Short Input Conversion in Kana to Kanji Conversion

Short Input Conversion in Kana to Kanji Conversion

       Disclosed is a program in which the leftmost part of yomi
will be converted into a word or compound with fuzokugo in
kana-to-kanji conversion.

      Described are the points of the invention as follows:
a.   The leftmost part of a word's or compound's yomi can be
converted into a kanji string seisho by a method called 'leftmost
conversion' or 'short input'.
      For example,
      "a-me"(yomi) -> "a-me-ri-ka-ga-ssyu-u-ko-ku"(seisho).
      (The symbol '->' denotes depression of the conversion key).
b.   The unit handled by leftmost conversion is a phrase including a
word or compound. It is important to process fuzokugo here.
      For example,
      "a-me-ga"(yomi) or
      "a-me*ga"(yomi) -> "a-me-ri-ka-ga-ssyu-u-ko-ku-ga"
      (seisho).
      ("ga" is a fuzokugo and the symbol '*' means a wild card
character).
c.   Compounds in normal kana-to-kanji conversion are automatically
registered for leftmost conversion.
      For example,
      "a-me-ri-ka-ga-ssyu-u-ko-ku-da-i-to-u-ryo-u"(yomi)
      -normal conversion->
      "/a-me-ri-ka-ga-ssyu-u-ko-ku/da-i-to-u-ryo-u/"(seisho)
      (The symbol '/' denotes a word boundary).
      The compound is automatically registered for leftmost
conversion on its next occurrence.
          v
     "a-me"(yomi) -leftmost conversion->
     "a-me-ri-ka-ga-ssyu-u-ko-ku-da-i-to-u-ryo-u"(seisho).

      There are several conventional methods:
(1) Simple kana-to-kanji conversion

      To convert a long word or compound, operators need to input a
long yomi, which they feel is difficult.
Examples are:
"su-ka-n-ji-na-bi-a"(yomi).
"jyo-u-ho-u-syo-ri-ga-kka-i"(yomi).

      Operators sometimes add user-defined words to the user
dictionary to dodge this difficulty.  For example,
"su"(yomi) -> "su-ka-n-ji-na-bi-a"(seisho).
"jyo-u"(yomi) -> "jyo-u-ho-u-syo-ri-ga-kka-i"(seisho).

      This procedure, however, involves the following problems:
P1: Operators do not often add short forms, because these operations
are also difficult.
P2: Operators must know the registered short forms before conversion.
When "jyo-u-ho-u-syo-ri-ga-kka-i"(seisho) is registered in the user
dictionary with 'jyo-u(yomi)', it cannot be extracted by the yomi
'jyo'.
(2) "KATANA", a method of kana-to-kanji conversion

      In "Katana", operators can convert a word (with or without
fuzokugo) that they have converted before, by inputting one leading
character yomi.  For example,
     "to-u-kyo-u-chi-ho-u-no-a-si-ta-no-te-n-ki-ha"(yomi) ->
     "/to-u-kyo-u/chi-ho-u-no/te-n-ki-ha"(seisho).
     "to"(yomi) -> "to-u-kyo-u"(seisho).
     "chi"(yomi) -> "chi-ho-u-no"(seisho).
     "a"(yomi) -> "a-si-ta-no"(seisho).
     "te"(yomi) -> "te-n-ki-ha"(seisho).

      The addition of short forms is not necessary.  Operators can
always convert a word by i...