Abstract:
Electronic equipment includes a memory containing first information such as KANA characters and second information such as KANJI characters corresponding to the first information, a key input device for inputting the first information, a display for displaying the second information corresponding to the input first information, and a control for reading out all of the second information corresponding to the input first information, from the memory, displaying it on the display and sequentially erasing the displayed second information which no longer correspond to the input first information subsequently inputted by the input device.

Description:
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/735,673 filed Jul. 29, 1991, now abandoned, which is a continuatin of application Ser. No. 07/522,506, filed May 10, 1990, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/289,522, filed Dec. 27, 1988, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/054,054, filed May 26, 1987, now abandoned, which is continuation of application Ser. No. 06/596,413, filed Apr. 3, 1984, now abandoned. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to electronic equipment capable of converting or translating a first language to a second language or vice versa such as a KANA-to-KANJI conversion. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     In most prior art KANA to KANJI conversion electronic equipment, a KANJI character is outputted by depressing a conversion key after inputting KANA characters. This results in increase of the number of key strokes and the KANJI character, even if it is a single character, cannot be identified until the last KANA character is inputted. In order to resolve this problem, a method of displaying the amount of anticipated information has been proposed. Even in this method, the KANJI character is not identified until the information is displayed. Thus, all of the anticipated information must be displayed by depressing the conversion key and the desired information must be selected from the displayed information. 
     In a translating machine which translates a first language to a second language or vice versa, in order to obtain the second language corresponding to the first language, the first language is first inputted, the candidate second languages corresponding to the input first language are sequentially displayed, and a proper one is selected from the candidates. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide electronic equipment capable of conversion or translation with a small number of key strokes. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide electronic equipment which displays information corresponding to input characters, and erases the information which no longer corresponds to the input characters from the display screen as the number of input characters increases. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide electronic equipment which reads out information corresponding to key input information inputted from keys of a keyboard, from a memory so that desired information is selected from the output information, supplies all candidate information of the information stored in the memory to output means for each keying of the keyboard, and erases the output information which are no longer candidates, for each keying. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of electronic equipment having a KANA to KANJI conversion function in accordance with the present invention, 
     FIG. 2 is a flow chart to explain the operation of the embodiment, and 
     FIG. 3 shows KANA inputs and displayed KANJI characters corresponding thereto. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of the electronic equipment having the KANA to KANJI conversion function in accordance with the present invention. Numeral 1 denotes an input keyboard having a plurality of KANA keys, an identification key for indicating that a KANA-to-KANJI converted output KANJI character is a desired KANJI character and selection key for selecting the desired KANJI character when a plurality of KANJI characters are outputted in correspondence to input KANA characters. Numeral 2 denotes a central processing unit CPU for processing information. Numeral 3 denotes a read-only memory ROM which contains KANA characters and corresponding KANJI characters, and numeral 4 denotes a random access memory RAM which reads out and temporarily stores a portion of the content of the ROM 3, and stores display information for a display 5. The RAM 4 is also used as a processing memory for the CPU 2. The display 5 displays the information and includes a driver. Numeral 6 denotes a synchronization signal line. 
     The operation of the present embodiment is explained with reference to a control flow chart FIG. 2. 
     When an input from the KANA keyboard, 1 is entered (step 10-Y), the CPU 2 checks if the KANA key input is a first KANA input in the KANA-to-KANJI conversion input (step 11), and if it is the first KANA input, the CPU 2 reads out KANJI information starting with that corresponding with the input KANA character, from the KANA-to-KANJI table stored in the ROM 3, and stores it in the RAM 4 (step 12). The retrieved KANJI information is patterned and displayed on the display 5 (step 13). At the end of KANA input for the KANJI information (step 14-Y), a desired KANJI character is selected from the displayed KANJI characters (step 16) to complete the KANA-to-KANJI conversion (step 17). When the KANA input is not yet completed (step 14-N) and if the desired KANJI character is present at a KANJI selection position (step 15-Y), the desired KANJI is selected (step 17) without further continuing the KANA input and the KANA-to-KANJI conversion is terminated. When the KANA input is to be further continued (step 15-N), the next KANA character is inputted (step 11-N) and the KANJI information of the KANJI table stored in the RAM 4 in the step 12 which no longer corresponds to the input KANA information are erased (step 18), and the remaining KANJI information is displayed on the display 5 (step 13). &#34;(ichijiru)&#34; is selected. 
     When the KANA key &#34;(ru)&#34; is depressed in the column 26, six corresponding KANJI characters are displayed and the cursor CS is at the position of &#34;1&#34;. If the KANJI character &#34;&#34; is to be selected, the identification key is depressed and the subsequent KANA character keying is omitted. However, in the column 27, the KANA key &#34;(i)&#34; is depressed and four corresponding characters are displayed. The cursor CS is at the position of &#34;1&#34;. The cursor CS is moved to &#34;2&#34; by depressing the selection key (column 28), and then the identification key is depressed to select the KANJI character &#34;(rui)&#34; (column 29). While the KANA characters &#34;(rui)&#34; were inputted to select the KANJI character &#34;&#34; in the illustrated example, &#34;&#34; may be selected by the selection key when only the KANA character &#34;(ru)&#34; is inputted. 
     In a system in which one of the displayed KANJI characters is selected by a light pen, the desired KANJI character displayed on the display screen can be immediately selected. While the word of the KANJI character is described in the present embodiment, the same advantage will be achieved for an idiom of KANJI characters. 
     While the electronic equipment having the KANA-to-KANJI conversion function has been shown in the above embodiment, the present invention is also applicable to a translation machine which translates a first language to 
     When the input key is other than KANA key, the input data or the information in the RAM 4 is sequentially processed by the CPU 2 (step 19). 
     An example of display of the KANA key input and the corresponding KANJI characters is shown in FIG. 3. 
     Columns 20 to 25 of FIG. 3 illustrate inputting of a KANJI character &#34;(ichijiru)&#34; and columns 26 to 29 illustrate inputting of a KANJI character &#34;(rui)&#34;. In the column 20, a KANA key &#34;(i)&#34; is depressed, and KANJI characters corresponding to the input &#34;(i)&#34; include &#34;1&#34; to &#34;10&#34; and ten others which are not displayed. Since the selection key has not yet been depressed, a cursor CS is at the position of &#34;1&#34;. If the KANJI character &#34;&#34; is to be selected, the identification key is depressed so that the KANJI character &#34;&#34; is selected. However, in the column 21, a KANA character &#34;(chi)&#34; is inputted and four KANJI characters corresponding to &#34;(ichi)&#34; are displayed. In the column 22, a KANA character &#34;(ji)&#34; is inputted and the KANJI character &#34;&#34; remains as the KANJI character corresponding to &#34;&#34; (ichiji). Since the cursor CS is at the position of &#34;1&#34; the KANJI character &#34;(ichijiru)&#34; is selected by depressing the identification key in the column 23. When all KANA characters are to be inputted, the KANA key &#34;(ru)&#34; is depressed in the column 24 and the identification key is depressed in the column 25 so that the KANJI character a second language or vice versa. In this case, words of the second language correspondingly to a word of the first language are displayed for each input of a character of the word of the first language, and the words of the second language which no longer correspond to the word of the first language are erased as the number of characters of the word of the first language increases.