User-tailorable romanized chinese text input systems and methods

• US 8,108,772 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2007
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Becker, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hasty, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US11/868,197
• Publication Number:
  US 20080249763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 715/262, 704/9
• US Class Current: 715/262
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion

Abstract

Methods and systems for romanizing Chinese ideograms allow a user to create a personalized spelling dictionary that converts a user'"'"'s desired roman-alphabet spelling to an equivalent Chinese character. A phonetic combination from a standard Chinese dialect is selected. The user defines a roman alphabet equivalent of the selected phonetic combination that fits the way the user pronounces the phonetic combination in the user'"'"'s own dialect or idiolect.

Claims

1. A method of romanizing Chinese ideograms against an implemented dialect, comprising:

receiving a user input selection of an implemented dialect from among a plurality of stored dialects;

displaying a matrix of phonetic combinations that excludes phonetic combinations for syllables not present in the implemented dialect;

receiving a user input of a phonetic combination selected from the display of the displayed phonetic combinations;

displaying a first Chinese ideogram, the first Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented dialect;

defining a first roman alphabet equivalent of the selected phonetic combination wherein the first roman alphabet equivalent corresponds to a user'"'"'s preferred pronunciation of the first Chinese ideogram and does not match the displayed phonetic combination; and

associating the first roman alphabet equivalent with the first Chinese ideogram.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising loading a personal spelling dictionary, the personal spelling dictionary containing one or more roman alphabet equivalents of one or more respective phonetic combinations in the implemented dialect.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a second Chinese ideogram, the second Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented dialect; and

associating the first roman alphabet equivalent with the second Chinese ideogram.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a second Chinese ideogram, the second Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented dialect;

defining a second roman alphabet equivalent of the selected phonetic combination wherein the second roman alphabet equivalent corresponds to the user'"'"'s preferred pronunciation of the second Chinese ideogram and does not match the displayed phonetic combination; and

associating the second roman alphabet equivalent with the second Chinese ideogram,

wherein the second roman alphabet equivalent is different from the first roman alphabet equivalent.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the first roman alphabet equivalent in a personal spelling dictionary.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising downloading the personal spelling dictionary.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising transmitting the personal spelling dictionary.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the matrix of phonetic combinations is arranged with a list of vowel phonemes on a first axis and a list of consonant phonemes on a second axis, such that each vowel phoneme and consonant phoneme is associated with a column or a row of the matrix and an intersection of a column and a row corresponds to the phonetic combination formed by combining the vowel phoneme and the consonant phoneme associated with the column and row.

8. A computer storage medium having executable software code, the executable software code including instructions for a computer to perform steps of:

selecting an implemented Chinese dialect from among a plurality of stored dialects;

displaying a matrix of phonetic combinations that excludes phonetic combinations corresponding to syllables not present in the implemented Chinese dialect;

selecting a phonetic combination from the display of the displayed phonetic combinations from the implemented Chinese dialect;

displaying a first Chinese ideogram, the first Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented Chinese dialect;

displaying a user interface usable by a user to define a first roman alphabet equivalent of the selected phonetic combination wherein the first roman alphabet equivalent corresponds to a user'"'"'s preferred pronunciation of the first Chinese ideogram and does not match the displayed phonetic combination; and

associating the first roman alphabet equivalent with the first Chinese ideogram.

9. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the executable software code further includes instructions for performing a step of receiving a personal spelling dictionary, the personal spelling dictionary containing one or more roman alphabet equivalents of one or more respective phonetic combinations in the implemented Chinese dialect.

10. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the executable software code further includes instructions for performing steps of:

identifying a second Chinese ideogram, the second Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented Chinese dialect; and

associating the first roman alphabet equivalent with the second Chinese ideogram.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the executable software code further includes instructions for performing steps of:

identifying a second Chinese ideogram, the second Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented Chinese dialect;

defining a second roman alphabet equivalent of the selected phonetic combination wherein the second roman alphabet equivalent corresponds to the user'"'"'s preferred pronunciation of the second Chinese ideogram and does not match the displayed phonetic combination; and

associating the second roman alphabet equivalent with the second Chinese ideogram, wherein the second roman alphabet equivalent is different from the first roman alphabet equivalent.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the executable software code further includes instructions for performing a step of storing the first roman alphabet equivalent in a personal spelling dictionary.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 12, wherein the executable software code further includes instructions for performing a step of downloading the personal spelling dictionary.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 12, wherein the executable software code further includes instructions for performing a step of transmitting the personal spelling dictionary.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the matrix of phonetic combinations is arranged with a list of vowel phonemes on a first axis and a list of consonant phonemes on a second axis, such that each vowel phoneme and consonant phoneme is associated with a column or a row of the matrix and an intersection of a column and a row corresponds to the phonetic combination formed by combining the vowel phoneme and the consonant phoneme associated with the column and row.

15. A system for romanizing Chinese ideograms against an implemented dialect, comprising:

a dialect selection circuit, routine or application that selects an implemented dialect from among a plurality of stored dialects;

a phonetic combination exclusion circuit, routine or application that excludes phonetic combinations for syllables not present in the implemented dialect;

a display circuit that displays a matrix of phonetic combinations for syllables not excluded from the implemented dialect;

a phonetic combination selecting circuit, routine or application that selects a phonetic combination from the display of the displayed phonetic combinations;

a display unit that displays a Chinese ideogram, the Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented dialect; and

a romanization information analyzing circuit, routine or application that defines a roman alphabet equivalent to the selected phonetic combination wherein the roman alphabet equivalent corresponds to a user'"'"'s preferred pronunciation of the Chinese ideogram and does not match the displayed phonetic combination;

wherein the romanization information analyzing circuit, routine or application associates the roman alphabet equivalent with the Chinese ideogram.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a controller, the controller uploading or downloading a personal spelling dictionary, the personal spelling dictionary containing one or more roman alphabet equivalents of one or more respective phonetic combinations in the implemented dialect.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the matrix of phonetic combinations is arranged with a list of vowel phonemes on a first axis and a list of consonant phonemes on a second axis, such that each vowel phoneme and consonant phoneme is associated with a column or a row of the matrix and an intersection of a column and a row corresponds to the phonetic combination formed by combining the vowel phoneme and the consonant phoneme associated with the column and row.