JPH01318112A - User interface system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to change the character style of plural alphanumerics by one pen operation at the time of correction after recognition by forming character style specification modes corresponding to individual character recognition areas. CONSTITUTION:The coordinate position of an input pen is detected by a pen input device 1 and a hand-written input is recognized by an alphanumeric recognizing device 3. The recognized result is displayed on an input position in the character recognition area on a display, and in case of an alphanumeric, whether the character is a chapital or a small letter. When a user is to change the character style of the displayed alphanumeric, an input pen is downed to a character style specification area corresponding to the alphanumeric to be changed at its character style on a transparent tablet. The input device 1 is decided as a character style specification area by an area deciding means 2, whether the corresponding alphanumeric is converted from a capital to a small letter or from a small letter to a capital by a character style deciding device 5 and the decided result is displayed on a display device 4.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The present invention relates to a user interface method that can recognize handwritten uppercase letters and convert them to lowercase letters, while minimizing the movement of the user's hand on the display. The purpose of this project is to provide a user interface that allows font conversion with a single pen operation.1. A processing device with a display having an online recognition function for numbers and uppercase letters input by hand by a user, comprising a pen input means for detecting the display coordinates of the user's input position, and a pen input means for detecting the display coordinates of the user's input position, area determination means for determining whether the input coordinates are in a character recognition area or in a font designation area for specifying uppercase or lowercase English letters; alphanumeric recognition means for recognizing handwritten characters that are written in the font; display means for displaying the characters resulting from the recognition in accordance with the designation of the font designation area; The apparatus is configured to include a font conversion means for reversibly converting the English letters displayed in the recognition area between uppercase and lowercase letters and displaying the conversion result on the display means.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a user interface system for a display-equipped processing device having a handwritten alphanumeric recognition function, and more particularly to a user interface system that recognizes handwritten uppercase alphabetic characters input and enables conversion to lowercase characters.

[Conventional technology]

With the recent development of data communications, services for users are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Composite communication terminals are considered as the end of communication t1 for providing such advanced services to users.

This is capable of supporting multimedia communication services such as audio, images, and text, and allows document information including graphics, image information, etc., and drawing commands to be sent via the network.
ζIt is used for telewriting (picture communication), which involves adding underlines and comments to document information displayed on the display of the other party's terminal while continuing the conversation with the other party's terminal. Therefore, the composite communication terminal is equipped with various input means such as a keyboard for manual input, a transparent tablet placed on a flat display for handwriting input, and an input pen as one stage for input from the user.

One of the functions of the above-mentioned multifunction communication terminal is a handwritten character recognition function. There are several methods for recognizing handwritten characters, one of which is the basic stroke method. In this method, first, the coordinate data of handwritten online characters input from a tablet is preprocessed to obtain stroke sample points. Connect these sample points with a straight line, and approximate this straight line with codes in several directions. Next, after connecting straight lines with the same direction code, the system compares the lines with basic stroke codes stored in a dictionary, extracts the most similar basic stroke code, and uses that code as a recognized stroke to extract features of handwritten characters.

However, in order to recognize all types of handwritten characters, the recognition algorithm becomes complex and the processing requires a considerable amount of time. Further, even in the above-mentioned multifunction communication terminal, if the document to be created is a telephone directory or a schedule, connecting a keyboard will impair cost performance.

Therefore, considering the processing power of the communication terminal's processor, it is being considered to limit the characters to be recognized to uppercase letters and numbers, which are relatively easy to recognize, and realize online handwritten character recognition without a keyboard.

FIG. 8 shows a conventional example of a user interface when recognizing handwritten characters input by a user using an input pen without using a keyboard. In FIG. 5A, the underlined portion of the character string displayed at the top is displayed in the character recognition area, which resembles the folds of a document sheet at the center. The user can view these displays from above the transparent tablet on the display screen. Also, the uppercase/lowercase mode setting button at the bottom is set to “lowercase °” (lit).

As shown in Figure 8 (if you want to change "ijk' to uppercase among the characters displayed in the character recognition area of al, the user first changes the mode designation to uppercase ° using the input pen, for example). After changing the same figure (°i of 111)
The characters "IJK" are handwritten with an input pen on the transparent tablet at the character recognition area position where "jk'" is displayed. These handwritten characters are then recognized by the system, and the
The character string at the top of b) and the characters displayed in the character recognition area are I.
It becomes JK'.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the user interface method as shown in Fig. 8,
Firstly, the recognition area and mode selection button are far apart, so the user's hand movements become larger. Secondly, the user wants to rewrite the previously written English string from uppercase to lowercase, or vice versa. In this case, there was a problem in that it was necessary to specify the mode again and rewrite.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a user interface that minimizes the movement of the user's hand on the display and allows the font conversion of English character strings to be performed in one step.

[Means to solve the problem]

A block diagram of the principle of the present invention is shown in FIG. In the present invention, a font designation area is provided corresponding to each of the displayed characters in the character recognition area shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, the pen input means 1 consists of, for example, an input pen and a transparent tablet, and detects the coordinate position 5 of contact of the input pen with the tablet. Area determination means 2 determines whether the coordinate position of the input pen detected by pen input means 1 is in the character recognition area or in the font designation area. The alphanumeric recognition means 3 recognizes handwritten characters when the coordinate position of the input pen is in the character recognition area.

The display means 4 is, for example, a flat display under a transparent tablet, and displays recognized characters and font designation areas. The font conversion means 5 converts the character LT on the display when the coordinate position of the input pen is in the font designation area.
I Performs reversible conversion between uppercase and lowercase letters for the English characters displayed in area 16.

[For production]

The user first writes capital letters or numbers by hand in the character recognition area on the transparent tablet using an input pen. The coordinate position of the input pen is detected by the pen input means 1, and the handwritten input is recognized by the alphanumeric recognition means 3. The recognition result is displayed by the display means 4 at the input position within the character recognition area on the display, but at this time, in the case of alphabetic characters,
Depending on whether uppercase or lowercase letters are displayed in the font specification area, either uppercase or lowercase letters are displayed.

When the user wants to change the font of a displayed alphabetic character, he or she moves the input pen down on the transparent tablet to the font setting area corresponding to the alphabetic character for which the user wants to change the font. This input position is determined by the area determination means 2 to be the font 1 defined area, and the font conversion means 5 converts the corresponding alphabetic character from uppercase to lowercase, or from lowercase to uppercase, and is displayed on the display means 4.

As described above, in the present invention, by providing a character recognition area and a font 1 determination area for each handwritten character, it is possible to control each - character.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a composite communication terminal using the user interface method of the present invention.

In the figure, 6 is a processor. For example, 7 is CR
7 display section, etc., and displays the contents of the frame memory 8 under the control of the display control section 9. A transparent tablet 10 is installed on the display surface of the display section 7. By bringing the input pen 11 into contact with the tablet, input can be performed via the tablet control unit 12 while matching the displayed content. Further, there is a keyboard 13 as another input means, and manual input via an interface 14 is possible. 15 is a main memory, 16 is a handset for telewriting, etc., 17 is a telephone control unit, 18
Reference numeral 19 indicates a transmission control unit for sending input drawing data, etc. to the other party's terminal, and 19 indicates a common bus.

If the documents created on such a multifunction communication terminal are limited to phone books or schedule books, use a keyboardless system as described above, and use uppercase letters as the characters recognized by the online handwritten character recognition function. It is possible to deal with it by limiting it to numbers only.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the user interface according to the present invention when recognizing handwritten characters input by a user using the input pen 11 when target characters are limited to uppercase English letters and numbers. Similar to the conventional example shown in FIG. 8, the underlined portion of the character string displayed at the top is displayed in the central character recognition area. In place of the uppercase/lowercase mode designation button in FIG. 8, a mode+i constant soft key, which is a font designation area, is provided above the recognition area in one-to-one correspondence with each character recognition area. When this mode (designated soft) key is lit, a capital letter is specified, and when it is turned off, a lowercase letter is specified.

The character string displayed in the recognition area in Figure 3 (-1)
fGII (space) ijk bi, user l1jk
If the user wants to change the three characters 1 to uppercase, the user traces the mode key located above the character recognition area of these three characters from above the transparent tablet 10 with the input pen 11, as shown in FIG. Become.

Then, in response to this pen input, the l1jkl part of the character string displayed in the recognition area on the screen of the display unit 7 and at the top is changed to the capital letter "IJK'."

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of control in the user ink face type embodiment of the present invention. When the user lowers the input pen 11 gold pen onto the character recognition area on the transparent tablet 10 and inputs handwritten characters, step 2 in the figure
0, the input coordinates are detected, and then, in step 21, it is determined whether the coordinates are in the mode key area. Since this is not a mode key area, the number of the recognition area is determined in step 22 based on the input coordinates.

In FIG. 3, there are eight character recognition areas, numbered, for example, from 1 to 8 from the left.

When the user inputs a capital letter F by hand in the leftmost area, ie, the recognition area 1, for example, "1lhl" is determined in step 22, and then in step 23 the input handwritten character is recognized by the recognition program. If it is determined in step 24 that the recognition has ended, the process moves to step 25, and if it is not determined that the recognition has ended, the process returns to step 20.

When the recognition is completed, in step 25 the corresponding recognition area,
Here, Nll is cleared. Next, in step 26, it is determined whether the mode key flag of the corresponding number is "0° or 'l". Here, the mode key flag is mode key turned off/
``O゛'' means lights out, lowercase letter 1.
” lights up, that is, the uppercase letter appears. Figure 3 (al N
[Since the Ll mode key is off, the flag becomes "0", and in step 27, the code of the character in the corresponding number area is stored. For example, write the lowercase code for handwritten input °F゛, ie, f', in the code buffer. For example, the ASCII code 66H is stored, a lowercase letter "f" is displayed in the recognition area NQI, and the process returns to step 20.

Next, when the user inputs, for example, "G'" by handwriting into the recognition area N[L2, steps 20 to 25 are performed in the same manner as described above, and the recognition area 11m2 is cleared.

The mode key for this area lights up in Figure 3, indicating the capital letter Zunawaji, so the mode key flag is “1°”.
Then, the process moves from step 26 to step 28, where the ASCII code 47H for "G'" is stored in the code buffer for number 2, the capital letter "G" is displayed in the recognition area, and the process returns to step 20.

The user's handwritten input is performed one after another, and a third
For example, when the character string “fGH (space) ijkbi” shown in the figure (al) is displayed, the RA in the main memory 15 is displayed.
The contents of the recognition area and mode key area are stored in M, for example, in the form of a table. The contents of the table are shown in FIG. The table shown in the figure stores the mode key flag contents and the ASCII code of the characters displayed in the recognition area in correspondence with the numbers of the mode key area and the character recognition area. , the character string “ABCdefG” displayed at the top of Figure 3(a)
There is a character table that stores H...Pa in ASCII code, and that table has "41H42H43H64H65H66H47H4" corresponding to this character string.
8H...'' is stored in the frame memory 8 using, for example, a character generator in the ROM in the main memory 15, based on the contents of this character table.
"ABCdefGH..." is stored and displayed on the screen of the display section 7 such as a CRT.

Using flowchart 1 in FIG. 4 again, the flow when changing the font of input characters will be explained. In order to change "ijk'" displayed in the recognition area 5 to 7 in figure 3 fa) to uppercase, the user presses N115 in fb) of the same figure.
From there, trace the mode key of the magnet 7 with the input pen 11. Then, in step 21 of Fig. 4, it is determined that it is the mode key area,
At step 29, the key position is first determined to be 5 degrees, and at step 30, the state of the mode key flag of this number is determined. At this time, the mode key flag 11h5 is "0" as shown in FIG. 5, and in step 31, the flag is set to "1", and the ASCII code is also set to 49H, which corresponds to the capital letter "bi".

The same operation is repeated for area floors 6 and 7, and the recognition area display is "IJK" as shown in Figure 3(b).
will be changed to At this time, the character table of the RAM in the main memory 15 and the stored contents of the frame memory 8 are also rewritten, and the corresponding portion of the character string displayed at the top of the screen is changed to uppercase letters. Furthermore, when changing alphabetic characters displayed in uppercase letters to lowercase letters, processing is performed in exactly the same way as in the flow of FIG. 4, except that steps 33 and 34 are executed in place of steps 3 and 32.

Finally, a handwritten character recognition method in an embodiment of the present invention will be briefly explained.

FIG. 6 shows the types of basic strokes during handwritten character recognition in the embodiment. One stroke of a handwritten character is represented by one of eight types of strokes with codes O to 7. Stroke code O is a horizontal line, 1 is a vertical line, 2 is a downward left line, 3 is a downward right line, 4 is a counterclockwise curve, 5 is a clockwise curve, 6 is a loop, and 7 is a point. Of these eight types of strokes, only the counterclockwise curve and the clockwise curve have directionality.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of extracted stroke strings of handwritten characters. In the same figure (al), the basic stroke corresponding to the first stroke Δ is a clockwise curve, and its code is °
5' (hexadecimal representation). Since the basic stroke of the code 5° is stipulated only under the condition that it is clockwise, even if the user writes the first stroke at an angle like 4 or N, it will not be rounded, which is commonly known as a so-called manga character. Even if it is a typeface, it is similarly recognized as the basic stroke of code 5. Next to code 5 of the first stroke “,
"" means pen-up by lifting the input pen 11, and its code is E (in hexadecimal notation).

The basic stroke corresponding to the second stroke is a horizontal line and its chord is "O".

The basic stroke of code °0° (in hexadecimal notation) has no directionality, so the basic stroke obtained by drawing a horizontal line either to the right or to the left is an O-knee. Therefore, there are no restrictions on the user's stroke order, and the capacity of the main memory 15 that stores basic strokes can be reduced. As described above, the extracted stroke string of the stroke character A is represented by the code 5EOE.

Similarly, as shown in FIG. 7(b), the extracted stroke string of the character Q of one stroke is represented by 654E, and the 7th
As shown in Figure (C1), the extracted stroke string of the two-stroke character B is represented by IE545E.

Handwritten characters are recognized each time the stroke string determined in this manner is compared with, for example, the contents of a dictionary in the main memory 15. In actual handwritten characters, straight lines may turn into curves due to the user's habits, so a more complex algorithm is required, such as dividing one stroke into multiple sample points and determining the direction of the straight line between the sample points. However, since the handwritten character recognition method itself is not a subject of the present invention, its details will be omitted.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, since the font th constant mode key is provided corresponding to each character recognition area, one pen stroke is required for multiple English characters when making corrections after recognition. It is possible to change the font by operation, and it is extremely useful in practice as a user interface method for a simple recognition system that only recognizes uppercase letters and numbers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention, Figure 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a composite communication terminal, and Figure 3 is T8.
), (b) is a diagram showing an embodiment of the user interface in the present invention, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of control in the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of the recognition area and mode key area table, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the implementation example. Figure 7 (81, (bl), (C) is a diagram showing an example of extracted stroke string of handwritten characters, Figure 8 (a), (b) is a diagram showing a conventional example of a user interface in a handwritten character recognition system. 6... Processor, 7... Display (display unit), 8... Frame memory, IO... Transparent tablet left, 11...・Input pen, 15...Main memory. Patent distributor: Fujitsu Limited (a) (b) 3
Figure 4, C 5.06・0 71・H (bukechi 嘗character t=, -oritoki base 2 O・stroke/) O direct series Figure 6 (a) (C) 1 handwritten character Figure 7 is an example of a stroke sequence derived from

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A processing device with a display having an online recognition function of numbers and capital letters input by hand by a user, comprising: a pen input means (1) for detecting the display coordinates of the user's input position; and the input coordinates. area determining means (2) for determining whether the input coordinates are in a character recognition area where characters are handwritten on the display or in a font designation area for specifying uppercase or lowercase English letters; and as a result of the determination, the input coordinates are alphanumeric recognition means (3) for recognizing handwritten characters input by the user when in the character recognition area; display means (4) for displaying the characters resulting from the recognition according to the designation in the font designation area; As a result of the determination, when the input coordinates are in the font designation area, reversible conversion between uppercase and lowercase is performed on the English characters displayed in the character recognition area, and the conversion result is displayed on the display means (4). ) font conversion means (5
).