Character input apparatus, character input assist method, and character input assist program

• US 8,255,204 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2009
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hasegawa, Takashi, Nakagawa, Michihito
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Huyen X.
• Application Number:
  US12/391,465
• Publication Number:
  US 20090234632A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,281 Days
• Field of Search: 704 1- 10, 704/257, 704251-255, 704/276, 704/270, 704/272, 715/267
• 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 the characters 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 the characters to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule;

a scene determination section configured to determine a first character input scene and a second character input scene, the first character input scene being a character input area of the display section in which the characters are displayed in accordance with the predetermined notation rule and the second character input scene being a character input area of the display section in which the characters are displayed not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule; and

an input process switch control section configured to apply the first character input process performed by the first character input processing section when the scene determination section determines the characters are being input in the first character input scene, and to apply the second character input process performed by the second character input processing section when the scene determination section determines the characters are being input in the second character input scene.

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 first character input scene and second 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 first character input scene and second character input scene based on a predetermined character inputted by the user via the operation section.

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

6. 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 first character input scene and second character input scene based on the other predetermined language or the other character type.

7. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first character input scene is an email message body character input field.

8. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first character input scene is a note pad character input field.

9. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second character input scene is a password character input field.

10. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second character input scene is an interne URL address character input field.

11. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second character input scene is an email address character input field.

12. The character input apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second character input scene is a login username character input field.

13. 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 having a processing circuit determining a first character input scene and a second character input scene, the first character input scene being a character input area of the screen in which the character string is displayed in accordance with the predetermined notation rule, and the second character input scene being a character input area of the screen in which the character string is displayed not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule; and

an input process switch control section applying the first character input process performed by the first character input processing section when the scene determination section determines the character string is being input in the first character input scene, and applying the second character input process performed by the second character input processing section when the scene determination section determines the character string is being input in the second character input scene.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein that when executed by a computer cause the 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 first character input scene and a second character input scene, the first character input scene being a character input area of the screen in which the character string is displayed in accordance with the predetermined notation rule, and the second character input scene being a character input area of the screen in which the character string is displayed not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule; and

an input process switch control section configured to apply the first character input process performed by the first character input processing section when the scene determination section determines the character string is being input in the first character input scene, and to apply the second character input process performed by the second character input processing section when the scene determination section determines the character string is being input in the second character input scene.

15. 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 the characters 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 the characters to be displayed on the screen not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule;

scene determination means for determining a first character input scene and a second character input scene, the first character input scene being a character input area of the screen in which the characters are displayed in accordance with the predetermined notation rule, and the second character input scene being a character input area of the screen in which the characters are displayed not in accordance with the predetermined notation rule; and

input process switch control means for applying the first character input process performed by the first character input processing means when the scene determination means determines the characters are being input in the first character input scene, and applying the second character input process performed by the second character input processing means when the scene determination means determines the characters are being input in the second character input scene.