Patent Document ID: 7899664
Application ID: 11804666

Base Claim:
1. An information processing apparatus connected to a computer through a network, the computer comprising a computer Japanese-language converting portion that receives a character string from the information processing apparatus through the network to return conversion candidates, the information processing apparatus comprising: a user interface portion that deals with character input from a user and display for a user; a main-body Japanese-language converting portion that receives a character string input from the user interface portion to return conversion candidates; a conversion controlling portion that controls interaction between the user interface portion and the computer Japanese-language converting portion as well as the main-body Japanese-language converting portion; and a computer identifying portion that identifies the computer corresponding to a user currently using the information processing apparatus, the conversion controlling portion sending the character string input with the user interface portion to the computer Japanese-language converting portion of the computer identified by the computer identifying portion or to the computer Japanese-language converting portion and the main-body Japanese-language converting portion for conversion, the conversion controlling portion sending the conversion candidates to the user interface portion for display.

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Claim 3:
3. The information processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the conversion controlling portion sequentially sends the character string input with the user interface portion through the network to the computer Japanese-language converting portion for conversion each time one character is input and sequentially receives through the network and sends the conversion candidates to the user interface portion for display and wherein when receiving an input character from the information processing apparatus, if the computer Japanese-language converting portion is in process of converting the previously received character string, the converting process is terminated to start the conversion of the character string having added thereto the input character received this time.