JP2008204260A - Electronics - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an electronic device in which anyone can easily input characters with a small amount of finger movement when inputting characters on a touch panel.
A touch panel is provided that can display character candidates and can operate an area in which the character candidates are displayed. On the touch panel, characters in the first row of the Japanese syllabary diagram are displayed as first character candidates, and the first character candidates are displayed. When any one character is selected from the one character candidates, the control unit displays the selected character and the character on the same line of the Japanese syllabary as the second character candidate, and the control unit is selected The second character candidate is displayed in the vicinity of the display position of the character of the first character candidate, and the character to be input is determined by selecting any one of the second character candidates.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic device that inputs characters using a touch panel.

In recent years, touch panels are mounted on various electronic devices such as mobile phones and portable game machines.
As a character input method using a touch panel, for example, there is a method of displaying a Japanese syllabary diagram on a display panel and selecting a character to be confirmed.
Mobile phones often employ a 5-touch input method or a 2-touch input method. The 5-touch input method is a method in which a plurality of characters are assigned to one key as shown in the table of FIG. 2, and the character is switched every time the key is pressed. The “1” key is pressed once, the “3” key is pressed twice, and the “4” key is pressed once. The two-touch input method is a method in which characters are assigned by a combination of two numbers as shown in the table of FIG. 3 and a character to be input is determined by pressing two keys. In order to input, the key should be pressed as (“2” “2”) (“5” “5”) (“1” “3”).
As another conventional technology, when inputting kana, a part of the Japanese syllabary is displayed on the screen as a search key, and the corresponding character group is displayed on the screen using the character selected by touching the touch panel as a key. However, there is a kana character input method for inputting kana by selecting a character from this character group. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

JP-A-7-28581 (2nd page, FIG. 1)

The character input method for displaying the Japanese syllabary diagram has a problem that although it is easy to understand the input method, it takes a long time to search for the character to be input because there are many options. In addition, due to the display arrangement, there is a problem that the distance to move the finger becomes large and the efficiency is poor. Furthermore, in the case of an electronic device having a relatively small screen such as a mobile phone, the individual selection area displayed on the touch panel becomes small, and there is a high possibility of erroneous input when touching the touch panel. was there.
Furthermore, in the 5-touch input method, although the input method is relatively easy to understand, when operating the keys on the touch panel, it is necessary to release the finger from the display each time the key is pressed. There was a problem that the vertical movement of the finger would be large.
In addition, the 2-touch input method has the advantage that the area for operating the keys on the touch panel can be made wider than the character input method that displays the Japanese syllabary diagram, and has the advantage that the number of key presses is less than the 5-touch input method. In order to input, it is necessary for the user to remember a combination of two keys to be pressed, which is difficult for beginners.
Furthermore, in Patent Document 1, when the first touch is selected, the candidate character for the second touch is displayed at a fixed position. Therefore, depending on the combination of the first touch and the second touch, the distance to move the finger There is a problem that becomes large and the efficiency is low.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. In the character input on the touch panel, the amount of movement of the finger when inputting is small, and anyone can easily input characters. The purpose is to obtain equipment.

  The electronic device according to the present invention includes a touch panel that displays a character candidate and that can operate an area in which the character candidate is displayed. And when any one of the first character candidates is selected, the control unit displays the selected character and the accompanying character of the Japanese syllabary as the second character candidate. Displays the second character candidate in the vicinity of the display position of the selected character of the first character candidate, and confirms the character to be input by selecting any one of the second character candidates It is.

  The electronic device according to the present invention displays the second character candidate in the vicinity of the display position of the selected character of the first character candidate, and inputs the selected character by selecting any one of the second character candidates. Since the characters are fixed, the amount of finger movement when inputting characters on the touch panel is small, and there is an effect that anyone can easily input characters.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile phone as an electronic apparatus according to the present invention, and a touch panel is constituted by an operation unit 1 and a display unit 2. The operation unit 1 and the display unit 2 of the touch panel may be independent devices, or may be a common device having both.

  When the user inputs a telephone number from the operation unit 1, dial input information is delivered to the control unit 3 that controls the entire mobile phone. When the control unit 3 starts wireless communication with the communication partner via the wireless unit 4 and the antenna unit 5, the user can talk with the communication partner through the microphone unit 6 and the speaker unit 7. Data necessary for the mobile phone is stored in the ROM data portion 8 and the RAM data portion 9. When inputting characters, the control unit 3 switches to either the character assignment table 10 or 11 according to a 5-touch input method or a 2-touch input method selected in advance. When the user inputs a character from the operation unit 1, in the 5-touch input method, the key touched by the user and the character corresponding to the number of key touches are displayed on the display unit 2 based on the table of the character assignment table 10. In the 2-touch input mode, the key touched by the user and the characters corresponding to the number of key touches are displayed on the display unit 2 based on the table of the character assignment table 11.

FIG. 2 is an example of a table showing character assignment in the 5-touch input method, where the vertical represents keys to be input, and the horizontal represents characters that change each time each key is touched continuously. . For example, “A” can be input by touching the “1” key once, and “U” can be input by pressing it three times.
FIG. 3 is an example of a table showing character assignment in the 2-touch input method, and expresses a character determined by a key touching the first digit and a key touching the second digit. For example, if “2” is touched in the first digit and “3” is touched in the second digit, “ku” is input. <a><i><ぅ><ee><ぉ><tsu><nya><yu><yo><ゎ> By touching the conversion key, the mode is switched to the lower case input mode, and then the lower case letter corresponding to the upper case letter can be inputted by inputting the same key as the upper case letter. There is also a method of inputting a lowercase letter corresponding to the uppercase letter being displayed by touching a key for "lowercase" conversion after displaying the uppercase letter.

  4 and 5 are screen transition diagrams showing character input screens in the cellular phones according to the first and second embodiments. Screen 0 is the initial screen of the character input mode displayed on the display unit 2, and the first character is displayed as the first character of the 50-story character display of “a”, “ka”, “wa”. Displayed as a candidate. When the screen 1 to the screen 10 is touched with a character corresponding to the line of the Japanese syllabary that the user wants to input when the screen 0 is displayed on the display unit 2, the control unit 3 is touched via the operation unit 1. This is a screen in which the display position 2 is displayed on the display unit 2 as a second character candidate. Touch “A” on screen 0, screen 1 touches “ka”, screen 2 touches “sa”, screen 3 touches “ta”, screen 4 touches “na”, screen touches “na” 5 touches “ha”, screen 6 touches “ma”, screen 7 touches “ya”, screen 8 touches “ra”, screen 9 touches “wa”, screen touches “wa”. 10 are respectively displayed. When any of the screens 1 to 10 is displayed, when the user touches a character to be confirmed, the control unit 3 detects the touched position via the operation unit 1 and is displayed at the position. Confirm the input character as the input character. When the character is confirmed, the control unit 3 displays the screen 0 again on the display unit 2 and continues character input.

  Here, on the screens 1 to 10 in FIG. 4, the second character candidates are displayed in a column including the display position of the character of the first character candidate selected by touching the first time. For example, when “NA” is touched on screen 0, “NA” is displayed in the middle column, so “NANUNENO” is displayed in the middle column of screen 5. In this case, the second character candidate may be displayed in a line including the character display position of the first character candidate selected by touching the first time. In addition, when there is a small letter, a dakuten or a semi-turbid point corresponding to the second character candidate, a small letter, a dakuten or a semi-daku is displayed in the column next to the displayed second character candidate. For example, if “ta” is touched on screen 0, “ta” is displayed in the left column, so “tatsutoto” is displayed in the left column of screen 4, and a cloud point is displayed in the middle column next to it. "Daidozudo", and a lower case "tsu" in the right column next to it. Also in this case, if the second character candidate is displayed in units of lines, a small letter, a dakuten or a semi-dakuten is also displayed in units of lines.

  Next, on the screens 1 to 10 in FIG. 5, the characters in the second row of the second character candidates are displayed at the display positions of the characters of the first character candidate selected by touching the first time. For example, when “NA” is touched on screen 0, “NA” is displayed in the middle column of the second row from the top, so “NA” is displayed in the middle column of the second row from the top of screen 5. Then, “Ninuneno” is displayed sequentially from the right side. In addition, when there is a small letter, a dakuten or a half dakuten corresponding to the second character candidate, a small letter, a dakuten or a half dakuten is displayed following the displayed second character candidate. For example, if “ta” is touched on screen 0, “ta” is displayed in the left column of the second row from the top, so “ta” is displayed in the left column of the second row from the top of screen 4. Then, "Chitete" is displayed sequentially from the right side. Then, in order from the right side of “to”, the dakuten “Daidozudo” is displayed, and the lowercase “tsu” is displayed on the right side.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, since the selected first character candidate and the second character candidate corresponding to the first character candidate are displayed at positions close to each other, it is easy for the user to search for a character to be input. And the amount of finger movement when inputting characters is reduced.

Further, in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, dakuten or semi-dakuten are classified into each category, and the background color of the display area is displayed in a different color for each small letter, dakuten or semi-dakuten. In this way, even if the number of character candidates to be displayed on one screen is increased by displaying lowercase letters, dakuten or semi-dakuten, compared to displaying only the second character candidates, the user visually inputs them. Character categories (uppercase, lowercase, dakuten, semi-dakuten, etc.) can be easily identified, making it easier to enter characters and reducing input errors.
4 and 5, the background color of the display area is displayed in a different color in units of lowercase letters, dakuten or half dakuten, but the color of the characters may be changed in units of lowercase, dakuten or half dakuten.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
The second embodiment describes a mobile phone that can further reduce the amount of finger movement when inputting characters, as compared to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of character input of the mobile phone according to the second embodiment.
First, when the user touches the first character candidate on the touch panel in a state where the screen 0 is displayed on the display unit 2 in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5, the control unit 3 is touched first. The second character candidate (screens 1 to 10) corresponding to the one character candidate is displayed on the display unit 2 (ST6-2).

When the user moves the finger to the character to be confirmed without releasing the finger from the touch panel and releases the finger from the touch panel (ST6-3), the control unit 3 displays the second character candidate at the position where the finger is released. It is determined whether or not (ST6-4).
If the second character candidate is displayed, the character candidate displayed at the position where the finger is released is determined as the input character (ST6-5), and the process is terminated.
If the second character candidate is not displayed in ST6-4, the screen is returned to screen 0 without confirming the character (ST6-6), and the process is terminated.

  Thus, according to the second embodiment, it is possible to determine a character to be input by one touch and release without touching the touch panel twice. As a result, the user can reduce the amount of movement of the finger up and down during character input, so that characters can be input more easily in touch panel type character input.

  In Embodiments 1 and 2 described above, the cellular phone is used as the electronic device. However, any electronic device having a character input function can be applied.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the mobile telephone as an electronic device which concerns on this invention. It is an example of the table which shows the allocation of the character in a 5-touch input system. It is an example of the table which shows the allocation of the character in a 2-touch input system. FIG. 5 is a screen transition diagram showing a character input screen in the mobile phone according to the first and second embodiments. FIG. 5 is a screen transition diagram showing a character input screen in the mobile phone according to the first and second embodiments. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of character input of the mobile phone according to the second embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Operation part 2 Display part 3 Control part 4 Radio | wireless part 5 Antenna part 6 Microphone part 7 Speaker part 8 ROM data part 9 RAM data part 10 Character allocation table 11 Character allocation table

Claims (9)

A touch panel that displays character candidates and can operate an area where the character candidates are displayed,
On the touch panel, the characters at the top of the Japanese syllabary diagram are displayed as the first character candidates, and when any character is selected from the first character candidates, the selected character and the Japanese syllabary diagram are displayed. A control unit for displaying the characters on the same line as the second character candidate;
The control unit displays the second character candidate in the vicinity of the display position of the selected character of the first character candidate, and selects a character to be input by selecting any one of the second character candidates. An electronic device characterized by being confirmed.   The lowercase character, dakuten or half dakuten is displayed near the display position of the displayed second character candidate when there is a small letter, dakuten or half dakuten corresponding to the second character candidate. Electronics.   2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the display area is divided by a matrix, and the second character candidate is displayed in a row or a column including a display position of the selected character of the first character candidate.   4. The lowercase character, dakuten or semi-dakuten is displayed in a row or column next to the displayed second character candidate when there is a small letter, dakuten or semi-dakuten corresponding to the second character candidate. The electronic device described.   2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the second character candidate's upper-stage character is displayed at the display position of the selected character of the first character candidate.   6. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein when there is a small letter, a dakuten or a semi-turbid point corresponding to the second character candidate, the small letter, a dakuten or a semi-dakuten is displayed following the displayed second character candidate. .   7. The electron according to claim 2, wherein the second character candidate and a display area for displaying a lowercase letter, a dakuten or a semi-dakuten corresponding to the second character candidate are displayed separately from each other. machine.   8. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the second character candidate and the characters of lowercase letters, dakuten or semi-dakuten corresponding to the second character candidate, or the color of the background are different from each other.   The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein when the first character candidate is touched, the second character candidate is displayed, and the second character candidate displayed at the released position is determined as an input character.

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