein said numeric interpretation is presented to the user following all of the Yomikata objects that the user may select as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein one or more kana syllables to be output are specified unambiguously by additional subsequences of one or more inputs, such that when the user selects the unambiguous Selection input following an input sequence of one or more inputs associated with one or more characters including one or more subsequences which unambiguously specify one or more kana syllables, the processor identifies from the one or more constructed Yomikata objects only those Yomikata objects which contain the same unambiguously specified one or more kana syllables in the same positions.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the one or more kana syllables are specified unambiguously by an ordered pair of keystrokes.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the one or more kana syllables are specified unambiguously by selecting the input with which the syllable is associated one or more times, wherein each syllable that is associated with each input is associated with a unique number of times that the input is to be selected to unambiguously generate the syllable.

24. The disambiguating system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of nodes are connected by a plurality of paths, each of the plurality of paths linking a parent node associated with a base input sequence with a child node associated with the base input sequence of the parent node and an additional input.

25. The disambiguating system of claim 24, wherein the Yomikata objects associated with a child node are based on the Yomikata objects associated with the corresponding parent node to which the child node is linked.

26. The disambiguating system of claim 25, wherein the Yomikata objects associated with a child node are constructed using a code pre-stored in memory to modify Yomikata objects associated with the corresponding parent node.

27. The disambiguating system of claim 26, wherein the code used to construct Yomikata objects associated with a child node by modifying Yomikata objects associated with the corresponding parent node comprises a specification of the numerical index of the Yomikata object associated with the corresponding parent node and a specification of the numerical index of one of the characters associated with the additional input linking the parent node to the child node.

28. The disambiguating system of claim 27, wherein the code used to construct Yomikata objects associated with a child node by modifying Yomikata objects associated with the corresponding parent node further includes a specification of whether the code is the final code of the sequence of codes which create objects associated with the child node.

29. The disambiguating system of claim 27, wherein the number and identity of additional inputs which correspond to child nodes linked to a parent node is indicated in the parent node by a field of valid key bits that indicate the number and identity of said child nodes.

30. The disambiguating system of claim 29, wherein each set of one or more codes used to create the Yomikata objects associated with a child node is immediately followed by a pointer to said child node, and wherein the one or more sets of one or more codes and following pointer are placed sequentially in memory within the parent node in the same order as the valid key bits that indicate the number and identity of said child nodes.

31. The disambiguating system of claim 27, wherein the sequence of codes which create Yomikata objects associated with a child node are ordered in memory such that Yomikata objects are created in a sequence that is sorted with respect to the frequency of use of said objects.

32. The disambiguating system of claim 27, wherein the indices of the characters associated with each of the inputs are assigned sequentially to the characters in descending order of the frequency of occurrence of the characters in Yomikata objects in memory.

33. The disambiguating system of claim 32, wherein the code used to construct Yomikata objects associated with a child node by modifying Yomikata objects associated with the corresponding parent node also includes a specification of an object type associated with the constructed object associated with the child node.

34. The disambiguating system of claim 33, wherein the object type that is specified includes information regarding the part of speech of the constructed object.

35. The disambiguating system of claim 33, wherein the object type that is specified includes information regarding the inflectional endings and suffixes that may be appended to the constructed object.

36. The disambiguating system of claim 33, wherein the object type that is specified includes a code that uniquely identifies the constructed object among the objects in memory.

37. The disambiguating system of claim 33, wherein the object type that is specified includes information regarding the frequency of use of the constructed object.

38. The disambiguating system of claim 33, wherein the object type that is specified includes information regarding whether the constructed object is a completed word.

39. The disambiguating system of claim 27, wherein the indices of the characters associated with each input means are assigned sequentially to the characters in descending order of the frequency of occurrence of the characters following the immediately preceding character in the Yomikata object associated with the corresponding parent node to which the indexed character is appended to form a Yomikata object associated with the child node.

40. The disambiguating system of claim 27, wherein where two parent nodes of the tree are redundant in that all codes associated with a given input means that are present in both of said redundant parent nodes are identical in that the codes occur in the same sequence and specify the same numerical Yomikata object index and the same numerical character index, and further in that for all inputs for which child nodes are linked to each of the two redundant parent nodes said child nodes are also redundant in the same recursive sense, one of said redundant parent nodes is omitted from the tree structure in memory and the remaining redundant parent node is augmented by any codes and links to child nodes that were present only in the omitted redundant parent node.

41. The disambiguating system of claim 40, wherein one or more codes that are associated with a given input means and are present in both of said redundant parent nodes are defined as being identical when the codes specify the same numerical Yomikata object index and the same numerical character index, even when said codes occur in a different sequence in the two redundant parent nodes.

42. The disambiguating system of claim 40, wherein one or more codes that are associated with a given input means and are present in both of said redundant parent nodes are defined as being identical when the codes specify the same numerical Yomikata object index and the same numerical character index and the same object type, even when said codes occur in a different sequence in the two redundant parent nodes.

43. The disambiguating system of claim 40, wherein one or more codes used to construct Yomikata objects associated with child nodes by modifying Yomikata objects associated with the corresponding parent node also include a specification of an object type associated with the constructed Yomikata object associated with the child node, and wherein two codes are defined as being identical when they specify the same numerical Yomikata object index and the same numerical character index, wherein the code that is present in the remaining redundant parent node that is augmented by any codes and links to child nodes that were present only in the omitted redundant parent node includes the specification of all said object types that were specified in either redundant node.

44. The system of claim 27, wherein each Yomikata object constructed in each node of the tree structure in memory is associated with zero or more Midashigo objects, wherein each Midashigo object is a textual interpretation of the associated Yomikata object, and wherein each Midashigo object is comprised of a sequence of characters comprised of any combination of kanji, hiragana, katakana, symbols, letters and numbers.

45. The disambiguating system of claim 44, wherein the Midashigo objects associated with a Yomikata object in a child node are based on the Midashigo objects associated with one or more of the corresponding parent nodes of which the child node is a descendent.

46. The disambiguating system of claim 45, wherein a Midashigo object associated with a Yomikata object in a child node is constructed using a code pre-stored in memory to modify a Midashigo object associated with one of the corresponding ancestor nodes.

47. The disambiguating system of claim 46, wherein the code used to construct a Midashigo object associated with a Yomikata object in a child node by modifying a Midashigo object associated with one of the corresponding ancestor nodes comprises a specification of the number of nodes that must be traversed back up in the tree to reach the corresponding ancestor node and a specification of the numerical index of the Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object in the corresponding ancestor node from which the Yomikata object in the child node was constructed and a specification of a numerical character code designating a kanji or other character to be appended to the specified Midashigo object in the ancestor node to construct a Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object in the child node.

48. The disambiguating system of claim 46, wherein the code used to construct a Midashigo object associated with a Yomikata object in a child node by modifying a Midashigo object associated with one of the corresponding ancestor nodes comprises a specification of the number of nodes that must be traversed back up in the tree to reach the corresponding ancestor node and a specification of the numerical index of the Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object in the corresponding ancestor node from which the Yomikata object in the child node was constructed and a specification that indicates that the sequence of one or more kana that is appended to the Yomikata object in the corresponding ancestor node in constructing the Yomikata object in the child node is also to be appended as hiragana to the specified Midashigo object in the ancestor node to construct a Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object in the child node.

49. The disambiguating system of claim 46, wherein the code used to construct Midashigo objects associated with a Yomikata object in a child node by modifying Midashigo objects associated with the corresponding parent node further includes a specification of whether the code is the final code of the sequence of codes which create objects associated with the Yomikata object in the child node.

50. The disambiguating system of claim 47, wherein the code used to construct a Midashigo object associated with a Yomikata object in a child node by modifying a Midashigo object associated with one of the corresponding ancestor nodes appends a kanji character, wherein the specification of said kanji character to be appended comprises:

a. a specification of the number of nodes that must be traversed back up in the tree to reach the corresponding ancestor node;

b. a specification of the numerical index of the Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object in the corresponding ancestor node from which the Yomikata object in the child node was constructed;

c. a specification that indicates that the sequence of one or more kana that is appended to the Yomikata object in the corresponding ancestor node in constructing the Yomikata object in the child node comprises the root Yomikata object which can be found in said tree structure starting from the root node and with which said kanji character is associated as a Midashigo object; and

d. a specification of the numerical index of the Midashigo object that is associated with said root Yomikata object and that corresponds to said kanji character to be appended to construct said Midashigo object associated with a Yomikata object in a child node.

51. A disambiguating system for disambiguating ambiguous input sequences entered by a user and generating textual output in the Japanese language, the disambiguating system comprising:

a. a user input device having a plurality of inputs, each of a plurality of said plurality of inputs is associated with a plurality of romaji characters, an input sequence being generated each time an input is selected by manipulating the user input device, the generated input sequence having a textual interpretation that is ambiguous due to the plurality of characters associated with each input;

b. a memory containing data used to construct a plurality of Yomikata objects, each of the plurality of Yomikata objects associated with an input sequence and a frequency of use, wherein each of the plurality of Yomikata objects comprises a sequence of romaji characters corresponding to the kana which comprise the phonetic reading to be output to the user, said Yomikata objects including completed word and phrase objects, stem objects comprising a sequence of the romaji corresponding to the initial kana of a yet uncompleted word or phrase object, and objects that are both a completed word or phrase and a stem of a word or phrase, and wherein all word, phrase and stem objects are constructed from data stored in the memory in a tree structure comprised of a plurality of nodes, each node associated with an input sequence and with one or more Yomikata objects;

c. a display to depict system output to the user; and

d. a processor coupled to the user input device, memory and display, the processor constructing the one or more Yomikata objects from the data in the memory associated with each generated input sequence and identifying at least one candidate object with the highest frequency of use, wherein said candidate object is a word or phrase object when at least one word or phrase object is associated with the generated input sequence, and wherein said candidate object is a stem object when no word or phrase object is associated with the generated input sequence, and generating an output signal causing the display to display the at least one identified candidate object associated with each generated input sequence as a textual interpretation of the generated input sequence.

52. The system of claim 51, wherein each Yomikata object in the tree structure in memory is associated with one or more Midashigo objects, wherein each Midashigo object is a textual interpretation of the associated Yomikata object, and wherein each Midashigo object is comprised of a sequence of characters comprised of any combination of kanji, hiragana, katakana, symbols, letters and numbers.

53. The disambiguating system of claim 52, wherein

a. one of the plurality of inputs is an unambiguous Selection input, wherein the user may accept the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Selection input;

b. the user may select an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, each selection of said unambiguous Selection input selecting a Yomikata object from the identified one or more Yomikata objects in the memory associated with the generated input sequence, said alternate Yomikata object having a decreasing frequency of use;

c. one of the plurality of inputs is an unambiguous Conversion input, wherein the user may select the Midashigo object having the highest frequency of use associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Conversion input;

d. the user may select an alternate Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Conversion input, each selection of said unambiguous Conversion input selecting a Midashigo object from the identified one or more Midashigo objects in the memory associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use, said alternate Midashigo object having a decreasing frequency of use;

e. after the user has selected an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, the user may select the Midashigo object having the highest frequency of use associated with said selected Yomikata object as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Conversion input; and

f. after the user has selected an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, the user may select an alternate Midashigo object associated with said selected Yomikata object as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Conversion input, each selection of said unambiguous Conversion input selecting a Midashigo object from the identified one or more Midashigo objects in the memory associated with the selected Yomikata object, said alternate Midashigo object having a decreasing frequency of use.

54. The disambiguating system of claim 53, wherein

a. a selection of any one of the plurality of inputs associated with one or more romaji characters following one or more selections of said unambiguous Selection input is processed as the first input of a new input sequence;

and

b. a selection of any one of the plurality of inputs associated with one or more romaji characters following one or more selections of said unambiguous Conversion input is processed as the first input of a new input sequence.

55. A disambiguating system for disambiguating ambiguous input sequences entered by a user and generating textual output in the Japanese language, the disambiguating system comprising:

a. a user input device having a plurality of inputs, each of the plurality of inputs is associated with a plurality of characters, an input sequence being generated each time an input is selected by manipulating the user input device, the generated input sequence having a textual interpretation that is ambiguous due to the plurality of characters associated with said inputs;

b. a memory containing data used to construct a plurality of Yomikata objects, each of the plurality of Yomikata objects associated with an input sequence and a frequency of use, wherein each of the plurality of Yomikata objects comprises a sequence of kana which corresponds to the phonetic reading to be output to the user, said Yomikata objects including completed word and phrase objects, stem objects comprising a sequence of the initial kana of a yet uncompleted word or phrase object, and objects that are both a completed word or phrase and a stem of a word or phrase, and wherein all word, phrase and stem objects are constructed from data stored in the memory in a tree structure comprised of a plurality of nodes, each node associated with an input sequence and with one or more Yomikata objects;

c. a display to depict system output to the user; and

d. a processor coupled to the user input device, memory and display, the processor constructing the one or more Yomikata objects from the data in the memory associated with each generated input sequence and identifying at least one candidate object with the highest frequency of use, wherein said candidate object is a word or phrase object when at least one word or phrase object is associated with the generated input sequence, and wherein said candidate object is a stem object when no word or phrase object is associated with the generated input sequence, and generating an output signal causing the display to display the at least one identified candidate object associated with each generated input sequence as a textual interpretation of the generated input sequence;

wherein one or more Yomikata object in the tree structure in memory is associated with one or more Midashigo objects, wherein each Midashigo object is a textual interpretation of the associated Yomikata object, and wherein each Midashigo object is comprised of a sequence of characters comprised of any combination of kanji, hiragana katakana, symbols, letters and numbers, and wherein each Midashigo object is associated with a frequency of use;

and wherein

aa. one of the plurality of inputs is an—

unambiguous Selection input, wherein the user may accept the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Selection input;

bb. the user may select an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, each selection of said unambiguous Selection input selecting a Yomikata object from the identified one or more Yomikata objects in the memory associated with the generated input sequence, said alternate Yomikata object having a decreasing frequency of use;

cc. one of the plurality of inputs is an unambiguous Conversion input, wherein the user may select the Midashigo object having the highest frequency of use associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Conversion input;

dd. the user may select an alternate Midashigo object associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Conversion input, each selection of said unambiguous Conversion input selecting a Midashigo object from the identified one or more Midashigo objects in the memory associated with the Yomikata object having the highest frequency of use, said alternate Midashigo object having a decreasing frequency of use;

ee. after the user has selected an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, the user may select the Midashigo object having the highest frequency of use associated with said selected Yomikata object as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by selecting said unambiguous Conversion input; and

ff. after the user has selected an alternate Yomikata object as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Selection input, the user may select an alternate Midashigo object associated with said selected Yomikata object as the textual interpretation of the entered input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Conversion input, each selection of said unambiguous Conversion input selecting a Midashigo object from the identified one or more Midashigo objects in the memory associated with the selected Yomikata object, said alternate Midashigo object having a decreasing frequency of use;

and wherein each Yomikata object in the tree structure in memory is associated with one or more Midashigo objects, and wherein each Midashigo object is comprised of a sequence of characters comprised of any combination of kanji, hiragana, katakana, symbols, letters and numbers, and wherein a corresponding katakana-only Midashigo object comprised only of katakana is generated by the processor for each Yomikata object, and wherein said katakana-only Midashigo object is included among the Midashigo objects that the user may select as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selections of said unambiguous Conversion input.

56. The disambiguating system of claim 55, wherein said katakana-only Midashigo object is presented to the user following all of the Midashigo objects that the user may select as the interpretation of the input sequence by additional selection of said unambiguous Conversion input.