HK1080192B

HK1080192B - Method and apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into devices

Info

Publication number: HK1080192B
Application number: HK06102931.2A
Authority: HK
Inventors: 文延东; 陆猛; 邹戈凯; 罗东来; 崔艳青; 南哲; 苟勇; 郭文静
Original assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
Filing date: 2006-03-07
Publication date: 2008-06-13

Description

Method and apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into a device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to handheld devices, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into a handheld device.

Background

Ideographic characters are commonly used in Asian languages, such as Chinese and Japanese. Developers of handheld devices have worked to devise methods and apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into handheld devices.

A conventional device for entering data into a handheld device is a keypad, which typically has only 12 to 24 keys, of which 10 keys are used for entering the numbers 1 to 9 and 0. Keypads are typically used on telephones, mobile phones, and similar handheld devices. A scroll wheel, wheel or wheel may also be used to enter ideographic characters into the handheld device. Handwriting recognition technology may also be applied in handheld devices for entering ideographic characters.

To enter ideographic characters into a handheld device via a keypad, the phonetic letters (e.g., the pinyin or ZhuYin letters of Hanzi) or strokes of the ideographic character are first mapped by the manufacturer of the handheld device onto the 10 keys of the keypad used to enter the numbers. Then, in order to input an ideographic character into the handheld device through the keypad, the user may input the phonetic alphabet of the ideographic character by pressing the numeric keys of the keypad in an input manner, and select one of the ideographic characters to be predicted and displayed by the handheld device based on the input phonetic alphabet. Alternatively, the user may enter the strokes of the ideographic character by pressing a number key of the keypad and select one of the ideographic characters to be predicted and displayed by the handheld device from the entered strokes in another input mode. In the following, phonetic letters and strokes of ideographic characters are simply referred to as symbols.

To speed up the process of inputting ideographic characters into handheld devices, input methods have been developed with phrase prediction functionality. That is, after an ideographic character is entered, the handheld device predicts and displays several ideographic characters that each may form a phrase with the previously entered ideographic character. In this way, the user can simply select the predicted and displayed ideographic characters to complete the entire phrase without entering the characters included in the phrase one by one.

Taking Chinese as an example, "today" is a Chinese phrase. After entering "today," the handheld device can automatically predict and display "day". In this way, the user can simply select "day" to complete the "today" input. "eat" is another Chinese phrase. After entering "eat", the handheld device may automatically predict and display "meal". In this way, the user can simply select "meal" to complete the input of "eat".

Existing methods of entering ideographic characters with phrase prediction function work only after the first character of a phrase has been entered. However, ideographic sentences contain not only phrases, but also helper characters. For example, in the chinese sentence "do you have a meal today? "in," today "and" eat "are phrases, while other characters are not phrases.

It is apparent that the existing method of inputting ideographic characters with a phrase prediction function only facilitates the input of less than half of the characters in a sentence.

Furthermore, the phrase prediction function is almost useless if phrases can be directly input through the input method.

Moreover, it is also an intolerable matter to input punctuation. The user typically has to select one punctuation mark from a plurality of punctuation marks.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art to develop a method and apparatus by which ideographic characters and punctuation can be quickly input into a handheld device.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel and convenient method and apparatus for inputting ideographic characters and punctuation into a handheld device.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of inputting an ideographic character into a handheld device, characterized by comprising the steps of:

predicting characters corresponding to symbols input by a user for selection by the user;

predicting, from previous ideographic characters that have been selected by the user, ideographic characters that are most likely to follow the previous ideographic characters but that cannot form a phrase with the previous ideographic characters for selection by the user; and

inputting the ideographic character that the user has selected into the handheld device.

The invention further provides an apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into a handheld device, characterized in that it comprises:

means for predicting an ideographic character corresponding to a character input by a user for selection by the user;

means for predicting, from previous ideographic characters that have been selected by the user, an ideographic character that is most likely to follow the previous ideographic character but cannot form a phrase with the previous ideographic character, for selection by the user; and

means for inputting the ideographic character that the user has selected into the handheld device.

The present invention further provides a handheld device, characterized by comprising:

a transition prediction database for storing a plurality of ideographic character sequences, each of said plurality of ideographic character sequences including a previous ideographic character and at least one ideographic character most likely to follow said previous ideographic character but not capable of forming a phrase with said previous ideographic character; and

a controller for querying said transition prediction database for ideographic character sequences whose said previous ideographic characters are identical to ideographic characters that have been entered by a user.

According to the method and the device, phrases can be automatically predicted. In addition, ideographic characters that are most likely to follow the previous character but cannot be phrase-formed with the previous character may also be automatically predicted. Punctuation can also be predicted automatically. All of this greatly increases the speed of inputting ideographic characters and punctuation into handheld devices.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a method of inputting ideographic characters into a handheld device according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 schematically shows the structure of a handheld device according to the invention comprising means for entering an ideographic character according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates the process of inputting a Chinese sentence using the method and apparatus according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

at step 101, the process begins.

In step 102, a symbol is received from an input device of a handheld device. For example, the handheld device may be a mobile phone, a PDA, or the like. For example, the input device may be a keypad or a scroll wheel mounted on the handheld device, or any other equivalent means for inputting symbols into the handheld device.

In step 103, a flag is set to 0. The flag is used to determine whether the phrase prediction function is enabled. See step 111 and step 112. However, this flag is optional, and the phrase prediction function (step 112) may always be active. The method of entering ideographic characters into a handheld device may be accelerated if the phrase prediction function is only enabled under certain conditions.

At step 104, it is determined whether "Cancel" has been pressed. If the result of step 104 is "yes," then the process passes to step 105, where the process ends. If the result of step 104 is "no," then processing transfers to step 106.

At step 106, ideographic characters (such as kanji) and/or phrases are predicted from the symbols received at step 102, and the predicted ideographic characters and/or phrases are displayed for selection by the user. Detailed processing for predicting ideographic characters and/or phrases from user-entered symbols is well known in the art.

In step 107, it is determined whether the user has made a selection. If the result of step 107 is "no," the process waits at step 107. If the result of step 107 is "yes," the process goes to step 108.

At step 108, it is determined whether "Cancel" has been pressed. If the result of step 108 is "yes," the process returns to step 102. If the result of step 108 is "no," the process goes to step 109.

In step 109, the ideographic characters and/or phrases that were selected by the user in step 107 are entered into the handheld device. Processing then proceeds to step 110.

At step 110, an ideographic character (such as a kanji character) is predicted by means of transition prediction from the ideographic character that has been entered into the handheld device in step 109 (i.e., the character that the user has selected in step 107), and the predicted ideographic character is displayed for selection by the user. The transition prediction will be described in detail below.

The transition prediction is used to predict ideographic characters and punctuation from at least one ideographic character (referred to herein as a "previous character"). From the previous characters, the ideographic characters most likely to follow the previous characters but not able to form a phrase with the previous characters are predicted. Also, punctuation marks that are most likely to follow previous characters can be predicted.

For example, if the previous character is "done", the characters that can be predicted by transitional prediction may include "do", "bar", and the like. The character sequences "did", "got" are not phrases in chinese, but they often appear in sentences.

Punctuation symbols that can be predicted by transitional prediction can include a question mark "? ". In Chinese, "do" usually occurs at the end of an interrogative sentence.

At step 111, it is determined whether the flag is 0. If the result of step 111 is "no," the process goes to step 113. If the result of step 111 is "yes," the process goes to step 112.

At step 112, an ideographic character (such as a kanji character) is predicted by means of phrase prediction from the ideographic character entered into the handheld device in step 109 (i.e., the character that the user has entered in step 107), and the predicted ideographic character is displayed for selection by the user.

Phrase prediction is a well-known technique used to predict an ideographic character from at least one ideographic character (referred to as a "previous character"). From the previous characters, the ideographic characters that can form a phrase with the previous characters are predicted.

For example, if the previous character is "what" is predicted by phrase prediction, the character that can be predicted can include "solution", "result", and the like. "know", "get" is a phrase in Chinese.

The order of steps 110 and 112 is not critical and is not intended to limit the present invention. That is, step 111 and step 112 may be performed before step 110.

At step 113, it is determined whether the user has made a selection. If the result of step 113 is "no," the process will wait at step 113. If the result of step 113 is "yes," then processing will proceed to step 114.

At step 114, it is determined whether "Cancel" has been pressed. If the result of step 114 is "yes," then processing transfers back to step 102. If the result of step 114 is "no," the process passes to step 115.

At step 115, it is determined whether the character selected by the user in step 113 was predicted by phrase prediction (i.e., in step 112). If the result of step 115 is "no," the process goes to step 116. If the result of step 115 is "yes," the process goes to step 117.

At step 116, the flag is set to 0. At step 117, the flag is set to 1.

At step 118, the ideographic character selected by the user in step 113 is entered into the handheld device. Processing then proceeds to step 110.

Of course, if the user selects a punctuation mark in step 113, the selected punctuation mark is entered into the handheld device in step 118, and processing transfers back to step 102.

Fig. 2 schematically shows the structure of a handheld device according to the invention comprising means for entering an ideographic character according to one embodiment of the invention.

In fig. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a controller, 202 denotes a character prediction database, 203 denotes a phrase prediction database, 204 denotes a transition prediction database, 205 denotes an input device such as a keypad or a wheel, 206 denotes a display, and 207 denotes an output device.

The controller 201 initially receives symbols from the input device 205 that are input by the user. For example, the input device 205 may be a keypad, a scroll wheel, or any other equivalent device for inputting symbols into a handheld device.

The controller 201 then queries the character prediction database 202 to find an ideographic character that matches the ideographic character received from the input device 205 and displays the matching ideographic character on the display 206 for selection by the user.

If the user selects one of the plurality of ideographic characters displayed on the display 206, the controller 201 receives a selection (e.g., a number associated with the selected ideographic character) from the input device 205 and operates the output device to output the selected ideographic character to the hand-held device component for which the method of inputting ideographic characters has been enabled. Such components may be, for example, a short message editor, a notebook, a telephone directory, a dictionary, etc.

The character prediction database 202 typically stores symbol strings and corresponding characters in a table. The operation of the character prediction database 202 and the prediction of characters from symbols is well known in the art.

If the controller 201 receives a selection from the input device 205, the controller 201 queries the phrase prediction database 203 to find ideographic characters that each can form a phrase with the user-selected ideographic character, and displays the predicted ideographic characters on the display 206 for selection by the user.

The phrase prediction database 203 typically stores a plurality of phrases in a table. The operation of the phrase prediction database 203 and predicting phrases from starting characters is well known in the art.

Preferably, the controller 201 controls the phrase prediction database 203 in such a manner that the phrase prediction database 203 operates only after the user selects an ideographic character that has been predicted by the character prediction database 202 or the transition prediction database 204. That is, if the user selects an ideographic character that has been predicted by the phrase prediction database 203, the controller 201 does not look up the ideographic character in the phrase prediction database 203 again.

Take the Chinese phrase "today" as an example. If the user selects "today," the phrase prediction database 203 predicts "days" and other Chinese characters. If the user further selects "day" to complete the entry of the phrase "today," the controller 201 does not query the phrase prediction database 203 until the user selects an ideographic character predicted by the character prediction database 202 or the transition prediction database 204.

If the controller 201 receives a selection from the input device 205, the controller 201 also queries the transition prediction database 204 for the ideographic characters and punctuation marks that most likely follow the previous character but will not form a phrase with the previous character, and displays the predicted ideographic characters and punctuation marks on the display 206 for selection by the user.

The transition prediction database 204 typically stores a plurality of character sequences and character-punctuation combinations that are often used in sentences in a table. Each character sequence contains a previous character and at least one character that is most likely to follow the previous character but that will not form a phrase with the previous character. Each character-punctuation combination comprises a previous character and at least one punctuation symbol most likely to follow the previous character.

FIG. 3 depicts the process of inputting a Chinese sentence using the method and apparatus according to the present invention.

In fig. 3, it is assumed that the character sequences frequently used in chinese sentences include "daily eating", "cooked", "done", "do? "etc., and phrases include" today, "eating," "learning," "known to," etc. The character sequences are stored in the transition prediction database 204 and the phrases are stored in the phrase prediction database 203.

To enter the sentence "do you have a meal today? ", the user has just begun entering" you "symbols (e.g., pinyin or ZhuYin symbols) and" today "symbols.

The controller 201 then predicts the "day" and other possible characters by querying the phrase prediction database 203 and displays them on the display 206. The user may simply select "day" from the display 206 via the input device 205.

After selecting "day", controller 201 predicts "eat" and other possible characters by querying transition prediction database 204 and displays them on display 206. The user may simply select "eat" from the display 206 via the input device 205.

After selecting "eat," the controller 201 predicts "rice" and other possible characters by querying the phrase prediction database 203 and displays them on the display 206. The user may simply select "meal" from the display 206 via the input device 205.

After selecting "meal", the controller 201 predicts "and other possible characters by querying the transition prediction database 204 and displays them on the display 206. The user may simply select "selected" from the display 206 via the input device 205.

After "selected," the controller 201 predicts "did" and other possible characters by querying the transition prediction database 204 and displays them on the display 206. The controller 201 predicts "solutions", "results" and other possible characters by querying the phrase prediction database 203 and displays them on the display 206 ("know" and "obtained" are Chinese phrases). The user may simply select "do" from the display 206 via the input device 205 instead of "solve" and "get".

After selecting "do", the controller 201 predicts "? "and possibly other punctuation or ideographic characters, and displays them on the display 206. Can the user simply select "? ".

Thus, the entire sentence "did you eat today? "is entered into the handheld device.

From the above example, it is clear that without the interim prediction database 204, the user would have to enter the symbols "eat", "have", "do", and enter the question mark "? ". The function of the transitional prediction database 204 avoids the user entering the symbols "eat", "got", "did", and entering a question mark "? ". This greatly speeds up the input sentence "did you eat today? "is processed.

While the foregoing has been with reference to particular embodiments of the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that these are merely illustrative and that changes in these embodiments may be made without departing from the principles of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of inputting ideographic characters into a device, comprising the steps of:

predicting an ideographic character corresponding to a symbol entered by a user for selection by the user;

inputting the ideographic character that the user has selected into the device.

2. A method of inputting ideographic characters into a device according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

predicting punctuation marks most likely to follow the previous ideographic character for selection by the user based on the previous ideographic character selected by the user.

3. A method of inputting ideographic characters into a device according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

and predicting the ideographic characters which can form phrases with the previous ideographic characters according to the previous ideographic characters selected by the user for selection by the user.

4. The method of entering ideographic characters into a device according to claim 2,

the method is characterized by further comprising the following steps:

5. An apparatus for entering ideographic characters into a device, comprising:

means for predicting a character corresponding to a symbol entered by a user for selection by the user;

means for inputting the ideographic character that the user has selected into the device.

6. The apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into a device according to claim 5, further comprising:

means for predicting, from a previous ideographic character that the user has selected, punctuation symbols that are most likely to follow the previous ideographic character for selection by the user.

7. The apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into a device according to claim 5, further comprising:

means for predicting, from previous ideographic characters that have been selected by the user, ideographic characters that each can form a phrase with the previous ideographic characters for selection by the user.

8. The apparatus for inputting ideographic characters into a device according to claim 6, further comprising:

9. An apparatus, characterized by comprising:

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein:

said transition prediction database further storing a plurality of character-punctuation combinations, each of said plurality of character-punctuation combinations comprising said previous character and a punctuation symbol most likely to follow said ideographic character; and

the controller is also for querying the transition prediction database for character-punctuation combinations whose the previous ideographic character is the same as the ideographic character that the user has entered.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein:

the device further comprises a phrase prediction database for storing a plurality of phrases; and

the controller may be further operable to query a phrase prediction database for phrases that include the intended characters that the user has entered.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein:

13. A method of inputting ideographic characters into a device, comprising the steps of:

predicting punctuation marks which are most likely to follow the previous ideographic character but cannot form phrases with the previous ideographic character according to the previous ideographic character selected by the user for selection by the user; and

inputting the punctuation marks that the user has selected into the device.