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Mobile Phone Patent Abstract
The invention provides a method for inputting, displaying and transmitting
handwriting characters used in a mobile phone and said mobile phone.
The method according to the invention comprises the steps of: inputting
handwriting characters; sampling said handwriting characters; performing
A/D conversion of the sampled handwriting characters to obtain a
signal; encoding said signal in accordance with a specific protocol
to obtain encoded data; converting the encoded data into mobile
phone acceptable data, and outputting them; and processing the mobile
phone acceptable data to display the handwriting characters and
to transmit them as a short message, or to receive and display a
short message (from other mobile phone) comprising the handwriting
characters.
Mobile Phone Patent Claims
What I claim is:
1. A method for inputting, displaying and transmitting handwriting
characters in a mobile phone, comprising the following steps of:
a) inputting handwriting characters; b) sampling said handwriting
characters; c) performing A/D conversion of the sampled handwriting
characters to obtain a signal; d) encoding said signal in accordance
with a specific protocol to obtain encoded data, e) converting the
encoded data into mobile phone acceptable data, and outputting them;
and f) processing the mobile phone acceptable data to display the
handwriting characters and to transmit them as a short message,
or to receive and display a short message (from other mobile phone)
comprising the handwriting characters, comprising: communicating
with an interface module, comprising interpreting the received data
according to the specific protocol and outputting dot-information
corresponding to said handwritting characters; displaying the handwriting
characters; and encoding the short message including the handwriting
characters so as to enable the short message to be transmitted by
the mobile phone.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step e) comprises
performing a level conversion with respect to an external interface
of a handwriting character input module.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said step e) further
comprises providing an additional power supply to said handwriting
character input module.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step f) comprises
decoding the short-message including the handwriting characters
after receiving it so that the handwriting characters included in
the short message can be identified.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of decoding
the short message including handwriting characters includes the
following steps of: determining whether or not the received short
message includes handwriting characters; decoding the handwriting
characters if the short message includes the handwriting characters;
and processing standard characters included in the received short
message in a conventional manner, if any.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of communicating
with the interface module further comprises the following steps
of: setting a receiving port appropriately so as to receive a data
stream including the handwriting characters; interpreting the received
data stream and outputting dot-information corresponding to the
handwriting characters; and compressing the outputted dot-information.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of interpreting
the received data comprises the following steps of: determining
whether or not individual character has been completely input; and
interpreting the received data in the unit of individual character.
8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the step of determining
whether or not individual character has been completely input is
performed by judging whether point coordinates of the individual
character fall into a specific scope.
9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the step of determining
whether or not individual character has been completely input is
performed according to a pause time during inputting the individual
character.
10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of interpreting
the received data stream includes the following steps of: determining
a position of the tracing point of the handwriting characters according
to X- and Y-coordinates of the tracing point thereof; and determining
whether or not the inputting of the handwriting characters is completed
according to a pressure value p of the handwriting input module.
11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying
the handwriting characters includes the following steps of: determining
the type of the input characters; and displaying the characters.
12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of encoding
the short message including handwriting characters comprises the
following steps of: setting one byte to represent the type of data
that follows at the beginning of a character string; setting one
byte to represent those characters belonging to Default Alphabet
character-set, each of which has 7 bits; setting two bytes to represent
those characters belonging to UCS2, each of which has 16 bit codes;
and setting two bytes to represent data length of other character,
followed by the data.
13. A mobile phone with function of inputting, displaying and transmitting
handwriting characters, comprising: a handwriting input module for
inputting the handwriting characters, performing A/D conversion,
encoding the converted signal, and outputting encoded data complying
with a specific protocol; an interface module for performing a signal
conversion of the encoded data and outputting data acceptable to
a mobile phone; and a handwriting character process module for processing
the received data to display handwriting characters, or transmitting
and receiving a short message including the handwriting characters,
the handwriting character process module including: a communication
module for interpreting data output from the interface module and
outputting dot information corresponding to handwriting characters;
a display module for displaying the handwriting characters; an encoder
for encoding the dot information of the handwriting characters and
outputting a transmissible short message including the handwriting
characters; and a decoder for decoding the received short message
including the handwriting characters, and outputting recognizable
and displayable handwriting characters.
14. The mobile phone according to claim 13, wherein said interface
module is a transformer for performing a level conversion of the
input encoded data.
15. The mobile phone according to claim 13, wherein said interface
module includes an additional power supply to the handwriting input
module.
16. The mobile phone according to claim 13, wherein said communication
module includes: an adapter for matching with the interface module
and outputting required data stream; a data processor for interpreting
the data received from the adapter and outputting dot information
corresponding to the handwriting characters in the unit of the characters;
and a compressor for performing a compression conversion of the
dot information and outputting the compressed dot information corresponding
to the handwriting characters.
17. The mobile phone according to claim 16, wherein said data processor
includes a first recognizer for determining whether or not the inputting
of the handwriting characters is completed.
18. The mobile phone according to claim 17, wherein said first
recognizer is a recognizer for judging whether or not the inputting
of a character is completed according to whether or not a point
coordinate of the character falls into a specific scope.
19. The mobile phone according to claim 17, wherein the first recognizer
is a recognizer for judging whether or not the inputting of a character
is completed according to a pause time during inputting the character.
20. The mobile phone according to claim 13, wherein said display
module includes: a second recognizer for determining the input characters
being handwriting characters or mixed characters which include handwriting
characters and standard characters, and outputting a corresponding
signal; a first display for displaying the handwriting characters
in a deformative form or in a standard form; and a second display
for displaying the handwriting characters in a standard form and
outputting standard mixed characters.
Mobile Phone Patent Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for inputting handwriting
characters in a mobile terminal, in particular, to a method for
inputting, displaying and transmitting handwriting characters used
in a mobile phone, and to a mobile phone for which the method can
be used.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
At present, the phonetic input method and the stroke-order input
method are generally adopted in a few mobile phones such as MOTOROLA
CD928 which can be input Chinese characters. The input Chinese characters
are displayed in several fixed formats such as Song style and FangSong
style. In this case, some new functions of a mobile phone like receiving
and transmitting a short message in Chinese cannot be used appropriately.
Especially, the existing MMI (Man-Machine Interface) of mobile phones
has the following defects: (1) The input characters are limited
by the character-set that a mobile phone can receive. Generally,
limited by its capacity, a mobile phone just supports a specified
character-set. The other characters that do not belong to the character-set
cannot be supported by the phone. Thus, those communications based
on the characters like a short-message transmission among mobile
phones supporting different character-sets will encounter some obstacles.
(2) Input speed under a conventional Chinese character input method
is slow. Regardless of the phonetic input method or the stroke-order
input method, this problem is hard to be solved. The primary reason
is that, since any one of the known input methods adopts 0-9 numeric
keyboard, the input speed is limited by this keyboard and the repetition
rate of codes is very high. Some known methods for decreasing the
repetition rate of codes need the users to provide additional coding
information, which not only imposes higher requirements to users
but also does not comply with the conventional input custom. (3)
A conventional interface is unitary. Most mobile phones adopt the
same character style, which is not in conformity with the tendency
of individuality of mobile phones. For example, when we process
some information, we just identify the sending side of the information
according to the sender's phone number, rather than according to
the sender's character style as normal mails do. Thus, some new
ideas regarding input methods and display manners are needed to
enhance the individuality of the mobile phone. (4) Since mobile
phones have become more and more popular, some users are not able
to use existing input methods. So, some related functions are virtually
never used. In one word, the existing character input and display
method cannot meet the requirements of making mobile phones popular
and adapting the mobile phones to various users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above shortcomings in the prior art, an object of
the present invention is to provide a method for inputting, displaying
and transmitting handwriting characters for a mobile phone.
In view of the above shortcomings in the prior art, another object
of the invention is to provide a mobile phone having function of
inputting, displaying and transmitting the handwriting characters.
The mobile phone is capable of keeping the input character style
intact when transmitting a short-message in Chinese and simplifying
input operation without any input rules.
To achieve the above objects of the present invention, a method
for inputting, displaying and transmitting handwriting characters
used in a mobile phone is provided, which comprises the following
steps of: a) inputting handwriting characters; b) sampling said
handwriting characters; c) performing A/D conversion of the sampled
handwriting characters to obtain a signal; d) encoding said signal
in accordance with a specific protocol to obtain encoded data; e)
converting the encoded data into mobile phone acceptable data, and
outputting them; and f) processing the mobile phone acceptable data
to display the handwriting characters, to transmit them as a short
message, or to receive and display a short message (from other mobile
phone) comprising the handwriting characters.
Said step e) comprises a step of performing level with respect
to an external interface of a handwriting character input module.
Said step e) further comprises providing an additional power supply
to said handwriting character input module.
Said step f) comprises the following steps of: communicating with
an interface module, comprising interpreting the received data according
to the specific protocol and outputting dot-information corresponding
to said handwriting characters; displaying the handwriting characters;
and encoding the short message including the handwriting characters
so as to enable the short message to be transmitted by a mobile
phone.
Step f) further comprises a step of decoding the short-message
including the handwriting characters after receiving it so that
the handwriting characters included in the short message can be
identified.
In the invention, the above step of communicating with the interface
module further comprises the following steps of: setting a receiving
port appropriately so as to receive a data stream including the
handwriting characters; interpreting the received data stream and
outputting dot-information orresponding to the handwriting characters;
and compressing the outputted dot-information.
Said step of interpreting the received data comprises the following
steps of: determining whether or not individual character has been
completely input; and interpreting the received data in the unit
of individual character.
The step of determining whether or not individual character has
been completely input is performed by judging whether point coordinates
of the individual character fall into a specific scope or according
to the length of pause time during inputting the individual character.
Said step of displaying the handwriting characters further includes
the following step of determining the type of the input characters
and displaying them.
Said step of decoding the short message including handwriting characters
includes the following steps of: determining whether or not the
received short message includes handwriting characters; decoding
the handwriting characters if the short message includes the handwriting
characters; and processing standard characters included in the received
short message in a conventional manner, if any.
Said step of interpreting the received data stream includes the
following steps of: determining a position of the tracing point
of the handwriting characters according to X- and Y-coordinates
of the tracing point thereof; and determining whether or not the
inputting of the handwriting characters is completed according to
a pressure value p of the handwriting input module.
The above step of encoding the short message including handwriting
characters comprises the following steps of: setting one byte to
represent the type of data that follows at the beginning of a character
string; setting one byte to represent those characters belonging
to Default Alphabet character-set, each of which has 7 bits; setting
two bytes to represent those characters belonging to UCS2, each
of which has 16 bit codes; and setting two bytes to represent data
length of other characters, followed by the data.
The present invention also provides a mobile phone with a function
of inputting, displaying and transmitting handwriting characters,
comprising: a handwriting input module for inputting the handwriting
characters, performing A/D conversion and encoding the converted
signal, and outputting encoded data complying with a specific protocol;
an interface module for performing a signal conversion of the encoded
data and outputting data acceptable to a mobile phone; and a handwriting
characters process module for processing the received data to display
handwriting characters, or transmitting and receiving a short message
including the handwriting characters.
Said interface module is a transformer for performing a level conversion
of the input encoded data, and may include an additional power supply
to the handwriting input module.
According to the invention, said handwriting characters process
module includes: a communication module for interpreting data output
from the interface module and outputting dot information corresponding
to handwriting characters; a display module for displaying the handwriting
characters; an encoder for encoding the dot information of the handwriting
characters and outputting a transmissible short message including
the handwriting characters; and a decoder for decoding the received
short message including the handwriting characters, and outputting
recognizable and displayable handwriting characters.
Said communication module includes: a adapter for matching with
the interface module and outputting required data stream; a data
processor for interpreting the data received from the adapter and
outputting dot information corresponding to the handwriting characters
in the unit of the characters; and a compressor for performing a
compression conversion of the dot information and outputting the
compressed dot information corresponding to the handwriting characters.
Said data processor includes a first recognizer for determining
whether or not the inputting of the handwriting characters is completed,
which may be either a recognizer for judging whether or not the
inputting of a character is completed according to whether or not
a point coordinate of the character falls into a specific scope,
or a recognizer for judging whether or not the inputting of a character
is completed according to the length of pause time during inputting
the character.
The above display module includes: a second recognizer for determining
the input characters being handwriting characters or mixed characters
which include handwriting characters and standard characters, and
outputting a corresponding signal; a first display for displaying
the handwriting characters in a deformative form or in a standard
form; and a second display for displaying the handwriting characters
in a standard form and outputting standard mixed characters.
According to the invention, the characters used in a mobile phone
are adapted in various character styles without the current limitation.
The individuality and practicability of a mobile phone are enhanced.
The MMI becomes more attractive and the user can input the characters
with a "pen" according to his own custom. Thereby, the
input speed is improved. In addition, other advantages of the invention
are: (1) There is no limitation to the Chinese character codes and
the compatibility of various character-sets is available; (2) A
short message including handwriting characters can be transmitted
between the mobile phones which support the handwriting characters
and the mobile phones become more effective personal communication
tool; and (3) A short message not only including handwriting characters
but also including pictures and the like can be transmitted with
a modification to the above scheme.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mobile phone having function of
inputting handwriting characters according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of processing handwriting characters
according to the method of present invention;
FIG. 3 is a frame format diagram of adopting MG Logic JX-0605 handwriting
panel; and
FIG. 4 is a coding format of a short message including handwriting
characters.
The foregoing features and other features, advantages and objects
of the present invention will become more apparent and be more readily
understood from the following detailed description in conjunction
with the accompanying drawings.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
Embodiment 1
This embodiment of the present invention is described as follows.
To complete inputting, displaying and transmitting handwriting characters
in a mobile phone according to the present invention, there are
three stages: inputting the handwriting characters, converting the
interface data and processing the input handwriting characterss.
After the mobile phone input module senses the input handwriting
characters, it performs sampling, A/D conversion and encoding process
in respect of the sensed information, and then transmits the encoded
signal of the handwriting characters in conformity with a specific
protocol to an interface module. According to different interfaces
of various mobile phones, the interface module converts the received
handwriting characters codes into various data corresponding to
various phones. A communication module receives the handwriting
characters information transmitted from the interface module. The
communication module converts the received information into a displayable
information for displaying it on screen, and compresses and stores
the received information. The transmission of handwriting characters
among various mobile phones may be in form of a short message, infrared
transmission, or the like. The sender encodes the information to
be transmitted. The receiver decodes the received information for
displaying, compiling and storing the same.
The conversion of the interface data is carried out as follows.
Since the handwriting characters input module and the phones have
different interfaces from each other, the conversion of the interface
data is designed in view of various types of the mobile phone so
as to ensure that the handwriting input means normally communicates
with various phones. For example, if a standard RS-232C interface
is used as the output port of a handwriting character input module,
the conversion of the interface data is to convert the levels between
RS-232C interface and the various phones'communication interfaces
so as to match the handwriting input module with the phones'communication
interfaces. In addition, since the existing handwriting input module
is usually a passive element, an additional power supply is needed
to power the RS-232C interface during converting the interface data.
As shown in FIG. 2, a method for inputting, displaying and transmitting
handwriting characters used in a mobile phone according to the invention
comprises the following steps: step 101 for communicating with the
interface module; step 102 for compressing decompressing the input
handwriting characters; step 103 for displaying the handwriting
characters; step 104 for storing/reading the handwriting characters;
step 105 for decoding a short message including the handwriting
characters, and step 106 for coding the shortmessage including the
handwriting characters.
The handwriting characters data transmitted from the interface
module communicate with the communication module of a mobile phone
in step 101. The communication module interprets the received data
according to a specific protocol and outputs dot-information corresponding
to the handwriting characters. In step 102, the handwriting characters
dot-information transmitted from the communication module is compressed/decompressed
by a compression/decompression module, and the dot-information is
stored in step 104. The compressed handwriting characters dot-information
is transmitted to a handwriting characters display for displaying
the handwriting characters in step 103. When a shortmessage is transmitted,
the compressed handwriting characters dot-information is encoded
in step 106 so that the short-message including the compressed handwriting
characters codes can be transmitted with a conventional short message
transmission method. When a short-message is received, the short-message
including handwriting characters is decoded in step 105 and is transferred
to a display for displaying in step 103.
The communication (101) with the interface module can be implemented
in a way of:
a) Setting a serial port for receiving the data so as to communicate
with the handwriting input module and receive a required data stream;
b) Interpreting the data received from the serial port and outputting
dot-information of handwriting characters, wherein the interpretation
of the received data is performed according to the types of the
handwriting input module and the different transmission protocols.
As shown in FIG. 3, when the input module is a MG Logic JX-0605
handwriting panel, the input data includes mainly the following
information: X0-X13 for representing the X-coordinates of the input
points; Y0-Y13 for representing the Y-coordinates of the input points,
the location of an input point being determined according to its
X-coordinate and Y-coordinate; and P0-P7 for representing the pressure
values, ranging from 0-255. When the pressure value of a point is
less than a specified value, the point is deemed invalid in consideration
that the handwriting tool (for instance, a pen) does not sufficiently
contact the handwriting panel.
The above arrangement takes a character as an input unit. In this
case, the interpretation of the received data further comprises
recognizing whether a character is completely input. The recognition
is performed by judging whether or not each point falls into a specific
scope, and may also performed according to the pause time of each
character during it is input.
c) Compressing the dot-information. The handwriting characters
dot-information is compressed so as to enhance the usage of the
data. The patented dot-information compression method owned by BIJI
Company may be adopted in the invention.
In step 103 for displaying the handwriting characters, the type
of the input characters is determined at first. If the input characters
are purely in handwriting, the input characters can be displayed
in deformative form by means of a patented rector/dot matrix compression
technique owned by BIJI Company. If the input characters include
handwriting characters and standard characters, the mixed handwriting
characters and standard characters are displayed together.
In this embodiment, the transmission of the handwriting characters
comprises the following steps of:
1) establishing a new short-message based on the existing short-message
menu of a mobile phone;
2) inputting handwriting characters by means of a handwriting panel
or inputting standard characters by means of a standard keyboard,
wherein the compressed information of the handwriting characters
and the codes of the standard-character are stored; and
3) encoding the stored information (105), wherein the compressed
information including the handwriting characters and the codes of
the standard characters are transmitted by means of the existing
short-message transmission function.
It is observed that the compiling method of the short-message including
handwriting characters is similar to that of a conventional short-message.
Its actual implementation depends on the type of a mobile phone.
When transmitting the shortmessage including handwriting characters,
it is necessary to re-encode the short-message so that the handwriting
characters included in the short-message can be transmitted.
As shown in FIG. 4, the method for encoding the short-message data
should be designed in view of the types of data so as to ensure
the receiver can interpret the short-message including handwriting
characters and obtain the information of the handwriting characters
for displaying.
In order to properly transmit the data, TP-DCS (defined in GSM
03.40 and GSM 03.38) may be set as 8 bits. Considering that some
short-message centers do not strictly follow the GSM protocol, a
conversion of data is needed. For example, transmission of data
can be performed in form of Default Alphabet codes format. Furthermore,
in order to distinguish the short-message including handwriting
characters from the conventional short-message, according to a specific
protocol GSM 03.40 with respect of a shortmessage in GSM, TP-UDHI
in the header of the short-message is set as 1 and a new header
is defined in TP-UD for recognizing whether the short-message includes
handwriting characters or not, as well as whether to cascade.
A specific encoding manner is as follows:
1) at the beginning of a character string, using one byte to represent
the type of a data that follows;
2) using one byte to represent those characters belonging to Default
Alphabet character-set, each of which has 7 bits;
3) using two bytes to represent those characters belonging to UC2,
each of which has 16 bit codes; and
4) for the rest three types of characters, using two bytes to represent
their data lengths because the data lengths are indefinite, followed
by data.
This encoding manner can be significantly extended. Since the new
header of date has used one byte as identity of the type of data,
total 256 types of data can be distinguished from each other, which
can meet most users'requirements.
Receiving the short-message including handwriting characters comprises
the following steps of:
1) receiving the short-message by using the existing short-message
menu of a mobile phone;
2) judging whether or not the received short-message includes the
handwriting characters according to TP-UDHI and the newly added
header of the shortmessage, and if yes, the received short-message
being decoded in the following manners: a) the standard character
included in the received short-message is processed according to
conventional manner; and b) the compressed information of the handwriting
characters included in the received short-message is extracted from
the short-message and then is processed to obtain the dot matrix
information which the mobile phone can display, and
3) displaying the standard character and the handwriting characters.
Embodiment 2
As shown in FIG. 1, a mobile phone having function of inputting,
displaying and transmitting handwriting characters according to
the present invention comprises:
a handwriting input module 1 which may be a conventional handwriting
input means with an RS-232C serial port as output port;
an interface module 2; and
(Although conventional handwriting input means uses standard RS-232C
serial port as an output port, the external interface of a conventional
mobile phone does not match with the standard RS-232C port. In fact,
each type of mobile phone adopts its own specific interface. So,
it is necessary to provide a module for completing the interface
conversion between the handwriting input means and a mobile phone.)
a handwriting characters process module 3.
As to the handwriting-input module 1, after a mobile phone input
module 1 senses the input handwriting characters, it performs A/D
conversion and encoding process in respect of the sensed information
and then transmits the handwriting characters codes being in conformity
with a specific protocol to an interface module. According to the
different interfaces of various mobile phones, the interface module
converts the received handwriting characters codes into various
data acceptable and understandable to various phones. A communication
module receives the handwriting characters information transmitted
from the interface module. The communication module converts the
received information into the displayable dot matrix information
for displaying it on a LCD screen in a certain format, as well as
the module compresses and stores the received information. The transmission
of handwriting characters among various mobile phones may be in
form of a short-message transmission, an infrared transmission,
or the like. The sender encodes the dot information to be transmitted
to the receiver. The receiver decodes the received information for
displaying, compiling and storing the same.
As to the interface module 2, it is observed that the handwriting
input module and the phone have different interfaces from each other.
So, the conversion of interface data is performed in view of the
phone's type so as to make sure the communication between the handwriting
input means and the phone. For example, if the output port of a
handwriting input module is a standard RS-232C port, the conversion
of interface data is the conversion of levels between the standard
RS-232C port and the phone's communication interface in order to
match the input module with the phone's communication interface.
In addition, since the conventional handwriting input module of
mobile phone is a passive element, an additional power supply is
needed for powering the RS-232C port during converting the interface
data.
As to a phone's handwriting characters process module 3, which
may comprise:
a communication module for interpreting the output data from the
interface module and outputting handwriting characters dot-information;
a handwriting characters display module;
an encoder of the short-message including the handwriting characters
for encoding the handwriting characters dot-information and outputting
a transmissible shortmessage including the handwriting characters;
and
a decoder of the short-message including the handwriting characters
for decoding the received short-message and outputting the recognizable
and displayable handwriting characters.
In the above handwriting characters process module, the communication
module comprises:
a serial port adapter for matching the interface module and outputting
correct data stream;
a data processor for interpreting the received data from the serial
port in the unit of character and outputting handwriting characters
dot-information; and
a compressor for performing compression conversion of the handwriting
characters dot-information and outputting compressed handwriting
characters dot-information.
BIJI Company's patented technique may preferably be used for performing
the compression conversion of the dot-information.
The data processor comprises a recognizer for recognizing whether
a character is completely input. The recognition is taken according
to whether the coordinates of each point fall into a specific scope,
or according to the length of pause time when inputting handwriting
characters.
The handwriting characters display module comprises:
a character type recognizer for judging the input character being
handwriting or mixed characters (including handwriting character
and standard character) and outputting a corresponding signal;
a handwriting characters display for displaying the standard characters
or deformed handwriting characters for which BIJI company's patented
vector/dot matrix compression conversion may preferably be used;
and
a mixed character display for displaying the handwriting characters
in standard form whose output is standard mixed characters. |