Character input device and character input method

#This application is a National Stage of PCT international application Ser. No. PCT/JP2011/056298 filed on Mar. 16, 2011 which designates the United States, and which is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-059635, filed on Mar. 16, 2010.

#The present disclosure relates to a character input device and a character input method to perform character input.

#For electronic devices such as mobile phones, there are various input devices to receive an instruction from an operator in a manner other than pressing down a keyboard, a numeric keypad, or a button. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a character input device configured to display a character input screen including a character display area on a display means and associate a touch panel with a virtual character table on which a plurality of characters are arranged. The character input device displays a character in the character display area as a character to be input, which corresponds to a position of a touch input on the touch panel in the virtual character table. While the touch input continues, the character input device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 changes a character to be input in accordance a changing position of the touch input and display the character in the character display area.

#FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an appearance of a mobile communication device.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic functional configuration of an embodiment of the mobile communication device.

#FIG. 3A is an explanatory view illustrating an operation of the mobile communication device.

#A description will be given of embodiments of the present invention in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description does not limit the present invention. The constituent elements described below include various modifications that will readily occur to those skilled in the art, modifications substantially identical thereto, or what is called equivalent range thereof. The following description employs a mobile communication device, more specifically, a mobile phone as an exemplary character input device. However, an object to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the mobile phones. For example, the present invention is applicable to PHSs (Personal Handyphone System), PDAs, portable navigation devices, car navigation devices, laptop personal computers, gaming devices, vending machines, ATMs (Automated Teller Machine), and the like.

#First of all, a description will be given of an appearance of a mobile communication device 10 with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a view illustrating the appearance of the mobile communication device 10. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the mobile communication device 10 includes a housing 11 that contains respective units that constitute the mobile communication device 10. The housing 11 has a display unit 33 disposed on a front face thereof. The display unit 33 has an input unit 28 disposed on a front face thereof. A microphone 15 is arranged at one end in the longer side direction on the front face of the housing 11 (a face on which the display unit 33 is disposed). A receiver 16 is arranged at another end in the longer side direction on the front face of the housing 11. The mobile communication device 10 in FIG. 1 displays a character input screen, which will be described below, on the display unit 33. A virtual keyboard with a QWERTY layout is displayed on the character input screen.

#Then, a description will be given of a schematic functional configuration of the mobile communication device 10. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic functional configuration of an embodiment of the mobile communication device. The mobile communication device 10 is a mobile phone that includes a wireless communication function. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the mobile communication device 10 includes a control unit 22, a display controller 23, a storage unit 24, a communication unit 26, an input unit 28, a voice processing unit 30, a driver IC 32, and a display unit 33.