CN104268131A - Method For Speeding Up Candidates Selection In Chinese Input - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for character input comprising, providing a list of candidate characters based on a user input, wherein said list is cyclic and comprises candidate characters with decreasing probability towards a center of said list; providing an indicator on a candidate character in one end of said list; and enabling a user to move said indicator along said list to a candidate character for selection. A corresponding mechanism, apparatus, and computer program is also disclosed.

Description

Method for accelerating candidate selection in Chinese input

This application is a divisional application of an invention patent application with an application date of February 21, 2008, an application number of 200880117201.2, and an invention title of "Method for Accelerating Candidate Selection in Chinese Input".

technical field

The present invention relates to a method for facilitating and speeding up candidate selection when entering Chinese characters using a keyboard with a limited number of keys, such as a numeric keypad of a mobile communication device or a remote control.

Background technique

Communication between people using mobile handheld communication devices has grown rapidly in the last decade. One of the most popular ways of communicating is by sending each other short text messages also known as SMS (Short Message Service). The characters forming the text message are typically entered manually via the mobile handheld communication device keypad. Unfortunately, most handheld communication devices only provide keypads with a reduced key set (0-9 and function keys) such as a telephone keypad rather than a full key set. Entering characters via a telephone keypad can be a rather tedious task as it may often require several keystrokes to select the character the user wants to enter. One way to reduce the number of keystrokes is to use some kind of predictive text application. During character entry, the predictive text application displays character candidates from which the user can choose. In this way, the number of keystrokes can be significantly reduced.

However, in some languages such as Chinese, the character candidate list may still be long due to the large number of characters in the language. For example, in the Pinyin input method (formally Hanyu Pinyin), which is the most commonly used standard Mandarin Chinese romanization system in use today, the candidate list displayed as rows of selectable candidates may in some cases have to be divided into several pages due to the large number of character candidates found . Navigating and selecting among these pages containing character candidate rows can still be quite cumbersome and frustrating for the user.

Contents of the invention

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to solve, or at least reduce, the problems discussed above. In particular, the aim is to reduce the number of keystrokes required to navigate and select a character among several candidates, thus significantly increasing the input speed of eg Chinese characters.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for a portable device, the method comprising: providing a list of candidate characters based on user input, wherein the list is circular and includes candidate characters with decreasing probability towards the center of the list ; providing an indicator on a candidate character at one end of the list; and enabling the user to move the indicator along the circular list towards the candidate character for selection. In this way, the most likely character candidates can be reached with the fewest number of keystrokes, thus significantly reducing the number of keystrokes in most cases and thus avoiding tedious work.

The method may include user input including a romanization of Chinese, wherein the romanization includes any of the following: Hanyu Pinyin, EFEO, GwoyeuRomatzyh spelling, Latinxua Sin Wenz, Putonghua Phonetic II, China Post Map Romanization, Universal Pinyin, Wade-Gites, Yale, Legge Romanization, Comparison Chart, Guangdong Romanization, Hong Kong Government, Jyutping, Meyer-Wenipe, Sidney Lau, SLWong Romanization, Standard Cantonese Pinyin, Standard Romanization, Shanghainese Latin Zhuyin French, long and short romanization, Péh-oe-ji, Hainanese pinyin scheme, Peng'im, Hakka phonetic scheme, Phak-fa-su and Phagspa writing symbols, and candidate characters include Chinese characters. Thus, the method is applicable to a large number of different languages, and in particular for 'Chinese type' characters as exemplified above.

The method may include user input including cyryllization of Chinese, and the candidate characters include Chinese characters. Cyryllization can include the Palladius system. Therefore, the method is not limited to Latin characters as input characters.

The method may include displaying the list on a display. Presenting the list on the display enhances the user experience of the method.

The method may include highlighting an indicator of a corresponding character candidate in the displayed list.

The method may include further enabling the user to navigate in a direction other than along the circular list to access the alternate character candidate list; and providing the alternate character candidate list.

Therefore, if the number of character candidates exceeds the number of characters that can be simultaneously displayed on the display of the mobile communication device, the character candidates may be divided into several pages. Each such page may contain a circular list of character candidates arranged according to their relative probabilities. The method is therefore also suitable for candidate lists in which it is not permitted to display all candidates of the list at the same time.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a character entry mechanism comprising: a list of candidate characters based on user input, wherein the list is circular and includes candidate characters with decreasing probabilities towards the center of the list; and an indicator , which is initially positioned on a candidate character at one end of the list and can be moved by the user along the circular list towards candidate characters for selection. Thus, such a mechanism can be used with the above mentioned portable devices.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a display and character entry mechanism comprising: a list of candidate characters presented on said display based on user input via said text input interface, wherein said list is cyclic and comprising candidate characters with decreasing probabilities towards the center of the list; and an indicator on a candidate character initially positioned at one end of the list and capable of being moved by the user along the cyclic list towards the candidate for selection character. Accordingly, such displays and such mechanisms may be used with the above-mentioned portable devices.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer readable medium having computer executable means comprising instructions operable to control a data processor to: provide a list of candidate characters based on user input, wherein The list is circular and includes candidate characters with decreasing probabilities towards the center of the list; an indicator is provided on the candidate characters at one end of the list; and the user is enabled to move the indicator along the circular list towards the candidate character for selection .

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for character input, the method comprising: providing a list of candidate characters based on user input, wherein the list includes candidate characters with probabilities that decrease towards both ends of the list; providing an indicator on the candidate character in the center of ; and enabling the user to move the indicator along the list to a candidate character for selection. In this way, the most likely character candidates can be reached with the fewest number of keystrokes, thus significantly reducing the number of keystrokes in most cases and thus avoiding tedious work.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character input mechanism comprising: a list of candidate characters based on user input, wherein the list includes candidate characters with probabilities that decrease towards both ends of the list; Initially located on the candidate character in the center of the list and can be moved by the user along the list towards the candidate character for selection.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus comprising a text input interface, a display and a character input mechanism, the mechanism comprising: a list of candidate characters presented on the display, the list being based on user input through the text input interface, wherein the list includes candidate characters with decreasing probabilities towards both ends of the list; and an indicator on the candidate character initially positioned in the center of the list and capable of being moved by the user along the list towards the candidate character for selection.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer readable medium having computer executable means comprising instructions operable to control a data processor to: provide a list of candidate characters based on user input, wherein The list includes candidate characters with decreasing probabilities towards both ends of the list; an indicator is provided on the candidate character in the center of the list; and the user is enabled to move the indicator along the circular list towards a candidate for selection character.

The second, third and fourth aspects of the invention may be combined in any way with the features of the first aspect of the invention. The sixth, seventh and eighth aspects of the invention may be combined in any manner with the features of the fifth aspect of the invention.

Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein. Unless expressly stated otherwise, all references to "a/an/the/the [unit, device, component, means, step, etc.]" are to be construed openly , step, etc. at least one instance. The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure, from the appended dependent claims and from the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

The above and additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by the following exemplifying and not limiting detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals will be used for like elements, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a display diagram of inputting Chinese characters into a mobile communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

2 shows a display diagram of navigation in a list including Chinese characters in a mobile communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 3 shows two display diagrams describing the navigation of a list containing Chinese characters in a mobile communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 4 shows a display diagram of the present invention; and

Fig. 5 shows another display diagram of the present invention.

Detailed ways

FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile communication device 100 including a text input interface 102 such as a telephone keypad and a display 104 . The mobile communication device may also include other units commonly found in such devices, such as a speaker (not shown), a microphone (not shown), a processor (not shown), a memory (not shown), and the like.

The communication device 100 is arranged for a messaging service, wherein a user is able to enter a text message and send it to one or more communication devices. The apparatus 100 includes a character entry mechanism arranged to facilitate entry of morpheme-based characters by enabling entry of phoneme-based characters. The character entry mechanism identifies morpheme-based candidate characters presented on the display 104, where the navigation device 106 can be used to select and thereby add the desired character to the message.

The device also includes a navigation device 106 that can be used to navigate among the displayed character candidates 108, such as a four-way navigation key (up/down/right/left), a rotatable input device, or a touch-sensitive navigation input. In order to be able to navigate among the character candidates 108 , one of the character candidates has an indicator 110 . The indicator can be in the form of highlighting the active candidate, placing a pointer or a marker below/above/beside the active candidate, and the like.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which six character candidates are displayed in a list in a display of a mobile communication device. For example, if the user wants to select the fifth character in the list 108, he or she presses the navigation device 106 (right navigation key) four times. As shown in FIG. 2 , the character indicator (highlight) correspondingly moves to the right and highlights the fifth character 204 . The indicator now placed on the fifth character 204 in the list 202 now indicates that a particular character candidate can be selected upon activation of selection means (e.g. a dedicated selection key, a soft key assigned a selection function, an operation of the navigation means 206 for selection) . The character candidates 202 may be arranged in a sequential list with first and last character candidates in a navigational manner, or preferably in a circular list, ie when navigation reaches the end of the list, further navigation continues at the other end of the list. For example, in the left screenshot of Figure 3, the leftmost character 303, the first character in the circular list 301, is indicated. When the user navigates one step to the left, as shown in the right screenshot, the rightmost character 305 , the sixth character in list 301 , is indicated. In the same way, it is also possible to navigate to the left in a circular list, so that when the leftmost character in the list is reached, further navigation to the left will result in indicating the rightmost character. Finding, navigating to, and selecting the desired character candidate may in many instances require multiple keystrokes, especially when the character candidate list is long.

In the same way, it is also possible to navigate to the right in a circular list, so that when the rightmost character in the list is reached, further navigation to the right will result in indicating the leftmost character.

Candidates 108 in FIG. 1 are determined based on the input of phoneme-based characters 112, such as Latin, Arabic, or Cyrillic characters 401 as shown in FIG. 4, by using an input interface 102 that can is a telephone keypad, handwriting input and recognition mechanism or any other character entry or navigation device 106 . From the input characters 112, feasible morpheme-based character candidates 108 are determined and displayed. Once selected, the selected character candidates are added to the message, and a new set of characters can be entered to form the basis of the new set of character candidates for navigation and selection.

To further facilitate creating messages based on morpheme-based characters, character candidates can be ranked based on their probability of use. This probability can be based on general probabilities in the language used, probabilities according to a personal dictionary, or according to a linguistic analysis of the message itself.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 5 . The display shows six character candidates arranged in a circular list 501, and the relative order of the character candidates is as follows. The most likely selected character candidate 502 is placed in the leftmost position in the list, position 1 (as shown in FIG. 5 ). The second possible character candidate 503 is placed in the rightmost position in the list, position 6. The third possible character candidate 504 is placed in the second leftmost position, position 2, in the list. The fourth possible character candidate is placed in the second rightmost position in the list, position 5. The fifth possible character candidate is placed in the third leftmost position in the list, position 3, and the sixth possible character candidate is placed in the third rightmost position in the list, position 4. This arrangement will result in a list with decreasing probabilities towards the center of the list, with the least likely character candidates in the middle of the list and the most likely character candidates at the two "ends" of the list (toward the far right and towards the left) . In other words, as shown in Figure 5, the probabilities increase towards the two sides (left and right) of the list and decrease towards the middle or center of the list. Longer lists will be arranged in the same alternating fashion as above.

From the beginning, the most probable character at position 1 is highlighted for selection. If the user wants to navigate to and select the second possible character candidate 503, only one key press is required (navigate left one step to position 6), and if the user wants to navigate to and select the third possible character candidate 504, only one keystroke is required key (navigate right one step to position 2). In this way, the most likely character candidate can be reached with the fewest number of keystrokes, thus significantly reducing the number of keystrokes in most cases. Long lists of character candidates can be arranged in the same way, starting with the most likely character candidate at the far left, the second likely character candidate at the far right, the third likely character candidate at the second left, and the fourth likely character candidate second to the right, and so on.

As an alternative, the list can be arranged in such a way that the candidates are ordered so that the probabilities are descending from the center of the list, i.e. a list where the middlemost candidate character is associated with the highest probability and is initially highlighted (as above mentioned). For such a list, the candidate character immediately to the right of the middlemost candidate character is associated with the second highest probability; the candidate character immediately to the left of the middlemost candidate character has the third highest probability; and so on. So instead of starting at one end and moving (from both ends) towards the center of the list as the candidate characters decrease in probability, the list can be searched from the middle and out towards the ends as the candidate characters decrease in probability.

If the number of character candidates exceeds the number of characters that can be simultaneously displayed on the display of the mobile communication device, the character candidates may be divided into pages. Each page will contain a circular list of character candidates arranged according to the relative probabilities of the character candidates according to the above scheme. For example, if ten character candidates are found during input and the display can only show 5 character candidates at a time, the list of ten candidates is divided into two lists each containing 5 character candidates. The first page will then contain the five most likely character candidates arranged in a circular list according to the above scheme. The second page would then contain the remaining five next most likely character candidates arranged in a circular list according to the scheme described above. If the user does not find the character he or she is looking for in the list on the first page, the user can navigate to a second page containing a list with the remaining character candidates by pressing the up/down keys.

Pages can be arranged in a sequential list with "first page" and "last page" that can be navigated using the up/down keys. They could also be arranged in a sequential but circular fashion, so that when the user has navigated to the "last page" and presses the up/down keys again, the "first page" containing the list with the most likely character candidates will be displayed.

If several pages, ie several lists, can be displayed simultaneously in the display of the device, they can be arranged according to the same scheme as the character candidates as described above.

The invention has been described above mainly with reference to a few embodiments. However, as is readily appreciated by a person skilled in the art, other embodiments than the ones disclosed above are equally possible within the scope of the invention, as defined by the appended patent claims.

Claims (12)

1., for a method for character input, comprising:

Show the candidate character list based on user's input over the display, wherein said list is circulation and comprises the candidate characters with the probability successively decreased towards the central authorities of described list;

By highlighting candidate characters so that the described candidate characters of the one end in described list to provide designator in shown list; And

User is enable described designator to be shifted to the candidate characters for selecting along described list, wherein:

The most probable character of described candidate character list is highlighted from the beginning,

Second possible character is the next one of described most probable character in described candidate character list, and wherein said user can by navigating to described second possible character from described most probable character navigation one step, and

3rd possible character is the next one of described most probable character and is on the opposition side relative to described second possible character of described most probable character in described candidate character list, and wherein said user can by navigating to described 3rd possible character in the reverse direction in direction navigating to described second possible character with a step, from described most probable character navigation one step.

2. method according to claim 1, wherein said user's input comprises the romanization of Chinese, and described candidate characters comprises Chinese character.

3. method according to claim 2, wherein said romanization comprises any one in following content: the Chinese phonetic alphabet, EFEO, Gwoyeu Romatzyh spelling, Latinxua Sin Wenz, mandarin phonetic symbol II, China Post's map romanization, general phonetic, Wade-Gites, Yale, Legge romanization, comparison chart, Guangdong romanization, the Hongkong government, Jyutping, Meyer-Wenipe, Sidney Lau, S.L.Wong romanization, standard Cantonese phonetic, standard romanization, Shanghai native language Latin type phonetic method, length romanization, P é h-oe-ji, Hainan words phonetic plan, Peng'im, hakka phonetic plan, Phak-fa-su and Phagspa mark.

4. method according to claim 1, wherein said user's input comprises the cyryllization of Chinese, and described candidate characters comprises Chinese character.

5. method according to claim 4, wherein said cyryllization comprises Palladius system.

6. the method according to the arbitrary claim in claim 1-5, also comprises and enables user except navigating to access alternative character candidate list on the direction except described list; And described alternative character candidate list is provided.

7., for an equipment for character input, comprising:

For showing the device of the candidate character list based on user's input over the display, wherein said list is circulation and comprises the candidate characters with the probability successively decreased towards the central authorities of described list;

For passing through to highlight candidate characters the described candidate characters of the one end in described list to provide the device of designator in shown list; And

For enabling user described designator be shifted to the device for the candidate characters selected along described list, wherein:

The most probable character of described candidate character list is highlighted from the beginning,

Second possible character is the next one of described most probable character in described candidate character list, and wherein said user can by navigating to described second possible character from described most probable character navigation one step, and

3rd possible character is the next one of described most probable character and is on the opposition side relative to described second possible character of described most probable character in described candidate character list, and wherein said user can by navigating to described 3rd possible character in the reverse direction in direction navigating to described second possible character with a step, from described most probable character navigation one step.

8. equipment according to claim 7, wherein said user's input comprises the romanization of Chinese, and described candidate characters comprises Chinese character.

9. equipment according to claim 8, wherein said romanization comprises any one in following content: the Chinese phonetic alphabet, EFEO, Gwoyeu Romatzyh spelling, Latinxua Sin Wenz, mandarin phonetic symbol II, China Post's map romanization, general phonetic, Wade-Gites, Yale, Legge romanization, comparison chart, Guangdong romanization, the Hongkong government, Jyutping, Meyer-Wenipe, Sidney Lau, S.L.Wong romanization, standard Cantonese phonetic, standard romanization, Shanghai native language Latin type phonetic method, length romanization, P é h-oe-ji, Hainan words phonetic plan, Peng'im, hakka phonetic plan, Phak-fa-su and Phagspa mark.

10. equipment according to claim 7, wherein said user's input comprises the cyryllization of Chinese, and described candidate characters comprises Chinese character.

11. equipment according to claim 10, wherein said cyryllization comprises Palladius system.

12. equipment according to the arbitrary claim in claim 7-11, also comprise for enabling user at the device except navigating to access alternative character candidate list on the direction except described list; And for providing the device of described alternative character candidate list.