WO2006060263A2

WO2006060263A2 - A method and device for performing ideographic character input

Info

Publication number: WO2006060263A2
Application number: PCT/US2005/042562
Authority: WO
Inventors: Li-Xin Zhen; Yong Ge; Feng-Jun Guo
Original assignee: Motorola Inc.
Priority date: 2004-11-30
Filing date: 2005-11-22
Publication date: 2006-06-08
Also published as: JP2006155622A; KR20070074652A; CN100394363C; WO2006060263A3; CN1782958A

Abstract

A method (300) for performing ideographic character input via a user interface in the form of a touch screen (105) of an electronic device (100) comprises receiving (302) a series of scribed alphabetical letters (200) scribed in a scribing area (201) of the touch screen (105), the series of letters representing at least one ideographic character. The method comprises identifying (303) a group of candidate words from the series of alphabetical letters and displaying (304) representative candidate ideographic characters (203) in a first display area (202) of the user interface, each one of the representative candidate ideographic characters corresponding to a different one of the candidate words. The method comprises displaying (305) alternative ideographic characters (205) in a second display area (204) of the user interface, the alternative ideographic characters corresponding to one of the candidate words, and receiving (307) a selection request to thereby input one of the candidate ideographic characters to the electronic device (100).

Description

A METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PERFORMING IDEOGRAPHIC

CHARACTER INPUT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to a method and device for performing ideographic character input. The invention is particularly useful for, but not necessarily limited to, performing automatic recognition of a series of letters representing at least one ideographic character scribed on a touch screen of an electronic device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electronic devices increasingly include a user interface in the form of a touch screen, particularly small electronic devices such as mobile telephones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). In addition to displaying information, touch screens enable a user to input information by virtue of, for example, virtual buttons or character recognition. In the case of character recognition, a character is hand scribed in a scribing area of the touch screen and character recognition software determines one or more candidate characters corresponding to the hand scribed character. Such techniques are particularly useful for inputting complex ideographic characters that appear in languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In addition to their complexity, ideographic characters are large in number. For example, one known Chinese language standard defines over 6,700 simplified Chinese characters that are used in mainland China, while another standard defines over 13,000 traditional characters that are used in Taiwan. Hence, it can be difficult for even an educated person to remember all the characters or even a relatively small subset of the characters.

Furthermore, because the touch screen is often relatively small, especially for mobile telephones and PDAs, and the scribing area is typically even smaller than the size of the touch screen, it can be difficult for the user to scribe the ideographic characters in the scribing area, especially the more complex characters, which may comprise many strokes. Also, recognition errors can occur when letters or ideographic characters are scribed on the touch screen.

It is known to use input methods such as PinYin and ZhuYin to aid the inputting of ideographic characters. In PinYin for example, a series of alphabetical letters represents at least one ideographic character. The user can therefore input a character to an electronic device in a PinYin mode when they cannot remember, or do not wish to scribe, the- ideographic character in an ideographic character input mode of the device. However, the series of alphabetical letters may represent more than one ideographic character. For example, in PinYin, the series of alphabetical letters "shuang" may represent

the ideographic characters "W, "W, "M", "M", ";£". Therefore, the user encounters the further difficulty of finding the desired ideographic character from a number of candidate ideographic characters.

In this specification, including the claims, the terms "comprises", "comprising" or similar terms are intended to mean a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a method or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include those elements solely, but may well include other elements not listed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, in one form the invention is a method for performing ideographic character input via a user interface of an electronic device, the method comprising: receiving at least one indicia scribed in a scribing area of the user interface, the indicia representing at least one ideographic character; identifying a group of candidate words from the indicia; displaying representative candidate ideographic characters in a first display area of the user interface, each one of the representative candidate ideographic characters corresponding to a different one of the candidate words; displaying alternative ideographic characters in a second display area of the user interface, the alternative ideographic characters corresponding to one of the candidate words; and receiving a selection request to thereby input one of the candidate ideographic characters to the electronic device.

Suitably, the indicia may be a series of scribed alphabetical letters. However, the indicia may be a representation of an ideographic character.

The identifying a group of candidate words may include performing character recognition on the indicia.

The alternative ideographic characters may be displayed in a predefined order determined by statistical analysis.

The method may further include displaying alternative ideographic characters corresponding to a different candidate word when a different representative candidate ideographic character is selected.

In another form the invention is an electronic device for performing ideographic character input, said electronic device comprising: a processor for identifying a group of candidate words from at least one indicia; a user interface coupled to be in communication with the processor, the user interface comprising: a scribing area for receiving the indicia scribed therein, the series of letters representing at least one ideographic character; a first display area for displaying representative candidate ideographic characters, each one of the representative candidate ideographic characters corresponding to a different one of the candidate words; a second display area for displaying alternative ideographic characters corresponding to one of the candidate words; and a third display area for displaying one of the candidate ideographic characters input to the electronic device in response to the processor receiving a selection request therefor. Suitably, the processor performs character recognition on the indicia to identify the group of candidate words. Suitably, the indicia may be a series of scribed alphabetical letters.

However, the indicia may be a representation of an ideographic character.

Suitably, the second display area displays the alternative ideographic characters in a predefined order determined by statistical analysis. Suitably, the second display area displays alternative ideographic characters corresponding to a different candidate word when a different representative candidate ideographic character displayed in the first display area is selected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the invention may be readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to exemplary embodiments as illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numbers refer to like elements, in which:

FIG. l is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of a user interface when a series of alphabetical letters is scribed on a screen 105 of the device of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for performing ideographic character input via the user interface of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the user interface of FIG. 2 illustrating further the method when a series of alphabetical letters is scribed on a screen 105 of the device of FIG. 1 ; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the user interface of FIG. 2 illustrating further the method when an indicia representing an ideographic character is scribed on a screen 105 of the device of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1 , there is a schematic diagram illustrating an electronic device 100 in the form of a mobile station or mobile telephone comprising a radio frequency communications unit 102 coupled to be in communication with a processor 103. The electronic device 100 also has a user interface in the form of a touch screen 105 coupled to be in communication with the processor 103. As will be apparent to a person skilled in the art, a keypad 106, coupled to be in communication with the processor 103, may also be provided.

The processor 103 includes an encoder/decoder 111 with an associated code Read Only Memory (ROM) 112 for storing data for encoding and decoding voice or other signals that may be transmitted or received by the mobile telephone 100. The processor 103 also includes a micro-processor 113 coupled, by a common data and address bus 117, to the encoder/decoder 111, a character Read Only Memory (ROM) 1 14, a Random Access Memory (RAM)

104, static programmable memory 116 and a Removable User Identity Module (RUIM) interface 118. The static programmable memory 1 16 and a RUIM card 119 (commonly referred to as a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card) operatively coupled to the RUIM interface 118 each can store, amongst other things, Preferred Roaming Lists (PRLs), subscriber authentication data, selected incoming text messages and a Telephone Number Database (TND phonebook) comprising a number field for telephone numbers and a name field for identifiers associated with one of the numbers in the name field. For instance, one entry in the Telephone Number Database may be 91999111 1 11 (entered in the number field) with an associated identifier "Steven C! at work" in the name field. The RUIM card 119 and static memory 116 may also store passwords for allowing accessibility to password-protected functions on the mobile telephone 100. The micro-processor 113 has ports for coupling to the touch screen 105, keypad 106 and an alert 115 that typically contains an alert speaker, vibrator motor and associated drivers. Also, micro-processor 113 has ports for coupling to a microphone 135 and communications speaker 140. The character Read Only Memory 114 stores code for decoding or encoding text messages that may be received by the communications unit 102. In this embodiment the character Read Only Memory 114, RUIM card 119, and static memory 1 16 may also store Operating Code (OC) for the micro-processor 113 and code for performing functions associated with the mobile telephone 100.

The radio frequency communications unit 102 is a combined receiver and transmitter having a common antenna 107. The communications unit 102 has a transceiver 108 coupled to the antenna 107 via a radio frequency amplifier 109. The transceiver 108 is also coupled to a combined modulator/demodulator 110 that couples the communications unit 102 to the processor 103.

The electronic device 100 can be any electronic device including a radio telephone, a conventional type telephone, a laptop computer, a tablet personal computer (PC) or a PDA. A user can select an application by traversing menus or selecting icons displayed on the touch screen 105.

The touch screen 105 can be integral with or an accessory to the electronic device 100. The touch screen 105 has an incorporated driver that is controllable by micro-processor 1 13. The touch screen 105 is a two-way user interface for typically allowing data entry, invoking device applications and commands, menu traversing, displaying text, displaying graphics and displaying menus. Data entry and other user input requirements to the touch screen 105 is typically by use of a stylus and may involve scribing characters onto the touch screen 105 as will be apparent to a person skilled in the art. Furthermore, although the user interface in this embodiment is in the form of a touch screen 105, the user interface can be any means of inputting scribed indicia to the electronic device 100, such as a tablet or electronic touch sensitive pad and the like.

Referring to FIGs. 1 and 2, the electronic device 100 for performing ideographic character input comprises the processor 103 for identifying a group of candidate words from at scribed (handwritten) indicium that can be a series of alphabetical letters 200. The user interface in the form of the touch screen 105, which is coupled to be in communication with the processor 103, comprises a scribing area 201 for receiving the series of alphabetical letters 200 scribed therein. The series of alphabetical letters 200 represents at least one ideographic character. The touch screen 105 also comprises a first display area 202 for displaying representative candidate ideographic characters 203. Each one of the representative candidate ideographic characters 203 corresponds to a different one of the candidate words. The touch screen 105 comprises a second display area 204 for displaying alternative ideographic characters 205 corresponding to one of the candidate words. The touch screen 105 also comprises a third display area 206 for displaying one of the candidate ideographic characters input to the electronic device 100 in response to the processor 103 receiving a selection request therefor. Hence, this third display area 206 displays text comprising the selected candidate characters. It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the arrangement of the scribing area 201, first, second and third display areas 202, 204, 206 illustrated in FIG. 2 is merely one possible arrangement available from many alternatives.

Referring to FIGs. 2 and 3, there is illustrated in accordance with an embodiment of the invention a method 300 for performing ideographic character input via the user interface in the form of the touch screen 105. The method 300 is primarily performed by the processor 103 and comprises a start operation 301 typically invoked by an interrupt when a user selects a handwriting input mode. The handwriting (indicium or indicia) as illustrated is in the form of the series of alphabetical letters 200 and in one entry mode the handwriting input mode employs the PinYin input method. In one alternative entry mode, the handwriting input mode employs the ZhuYin input method or any other similar method as will be apparent to a person skilled in the art.

The method 300 comprises an operation of receiving 302 a series of scribed alphabetical letters 200 scribed in the scribing area 201 of the touch screen 105. The series of letters represent at least one ideographic character. The method comprises identifying 303 a group of candidate words from the series of alphabetical letters 200. The identifying303 the group of candidate words includes the processor 103 performing character recognition on the series of alphabetical letters 200. This character recognition of each letter in the series of alphabetic letters 200 includes segmentation, normalization and template matching as well as detecting when a user has completed scribing the series of scribed alphabetical letters 200 by use of a timeout routine or otherwise. Character recognition is well known by a person skilled in the art and for the sake of brevity a detailed description thereof is not required in this specification.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the series of alphabetical letters 200 in the PinYin handwriting input mode appears to be "shuang". However, because of, for example, careless, untidy or peculiar handwriting, the series of alphabetical letters 200 could be identified as other candidate words. In this example, the group of candidate words that may be identified may be "shuang", " shuan", "zhuang", "zhuan" and "huang". Referring to Table 1 , each candidate word in the left hand column has at least one corresponding candidate ideographic character in the right hand column:

shuang m,n, M,Ά... shuan £. Sl, R ... zhuang «. B. «,jt,*t... zhuan ft, ft,*... huang ft, */T£l, tt, Vn....

Table 1

Referring to FIGs. 2 and 3, the method 300 comprises an operation of displaying 304 representative candidate ideographic characters 203 in the first display area 202 of the touch screen 105. Each one of the representative

candidate ideographic characters 203 (M, fe, ^, $£, H) corresponds to a different one of the candidate words. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, each of the representative candidate ideographic characters 203 displayed in the first display area 202 corresponds to the first candidate ideographic character for each candidate word shown in Table 1. Method 300 comprises displaying 305 alternative ideographic characters

205 in the second display area 204 of the touch screen 105, the alternative ideographic characters 205 corresponding to one of the candidate words. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, and with reference to Table 1 , the alternative ideographic characters 205 in the second display area 204 correspond to the candidate word "shuang".

In one embodiment, the alternative ideographic characters 205 are displayed in the second display area 204 in a predefined order determined by statistical analysis. For example, statistical analysis of a language database can yield the words used most frequently in a particular language. Therefore, in one embodiment, the most frequently used ideographic character is displayed in the first display area 202 as the representative candidate ideographic character 203 and alternative ideographic characters 205 are displayed in the second display area 204 in order of their frequency of use. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the representative candidate ideographic character 203 displayed in the first display area 202 is also displayed in the second display area 204 as one of the alternative ideographic characters 205.

In an alternative embodiment, the frequencies with which ideographic characters are input to the electronic device 100 by the user are recorded. The order in which alternative ideographic characters 205 are displayed in the second display area 204 may then be determined by the frequency with which they are used by the user.

If none of the alternative ideographic characters 205 displayed in the second display area 204 are the desired ideographic character, scrolling arrows 207 of the touch screen can be selected to display further alternative ideographic characters 205 in the second display area 204. The scrolling arrows 207 may be selected when the second display area 204 is unable to display all the alternative ideographic characters 205 corresponding to a candidate word (in this example the alternative ideographic characters 205 for shuang are displayed in Fig. 2) .

A user determines at a test block 306 whether the desired candidate ideographic character has been displayed in the second display area 204. If no desired candidate character has been displayed in the second display area 204 then the user can select another desired candidate character by touching the appropriate candidate character 203 in the first display area 202. Thus, referring to FIG. 4, if the desired candidate ideographic character has not been initially displayed in display area 204 after selectively operating the scrolling arrows, the method 300 further includes displaying 309 alternative ideographic characters corresponding to a different candidate word when a different representative candidate ideographic character 208 is selected. The alternative ideographic characters 205 displayed in the second display area 204 illustrated in FIG. 4 correspond to the candidate word "shuan", which is the second candidate word shown in Table 1. When at test block 306 the desired ideographic candidate character is displayed in the second display area 204 the user selects the desired candidate ideographic character by touching the appropriate character in the second display area 204. As a result, a selection request is generated at block 306 and the method proceeds to a block 307 wherein in response to the processor 103 receiving the selection request, the selected ideographic character is input to an ideographic character string, such as a text message, in the third display area 206 of the touch screen 105 of the electronic device 100. This selection request automatically clears the scribing area 201 in anticipation of another series of scribed alphabetical letters 200 being scribed thereon. A user can then select to enter another character by simply scribing another series of scribed alphabetical letters 200 in the scribing area 201. If this scribing is detected at a test block 310 then the method 300 returns to receiving 302. Alternatively, the user can select a finish entering option, at test block 310, by actuating a key 212 on screen 105 thus completing entering text in the third display area 206 and ending the method 300 at a block 311.

If the desired candidate ideographic character is not displayed in display area 204, even after selective operation of the scrolling arrows 207, perhaps due to careless scribing of the series of scribed alphabetical letters 200 in the scribing area 201 , then the scribing area 201 , first display area 202 and second display area 204 are refreshed (cleared). The areas 201 ,202and 204 are refreshed by the user selecting a refresh button 210 on the screen 105 that essentially performs a refresh interrupt that can be invoked at any block of the method 300. This refresh interrupt results in the method 300 returning to the block where receiving 302 is performed for receiving 302 a new series of scribed alphabetical letters 200 and to prepare the display areas 201, 202 for displaying ideographic characters.

In Figs. 2 and 4 the scribed indicia or indicium are the series of alphabetical letters 200. However, as illustrated in Fig. 5 the indicia is an ideographic character 500 and not the series of alphabetical letters 200. Accordingly, ideographic character recognition is performed in block 303 and most of the representative candidate ideographic characters 203 in the first display area 202 illustrated in Fig. 5 will be different than those illustrated in Fig. 2 even though the intention of the user could be scribe the indicia to input

the character "2X" into the third display area 206.

The present invention is therefore an electronic device and a method for performing ideographic character input via a user interface of the electronic device that enables a user to input ideographic characters by scribing a series of alphabetical letters representing at least one ideographic character in a scribing area of the user interface from which candidate words are identified. The user does not need to remember all the ideographic characters because the method and device display representative candidate ideographic characters identified from the scribed series of alphabetical letters, each representative candidate ideographic character corresponding to a different one of the candidate words.

To facilitate selection of the desired ideographic character, alternative ideographic characters corresponding to one of the candidate words are also displayed. Alternative ideographic characters corresponding to a different candidate word are displayed when a different representative candidate ideographic character is selected to provide the user with further choices. Hence, the inputting of the correct ideographic characters into electronic devices is simplified and made more efficient.

The above detailed description provides an exemplary embodiment only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the present invention. Rather, the detailed description of the exemplary embodiment provides those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing the exemplary embodiment of the invention. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements and steps without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

WE CLAIM:

1. A method for performing ideographic character input via a user interface of an electronic device, the method comprising: receiving at least one indicia scribed in a scribing area of the user interface, the indicia representing at least one ideographic character; identifying a group of candidate words from the indicia; displaying representative candidate ideographic characters in a first display area of the user interface, each one of the representative candidate ideographic characters corresponding to a different one of the candidate words; displaying alternative ideographic characters in a second display area of the user interface, the alternative ideographic characters corresponding to one of the candidate words; and receiving a selection request to thereby input one of the candidate ideographic characters to the electronic device.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the identifying a group of candidate words includes performing character recognition on the indicia.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the indicia is a series of scribed alphabetical letters.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the indicia is representation of an ideographic character.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the alternative ideographic characters are displayed in a predefined order determined by statistical analysis.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, further including displaying alternative ideographic characters corresponding to a different candidate word when a different representative candidate ideographic character is selected.

7. An electronic device for performing ideographic character input, said electronic device comprising: a processor for identifying a group of candidate words from at least one indicia; a user interface coupled to be in communication with the processor, the user interface comprising: a scribing area for receiving the indicia scribed therein, the indicia representing at least one ideographic character; a first display area for displaying representative candidate ideographic characters, each one of the representative candidate ideographic characters corresponding to a different one of the candidate words; a second display area for displaying alternative ideographic characters corresponding to one of the candidate words; and a third display area for displaying one of the candidate ideographic characters input to the electronic device in response to the processor receiving a selection request therefor.

8. An electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the processor performs character recognition on the least one indicia to identify the group of candidate words.

9. An electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the indicia is a series of scribed alphabetical letters.

10. An electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the indicia is a representation of an ideographic character.

11. An electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the second display area displays the alternative ideographic characters in a predefined order determined by statistical analysis.

12. An electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the second display area displays alternative ideographic characters corresponding to a different candidate word when a different representative candidate ideographic character displayed in the first display area is selected.