Method for Inputting Chinese Phrase

Abstract

A method for inputting a Chinese phrase, and the said phrase includes 2- and 3-Chinese characters, if the phonetic code for inputting the said phrase is full Pinyin for the 1st character and abbreviation Pinyin for the 2nd and 3rd characters and the number of phrases for such a code is more than the presetting value, then the converted phonetic code combinations from the phrase dictionary database of the input method based on the said phonetic code will display on the input interface, that is full Pinyin is kept for the 1st character, all combinations of full Pinyin based on the abbreviation Pinyin are displayed for the 2nd character and abbreviation Pinyin is kept for the 3rd character.

Claims

1. A method for inputting a Chinese phrase, and the said phrase includes 2- and 3-Chinese characters, wherein if the phonetic code for inputting the said phrase is full Pinyin for the 1st character and abbreviation Pinyin for the 2nd and 3rd characters and the number of phrases for such a code is more than the presetting value, then the converted phonetic code combinations from the phrase dictionary database of the input method based on the said phonetic code will display on the input interface, wherein full Pinyin is kept for the 1st character, all combinations of full Pinyin based on the abbreviation Pinyin are displayed for the 2nd character and abbreviation Pinyin is kept for the 3rd character; when the candidate number for a phonetic code is selected, all candidate phrases from the phrase dictionary database of the input method for such a code will be displayed on the input interface.

2. The method for inputting a Chinese phrase as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said presetting value is 6.

3. The method for inputting a Chinese phrase as claimed in claim 1, wherein the converted phonetic codes for both the 1st and 2nd characters are of full Pinyin, or in case of full Pinyin for the 1st and 2nd characters and abbreviation Pinyin of the initial letter for the 3rd character, all corresponding 2 or 3 character phrases will be displayed in the input window of interface, and the corresponding candidate phrase will be entered on the screen upon selection of a candidate number key.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

[0015] FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of the interface for inputting “li'b”;

[0016] FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of the interface for inputting “jian's'j”.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF INVENTION

[0017] The present invention is now described in detail with reference to the following exemplary embodiments.

EXAMPLE 1

[0018] If the user wants to input a company name “”, firstly the phonetic code “li' b” is typed to allow the program instruction of the IME to determine that there are more than 6 phrases assigned to it, and then the program instruction reads out the phrase dictionary database of the IME and displays all the converted phonetic codes based on “li'b” including 9 phonetic codes of full Pinyin: li'bai, li'bang, li'bao, li'bei, li'bian, li'biao, li'bie, li'bin and li'bing, excluding: li'ba, li'bo and li'bu. The user presses the number key “2” on the input interface to get the display below: [0019] li'bang [0020] 1 [0021] By pressing Spacebar or number key “1”, “” is displayed on the screen. [0022] If “” is to be input, the user turns one page to get a display as in FIG. 1B and presses the number key “2” according to the displayed phrases: , , and ; “” is displayed on the screen by pressing Spacebar.

[0023] While the desired phrase is found by turning one page, if all the phrases based on the code “li'b” were displayed, it could not be found until turning 5 or 6 pages, because it would certainly be listed in the later pages based on the frequency of use of the phrases. Furthermore, in most cases, the user could not make sure whether this phrase is included in the phrase dictionary database. If 4 time typos need to be pressed for a full Pinyin code of the prior art, only 3 time typos need to be pressed using the method in accordance with the present invention. Thus, the user can quickly view the input interface to see if the desired phrase is displayed there. If “yes”, presses the corresponding number key; if “not”, immediately removes the abbreviation Pinyin for the 2nd character and instead, inputs 2 characters one by one. The uncertainties during the input process lower the input speed.

EXAMPLE 2

[0024] If the user wants to input “”, “jian's'j” are typed and shown as in FIG. 2. The number key “5” is pressed to get

[0025] jian'she'j

[0026] 1 ,

“” is displayed on the screen by pressing Spacebar. The phonetic code combinations for a 3 character phrase are less than those for a 2 character phrase.

[0027] Further examples in accordance with the present invention: if there are many combinations of full Pinyin for certain phrases, e.g., the combinations of full Pinyin codes with “l” as the initial letter thereof include 20 codes of lai, lan, lang, lao, lei, leng, lia, lian, liang, liao, lie, lin, ling, liu, long, lou, luan, lue, kun, luo, lve, excluding “la, le, li, lu and lv”, then 2 or more code combinations can be listed on each row. For example, after “ji'l” is typed, the input interface can display:

[0028] 1. lai lan lang lao

[0029] 2. lei leng

[0030] 3. lian liang liao

[0031] 4. lie lin ling liu

[0032] 5. long lou

[0033] 6. luan lue lun luo

As such, the user can find the code for the desired phrase without turning pages; if “” ” is to be input, presses number key “3” to get a display on the input interface like:

[0034] 1. ji'lian

[0035] 2. ji'liang

[0036] 3. ji'liao

Press the number key “3” again

[0037] ji'liao

[0038] 1

[0039] 2

Finally, presses Spacebar to get “” on the screen. When this phrase needs to be input in future, only “j'l” is required. As the program of input method typically has a function of sorting the phrase dictionary database by frequency of use, “” is listed in the first place on the IME interface, quicken the input speed.

[0040] The present invention has the following technical effects: i) the number of phrases assigned to the same phonetic code is reduced when the input method of “abbreviation Pinyin or abbreviation Pinyin+full Pinyin” is used and the turning of pages is substantially reduced; ii) by optimizing the strokes and the number of phrases assigned to the same phonetic code, the input speed is increased by more than 20% as compared with the prior art; iii) all the converted phonetic codes are displayed on the input interface to enable the user to see if the desired phrase exists, which reduces blindness, strokes and typos and increases the correctness of the inputs. With prompt of all the converted phonetic codes for the desired phrase, the intensity for the user to think about phonetic codes can be reduced and the typing speed is also increased. When applied to the touch screen of a mobile phone, benefits are more obvious.