JP2560066B2 - Character input device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Outline] The present invention relates to a character input device for recognizing and inputting handwritten characters, and enables free input in horizontal writing and vertical writing.
For the purpose of facilitating the handwriting input, the coordinate input means for inputting the handwriting character, the display means for displaying the display data, and the coordinates of the handwriting character added by the coordinate input means are present within a specific range. The coordinate comparison means for comparing the above, the recognition means for recognizing the handwritten characters in the specific frame added by the coordinate comparison means and adding the recognition result as display data to the display means, and the coordinates added by the input means are A signal indicating the direction when the character is out of the specific frame determines the input position of the handwritten character to be added next, and the position and the character frame control means for outputting to the display means are provided.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to an input device for a computer or the like, and more particularly to a character input device for recognizing and inputting handwritten characters.

[Conventional technology]

As an input device for a computer or the like, there is a method of recognizing characters written on a tablet with a stylus pen.

 FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the conventional method.

A handwriting input area E ^▼ is provided on the left side of the tablet 3, and a cursor movement area EC is provided on the right side thereof. In this method, the cursor is usually programmed to move in the "right" direction each time one character is written. Therefore, when writing one character, the operator touches the cursor movement area with the stylus pen, You have to move the cursor in the desired direction. To explain in more detail, the characters "vertical", "writing", and "ki" are added to the handwriting input area E.
Write in the single character area of ^▼ . At this time, after inputting “vertical”, touch the “↓” and “←” keys in the cursor movement area with the stylus pen. This moves the cursor on the display 4 downward by one character. The same is true for the following "calligraphy". Then, "ki" is written with the stylus pen P1, and when the stylus pen P2 touches the "↓" and "←" areas, the cursor moves to the lower side of "ki". The signals P1 to P3 indicate the position of the stylus pen.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

In the method of providing the cursor movement area as in the above-mentioned conventional method and moving the cursor by touching the cursor movement area with the stylus pen every time one character is input, the cursor is not moved by the operator's instruction every time one character is input. It had a problem that it should not be.

Also, since the handwriting area and the cursor movement area are separated, the viewpoint often moves when determining the entry position,
There was a problem that the usability of handwriting input was significantly impaired.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a character input device capable of freely inputting both horizontal writing and vertical writing.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a character input device that reduces the movement of the operator's viewpoint and facilitates handwriting input.

[Means for solving the problem]

 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention.

The input means 10 is operated by an operator to input various coordinates of handwritten characters.

 The display means 11 displays the display data.

The coordinate comparison means 12 is a coordinate input means, the coordinate input means 10
It is compared whether or not the coordinate of the handwritten character to be added is within the specific range, and when it is outside the specific range (frame), a signal indicating the direction is output. The recognizing means 13 recognizes the character from the coordinates of the handwritten character in the specific frame added by the coordinate comparing means, and outputs the result as display data to the display means 11.

The character frame control means 14 determines the display position of the entry frame of the handwritten character to be input next by the signal representing the direction added by the coordinate comparison means 12, and outputs it on the display means 11.

[Action]

At the end of writing character by character in a handwritten character, the pen moves toward the position of the character to be written next. The coordinate comparison means predetermines a specific frame, and 1
Characters are input within this specific frame, and when outside this frame, the direction is detected. The result detected by the coordinate comparison means 12 is displayed on the display device via the character frame control means 14.
In addition to 11, the display means 11 displays the recognition result added by the recognition means 13 at the position determined by the character frame control means 14. As a result, the recognition position to be displayed next when the pen moves outside the specific frame is determined.

Further, by physically superimposing the display means 11 and the input means 10 on each other, the position designated by the operator and the display are completely in one-to-one correspondence, and the operator has a frame of the character area to be input next. Be clear.

〔Example〕

 Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the present invention. The tablet 20 has a stylus pen (not shown), and when the operator writes a character on the tablet using the stylus pen, the coordinates of the character are added to the coordinate conversion unit 21.

On the other hand, the display 22 is a flat type display means and displays data to be displayed under the control of the display control unit 23, which will be described later. This display has an integrated structure with the tablet. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a display and a tablet according to the embodiment of the present invention. A display 22 is provided on the upper surface of the tablet 20, a character entry frame Y is displayed on the display 22, which will be described later, and by writing a character in the character entry frame with the stylus pen 20P, the coordinate data of the character is input. . The character data input by the tablet 20 is added to the coordinate conversion unit 21. In general, the display and the tablet have different scales, and in order to match the scales, the coordinate conversion unit 21 performs coordinate conversion so as to match the display coordinates of the display 22. Then, the converted result is added to the coordinate comparison unit 24.

Whenever one character is input, the character box coordinate update control unit 25
This is a circuit for determining the positions of the next character entry frame Y and the recognition result display frame Z (Y = Z in FIG. 3). As will be described later, when the input of one character is completed, the next character entry frame Y The position data of the recognition result display frame Z is output to the character frame information storage unit 26. The character frame information storage unit 26 stores the position data and outputs the character frame information to the coordinate comparison unit 24 and the display control unit 23.

The display control unit 23 converts the added character frame information into data to be displayed on the display 22, and outputs the data to the display 22. By this output, for example, the character entry frame shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the display.

This character entry frame is displayed, and when the operator writes a character to be recognized in this frame, the coordinates of the written character are converted into display coordinates by the coordinate conversion unit 21 and added to the coordinate comparison unit 24. The coordinate comparison unit 24 determines whether or not the converted coordinates added by the coordinate conversion unit 21 are within the area designated by the character box information stored in the character box information storage unit 26.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of character frames. Each time one character is input in the character entry frame Y, the storage result is displayed in the recognition result display frame Z. This character entry frame Y and the recognition result display frame Z
Is determined by the coordinates of the upper right corner (Xe, Ye), the coordinates of the lower left corner (Xs, Ys) and their center coordinates (Xc, Yc), and the character box information storage unit 26 described above stores these coordinates. There is. In addition, the coordinate comparison unit 24 determines whether the coordinates of the character input via the coordinate conversion unit 21 exist in the frame based on the coordinates.

In the embodiment of the present invention, in addition to inputting the coordinates (Xp, Yp) of the pen tip, the tablet 20 also determines whether the operator is currently writing a character or the pen is in a raised state.
This determination is detected by the switch S that is turned on and off depending on whether pressure is applied to the tip of the pen.

The above-mentioned coordinate comparison unit 24 determines the movement of the pen as follows.

Move to the right The pen tip is up (S = 0), and the pen tip coordinates (Xp, Y
p) becomes Ys <Yp <Ye and Xs <Xp <Xe becomes Xp> Xe.

Move to the left The pen tip is up (S = 0) and the pen tip coordinate is Ys <Yp
When <Ye and Xs <Xp <Xe to Xp <Xs.

Move down Pen tip is up (S = 0), and pen tip coordinate is Xs <Xp
When <Xe and Ys <Yp <Ye to Yp <Ys.

Move up The pen tip is up (S = 0) and the pen tip coordinate is Xs <Xp.
When <Xe and Ys <Yp <Ye to Yp <Xe.

The coordinate comparison unit 24 makes a determination using the four types of determination conditions, and outputs the detection result of the moving direction to the character frame coordinate update control unit 25 and the character pattern storage buffer 27. The character box coordinate update control unit 25 obtains new coordinates and outputs them to the character box information storage unit 26. As a result, the frame described above is moved to the next position and displayed. This frame is moved by adding (Xe−Xs) to the coordinate in the X-axis direction in the above case, subtracting (Xe−Xs) similarly in the case of the coordinate, and (Ye− For Ys) addition, similarly, (Ye−Ys) subtraction is performed. That is, to the right, left, top of the input entry frame Y (= recognition result display frame Z) shown in FIG.
Move to the next area for one character along each of the lower sides.

The coordinate comparison unit 24 compares the coordinates, and when they are within the frame, the character coordinates are sequentially stored in the character pattern storage buffer.
27, and the character pattern storage buffer stores the data. When one of the above conditions (1) to (4) is satisfied, it means that the input of one character is completed. Therefore, the character pattern storage buffer 27 outputs the stored coordinates of one character to the recognition unit 28. The recognition unit 28 recognizes the character and outputs the recognition result, that is, the character code, to the display control unit 23.

The display control unit 23 reads the position to be displayed from the character frame information storage unit 26 and displays the recognized character at that position.
The content of the character box information storage unit 26 is changed to new character box data by the character box coordinate update control unit 25 when the pen crosses the character box region. By this operation, the next character frame is displayed.

5 and 6 are explanatory views of the handwriting action. Generally, as shown in FIG. 5, in the case of vertical writing, when moving from the end of each character to the next character, the character moves vertically as indicated by the dotted line.
Further, as shown in FIG. 6, in the case of horizontal writing, when moving from the end of each character to the next character, similarly, it moves horizontally as indicated by the dotted line. Since that direction is also the direction in which the character should be written next, that direction can be detected by the above-described discrimination.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart of the present invention. When you start the input operation, first enter the coordinates from the tablet,
After the coordinate conversion is performed by the coordinate conversion unit 21, the coordinate conversion unit 24 joins the coordinate comparison unit 24, and the coordinate comparison unit 24 detects the position of the pen (S1). Then, it is further determined whether the position is within the character entry frame Y (S2). When it is within the character entry frame Y, it is determined whether the pen is down (S3). When not pen down (N
In (O), even if it is in the character frame, it is the movement when a character is being written, so the next coordinate is input again, so that the same processing S1 is executed. If the pen is down in the determination (S3) (YES), the input coordinate information (result converted by the coordinate conversion unit 21) is stored in the character pattern storage buffer 27 (S4). Although not shown in FIG. 2 subsequently, the data stored in the character pattern storage buffer 27 is output to the display control unit 23 and displayed (S5). And process again
Run S1. In the embodiment of the present invention, the coordinates of the pen are fetched each time the above-mentioned process S1 is executed. However, since these coordinates are points, when the pen tip is turned on, that is, S is 1 continuously by a circuit not shown. , Display by connecting with the previous data with a straight line. By this display, the characters written in the character entry frame are displayed on the display.

On the other hand, in the determination S2 in the character frame, when it is not in the character frame (NO), it is next determined whether or not the pen is down (S6). If it is not pen down (NO), then it is determined whether or not there is data in the character pattern storage buffer 27 (S7). When there is data in the buffer (YES), the writing of one character is completed and the pen has moved to the outside of the frame. Next, the data in the character pattern buffer 27 is recognized by the recognition unit 28.
(S8), and the recognition unit 28 recognizes the data and displays the storage result in addition to the display control unit 23 (S9). After display,
Since the character frame information storage unit 26 newly outputs the character frame information to the display control unit 23, the display control unit 23 displays the display 22.
The frame is displayed on (S10). When the pen is down in the determination (S6) (YES), or when there is no data in the buffer (NO) in the determination (S7), other processing (S11) other than the recognition is performed. By the above operation, a character is displayed every time the character is written by the pen, and when the character is moved outside the character entry frame with the pen up, the recognized result is displayed in the recognition result display frame, and the next frame is prepared. When the character frame is moved, the handwritten characters that have been displayed in the character entry frame are deleted.

8 (a) to (g) are explanatory views of the operation and the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. The display and tablet are integrated, and the results that have been input and recognized so far are displayed ("integrated"). Then, the next input character frame Y (= recognition result display frame Z) is displayed. After this, the operator turns to
Is written (Fig. 8 (a)), and when the stylus pen 20P is moved across the right side of the character entry frame Y (Fig. 8 (b)), the recognized result ("") is displayed. And the character entry frame Y (= recognition result display frame Z) is 1
The character is moved to the right and displayed (FIG. 8 (c)). After writing "Ta" (Fig. 8 (d)) and moving downward (Fig. 8 (e)), the character entry frame Y (= recognition result display frame Z) is moved downward by one character. ) Is displayed,
The result of recognizing “ta” is displayed (FIG. 8 (f) and FIG. 8 (g)).

Since this frame sequentially moves in the moving direction of the stylus pen, horizontal writing and vertical writing can be freely performed.

The above operation moves the character entry frame Y and the recognition result display frame Z each time one character is input, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a continuous series of characters as shown in FIG. It is also possible to continuously input, store, and display.

Also, as shown in FIG. 10, the position of the pen is detected (S20).
Each time you do, first determine whether the pen is down (S21)
Then, when the pen is down, it is determined whether it is within the character entry frame (S22), and when it is within the frame, the data is stored (S2
3) If the stroke information, that is, the coordinate information is stored in the buffer when it is out of the frame, the data input so far is cut out and recognized (S24), and then the character frame is moved in the direction traversed by the pen. To turn on (S25)
As a result, it is possible to move the frame according to the information when the pen is touched outside the frame. At this time, if the pen is not down, the next input is made.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the coordinates at the time of writing with the pen are sequentially obtained and stored as one continuous line. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, strokes as shown in FIG. It is also possible to store in units.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, firstly, horizontal writing or vertical writing can be freely input, and handwriting input can be facilitated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a display and a tablet of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. FIG. 6, FIG. 6 is a handwriting operation explanatory diagram, FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart of the present invention, FIGS. 8A to 8G are operation explanatory diagrams of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is another table of the present invention. FIG. 10 is an operation diagram of the present invention, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional method. 10 …… input means, 11 …… display means, 12 …… coordinate comparison means, 13 …… recognition means, 14 …… character frame control means.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A coordinate detecting means for detecting input coordinates of a pen input, a display means for displaying display data, an input coordinate of a pen input added by the coordinate detecting means, and a coordinate of a specific frame indicating a character entry frame. And a coordinate comparing means for comparing and determining whether the pen input has been input within the specific frame, and the coordinate comparing means for determining that the pen input has been input within the specific frame. In this case, character recognition is executed assuming that handwritten character input is performed within the specific frame, and the pen input is specified by the recognition means for adding the recognition result as display data to the display means and the coordinate comparison means. When it is determined that the character is input outside the frame, it is determined from the coordinates of the specific frame and the pen input coordinate whether the next character is input in the up, down, left, or right direction of the specific frame, and the determination is made. In the direction A character input device comprising: a specific frame control unit that moves the specific frame by a required number of characters. 2. The character input device according to claim 1, wherein the display means is a flat display and is provided on an upper surface portion of the coordinate detection means.