Patent ID: 7055099

Claim:
A character input apparatus, comprising: a character string dictionary which stores a number of character strings each including at least one character and having a predetermined meaning, in a predetermined storage order; and an operation input unit which generates various instructing signals in accordance with an operation of an operator, the apparatus selecting a character string from the character string dictionary based on the instructing signal and inputting the character string, the apparatus comprising: display means having a display screen for displaying the selected character string and listing candidate character strings from which the character string is selected; the character string dictionary being constituted to store each character string at least together with speech information based on the grammar of a language of the character strings to be input, and a grammar dictionary which stores grammar information including a conjunction relationship between character strings disposed adjacent to each other, determined by the part of speech of the character strings in language of the character strings to be input, and wherein the candidate character string extracting portion, regarding a latest character string among the character strings selected by the selecting means, extracts character strings, which may come next to the latest selected character string, as candidate character strings from the character string dictionary, based on the read part of speech information and the grammar information stored in the grammar dictionary; and wherein the character string dictionary, the candidate character string extracting portion, the display means, and the display control means are provided in an information equipment body for displaying and processing communication information, the operation input unit is provided in a remote control device separated from the information equipment body, for remotely controlling the information equipment body, a position specifying signal generated by an operation of the position specifying member in the operation input unit and the selection instructing signal generated by an operation in the operation input unit are transmitted from a transmitting portion of the remote control device to the information equipment body, a position is specified on the display screen of the display means provided in the information equipment body, based on the transmitted position specifying signal, and the candidate character strings are selected by the selecting means, based on the transmitted selection specifying signal.