CHARACTER INPUT APPARATUS, CHARACTER INPUT ASSIST METHOD, AND CHARACTER INPUT ASSIST PROGRAM

• US 20090234632A1
• Filed: 02/24/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: HASEGAWA, Takashi, NAKAGAWA, Michihito
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/01 Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer G06F3/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/129 Handling non-Latin characters, e.g. kana-to-kanji conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a character input apparatus including: a display section having a screen capable of displaying at least characters; an operation section configured to allow a user to input at least the characters; a first character input processing section configured to perform a first character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen in accordance with a predetermined notation rule; a second character input processing section configured to perform a second character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule; a scene determination section configured to determine a character input scene; and an input process switch control section configured to switch between the first character input process and the second character input process in accordance with the character input scene.

Claims

1. A character input apparatus, comprising:

a display section having a screen capable of displaying characters;

an operation section configured to allow a user to input the characters;

a first character input processing section configured to perform a first character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen in accordance with a predetermined notation rule when displaying a text in a predetermined language;

a second character input processing section configured to perform a second character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule;

a scene determination section configured to determine a character input scene, the character input scene referring to a situation in which the characters are inputted; and

an input process switch control section configured to switch between the first character input process performed by the first character input processing section and the second character input process performed by the second character input processing section in accordance with the character input scene determined by the scene determination section.

2. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first character input processing section performs a character input assist process based on predictive conversion.

3. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scene determination section determines the character input scene based on an application program activated for character input.

4. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scene determination section determines the character input scene based on a use situation of a character input area displayed on the screen.

5. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scene determination section determines the character input scene based on a predetermined character inputted by the user via the operation section.

6. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scene determination section determines the character input scene based on a predetermined operation instruction inputted by the user via the operation section.

7. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the predetermined language or a character type has been replaced with another predetermined language or another character type for character input, the scene determination section determines the character input scene based on the other predetermined language or the other character type.

8. A character input assist method, comprising the steps of:

a first character input processing section performing a first character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on a screen in accordance with a predetermined notation rule when displaying a text in a predetermined language on the screen;

a second character input processing section performing a second character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule;

a scene determination section determining a character input scene, the character input scene referring to a situation in which a character is inputted; and

an input process switch control section switching between the first character input process performed by the first character input processing section and the second character input process performed by the second character input processing section in accordance with the character input scene determined by the scene determination section.

9. A character input assist program for causing a computer to function as:

a first character input processing section configured to perform a first character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on a screen in accordance with a predetermined notation rule when displaying a text in a predetermined language;

a second character input processing section configured to perform a second character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule;

a scene determination section configured to determine a character input scene, the character input scene referring to a situation in which a character is inputted; and

an input process switch control section configured to switch between the first character input process performed by the first character input processing section and the second character input process performed by the second character input processing section in accordance with the character input scene determined by the scene determination section.

10. A character input apparatus, comprising:

display means for having a screen capable of displaying characters;

operation means for allowing a user to input the characters;

first character input processing means for performing a first character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen in accordance with a predetermined notation rule when displaying a text in a predetermined language;

second character input processing means for performing a second character input process of causing a character string to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule;

scene determination means for determining a character input scene, the character input scene referring to a situation in which the characters are inputted; and

input process switch control means for switching between the first character input process performed by the first character input processing means and the second character input process performed by the second character input processing means in accordance with the character input scene determined by the scene determination means.