JP2009032173A - Character input device and communication terminal device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a character input device having the same key arrangement in both portrait and right/left landscape modes and allowing a user to easily learn operation and allowing both right- and left-handed person to input characters in the same way. <P>SOLUTION: This character input device has: a keypad 3 having at least 4×4 matrix of 16 keys, and having a plurality of modes; a gravity acceleration sensor; and a screen 2 displaying an inputted character. A direction in the operation is detected by the gravity acceleration sensor, an image displayed on the screen 2 is turned in a correct direction according to the direction in the operation, and a direction of the keypad 3 operation coincides with the direction of the screen. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a character input device suitable for a communication terminal device such as a mobile phone or PHS or a small computer (hereinafter referred to as PDA) and a communication terminal device using the character input device.

  In recent years, communication terminal devices such as mobile phones and PHS have been added with a function of connecting to an Internet line, and it has become possible to send and receive electronic mail (hereinafter simply referred to as “mail”). As a result, it is possible to use e-mail without owning a personal computer, which contributes to the widespread use of e-mail users.

  Also, with the miniaturization of computers, PDAs with high functionality are on the market. As described above, mobile phones and PDAs have been improved in performance, and miniaturization has been rapidly progressing. For this reason, a device capable of inputting characters with a simple operation is required. A character input device that is currently in widespread use is designed to input characters by making kana correspond to dial buttons 0 to 9 of a cellular phone.

  On the other hand, the digitalization of television broadcasting has progressed, and simple broadcasting for small screens called one-segment broadcasting has also started. For this reason, what receives a television broadcast using a mobile telephone is also put into practical use.

  For this reason, when using a mobile phone or the like, the mobile phone is used vertically when sending and receiving e-mails or making a voice call, and when receiving a television broadcast, the mobile phone itself or only the screen is used horizontally. Has occurred.

  In such a usage pattern, assuming a state in which a mail is received while a television broadcast is being received and a reply is made, an operation is performed in which the mail is read with a screen once in a vertical orientation and a reply is performed.

  For this reason, there is a problem that it is troublesome because it is necessary to alternately use the mobile phone in portrait orientation and landscape orientation. The thing disclosed by patent document 1 was developed with respect to such a problem.

The one disclosed in Patent Document 1 was made to solve such a problem, and the arrangement of the dial buttons 1 to 9 to the user regardless of whether the cellular phone is oriented vertically or horizontally. Are in the same direction.
JP 2005-12493 A

  As disclosed above, the arrangement of the dial buttons 1 to 9 is the same direction with respect to the user as described above. However, the button arrangement is 12 in 3 × 4 and the number “0” or The arrangement of other keys such as “*” and “#” changes depending on the orientation of the mobile phone.

  Thus, the operation described in Patent Document 1 has no problem using the dial buttons 1 to 9, but the operation of the other buttons is different depending on the orientation of the mobile phone.

  In particular, for a person who performs touch typing, the arrangement of the keyboard differs depending on the orientation of the mobile phone, which is very inconvenient.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above problems. For example, even if 16 or 9 keys are used and the main body is oriented vertically or horizontally, all keys are arranged in accordance with the orientation of the main body. Match and always have the same usability.

  It has at least 16 keys, and the 16 keys have a 4 × 4 arrangement and have a keypad having a plurality of modes, a gravitational acceleration sensor, and a screen for displaying input characters. The acceleration sensor detects which direction is being operated during operation, and the direction of the image displayed on the screen is made positive according to the direction during the operation, and the direction of the keypad operation is also on the screen Matched the direction of.

  As described above, 16 keys are arranged in a 4x4 layout, and when the main body is turned vertically or horizontally, the direction of the key arrangement is changed according to the orientation. Regardless of the orientation, the same usability is achieved.

  Furthermore, since a monitor image indicating what each key corresponds to appears on the screen, the user can perform an input operation without looking at the key. Therefore, for example, an embodiment in which the key is arranged on the back surface of the main body can be taken.

  The above monitor image can also be used regardless of the direction of the main body because the main body is vertically used and rotated in accordance with the direction of horizontal use.

  In addition to the above description, nine keys can be arranged in a 3 × 3 arrangement. In this case, for example, when each key is associated with 1 to 9 and “0” is input, the “9” key can be pressed twice in a short time.

  When nine keys are arranged in a 3 × 3 arrangement, nine keys are arranged in a range slightly larger than the size of a person's finger, and the middle key is used so as to coincide with the center of the belly of the finger. All input is possible just by moving your finger up, down, left and right, and input without looking at the keys.

  When 9 keys are arranged in a 3 × 3 arrangement, it is possible to input with a particularly small number of keys. Therefore, when combined with a fingertip input device disclosed in, for example, International Publication No. WO03 / 019373, it is extremely simple. Text can be input. In other words, the fingertip input device described in this international publication performs quick input depending on the direction in which the fingertip is applied with the position of the finger substantially fixed. Input work can be performed in a fixed state.

  Therefore, it is possible to perform an input operation without looking at the keys, and by making a monitor sound that can determine which key is pressed each time an input is made, even a person with visual impairment can easily input a sentence. it can.

  Even with the 4 × 4 key arrangement or the 3 × 3 key arrangement described above, the input operation can be performed without looking at the keypad, so that the area of the keypad can be reduced. Therefore, as the keypad, a contact type or a capacitance type can be used.

  A first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of a mobile phone using the character input device of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a speaker from which the other party's voice is emitted during a call. 2 is a screen and 3 is a keypad. The keypad 3 is provided with 16 keys composed of 4 × 4.

  In other words, 10 keys corresponding to the numbers 0 to 9, keys corresponding to “*” and “#”, keys corresponding to punctuation marks “,.”, Space key, “function” key “switch” There are a total of 16 keys. As the keypad 3, a known matrix switch using flexible silicon rubber or the like can be used.

  Further, four keys 4 to 7 are arranged around the keypad 3 as necessary. These four keys correspond to an on-hook key, a browse key, an off-hook key, a browse key, and the like, respectively. 8 is a microphone. The main body 9 has the screen 2 and the keypad 3 described above.

  The character input method using the cellular phone will be described first with reference to an input screen and a flow chart showing the operation of the computer, and then a mechanism portion and an electronic circuit provided inside will be described.

  First, as shown in FIG. 1, when processing is started in step A and the main body 9 is turned sideways in step B, the gravitational acceleration sensor (hereinafter referred to as “G sensor”) 11 detects that the main body 9 is in the horizontal direction. .

  If the main body 9 is in the vertical orientation, the screen 2 is displayed vertically as shown in FIG.

  If the main body 9 is in the landscape orientation, the process proceeds to step E, and a process for turning the display of the screen 2 in the landscape orientation is performed. Here, in step F, “function” is pressed to determine whether the character input area of the monitor image displayed on the screen 2 is horizontally long or vertically long.

  In other words, if the character input area is designated vertically, the process of making the character input area on the left of the key monitor image vertically becomes step G as shown in FIG. 1, and if it is designated horizontally, the character input on the left of the key monitor image is shown as shown in FIG. The process of making the area horizontally long is performed in Step H.

  Next, in step I, the G sensor 11 again determines whether the main body is on the right side or the left side. That is, the state shown in FIG. 1 is the right side, and the state shown in FIG. 4 is the left side. Generally, it is easier for right-handed people to use in the right-sided state and left-handed people to use in the left-sided state.

  If the main body 9 is in the right side state, the arrangement of the keys on the keypad 3 is matched with the key monitor image in FIG. 1 in step J. If the main body 9 is in the left side state, the keys on the keypad 3 are arranged in step K. The arrangement is made to coincide with the key monitor image of FIG.

  In this way, the keys on the keypad 3 are arranged in accordance with the vertical, right horizontal, and left horizontal states of the main body 9. Then, an input operation is performed in step D using the keypad 3. When the input work is finished, the process is finished in step L.

  The above is the operation in the first embodiment of the character input device of the present invention, and the mechanism portion and the electronic circuit provided inside will be described below. 5 is a circuit block diagram of a cellular phone to which the character input device of the present invention is applied.

  Here, the same components as those in FIG. Reference numeral 10 denotes a microprocessor (hereinafter referred to as CPU), which has an arithmetic processing circuit, storage means, and the like.

  The CPU 10 is connected to the keypad 3 and operates as programmed according to data input from the keypad 3. The G sensor 11 is also connected to the CPU 10 to determine whether the main body 9 is vertically oriented, right-sideways, or left-sideways.

  The display 2 is connected to the CPU 10 via the driver 12. A character table / dictionary unit 13 stores character data to be displayed on the display 2 based on data input from the keypad 3. Reference numeral 14 denotes a call circuit which transmits and receives radio waves and secures communication with the base station.

  Reference numeral 15 denotes a keypad conversion table. Data indicating which key corresponds to the result of determining whether the main body 9 is in the vertical orientation, the right-side orientation, or the left-side orientation according to the output of the G sensor 11 is obtained. It is stored. For example, in the state of FIG. 1, the key located in the first row and second column of the keypad 3 corresponds to the number “1”, but this key corresponds to the number “6” in the state of FIG. . In this way, table data indicating what each key corresponds to the state of the main body 6 is stored.

  The CPU 10 uses the data in the keypad conversion table 15 to display a key monitor image on the screen 2 as shown in FIGS.

  In the above first embodiment, an example using 16 4 × 4 keys is shown, but the present invention can also be realized with 9 3 × 3 keys.

  In the second embodiment, the operation of the CPU 10 is almost the same as that of the first embodiment, but step D in the flowchart of FIG. 6 is different. Details of this step D of the second embodiment are shown in FIG.

  In step D1, it is determined whether or not the key corresponding to “9” has been pressed twice within a predetermined time (hereinafter referred to as “twice pressed”). If it has been pressed twice, the process proceeds to step D2 and "0" is input. If it has not been pressed twice, control goes to step D3 and "9" is input.

  At the same time, it is determined in step D4 whether or not the key corresponding to “1” has been pressed twice. If it has been pressed twice, the process proceeds to step D5 and “function” is input. That is, the same operation as when the “function” key in the first embodiment is pressed is performed. If it has not been pressed twice, the process proceeds to step D6 and “1” is input.

  In addition to the above, when inputting information corresponding to “#” or “*”, a key corresponding to “2” or “3” can be pressed twice.

  In the above embodiment, the cellular phone device is shown as an application example of the character input device, but it may be applied to a PDA or the like in addition to this. Furthermore, it can be used in the same way by both right-handed and left-handed people, and it can be easily input with one finger, so it is easy to use for people who have lost their fingers due to accidents or other causes. Is a large input device.

It is a front view which shows Example 1 of the communication terminal device of this invention. It is a front view which shows Example 1 of the communication terminal device of this invention. It is a front view which shows Example 1 of the communication terminal device of this invention. It is a front view which shows Example 1 of the communication terminal device of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows Example 1 of the communication terminal device of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of Example 1 of the communication terminal device of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of Example 2 of the communication terminal device of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

Claims (5)

A keypad having a plurality of modes in a 4 × 4 arrangement, a gravitational acceleration sensor, and a screen for displaying input characters, and having at least 16 keys. The gravitational acceleration sensor detects the direction of operation during operation, and the direction of the image displayed on the screen is set to the positive direction according to the direction of operation, and the direction of the keypad operation A character input device that matches the orientation of the screen. A keypad having a plurality of modes in a 3 × 3 arrangement, a gravitational acceleration sensor, and a screen for displaying inputted characters, and having at least nine keys. The gravitational acceleration sensor detects the direction of operation during operation, and the direction of the image displayed on the screen is set to the positive direction according to the direction of operation, and the direction of the keypad operation A character input device that matches the orientation of the screen. The character input device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a monitor image indicating which of the numbers 0 to 9 corresponds to each key or which function is displayed on the screen. 3. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein the key arrangement is always the same depending on the direction of operation.   A communication terminal device comprising the character input device according to claim 1.

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