Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J3/00—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed
  • B41J3/01—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed for special character, e.g. for Chinese characters or barcodes
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41B—MACHINES OR ACCESSORIES FOR MAKING, SETTING, OR DISTRIBUTING TYPE; TYPE; PHOTOGRAPHIC OR PHOTOELECTRIC COMPOSING DEVICES
  • B41B27/00—Control, indicating, or safety devices or systems for composing machines of various kinds or types
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
  • G09G—ARRANGEMENTS OR CIRCUITS FOR CONTROL OF INDICATING DEVICES USING STATIC MEANS TO PRESENT VARIABLE INFORMATION
  • G09G5/00—Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators
  • G09G5/22—Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators characterised by the display of characters or indicia using display control signals derived from coded signals representing the characters or indicia, e.g. with a character-code memory
  • G09G5/24—Generation of individual character patterns
  • G09G5/246—Generation of individual character patterns of ideographic or arabic-like characters

Definitions

• This invention relates to a system and apparatus for se ⁇ lecting graphical symbols and particularly to a system and apparatus for selecting desired ideograms from among a large number of ideograms by a system using alphabetic or phonetic symbols capable of being accommodated on a key ⁇ board arranged to place substantially every key within a space that can be spanned by the two hands of a typical operator.
• This invention is primarily concerned with the problem of selecting a desired ideogram by means of a keyboard that has a relatively small number of keys compared to the number of ideograms in the set from which the selection is to be made.
• a typical electric typewriter for typ ⁇ ing English and other languages that use the Roman alpha ⁇ bet includes 44 printing keys of which 26 are letter keys, ten are numeral keys from 0 to 9, and eight are keys for printing punctuation and other symbols.
• the typewriter also has seven control keys, including a space bar. Three of the control keys operate the shifting mechanism to allow each printing key to control the printing of two different symbols, such as upper case and lower case letters and ad ditional non-letter symbols.
• All of the keys are within a distance capable of being spanned by the two hands of a typical operator and yet there is sufficient space between the keys to permit easy actuation of any desired key with ⁇ out inadvertent actuation of an adjacent key.
• a professional typist can operate such a keyboard entirely by touch and without visual reference, primarily because it is possible for each of the typist's hands to remain very nearly in a fixed location. Key selection can be achieved almost entirely by finger movement.
• the Roman alphabet is not the only one that can be accom ⁇ modated by a typewriter; the Arabic, Cyrillic, Russian, Greek, and other symbolic alphabets and phonetic alphabets, and syllabaries, such as the Korean alphabet and the Japanese kana can all be incorporated in suitably adapted typewriters.
• Korean language which also has the advantage of including an alphabet system consisting of 24 letters generally cap ⁇ able of being sounded as either an initial or final letter.
• the pronunciation of a word made up of two or even more kanji is not always sufficient to identify the kanji.
• a machine or an electronic system will be unable to select a specific kanji based only on phonetic input.
• the ambiguity may be resolved as to one or more kanji of a compound word that comprises more than one kanji , but will not be resolved as to other kanji in the same word.
• One object of this invention is to provide a selection system capable of selecting a proper symbol from a group of such symbols.
• Another object of the invention is to provide a selection system using phonetic input means to obtain the initial information on which the selection is based.
• Another object of the invention is to provide an automatic correlation system between a simplified keyboard and a memory in which a large number of symbols is stored, the number of such symbols being far greater than twice the number of keys on the keyboard, and each symbol being selectable with not more than one shift operation per symbol.
• Still another object is to provide a printing and display system capable of printing and displaying ideograms rapidly and accurately.
• a further object of the invention is to provide an accurate language translation system and method.
• a further object is to provide a graphic symbol selection system adapted to be incorporated in a communication system.
• a still further object of this invention is to select ideograms and print them with a dot-matrix printer.
• Yet another object is to select ideograms and print them in a facsimile machine.
• a further object is to select ideograms on the basis of plural styles of pronunciation thereof.
• a still further object is to select ideograms on the basis of two linguistic characteristics thereof.
• information specific to each of a number of graphic symbols is stored in a memory.
• the memory could be a printing device and the information could be printing elements formed according to the graphic symbols, themselves.
• Phototypesetters have images of the symbols they are capable of printing and each symbol is located at a specific address on a master sheet.
• the information could be typing elements capable of printing by impact.
• the information could be in the form of electrical or magnetic conditions at known addresses in an electrical or magnetic memory.
• the information could be capable of controlling a dot-matrix or any other known form of printing device or graphic display device, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a facsimile machine.
• CTR cathode ray tube
• the electrically or magnetically stored information is not limited to the type of information that is capable of directly creating a graphic symbol but may simply be in the form of address information to actuate a phototypesetter, for example, and cause a symbol at that address on the master sheet to be printed.
• the information is stored according to linguistic characteristics and can be retrieved by linguistic data.
• a first linguistic characteristic is the pronunciation or phonetic representation of a character, which is the way people normally handle a spoken language.
• pronunciation is not a sufficient basis for selection, but it still forms a useful first basis for dividing ideograms into groups.
• the invention further contemplates the application of a second linguistic characteristic to at least the relatively small group of symbols obtained by the first selection process.
• the second linguistic characteristic must be applicable in a unique manner to each of the members of the small group so that any specific symbol in that group can be chosen.
• a second linguistic characteristic that can be used in the selection of Japanese ideograms is a different pronunciation of each of the ideograms. This is due to the fact that almost all Japanese ideograms have two styles of pronunciation, known as the on-yomi and the kun-yomi. These are frequently referred to simply as the "on” and “kun” styles of pronunciation. I have found that although there are many homonyms in the "on” style and many homonyms in the "kun” style, any ideogram recorded in an electrical memory can be uniquely selected by applying data consisting of the "on” style of pronunciation and the "kun” style of pronunciation of that ideogram.
• kanji ideograms
• the word "T ⁇ ky ⁇ ” previously mentioned is an example of such usage of kanji in a compound word.
• the second linguistic principle, or characteristic is the usage of the two kanji together.
• the proper "to" kanji can be selected and, at the same time, the proper "ky ⁇ ” kanji can also be selected.
• the compound word "tenki” consisting of a first kanji pronounced "ten” and a second kanji pronounced “ki” can mean either "a turning point” or "weather”.
• the four kanji involved in these two words are entirely different.
• the selection may be made by reference to kana associated with the kanji meaning "weather”. In this instance, it is common to place the kana pronounced "o” immediately in front of the kanji pronounced “tenki” and meaning "weather”, but the kana "o” is never placed in front of the kanji pronounced "tenk ⁇ " and meaning "a turning point".
• the appropriate kanji can be selected.
• a related second linguistic principle is to utilize kana that follow the kanji.
• the kanji pronounced “kiso” meaning “the foundation” are entirely different from the kanji also pronounced “kiso” but meaning “prosecute”.
• "kiso” is a verb and is followed by the kana “suru”, which do not follow the kanji pronounced “kiso” and used as a noun meaning "the foundation”.
• These preceding and following kana that are closely associated with the kanji in Japanese words are called "okurigana”.
• an operator of the system of this invention can rely on the "on-kun” method of selection, but to do so requires the input of additional data not normally included in a message. Normally, one uses only the "on” style or the “kun” style at any given point but not both styles.
• Still another linguistically-related principle that can be applied to select kanji that cannot be selected by reference to associated kanji or to okurigana is the graphic depiction of all of the kanji having a similar pronunciation and the associated graphic depiction of identifying information, such as the address of each of these kanji, to allow a person familiar with the language to chose the proper kanji and refer its address back to the apparatus.
• the address may be in the form of a number having four decimal digits.
• the presentation of the ambiguous kanji and their addresses can be accomplished automatically by the system without requiring any additional input from the operator and it is thus less burdensome than the selection based on multiple styles of pronunciation.
• the selection system of this invention can utilize a keyboard of the standard size in Roman letter typewriters, such as are used to type English and most of the European languages, can be used to select specific ideograms from a group of ideograms much larger in number than the number of keys on the keyboard.
• the Japanese phonetic syllabries, hiragana, and katakana have only about 50 symbols, and the keys of an electric typewriter keyboard originally set up for the Roman alphabet can easily be modified to accommodate the kana.
• a keyboard suitable for use In a system according to the present invention can be small enough to be spanned by the outstretched fingers of two hands of average size and yet the information entered through this keyboard utilizing the apparatus of the present invention can produce a graphic display of more than 2,000 graphic symbols. Furthermore, selection of the graphic symbols in accordance with the linguistic characteristics as just described makes it unnecessary to use each key to obtain more than two symbols in each mode of operation.
• the present invention requires, at most, shifting between two symbols, or symbol styles, for each key. This corresponds to writing English in which the operation is shifted between one level for lower case letters and another level for upper case letters.
• the apparatus of this invention includes a memory in which the graphic symbols or information defining such symbols is stored in specific address locations. These addresses may be reached by signals processed by a suitably programed computer or by a sequence of storage, comparison, and switching circuits. The full scope of operation of a computer is unnecessary because there is a finite, specific number of symbols or addresses to be retrieved by a finite set of data.
• Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of this invention
• Figure 2 is a plan view of one embodiment of a keyboard for use in the present invention
• Figure 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the procedure followed in encoding a typical Japanese expression by use of the keyboard shown in Figure 2;
• Figure 4 is a detailed schematic diagram of a component of the system shown in Figure 1;
• FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the invention.
• Figures 6A-6L are illustrative examples of the use of ideograms in Japanese writing.
• FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a modified system incorporating the invention.
• Figure 8 is a plan view of another embodiment of a keyboard for use in the present invention.
• Figure 9 is a block diagram of a terminal suitable for use in the circuit in Figure 7;
• Figure 10 is a simplified illustration of the screen of a cathode ray tube displaying information according to the present invention.
• Figure 11 is a simplified drawing of one sheet of computer fanfold paper arranged to be used in accordance with this invention.
• Figures 12A and 12B illustrate two types of graphic symbol display in accordance with the present invention.
• the present invention is particularly well suited for use with the Japanese language.
• written Japanese usually consists of "kanji” or Chinese characters, mixed with “kana” or Japanese phonetic characters.
• Kana characters are relatively easy to select, type, or print because there are only a relatively small number of them.
• the Chinese characters cause all of the problems described above.
• each Chinese character is represented by a signal composed of two separate signals, one representing the "kun” style and the other the "on" style of pronunciation of the character.
• FIG. 1 of the drawings shows a system for encoding, decoding, and graphically displaying Japanese phonetic and Chinese characters to form written matter in the Japanese language.
• This system includes a keyboard unit 10 with character keys 12.
• the unit 10 sends coded electrical signals to a conventional tape punch unit 14 which produces a punched paper tape 16 bearing binary-coded arrays of holes each representing a character key which was depressed.
• the matter being typed is typed in accordance with the above- described "on-kun” code in which each Chinese character is represented by Japanese phonetic (kana) or Roman characters which represent the "kun” and the "on” styles of pronunciation. Words which are to be printed or otherwise displayed in kana form can be typed directly, without use of the "on-kun” code.
• Each set of signals using the "on-kun” code is segregated from the other signals by appropriate start and stop signals.
• the punched tape 16 is delivered to a conventional tape reader 18 which produces coded electrical signals corresponding to the punch-coded signals on the tape 16. These electrical signals are conducted to a conventional code decoder 20 which detects the start and stop signals surrounding each "on-kun" code sequence and delivers a gating signal on a lead 22 to a switching device 26.
• Switching device 26 which can be a conventional bi-stable circuit such as a flip-flop, directs the coded signals it receives over lead 24 to one of two leads 28 or 30, depending upon which of its bi-stable conditions it is switched to by the gating signal received on the lead 22.
• the device 26 Upon the receipt of a "start" signal signifying the start of a sequence of "on-kun” coded signals, the device 26 switches to one mode in which the coded signals ane delivered over output lead 28 to a code converter device 32.
• Code converter 32 stores coded signals representing Chinese characters and delivers one of those signals over an output lead 34 to a utilization device 36 in response to the receipt of the "on-kun" code designation of a selected character.
• the utilization device can be any type desired, such as a photocomposing machine, cathode ray tube display, or teleprinter, each of which pr.ints or otherwise graphically displays the Chinese characters.
• the punched tape is but one example of a register for storing the encoded character signals from the keyboard device 10.
• Other permanent, semi-permanent or temporary registers such as magnetic tape, punched cards, etc., can be used instead of punched tape, or the use of a register can be dispensed with entirely. In the latter case, the output of the keyboard device 10 would be connected directly to the decoding device 20.
• the keyboard device could be connected directly to the converter 32, thus eliminating elements 20 and 26 from the circuit.
• FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the keyboard device 10.
• the keyboard includes character keys 12 each of which is marked with a Roman letter 38 and a Japanese phonetic (kana) character 40.
• Number keys 42 are marked with an Arabic numeral, and, since the Arabic numerals are themselves ideograms with directly corresponding Chinese ideograms, one key can be used to represent the same number in each language if desired.
• Certain other keys 44 termed herein as "quadrated” keys, are marked with three or four different symbols, some being kana characters, and others being English ideograms.
• Kay V is for upper case Roman characters and Arabic numerals
• Key IV is for lower case Roman characters and Arabic numerals
• Key III is for the "katakana” form of kana characters
• Key I is for the “hiragana” form of kana characters
• Key II is the "on-kun” code signal key which records the stop and start signals indicating that the code is for Chinese
• the "M” key designates the switch to turn the keyboard on and off.
• the one of the characters on quadrated keys 44 which is selected depends upon which of the four keys I, III, IV or V is actuated.
• a space bar 46 is also provided to space the characters from one another.
• FIG. 3 An example of how the keyboard device 10 can be used is illustrated in Figure 3.
• the expression "at first light exists", indicated by reference numeral 49 at the bottom of Figure 3, is. properly written in Japanese as shown by the expression at the top of Figure 3 which is indicated by numeral 47.
• the symbols indicated by reference numeral 51 comprise a single Chinese or "kanji” character which means “first”.
• Characters 55 and 57 are Japanese phonetic characters (kana characters) which create a meaning, together with character 51, of "at first”.
• Character 59 is another Chinese character which means "light”.
• Characters 61 and 63 are two further Japanese phonetic characters which together mean "exists”.
• the encoding of the Japanese express ⁇ on 47 will now be explained as an example.
• the "M” key is depressed to turn the keyboard device 10 on.
• the I I key is depressed to indicate that a Chinese character will be encoded.
• the keyboard device 10 is one of several devices which are commercially available for converting keystrokes into appropriately coded electrical signals.
• the electrical signals are used to operate the tape punch 14, or to otherwise operate in the system shown in Figure 1. Any particular binary code can be used as desired. For example, either six- or seven-level "Teletypesetter" (TTS) code can be used.
• TTS "Teletypesetter"
• Table 65 in Figure 3 shows the Japanese phonetic and the Roman alphabet components of both the "kun” and the "on” pronunciations for the Chinese character 51.
• the "kun” pronunciation of character 51 is “ha- ji -me”
• the "on” pronunciation is "s ⁇ -yo”.
• Chinese character 51 is encoded by first pressing the key 48 for the Japanese phonetic symbol for "ha”. The next phonetic symbol is formed by successively depressing keys 50 and 52. Since the first two syllables in the "kun" pronunciation are sufficient to uniquely identify the character 51, it is not necessary to depress a third key to represent "me”, although the third key can be depressed if the operator desires. Instead, a key 53 may be depressed which encodes a signal on the tape 16 which indicates ' the end of the "kun” pronunciation and the beginning of the "on” pronunciation. Next, the key 50 for "si” and the key 54 for "yo” are depressed. This completes the coding except for ending the Chinese character. This is done by depressing key II again, thus placing a coded signal which is the same as the start signal on the tape.
• the Japanese phonetic characters 55 and 57 do not need to be specially encoded.
• the next step in encoding the expression 47 is to depress the Japanese phonetic key I to condition the keys 12 to encode Japanese phonetic characters, and then keys 56 and 58 corresponding, respectively, to phonetic characters 55 and 57 are depressed.
• the Chinese character 59 is encoded by first again pressing the Chinese character key II, and then depressing, in succession, keys 60, 62, and 64 for the "kun” pronunciation.
• key 53 is depressed, to separate the different pronunciations, and the "on" pronunciation of the Chinese character 59 is encoded by depressing successively keys 66 and 68, in accordance with table 67.
• This Chinese character is ended by again depressing key II.
• the final two phonetic characters 61 and 63 are encoded by once again depressing key 1, and then keys 70 and 64.
• the depression of the "M" key turns the keyboard off.
• the keyboard device 10 is vastly simpler than previous keyboard devices for encoding the Japanese language characters.
• the keyboard can be simplified even further if only Japanese phonetic characters are desired to be used in the typewriter, or if only Roman characters are to be used. In such a case, some of the function keys and their associated circuitry can be eliminated.
• Figure 4 shows an example of circuitry which can be used to convert "on-kun” coded signals into Chinese characters.
• the converter 32 includes a shift register 100 connected to the input lead 28, and a register 102 connected to the shift register 100. These registers are conventional and are adapted to store two coded signals apiece and then read out their signals. When the register 100 has receive two "kun” coded words, it shifts those words into the second register 102. When both registers 100 and 102 are full the signals stored in those registers are transferred, respectively, to conventional decoders 106 and 104 respectively.
• the "kun" code signals are delivered first, they are decoded in the de- coder 104 whereas the "on” signals are decoded in the decoder 106.
• the "on" and “kun” codes are reversed in order, the opposite signals are decoded by each decoder .
• Each decoder 104 or 106 produces an output signal on only one of its output leads for a given combination of input signals.
• the decoder 104 might deliver an output signal over lead 108
• the decoder 106 might deliver the signal over the lead 112.
• the lead 108 is connected by means of another lead 110 to a plurality of different storage units 113.
• Each of the storage units 113 stores a coded electrical signal representative of one Chinese character.
• Each storage unit 113 includes "AND" circuit means so that its stored signal will be read out only when a signal is received on each of two input leads.
• Each output lead of the decoder 106 also is connected to every storage unit 113 which has the "on" pronunciation represented by the lead 112..
• the lead 112 is connected to the second input lead of the same storage device 115 as the one to which the lead 108 of decoder 104 is connected.
• FIG. 5 illustrates another embodiment of the present invention.
• the keyboard unit 10 is connected to a visual display device 150 of a well-known type.
• a visual display device 150 of a well-known type.
• One such device is part of the machine known as the "Ohicoder” machine which is sold by the I tek Company, Lexington, Massachusetts. It has a display screen 156 on which Chinese characters can be displayed, one within each one of the squares on the screen.
• a horizontal array of switch buttons 152 and a vertical array of switch buttons 154 are provided along the edges of the screen 156.
• a particular Chinese character displayed on the screen can be selected by sight and trans mi tted from the device 150 to the utilization device 36 by pressing a button corresponding to the proper row and column of the desired Chinese character.
• the keyboard device 10 shown in Figure 5 is operated so as to develop coded signals corresponding only to either the "on” or the "kun” style of pronunciation of a particular Chinese character desired to be selected.
• This signal is delivered to the display unit 150 which then will display each of the Chinese characters having that particular "on” or “kun” pronunciation. Then the desired Chinese characte is selected visually and read out of the device 150 in the manner described above. This provides an extremely simple solution to the character selection problem.
• characters can be selected by means of a pre-programed general-purpose digital computer instead of the permanently-wired circuitry represented by elements 20, 26 and 32 of Figure 1, such as a Honeywell Level 6-36.
• a general-purpose cumputer may be of any well-known type and will not be described in detail herein.
• the detailed steps to be performed by actually programming the computer are well within the skill of those knowledgeable in the computer programming art.
• the computer would be programmed to store at each address in its memory a separate signal representative of a distinct Chinese character. A signal would be read out of each address only when signals representing both the "on” and "kun” meaning for the character were received at that address in the storage.
• the input data to such a computer could be in the form of a punched paper tape 16, magnetic tape, punched cards or other well-known digital computer input media.
• each Chinese character is represented by only two different pronunciations, it should be understood that, especially when encoding Chinese characters in the Chinese language, more than two different pronunciations can be used to encode each character. Thus, the character encoding capacity of the system will be increased .
• the system and method of the present invention is very easy to use by relatively unskilled personnel familiar with the Japanese language. Even those with only the most rudimentary education in Japanese learn to speak and write both the "on" and "kun” styles of pronunciation for Chinese characters.
• the operation of the keyboard of the present invention makes advantageous use of the basic knowledge of most people with a fundamental education in the Japanese language.
• the vast reduction in the number of different keys to be depressed makes the keyboard device of the present invention vastly more simple to use, faster in operation, smaller in size and weight, and of less complicated and expensive mechanical construction than prior art keyboards.
• a single data processor can be used to process the input data from a plurality of different keyboards, the savings due to reduction of complexity in the keyboard equipment can be multiplied by the number of different keyboard units which can be used with a single data processor.
• Figure 7 is a simplified block diagram of major components of a computer arranged to operate as a communication system incorporating the present invention.
• the circuit shown in Figure 7 is basically a Honeywell Level 6-36 computer, the components of which are connected to a bus 161 referred to as a megabus.
• the components connected to the megabus 161 include a CPU 162 having a 64KW memory 163 connected to it.
• the megabus 161 also has a mass storage controller 164 connected to it and two discpacks 167 and 168 connected thereto. Each of the discpacks has a 5 megabyte storage capacity.
• the megabus 161 also has a multi-line communication processor 169 connected to it with one or more communication packs 171 connected to the MLCP 169.
• each of the CP's has four asynchronous ports 172-175 connected to it.
• the port 172 is connected to a subscribers telex channel operating at a 50 baud rate
• the port 173 is connected by means of an accoustic coupler connected to a telephone line and operating at a 300 baud rate.
• the port 174 is connected to a data communication channel operating at up to 19.2 kilobauds.
• the port 175 operates through a suitable connector such as an RS232C connected to a direct line to permit wide band signals to pass therethrough.
• a second MLCP 176 may be connected to the megabus 161.
• a multi-device controller 177 may be connected between the megabus 161 and a keyboard device pack 178. The latter is connected to a keyboard device 179.
• FIG. 7 may be operated as a time-sharing system so that a number of terminals may be connected to feed signals into it and to receive signals from it.
• Figure 8 shows a typical keyboard 179.
• This keyboard may be identical with the Honeywell VIP 7200 keyboard.
• the main part of the keyboard includes all of the letter and numeral keys found on a standard typewriter operating on the Roman alphabet.
• the keys marked with Roman alphabetic symbols are identified in general by reference numeral 181.
• the keys marked with Arabic numerals in the next to the top line of keys in the keyboard are indicated by reference numeral 182.
• At the right hand side of the keyboard in Figure 8 is a numerical pad generally indicated by reference numeral 183- Each of these keys is connected to a correspondingly-numbered key in the numeric keys 182 in the main part of the keyboard.
• the top row of keys in the keyboard in Figure 8 contains a number of function and mode keys. These are the keys that control most of the functions found in a standard electric typewriter.
• the keyboard in Figure 8 may be connected to a terminal shown in block form in Figure 9.
• This is a typical, configuration for a terminal and includes the keyboard 179, a printer 184, a cathode ray terminal 186 that includes a cathode ray tube, and a control system 187 including a micro-processor such as a Motorola 6800 along with a random access memory and a character memory in the form of an eraseable programable read-only memory capable of storing information allowing the printout of 2500 characters including about 2250 kanji along with a full set of katakana and hiragana symbols and all of the Roman letters, both upper and lower case, and the Arabic numerals from 0 through 9, together with various punctuation and other symbols.
• a micro-processor such as a Motorola 6800 along with a random access memory and a character memory in the form of an eraseable programable read-only memory capable of storing information allowing the printout of 2500 characters including about 2250 kanji along with a full
• the terminal in Figure 9 further includes a switch 188 that connects the terminal to any one of four lines which are the same four lines as identified in connection with the asynchronous ports 172-175 in Figure 7.
• the terminal in Figure 9 can be connected directly to the computer sys tem in Figure 7 by any suitable one of the four lines and can also be connected to another terminal by any one of the four lines. This makes the system very flexible in its modes of communication.
• the function keys in the top row indi cate the form of input and output information.
• the keysin the keyboard 179 are marked with Roman letters and with katakana symbols along with other non-phonetic symbols.
• the system may be so arranged that, when it is placed in operation, the information typed in must be typed according to eit.her the katakana symbols on the keys or according to the romaji, or Roman letter, markings on the keys. The difference is simply that, if the information is to be typed in using the katakana designations, the phonetic katakana symbol pronounced "ka” must be typed in by actuating the key that is also marked with the Roman letter "F". If the information is to be presented (for the Japanese language) by using Roman letters, the same pronunciation "ka” could be obtained by typing the letters "k” and "a” in succession.
• the output of the information typed in at the keyboard 179 may be displayed on the cathode ray terminal 186 in any of several ways. By depressing the key marked "hiragana", the information may be displayed in hiragana. If the input is in katakana, there will be one character generated on the face of the CRT in the hiragana form for each katakana key struck on the keyboard 179. The significance of this is that an operator can have an immediate feedback of information that a key has been actuated. On the other hand, if the information is typed in Roman "letters, the direct 1:1 correspondence between the information entered by way of the keys and the display on the cathode ray tube of the terminal 186 is not present.
• the system is arranged so that, as each Roman letter key is actuated, the corresponding Roman letter will appear on the screen of the cathode ray tube in the terminal 186.
• the Roman letters of the immediately-preceding word will automatically be changed into hiragana.
• the "echo" effect is obtained but the information is still presented in the form of hiragana.
• the information can be presented in katakana by actuating the key marked "katakana”.
• the kana shift key controls the shifting operation similar to the upper and lower case operation of a standard typewriter, but indicated on each of the symbol keys by the two symbols on the right hand side of each of these keys.
• each of the kanji stored in the memory of the system has an address which is preferably in the form of a four-digit code number.
• the four-digit number may be presented on the screen of the cathode ray terminal 186 and this number can then be entered by way of the numerical pad 183 to cause the printout of the appropriate kanji.
• the kanji shift keys 192 and 193 are used.
• the input may be in either Roman letters or in katakana.
• the kanji shift keys 192 or 193 must be depressed. This has the effect of shifting the operation of the system to obtain processing of the Roman letters or kana symbols entered immediately thereafter into appropriate kanji.
• the appropriate kanji may be determined without ambiguity simply on the basis of the phonetic information and the additional linguistic information afforded by the preceding and following kanji or the preceding and following kana.
• some of the kana may remain displayed in negative form on the screen of the cathode ray terminal 186.
• the negative display of kana will be shown until the code signal for each of the kanji in the sentence is returned from the central memory in the system shown in Figure 7. If it turns out that the kanji shift key has been depressed to call for transformation into a kanji and there is no kanji that can be identified in the memory, the system in Figure 7 will send back information that no such kanji exists and in that case the negative display of those particular kana will be transformed into positive display.
• the system will cause the display on the bottom half of the cathode ray screen in the terminal 186 of all of the kanji having the same pronunciation.
• These kanji will be displayed along with their four-digit code numbers and the operator, who must be familiar with the Japanese language, can then select the proper kanji. This selection can then be entered back into the keyboard by typing in the four- digit code number by means of the numerical pad 183 of the keyboard in Figure 8.
• a sentence having several groups of negatively-displayed kana indicated by shaded blocks 196-198 will cause a plurality of groups of kanji to be depicted in the lower part of the screen.
• the kanji 201 has its four-digit code presented in a corresponding 18 x 18 array 203 immediately below the kanji. Because of the fact that the four numbers that make up the code for the kanji 201 can each be displayed in a 9 x 9 array, all four can be presented in the same space as the kanji 201, itself.
• the four-digit code 204 for the kanji 202 is displayed immediately below it and in the same manner the kanji 206 and 207 that correspond to the kana 197 are displayed with their four-digit codes 208 and 209, respectively.
• the kana 198 three kanji 211-213 could be appropriate. These three kanji are presented with their respective fourdigit codes 214-216. The operator has only to look at the kanji presented at the lower part of the screen to determine which ones to use to replace the negatively-displayed kana 196-198 and then must enter the corresponding fourdigit number by way of the numerical pad 183.
• Still another way to determine the appropriate kanji is to utilize the key that has the arrow that points to the left. This key also has the katakana symbols pronounced "a" and
• the first key to be utilized for this purpose is the edit key, and when it is depressed, a cursor can be moved back and forth along a line of symbols on the face of the cathode ray tube in the terminal 186 by actuation of the arrow keys pointing left and right. Preceding lines and sentences can be moved into veiw on the cathode ray tube screen by actuation of the arrow pointing upward and then these preceding sentences can be run off the screen by actuation again of the arrow pointing downward. When the proper line is in position and the cursor is on the proper word, the symbols in that word may be changed symbol by symbol to make any necessary corrections. When the information in the message is correct, and when all of the negative kana have been replaced by positive kana or by kanji, the message may be recorded by actuation of the print key and then may be later printed out on the printer 184.
• Figure 11 shows one sheet of computer paper arranged to accommodate the invention.
• On the left hand side of the paper is an area 218 which is shown as being a letterhead sheet. It is not possible to go from negative to positive depiction of kana in a printer such as the printer 184, but the information can be printed out initially in the letterhead area 218, and for each line of print, any ambiguous kanji may be caused to print the possible insertions on the same line. This is illustrated by the shaded block 219 that represents kana which should be transformed into kanji but which cannot be transformed unambiguously. On the same line but on the right hand side 221 of the sheet of.
• Figure 12A are printed by printing first the upper half of all four symbols by moving the printer means along the line 236 from left to right and then printing the lower half by moving the printing elements along a continuation of the line 236 from right to left.
• the areas 231-234 may be printed by a raster sweep of each of the 18 lines from top to bottom with each line going from the far left to the far right.
• each 18 x 18 area is separated from its neighboring 18 x 18 area by a space represented by six dots.
• Figure 12B shows a modified form of presentation in which only the relatively complex kanji are presented with an 18 x 18 matrix format and the simpler symbols, such as the kana and any Roman letters and numerals, are presented in 9 x 9 matrices. It takes less time to retrieve 81 bits of information required for generation of a symbol in a 9 x 9 matrix than it does to retrieve 324 bits of information to generate a symbol in an 18 x 18 matrix area. This speeds up the printing process. The printing process may be further speeded up by the technique of moving the printing or scanning element faster in areas in which it is known that nothing is to be printed as is true in the upper part of areas over the small squares 237 and 238 in Figure 12B.
• one of the linguistic characteristics that can be utilized to select kanji for printing the Japanese language is to group the kanji in accordance with the number of such kanji in a word.
• there are words that contain more than four kanji but it has been determined that it is unnecessary to include such words in the memory of the system since any word can be spelled out phonetically by using kana.
• the number of kanji used by a person is Indicative of the educational attainments of that person, but this is not always the case, It is thus perfectly satisfactory if some of the kana that should be translated into kanji do not get translated.
• IF KTX1 "M502" GO TO TXT-R. TXl-M. WRITE TXTFIL INVALID KEY GO TO TXT-E1.
• IF R3 "Q” GO TO HIRAGANA.
• IF R3 "V” GO TO KATAKANA.
• IF R3 "L” GO TO ALPHABET.
• IF R3 - "'” OR R3 " , " GO TO SRCH1. SRCHO.
• IF R3 "#" GO TO END-P.
• R3 SPACE GO TO SYMBOL. SRCH1.
• IF TYP 0 GO TO PROCESS-C1.
• IF TYP NOT 0 GO TO SC2.
• IF C3 NOT 0 GO TO SC1.
• IF TYP NOT 6 GO TO FOUND.
• IF TYP 0 MOVE 0 TO KC.
• PROCESS-H SET III TO 11. GO TO TR1.
• PROCESS-A PROCESS-A.
• IF FGW1 1 GO TO EXX12 EXXI1.
• IF OS-REGISTER NOT SPACES GO TO EXX31.
• EXX3 3. MOVE 01-REGISTER TO OSR(0S). GO TO EXX30. EXX3 4. DISPLAY "9999".
• KJU2. READ K--7 ⁇ BLE-S INVALID KEY GO TO KJAB CD. MOVE 5 TO FLG.

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• Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
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• 1979
  • 1979-06-14 WO PCT/US1979/000418 patent/WO1980000105A1/en unknown
• 1980
  • 1980-01-29 EP EP19790900717 patent/EP0016067A1/de not_active Withdrawn

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