Detailed Description
Hereinafter, a character input device applied to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a character input device used in an in-vehicle device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the text input device includes: theinput unit 1, thedatabase 2, theextraction unit 3, thecommunication unit 4, thedisplay unit 5, thestorage unit 6, thejudgment unit 7, the homonym Chinese character number detection unit 8, the candidatelist creation unit 9, and theselection unit 10.
First, theinput unit 1 receives a chinese character composed of letters by a user's operation of a soft key on a touch panel or a hard key on a keyboard. Theinput unit 1 may receive a selection command for a candidate kanji character or the like in response to a user's operation of each input key.
Next, thedatabase 2 is composed of a storage medium having a storage function, and systematically stores the correspondence between the letters and the chinese characters and words so that the user can search and extract the chinese characters and words corresponding to the letters input by theinput unit 1 through theextraction unit 3.
When the user inputs letters, theextraction unit 3 searches thedatabase 2 or thestorage unit 6 for the chinese characters or words corresponding to the letters received by theinput unit 1, and extracts the retrieved chinese characters or words after the search is successful.
Thecommunication unit 4 has a function of receiving external information and transmitting internal information to the outside. That is, the chat application software based on sns (social networking service) can transmit a created sentence as chat information to the opposite party by the input operation of the user, and can also receive chat information from the opposite party.
Also, thedisplay section 5 includes a display screen composed of a liquid crystal cell and an organic EL cell, and a drive circuit. Thedisplay unit 5 is capable of displaying information such as characters, pictures, symbols, and figures, and thedisplay unit 5 is mainly used for displaying input candidate kanji characters and chat information. The input unit and the selection unit may be integrated into a touch panel, or the display unit itself may have display and touch operation functions, that is, a display panel and a touch panel.
Thestorage unit 6 stores a sentence composed of kanji characters corresponding to the letters input last time and transmitted through thecommunication unit 4, and letters corresponding to the sentence, etc. in a one-to-one correspondence manner, using storage hardware such as RAM, ROM, etc. Each time a new sentence is created and transmitted for a chinese character corresponding to an inputted letter, the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6 is updated, that is, the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6 is always the latest sentence transmitted last time.
When the user inputs a letter, thedetermination unit 7 determines whether or not a chinese character corresponding to the letter input this time exists in the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6, and determines whether or not the chinese character is the same as a chinese character corresponding to the letter in the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6 after the user selects a certain chinese character. Here, one of the methods for determining whether or not a chinese character corresponding to the currently input letter exists in the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6 is: it is judged whether the inputted letters are the same as the letters corresponding to the Chinese characters in the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6, and the judgment result is transmitted to the homophonic Chinese character number detecting unit 8.
When thejudgment unit 7 judges that there is a kanji corresponding to the input letter, the homonym-kanji-number-detecting unit 8 detects the number of homonym kanji corresponding to the input letter among the candidate items displayed in the candidate list, and compares the number with the number of homonym kanji of two. Here, homonymous chinese characters mean that, when letters are the same, chinese characters and tones may be the same or different. The homonymous Chinese characters comprise homonymous single Chinese characters, homonymous words, homonymous idioms and the like. The comparison result can be classified into the following three cases according to the difference in the number of homonymous Chinese characters detected by the homonymous Chinese character number detection unit 8:
The number of homonymous Chinese characters detected by the homonymous Chinese character number detecting section 8 is one, that is, less than two.
The number of homonymous Chinese characters detected by the homonymous Chinese character number detecting section 8 is two, that is, equal to two.
The number of homonymous Chinese characters detected by the homonymous Chinese character number detection unit 8 is three or more, that is, more than two.
The candidatelist making unit 9 performs the following three processes based on the number of homonymous chinese characters detected by the homonymous chinese character number detection unit 8:
when the number of homonymous chinese characters detected by the homonymous chinese character number detection unit 8 is one, that is, smaller than two, the candidatelist creation unit 9 displays a chinese character corresponding to the input letter as a candidate on thedisplay unit 5.
When the number of homonymous chinese characters detected by the homonymous chinese character number detection unit 8 is two, that is, equal to two, the candidatelist creation unit 9 displays the two chinese characters corresponding to the input letter as candidate options, replaces the chinese character corresponding to the input letter in the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6 with the homonymous chinese character thereof, and forms a corrected sentence with the other part of the sentence unchanged, adds the corrected sentence as a candidate option to the candidate list, and displays the corrected sentence on thedisplay unit 5.
When the number of homonymous chinese characters detected by the homonymous chinese character number detection unit 8 is three or more (including three), that is, more than two, first, the candidatelist creation unit 9 displays three or more chinese characters corresponding to the input letter as candidate options, and when the user selects one candidate option from the displayed candidate list, and when a chinese character corresponding to the currently input letter in a sentence stored in thestorage unit 6 is different from the selected chinese character, a chinese character corresponding to the currently input letter in the sentence stored in thestorage unit 6 is replaced with the selected chinese character to form a corrected sentence, and the corrected sentence and the selected chinese character are displayed in the candidate list as candidate options, and the candidate options are sequentially displayed. In the corrected sentence, only the kanji corresponding to the input letter in the sentence is replaced with the selected kanji, and the rest of the sentence is not changed. Meanwhile, the corrected sentence is a sentence with the meaning that the chinese character corresponding to the inputted letter in the above text is the erroneous input of the above selected chinese character.
Theselection unit 10 selects a candidate option as a character to be finally desired from the candidatelist creation unit 9 by a selection command input by the user through theinput unit 1. Here, when the number of homonymous chinese characters detected by the homonymous chinese character number detection unit 8 is three or more, the three or more homonymous chinese characters are first displayed as candidate items in the candidatelist creation unit 9. Firstly, the user needs to select a candidate option from the candidate list, and then the user can select a corrected sentence from the candidate list consisting of the selected Chinese character and the corrected sentence, namely the candidate sentence is the character which the user finally wants; if the user does not select any candidate option within a certain time when the candidate list composed of the Chinese characters and the corrected sentences is displayed, the Chinese character selected by the user initially is the final selection result by default.
Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing a character input process of the character input device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
First, in the pinyin input method, the user inputs letters through the input unit 1 (step S201). Based on the letters input by the user, the extractingunit 3 extracts the chinese characters corresponding to the input letters (step S202).
Next, thedetermination unit 7 determines whether or not a chinese character corresponding to the input letter exists in the sentence stored in the storage unit 6 (step S203). Here, the judgment range is the sentence of 10 pieces of chat information which is stored in thestorage unit 6 and is closest to the current time from among the chat information of the current chat target and the chat contents which have been transmitted.
When it is determined that there is no character corresponding to the input letter (step S203: no), the candidatelist creation unit 9 displays the candidate list in a normal display mode (step S207), and then selects a desired candidate item from the candidate list by theselection unit 10 in accordance with the user operation (step S213).
Then, when the judgment result shows that there is a Chinese character corresponding to the inputted letter (step S203: YES), the homonym Chinese character number detection unit 8 detects the number of homonym Chinese characters in the candidate list (step S204). The homonymous Chinese character number detection unit 8 compares whether the number of homonymous Chinese characters is two or more (including two) (step S205), and if the number of homonymous Chinese characters is not two or more (step S205: No), the candidate list is displayed in a normal display mode (step S207), and finally, a desired candidate option is selected from the candidate list by theselection unit 10 in accordance with the user' S operation (step S213).
Then, when the number of homonymous Chinese characters is two or more (YES in step S205), the homonymous Chinese character number detection unit 8 compares whether or not the number of homonymous Chinese characters is exactly two (step S206). When the number of homonymous kanji characters is exactly two ((step S206: yes), a kanji corresponding to an input letter in a sentence is replaced with the homonymous kanji character of the kanji character, and the other part in the sentence is not changed to form a corrected sentence, and the corrected sentence is additionally displayed as a candidate item in a candidate list displayed in a normal display manner (step S208), and finally a desired candidate item is selected from the candidate list by theselection unit 10 in accordance with an operation of a user (step S213).
When the number of homonymous kanji characters is not equal to two, that is, when the number of homonymous kanji characters is three or more (including three) (no in step S206), first, the candidate list is displayed in a normal display mode (step S209), and one candidate item is selected from the candidate list by theselection unit 10 in accordance with the user' S operation (step S210).
Next, thedetermination unit 7 determines whether or not the chinese character selected in step S210 is the same as the chinese character corresponding to the letter in the sentence stored in the storage unit 6 (step S211); when the judgment result shows that the selected Chinese character is the same as the Chinese character in the sentence (step S211: YES), the process is finished, and the selected option is the final selection of the user. When the judgment result shows that the selected kanji is different from the kanji corresponding to the letter in the sentence in the storage unit 6 (step S211: no), the kanji corresponding to the letter in the sentence is replaced with the selected kanji, and the other part of the sentence is not changed to form a corrected sentence, and the corrected sentence is displayed as a candidate item in the candidate list (step S212), and finally, a desired candidate item is selected from the candidate list by theselection unit 10 according to the operation of the user (step S213). Here, when the number of homonymous chinese characters is three or more (including three), the method may be performed in step S208, in which a chinese character corresponding to an input letter in a sentence is replaced with all homonymous chinese characters of the chinese character, and the other part of the sentence is not changed to form a corrected sentence, and the corrected sentence may be additionally displayed as a candidate in a candidate list displayed in a normal display manner. Finally, a desired candidate item is selected from the candidate list by theselection unit 10 according to the user' S operation (step S213).
Next, a specific example of a method of displaying candidate items in the candidate list when two kanji characters corresponding to the input alphabet are displayed in the candidate list will be described with reference to fig. 4.
When a user chats with a counterpart using an SNS-based application, such as a communication software like a WeChat, through the chinese pinyin input method, the user wants to input [ what task is today? [ what today is ] has been correctly input, but when a chinese character corresponding to the pinyin in the candidate list is selected after the letter [ renwu ] is input, a [ character ] is erroneously selected, and then an erroneous sentence [ what is today? Is sent to the other party. In this case, in order to transmit a correct sentence to the other party, the user needs to input the letter [ renwu ] again, and in this case, the candidate list displays, in addition to the two candidates of [ character ] and [ task ], a corrected sentence in which the chinese character [ character ] corresponding to the letter [ renwu ] in the transmitted sentence is replaced with [ task ], that is, what task is today? ]. At this time, the candidate list is displayed as follows: [1,person 2,task 3, what task today? ].
Further, with reference to fig. 5, a specific example of a method of displaying candidate items in a candidate list when three or more (including three) chinese characters corresponding to an input pinyin are displayed in the candidate list will be described.
When the user chats with communication, the user wants to input [ send you a cup. If the Chinese character corresponding to the pinyin is selected from the candidate list after the pinyin [ beizi ] is input after the [ you-get ] is correctly input, the [ quilt ] is selected wrongly, and finally the wrong sentence [ you-get-quilt ] is sent. Is sent to the other party. In this case, in order to send the correct sentence to the other party, the user needs to input [ beizi ] again, and the following three candidate options are displayed in the candidate list 1: [1,quilt 2,cup 3, lifetime ]. Next, the user selects [ cup ] of the desired option two from thecandidate list 1. After the [ cup ] of the option two is selected, the selected [ cup ] is displayed as the option one in thecandidate list 2, and at the same time, the [ quilt ] in the transmitted sentence corresponding to the letter [ beizi ] is replaced by the [ cup ], and the other part in the sentence is not changed, so that a modified sentence [ send you one cup ] is formed. Also displayed as option two incandidate list 2,candidate list 2 displays the following two candidate options: [1,cup 2, send you a cup. ]. Finally, the user only needs to select option two [2 ] in thealternate list 2 and send you a cup. The correct sentence can be sent to the other party. In addition, if the user does not perform the selection operation after the display of thecandidate list 2, the candidate item selected by the default user on thecandidate list 1 is the final selection.
The specific embodiment related to the invention is explained by taking pinyin as an example, and the invention is also suitable for a Japanese input method, namely the condition that the input Roman letters are used for selecting Japanese Chinese characters corresponding to the input Roman letters.
As described in the two embodiments, according to this embodiment, a corrected sentence can be created by only two simple operations of inputting a letter and selecting a candidate, and a function of quickly transmitting a correct sentence to the other party can be realized by this invention.
The embodiments according to the present invention described above are explained based on a vehicle-mounted device having a communication function, and all devices for inputting characters, such as a character input device incorporated in a smartphone, a portable navigation device, and a vehicle-mounted television, are also applicable to the present invention.
In addition, although the embodiment of the present invention has been described with respect to the character input device having the chat information exchange function, the present invention is not limited to the input device having the information exchange function, and is also applicable to a device having a character input function for creating a general sentence.
Although the above embodiments have been described with reference to the priority order of displaying candidate kanji characters in the candidate list during character input, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.