JPH0619600A - Input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve handleability by preventing a key unnecessary for a conversion from being erroneously operated, and saving the handling time for canceling it or the like by judging whether or not a character conversion is necessary each time romaji is inputted, and inhibiting an unnecessary key input. CONSTITUTION:When a character conversion mode is commanded, a touch panel 3 is displayed. The first character for the conversion into hiragana or katakana is selected from among those alphabets, the selected character is pressed on the touch panel 3, and the first romaji is inputted. Then, when it is not necessary to input the second romaji, the character conversion of only the first character is operated. And also, when it is necessary to input the second character, a display screen is switched, a chart is read from a dictionary, and displayed. The second romaji necessary for the conversion is selected from among displayed shift keys, pressed and inputted. The character conversion is operated when the character conversion of only the first and second romaji can be attained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an input device, and more particularly, it is provided on a display screen of a display device and can display necessary characters by key input by touching with a human fingertip or a pointing pen. The present invention relates to an input device having a touch panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a mainstream input device has been a keyboard, and Roman characters have been mainly used for inputting characters. Also, when using a touch panel, the characters can be input by touching the position of the input key from the upper part of the panel with respect to the Roman letters such as AZ displayed on the screen or other display keys. It can be done.

[0003]

However, in the input device as described above, when one or a plurality of Roman letters is used to convert the Katakana or Hiragana into one Katakana or Hiragana, for example, even if the Roman letters unnecessary for conversion are operated by the key operation. Since display and input are performed, useless input and cancel operation are required if there is an erroneous operation.

In view of such problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to reject the subsequent display or input of Roman characters when the combination does not make sense in Kana conversion using Roman characters. It is intended to provide an input device which is controlled so as to prevent unnecessary display due to erroneous input and does not need to be canceled.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has a display device having a touch panel, and at least Roman characters can be input by a key displayed through the touch panel. An input device capable of Kana conversion by inputting the Romaji, having a dictionary relating to the Romaji for the Kana conversion, and referring to the dictionary every time one character of the Romaji is input, the Kana conversion is performed. Therefore, it is characterized in that only Roman characters that require continuous input are displayed so that they can be keyed.

Another embodiment of the present invention has at least a keyboard capable of inputting Roman characters and a display device capable of displaying the input Roman characters, and an input device capable of Kana conversion by inputting the Roman characters. And a means for determining whether or not the inputted Roman character needs to be input for the Kana conversion every time one character is inputted through the keyboard, and it is unnecessary. In the case of the judgment, it is characterized by including means for prohibiting input.

[0007]

According to the present invention, for example, in Roman character / Kana conversion, each time a Roman character is input, it is judged whether or not the character is necessary for conversion, or it is continuously input for conversion. Depending on whether it is displayed that only keystrokes that require input are allowed, unnecessary keystrokes are prohibited, which may cause character keys that are not required for conversion to be manipulated accidentally or canceled. It is possible to provide an input device that is easy to use and saves time and effort.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a personal computer to which the present invention is applied. Here, 1 is a CPU, which is a central processing unit that controls the entire system, and 2
Is a display device such as an LCD according to the present invention, and 3 is a touch panel which is provided in contact with the front surface of the display device 2 and which allows key input of characters displayed on the display device 2 by touching the surface with a fingertip or the like. Further, 4 is a storage device ROM in which each execution program of the computer and a dictionary to be described later are stored,
Reference numeral 5 is a read / write storage device RAM.

FIG. 2 shows an outline of a display device 2 with a touch panel 3, in which a liquid crystal panel (LCD) is used for the display device 2 and soft keys for inputting Roman characters as shown below. Can be displayed as
It should be noted that FIGS. 3 to 5 show comparative tables used for representing hiragana and katakana in Roman letters in a comparative manner. In recent years, as foreign languages tend to be accepted as part of Japanese language, the Japanese language used is also displayed in a combination of Roman letters according to the pronunciation.

Therefore, when the hiragana and katakana are spelled in Roman letters as shown in the tables shown in FIGS. 3 to 5,
The first, second and third characters are
Each is limited as in the table shown in FIG.

That is, for example, the second character of FIG.
When used in combination with softkeys other than the Roman letters listed in the column, it will not work as hiragana or katakana.

Therefore, in this embodiment, characters are input according to the means described later, and the soft key display at that time is as shown in FIG. Here, in the display of (A), the Roman letters shown in the first vertical column of FIG. 6 are displayed,
In (B), only the Roman letters shown in the second vertical column in FIG. 6 are displayed, and in (C), only the Roman letters shown in the third vertical column in FIG. 6 are displayed, respectively. In the character conversion mode, display is performed on the display device 2 in the order of (A), (B), and (C).

Further, in the case of this display, in order to make it easy to distinguish the vowels that are easy to use, the display may be reversed.

FIG. 8 shows an operation procedure in the character conversion mode according to this embodiment. First, when there is a command for the character conversion mode, the display of FIG. 7A is made in step S1. Then, the first character for converting into hiragana or katakana is selected from these alphabets in step S2, and the selected character is pressed on the touch panel 3,
Enter the first Roman alphabet. Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the second Roman character needs to be input, that is, if the first Roman character alone can be converted into hiragana and katakana, it is determined that the input of the second and subsequent characters is not necessary, and the process branches to step S9. Then, character conversion using only the first Roman character is performed.

If it is determined in step S3 that it is necessary to input the second character, the process proceeds to step S4, where the display screen is switched and the table as shown in FIG. 6 is read out from the dictionary. The display is made as in (B) of 7. Therefore, in step S5, the second Roman character required for conversion is selected from the displayed soft keys, and is pressed and input. Then, in step S6, it is further determined whether or not it is necessary to input the third Roman character, and if it is determined that the character conversion can be performed using only the first and second Roman characters, the step S6 is performed.
9 is branched to perform character conversion.

Further, if it is determined in step S6 that the third Roman character input is necessary, the process proceeds to step S7, where the same as in step S, the process shown in FIG.
Is displayed, the third Roman character is selected from these in step S8, and character conversion is performed in step S9. Thus, the process returns to step S1 and the following steps may be repeated until the mode ends. The input Roman characters are erased by the character conversion in step S9, and the converted hiragana or katakana is displayed on the display device 2.

Next, another operation procedure according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The operation in the case of this example is such that even if an improper Roman character is input during character conversion, the input is automatically prohibited. In that case, for example, a prohibition message is displayed. Or touch panel 3
It is controlled so that the character is not displayed even if is pressed.

In FIG. 9, first, in step S11, the first
When the Romaji character is input by pressing, it is determined in step S12 whether or not the character is appropriate as the first Roman character for kana conversion. If not, the process returns to step S11 Wait for a character input instruction. If it is determined in step S12 that it is appropriate as the first Roman alphabet, the process proceeds to step S13 and the second
It is determined whether or not to input the Roman character of No., and if it is not necessary, that is, if the conversion is performed using only the first Roman character, the process branches to step S19 to perform conversion to Hiragana or Katakana.

If it is determined in step S13 that the second Roman character needs to be input, the process proceeds to step S14, the second character is pressed and input, and in step S15, the second Roman character is again suitable for conversion. Or not. If it is not appropriate, the actual input is not performed, and the process returns to step S14 and waits until the appropriate input is performed again. If it is determined in step S15 that the appropriate second Roman character has been input, the process proceeds to step S16. In step S16, it is further determined whether or not the third Roman alphabet needs to be input, and in the case of negative determination, step S1
If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S17. Thus, if the third Roman character is input in step S17 and the character is not appropriate in the determination in step S18, that is, if it is prohibited from being used as the third character, the process returns to step S17 and the appropriate third Roman character is entered. If it is not prohibited, that is, if it is proper, the process proceeds to step S19 to perform character conversion, and then returns to step S11.

In the above-described embodiments, the input device suitable for Roman-Hiragana and Katakana conversion is described, but the application of the present invention is not limited to this.
For example, it can be used as a control for prohibiting the input when the continuous input of the character forming elements does not make sense as a character in the process of creating a general sentence.

In the above description, as a preferred example, in the case of a display device such as an LCD equipped with a touch panel, it is possible to input Roman characters by touching the displayed soft key, but instead of this, a keyboard is used. In an input device in which the Romaji input via the display device is displayed on the display device, the Romaji input does not make sense as a Kana character between the Romaji and the Romaji entered earlier even if the same key input is attempted. Needless to say, it can be configured to be prohibited and not displayed.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, a dictionary for Roman characters for Kana conversion is provided.
Whenever one Romaji character is input, only the Romaji that needs to be input continuously for the Kana conversion is displayed as a key input with reference to the dictionary, so unnecessary key input is prohibited. By doing so, even if you mistakenly perform such a key operation, the display will not be performed, so if you can save the troublesome work of deleting the typographical error that was once displayed with the delete key operation as in the past. Since the soft key that will not be used next is not displayed for each display and the next key can be selected from the limited keys, the effect of accelerating the conversion processing can be obtained.

Further, a means for judging whether or not the inputted Roman character needs to be input for the Kana conversion every time one character is inputted through the keyboard, and it is unnecessary. In the case of the judgment, a similar effect can be obtained even if a means for prohibiting the input is provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of the present invention in cross section and perspective view.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing, as a table, correspondence between Roman characters and hiragana / katakana for character conversion according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing, as a table, correspondence between Roman characters and hiragana / katakana for character conversion according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a table showing a correspondence between Roman characters and hiragana / katakana for character conversion according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing, as an example of a dictionary used for character conversion according to the present invention, Roman letters classified by arrangement.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of soft key display on the display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure in a character conversion mode according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing another operation procedure according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 display device (LCD) 3 touch panel 4 ROM 5 RAM

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A display device having a touch panel,
An input device capable of inputting at least Roman characters by the keys displayed via the touch panel and capable of Kana conversion by inputting the Roman characters, having a dictionary relating to Roman characters for Kana conversion,
An input device, wherein each time one Romaji is input, only the Romaji that needs to be continuously input for the Kana conversion is displayed with reference to the dictionary so that the Romaji can be input. 2. The input device according to claim 1, wherein among the displayed keys, only vowel keys are highlighted. 3. An input device having at least a keyboard capable of inputting Roman characters and a display device capable of displaying the input Roman characters, wherein the input device enables Kana conversion by inputting the Roman characters, wherein the Roman characters are the Each time one character is input via the keyboard, a means for determining whether or not the input Roman character needs to be input for the Kana conversion, and if it is not necessary, input it. An input device comprising means for prohibiting.