Abstract:
A method and apparatus for providing a suitable soft keyboard for end users to conveniently enter data to a portable information terminal that can not provide concurrently multiple character set keyboards, such as Korean, English, and Numeric keyboards. A data input assisting method displays an input window including a plurality of input fields when data input is requested. The input window identifies an input data set among English, Numeric, and non-English character sets suitable to an input field, which is selected for information input on the displayed input window, and provides a soft keyboard of touch screen or the like including the identified character set. Therefore, faster and more convenient data input is ensured when a user must select and enter non-English (e.g., Korean), English, or Numeric data to match information type of each data field to be stored in a portable information terminal, such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to a data input assisting method and apparatus of a portable information terminal, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing a suitable soft keyboard of character type data which can be conveniently entered by a user to a portable information terminal, such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).  
           [0003]    2. Background of the Related Art  
           [0004]    Modern technology development has made a cellular phone and a PCS phone (called ‘mobile’ phone, hereinafter) much smaller, lighter and cheaper. Thus, a mobile phone is very popular and widely utilized.  
           [0005]    In these days, various mobile information terminals other than the popular mobile phone are being introduced to the market. Among those mobile information terminals, a PDA stands in the spotlight for consumers.  
           [0006]    The PDA, in general, consists of a CPU, which is a core device of a computer, memories, I/O devices, Operating System (O/S), and a variety of application programs running based on the O/S. The I/O devices include a touch pad and a wide Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), which has a touch screen installed as another input device. Major functions of the PDA are personal information recording, storing, searching, and communication.  
           [0007]    The PDA provides an embedded-in application program capable of storing personal contact information entered by a user through the input device and capable of searching all entries of personal contact information for a particular contact information. A contact entry is generally including several fields, such as name, address, position in company, telephone number, e-mail, etc.  
           [0008]    A related art user&#39;s information input for a contact entry will now be described. When a user requests input of a contact entry, the PDA executes a suitable application program that manages the user&#39;s contact information. The application program outputs an input window in which all necessary fields are prepared. Then, the user will sequentially enter the proper information in each field.  
           [0009]    If a user, who is a Korean, wants to enter in the name field a Korean name, he or she first needs to activate ‘Korean’ soft keyboard on the touch screen by pressing a special key on the touch pad or on a previous soft keyboard. As a result, the ‘Korean’ soft keyboard is displayed on the touch screen. Then, a user touches proper keys on the ‘Korean’ soft keyboard sequentially with a pen. The characters assigned to the touched keys are entered in the name field. After data are entered completely in the name field, the user wants to enter information in the telephone field, he or she then needs to activate ‘Numeric’ soft keyboard on the touch screen. If a user needs to enter information in the e-mail field, he or she has to activate ‘English’ soft keyboard. After a soft keyboard has changed into a suitable one at the user&#39;s request, the user can then enter desired information in the corresponding field.  
           [0010]    However, the related art data inputting method must select and display a soft keyboard suitable for character type data entering on the touch screen through user manual selection before the user can enter desired data in the corresponding field as described above. Namely, the ‘Korean’ soft keyboard must be displayed for the fields of name and address, the ‘Numeric’ soft keyboard for the fields of mobile phone, telephone, facsimile, etc., and the ‘English’ soft keyboard for the fields of e-mail. Needless to say that data entering operations for all fields are somewhat tedious and time consuming.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    An object of the invention is to solve at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described hereinafter.  
           [0012]    It is an object of the present invention to provide a data input assisting method and apparatus of a portable information terminal that determines which character set is to be used for a particular field and activates a data entry device such as a soft keyboard of the determined character set to be displayed as an input device. When a user selects the particular field, the input data from the character set will be easily or directly completed.  
           [0013]    In order to achieve at least the above objects in whole or in part, and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, there is provided a method for data input to a portable information terminal, including displaying an input window including a plurality of input fields when data input is requested, identifying which character set of a plurality of character sets is suitable to a selected input field on the displayed input window, and providing a data input screen including the identified character set in response to designation of the selected input field.  
           [0014]    To further achieve at least the above objects in whole or in part, and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, there is provided a method for data input to a portable information terminal, including displaying an input window including a plurality of input fields when data input is requested, identifying which character set among a plurality of character sets is suitable to a selected input field on the displayed input window, and limiting a search target to the identified character set among all possible character sets.  
           [0015]    To further achieve at least the above objects in whole or in part, and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, there is provided an apparatus of data input to a portable information terminal, including a display device for displaying an input window including a plurality of selectable input fields when data input is requested, a storing unit for storing information on which character set among a plurality of character sets is suitable to each of the input fields, and a controller device for identifying a suitable character set for a selected input field on the displayed input window based on the information stored in the storing unit, and displaying a data input screen including the identified character set in the display device.  
           [0016]    To further achieve at least the above objects in whole or in part, and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, there is provided an apparatus of data input to a portable information terminal, including a display that displays an input window including a plurality of input fields when data input is requested, a storing device that stores information on which character set among a plurality of character sets is suitable to each of the input fields, and a controller that identifies which character is entered in a selected input field through searching and comparing an entered character with characters stored in the storing device, and stores the identified character as a piece of information of an input field selected in the input window.  
           [0017]    Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0018]    The invention will be described in detail with reference to the following drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like elements wherein:  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a portable information terminal in which a preferred embodiment of a data input assisting apparatus in accordance with the present invention is embedded;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 shows a written-style character memory having separate areas for each character set;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a preferred embodiment of data input assisting method of a portable information terminal in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 shows an exemplary memory of which storage space is divided into two areas, one for programs and the other for data;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a soft keyboard composed of a Korean character set;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 6 shows an example of a full display on which a soft keyboard of Korean character set is outputted;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 7 illustrates a soft keyboard composed of a numeric character set;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 8 shows an example of a full display on which a soft keyboard of numeric character set is outputted;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 9 illustrates a soft keyboard composed of an English character set;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 10 shows an example of a full display on which a soft keyboard of English character set is outputted; and  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 11 shows a display output in which information for an entry is complete. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0030]    In order that the invention may be fully understood, preferred embodiments thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a portable information terminal in which a preferred embodiment of a data input assisting apparatus in accordance with the present invention is embedded.  
         [0031]    The portable information terminal shown in FIG. 1 includes a touch screen  10  having a touch pad  11  for data entry and a display unit  12  for displaying information, a touch detecting unit  20  receiving signals produced when the touch screen  10  is pressed and calculating an xy coordinate value(s) of the pressed point and a memory  31  storing a variety of application programs and information in which a character set (soft keyboard) is preferably associated with each field of all information items. A written-style character database (DB)  41  stores an information pattern of written-style characters in connection with the codes associated with respective written-style characters. A written-pattern identifying unit  40  is for identifying a written-style character by comparing a pattern formed by xy coordinate value(s) collected while a user writes a character on the touch screen  10  with a pattern information in the written-style character DB  41 . Three character set DBs  50 ,  51 , and  52  preferably store respective Korean, Numeric, and English soft keyboards, character codes and the xy coordinate values of all characters of each character set, and a user data DB  60  for storing data information of each field of various user contact information items, such as name, address, e-mail, etc., entered by a user. However, the present invention is not intended to be so limited. Further, a controlling unit  30  conducts overall control of operations of user&#39;s field data storing operations, user data DB search operations, information display operations, and so on.  
         [0032]    The pattern information about each character stored in the written-style character DB  41  are preferably acquired from recognizing trial-and-errors of many person&#39;s writings to make a reduced or the least pattern matching error.  
         [0033]    The touch screen  10  including the touch pad  11  and the displaying unit  12  uses a resistance plate where a pressed point has different resistance or a capacitance plate where an electric charge at a pressed point becomes different. The touch detecting unit  20  calculates xy coordinate values corresponding to user&#39;s pressing point on the touch screen  10  based on the change of current or voltage in the thin plate covered on the displaying unit  12 . The touch detecting unit also detects the number of strokes in a character by counting how many times a press is applied to the touch screen  10 . The xy coordinate values collected while a character is being written and the detected number of strokes is used for identifying which character is handwritten or entered on the touch screen  10  by a user.  
         [0034]    The written-style character DB  41  preferably has separate areas for each character set. As shown in FIG. 2, a Korean character set is stored in the first area, a numeric set in the second, and an English set in the third. Information of each character in the DB  41  further includes pattern information of the character, the number of strokes in the character, and binary code of the character.  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a preferred embodiment of data input assisting method of a portable information terminal in accordance with the present invention. The procedure depicted in the flow chart of FIG. 3 can be conducted by the portable information terminal shown in FIG. 1 explained below in detail. However, the present invention is not intended to be so limited.  
         [0036]    The memory  31  is preferably divided into two areas or zones, one for programs and the other for data as shown in FIG. 4. Character set indicating information for each field of all user data DBs is stored in the data zone, and various programs as well as an operating system basically running the portable information terminal are stored in the program zone.  
         [0037]    As shown in FIG. 3, after a process starts, if a user requests to create an information entry of a contact DB (Step S 10 ), the controlling unit  30  executes a corresponding Application Program (AP) that displays an input window preferably including input fields of name, mobile phone, e-mail, address, position, telephone, facsimile, etc. on the touch screen  10  (Step S 11 ). After displaying the input window, the AP moves an input cursor to a first input field, namely, the name field (Step S 20 ). The application program searches the data zone of the memory  31  for a field matched with the current field the cursor is now placed in, and for example, finds that character set suitable to the current name field is Korean based on the stored information in connection with the found field. When selected, the AP outputs a soft keyboard composed of Korean character set such as shown in FIG. 5 to the displaying unit  12  (Step S 21 ) after reading it from the first character set DB  50 . The application program will search the data zone of the memory  31  again (Step S 20 ), if unable to find a character set suitable to the current or selected input field, namely the name field. FIG. 6 shows an example of display output formed by operations described above.  
         [0038]    When the Korean soft keyboard has been displayed in the new entry window for contact DB, data are entered one by one into the name field by the user by pressing suitable keys sequentially. For example, if a user wants to enter ‘         in Korean then the following ‘         , ’          ,’          ,’          ,’          ,’          ,’          , and ’          are selected and pressed sequentially on the displayed Korean soft keyboard by a user to form the desired Korean characters.  
         [0039]    If a user wants to enter English in the name field instead of Korean, the user presses a prescribed or special key on the touch pad  11  or key combination on the soft keyboard to switch soft keyboard to English (Step S 30 ). When the prescribed key or key combination is used to switch soft keyboard, those keys are preferably pressed simultaneously or sequentially at a very short interval therebetween. When switchover of soft keyboard is requested, the controlling unit  30  can output a soft keyboard that is next in series after the Korean soft keyboard in a predefined switchover order (Step S 31 ), after reading the new character from a corresponding character set (e.g., DB  51  or  52 ). If the predefined switchover order is ‘Korean’→‘Numeric’→‘English’, then, the English soft keyboard will be outputted by two switchover requests. After the English soft keyboard is displayed, a user can enter English name in the name field through sequential touches on desired keys.  
         [0040]    In the meantime, whenever a user touches an arbitrary key of any soft keyboard, the touch detecting unit  20  sends xy coordinate value of the touched point calculated as described above to the controlling unit  30 . Then, the controlling unit  30  searches the character set DB  50 ,  51 , or  52 , which have a character set suitable to the current name field, for a character code with xy coordinate value closest to the received xy coordinate value to identify which character of the character set has been entered (Step S 41 ). If a character code is found among the character sets, the controlling unit  30  reads font data corresponding to the found character code and outputs it to the displaying unit  12 , whereby a user can confirm a character he or she entered. Also, the controlling unit  30  stores the identified character in the name field as a new entry of a contact DB created for the user data DB  60  (Step S 42 ). Preferably, such operations will be conducted repeatedly until next field of the contact DB is selected.  
         [0041]    After the current field (e.g., name field) is filled with a desired information (e.g., name), the user selects a next field to enter information. If a user moves the cursor to the second field of ‘cellular’ or ‘mobile’ as shown in FIG. 8 (Step S 40 ), the AP run by the controlling unit  30  confirms that possible character set to the mobile field is ‘Numeric’ after examining the data zone of the memory  31 . Thus, the controlling unit  30  outputs the numeric soft keyboard composed of numeric characters as shown in FIG. 7 after reading the numeric character from the second character set DB  51 . FIG. 8 shows an exemplary full display output formed by the procedures described above. After the numeric soft keyboard is displayed automatically by simply moving the cursor to the mobile field, a user can enter subscriber number of mobile communication system in the ‘mobile’ field through sequential touches on desired keys.  
         [0042]    Similar to the above procedures, if a user moves the cursor to the ‘e-mail’ field after completing the ‘mobile’ field, the AP run by the controlling unit  30  confirms that possible character set to the e-mail field is ‘English’ after examining the data zone of the memory  31 , and outputs the English soft keyboard composed of English characters as shown in FIG. 9 after reading the English character from the third character set DB  52 . As a result, a full display window like FIG. 10 is provided onto the displaying unit  12 . Thus, a user can enter an e-mail address in the ‘e-mail’ field through sequential touches on desired keys.  
         [0043]    Owing to the above-described key input assisting method, a user can enter all information in every field of an entry of a contact DB conveniently and in less time without any manual switchover to other suitable soft keyboard for a current input field (Step S 50 ). Further, data search time and processing can be reduced. When each field is complete, the process ends. Otherwise, control returns to enter data for the next input field selected (Step S 20 ). FIG. 11 shows an illustrative window in which all information for an entry is completely filled. The controlling unit  30  stores all information entered for an entry in respective data fields of a contact DB allocated in the user data DB  60 . All field data entered for an entry are preferably linked together by the entry number or the like assigned to that entry.  
         [0044]    After many entries of the contact DB are created and stored in the user data DB  60  in accordance with the above described method, a user can request entry search after executing the contact DB managing AP. The AP run by the controlling unit  30  preferably searches the contact DB stored in the user data DB  60  for an entry that has a field with data matched exactly or partially with the entered data in the same field on an input window by a user, and displays all field data found on the entry.  
         [0045]    In the preferred embodiments described above, information necessary to each field is entered through touches on keys of a soft keyboard. However, such information may be entered through handwriting on the touch screen  10  or the like instead. While a user writes a character on the touch screen  10 , the controlling unit  30  delivers the collection, gathered during user&#39;s handwriting, of calculated xy coordinate values and the number of strokes detected by the touch detecting unit  20  to the written-pattern identifying unit  40 . Then, the written-pattern identifying unit  40  selects only one set of characters as a search target among all possible character sets, instead of searching all handwritten character sets. Namely, the written-pattern identifying unit  40  preferably selects one handwritten character set, of which character type can be entered as information of a current data field, as a search target. For example, if a current field is ‘name’, the written-pattern identifying unit  40  selects the first separated area as a search target because character type of the name field is assigned to Korean. The identifying unit  40  preferably searches only the first area or a smaller user defined area of the written-style character DB  41  to find stored pattern data with the same number of strokes in a character and most similar to configuration formed by the collection of xy values. Since searching information is relatively small, the time required for identifying a written character and the chance of mismatching the pattern data are extremely low.  
         [0046]    As described above preferred embodiments according to the present invention have various advantages. Preferred embodiments of data input assisting method and apparatus in accordance with the present invention ensure fast and convenient data input work with a portable information terminal not capable of providing Korean, English, and Numeric keyboard concurrently in a case that Korean, English, or Numeric data must be selected to match character type of each data field before entering data in that data field.  
         [0047]    The foregoing embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. The present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. The description of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims. Many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures.