Cross-shape layout of chinese stroke labels with lyric

• US 6,766,179 B1
• Filed: 10/04/1999
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Wong, Lisa, Oh, Bee Bee, Shiau, Shyue-Chin
• Primary Examiner(s): Trinh, Sonny
• Application Number:
  US09/412,163
• Time in Patent Office: 1,751 Days
• Field of Search: 707/535, 341/28, 379/110.01, 455/566, 455/186.2, 455/67.7, 455/575, 455/90, 455/412.1, 455/73, 345/171, 345/168, 345/467, 704/1, 704/3, 400/110
• US Class Current: 455/566
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/018 Input/output arrangements for oriental characters
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/23 Construction or mounting of dials or of equivalent devices; Means for facilitating the use thereof by improving visibility H04M1/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/70 methods for entering alphabetical characters, e.g. multi-tap or dictionary disambiguation methods for entering alphabetical characters per se G06F3/0237

Abstract

A layout of five stroke shapes for inputting Chinese characters in a device is disclosed. The layout is Cross-shaped with relative positions of the five strokes being helpful to users knowledgeable in Chinese writing. Further, the layout arrangement is accompanied with a lyric which helps users remember and memorize the locations of the five strokes on the keypad. The relative locations of the five strokes are: Pie at the left of the cross, Dian at the right, Heng at the top, Zhe at the bottom, and Shu at the center. The lyric describes the shapes of the strokes and the relative locations of the strokes in the Cross-shaped configuration. For example, the lyric may be “left slash, right gash, upper over, lower turn with one down in the middle.” The lyric may have a tune to become a song and may be burned in a ROM of a device, such as a mobile phone.

Claims

1. A device to input characters, comprising:

a plurality of keys with labels, including five keys with labels for representing Chinese characters, said five keys representing five stroke groups of Chinese characters;

said labels being arranged in a cross-shaped configuration that provides a directional relationship between the labels that facilitates operation, said directional relationship enabling a user to navigate among the labels to enter Chinese characters by placing the user'"'"'s finger on a label at a center Position of said cross-shaped configuration and moving the user'"'"'s finger in any one of four directions, including up, down, left and right;

said labels including a Pie label located at a left side of said cross-shaped configuration, at least one of a Dian and Na label located at a right position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Zhe label located at a lower position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Shu label located at the center position of said cross-shaped configuration, and a Heng label located at an upper position of said cross-shaped configuration.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein said labels are associated with said plurality of keys using one of printed, audio and visual means.

3. The device of claim 1, further comprising a memory which stores a lyric that describes said five stroke groups of Chinese characters.

4. The device of claim 1, further comprising a memory which stores a tunes and lyric that describes said five stroke groups of Chinese characters and relative positions thereof.

5. The device of claim 1, further comprising a display which displays Chinese characters in response to activation of said plurality of keys.

6. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver for receiving and transmitting signals; and

a keyboard having a plurality of keys with labels, including five keys with labels for representing Chinese characters, said five keys representing five stroke groups of Chinese characters;

wherein;

said labels arranged in a cross-shaped configuration that provides a directional relationship between the labels that facilitates operation, said directional relationship enabling a user to navigate among the labels to enter Chinese characters by placing the user'"'"'s finger on a label at a center position of said cross-shaped configuration and moving the user'"'"'s finger in any one of four directions, including up, down, left and right; and

said labels include a Pie label located at a left side of said cross-shaped configuration, at least one of a Dian and Na label located at a right position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Zhe label located at a lower position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Shu label located at the center position of said cross-shaped configuration, and a Hens label located at an upper position of said cross-shaped configuration.

7. The communication device of claim 6, wherein said labels are strokes for forming Chinese characters.

8. The communication device of claim 6, further comprising a display which displays Chinese characters in response to activation of said plurality of keys.

9. A communication devices, comprising:

a transceiver for receiving and transmitting signals;

a keyboard having a plurality of keys with labels, including five keys with labels for representing Chinese characters, said five keys representing five stroke groups of Chinese characters;

wherein;

said labels arranged in a cross-shaped configuration that provides a directional relationship between the labels that facilitates operation, said directional relationship enabling a user to navigate among the labels to enter Chinese characters by placing the user'"'"'s finger on a label at a center position of said cross-shaped configuration and moving the user'"'"'s finger in any one of four directions, including up, down, left and right; and

said labels include a Pie label located at a left side of said cross-shaped configuration, at least one of a Dian and Na label located at a right position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Zhe label located at a lower position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Shu label located at the center position of said cross-shaped configuration, and a Heng label located at an upper position of said cross-shaped configuration; and

a memory which stores a lyric that describes said labels.

10. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver for receiving and transmitting signals;

a keyboard having a plurality of keys with labels, including five keys with labels for representing Chinese characters, said five keys representing five stroke goups of Chinese characters;

wherein;

said labels are arranged in a cross-shaped configuration that provides a directional relationship between the labels that facilitates operation, said directional relationship enabling a user to navigate among the labels to enter Chinese characters by placing the user'"'"'s finger on a label at a center position of said cross-shaped configuration and moving the user'"'"'s finger in any one of four directions, including up, down, left and right; and

said labels include a Pie label located at a left side of said cross-shaped configuration, at least one of a Dian and Na label located at a right position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Zhe label located at a lower position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Shu label located at the center position of said cross-shaped configuration, and a Heng label located at an upper position of said cross-shaped configuration; and

a memory which stores a tunes and a lyric that describes said labels.

11. A method of forming Chinese characters from at least five strokes, comprising:

entering at least one of said five strokes from an input device having five keys for representing Chinese characters, said five keys representing five stroke groups of the Chinese characters and being arranged in a cross-shaped configuration that provides a directional relationship between the keys that facilitates operation, said directional relationship enabling a user to navigate among the keys to enter Chinese characters by placing the user'"'"'s finger on a key at a center position of said cross-shaped configuration and moving the user'"'"'s finger in any one of four directions, including up, down, left and right; and

wherein relative positions of said at least five keys are associated with shapes of said strokes, and said keys include a Pie key located at a left side of said cross-shaped configuration, at least one of a Dian and Na key located at a right position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Zhe key located at a lower position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Shu key located at the center position of said cross-shaped configuration, and a Heng key located at an upper position of said cross-shaped configuration;

associating said at least one of said five strokes groups with at least one of said Chinese characters; and

providing a lyric that describes said shapes.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying said Chinese characters and selecting a desired a Chinese character from a plurality of said Chinese characters.

13. A device to input characters, comprising:

a transceiver for receiving and transmitting signals;

a keyboard having a plurality of keys with labels, including five keys with labels for representing Chinese characters, said five keys representing five stroke groups of Chinese characters;

wherein;

said labels are arranged in a cross-shaped configuration that provides a directional relationship between the labels that facilitates operation, said directional relationship enabling a user to navigate among the labels to enter Chinese characters by placing the user'"'"'s finger on a label at a center position of said cross-shaped configuration and moving the user'"'"'s finger in any one of four directions, including up, down, left and right; and

said labels include a Pie label located at a left side of said cross-shaped configuration, at least one of a Dian and Na label located at a right position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Zhe label located at a lower position of said cross-shaped configuration, a Shu label located at the center position of said cross-shaped configuration, and a Hen&

label located at an upper position of said cross-shaped configuration; and

a memory which stores a lyric that describes said labels.