Title of Invention

KEYPAD ARRAY FOR INPUTTING HINDI LANGUAGE IN MOBILE PHONE AND INPUTTING METHOD THEREOF

Abstract

A keypad array for inputting a Hindi language in a mobile phone is disclosed. More particularly, the keypad array for inputting Devanagari characters which are phonetic symbols including vowels and consonants as the notation of a Hindi language, in mobile terminals such as a mobile phone, the keypad array comprising a vowel area allocated to key buttons of the keypad array, disposed at easily accessible positions for a user"s manual operation, and marked with a main character and a sub character on each key button thereof, the main and sub characters selected in consideration of a Hindi dictionary order and frequency of use of the vowels; a semivowel area allocated to key buttons disposed adjacent to the vowel area; and a consonant area allocated to the other key buttons except the key buttons of the vowel and semivowel areas in such a manner that the consonants are grouped according to oral places of articulation and articulation methods and two characters more frequently used than the others in each group are selected and marked as a main character and a sub character, such that all the Devanagari characters can be input by combined operation of the key buttons of the vowel, semivowel and consonant areas. Accordingly, a user can easily get acquainted with the key arrangement through association and the usage. Also, the number of key inputting operations can be minimized while improving the convenience of use.

Full Text

KEYPAD ARRAY FOR INPUTTING HINDI LANGUAGE IN MOBILE PHONE AND INPUTTING METHOD THEREOF BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a keypad array for inputting a Hindi language in a mobile phone, and more particularly to a keypad array of a keyboard or a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), having an improved system enabling more efficient input of characters of a Hindi language. Description of the Related Art In general mobile communication devices such as a. mobile phone and a PDA being recently prevailing, a machine-human interface is equipped with a mechanical or physical keypad. The use range of the keypad has been greatly expanding from simple input of numerical data at first to input of characters for a short message service (SMS). When applying English or other languages having similar vowel and consonant systems to English, inputting of characters can be relatively easily accomplished by compositely inputting vowels and consonants. Accordingly, an English character inputting system is widely used in from the Western countries having an advanced technology about the mobile devices gradually to Asian countries. Generally, character inputting systems of recent days input characters based on pronunciation regardless whether the characters are ideographs or phonetic symbols. Since most of the mobile phones in the world are being manufactured by technologically advanced countries such as England, the U.S., Korea and Japan, there has not been any character inputting system dedicated for minority languages or some special Asian languages.. For example, a Hindi language belonging to Indo-Iranian languages of an Indo-European family uses phonetic symbols called "Devanagari." Although input of the Devanagari characters has been achieved in local mobile phones using a method as shown in FIG. 1, the conventional method is so inefficient and inconvenient that Hindi language users are actually using English characters marked on key buttons. Thus, in other words, conventional keyboards of mobile phones or QWERTY-type keyboards have been used to input characters without consideration of literal characteristics of the Devanagari which is the notation of the Hindi language. For this reason, although the Hindi language occupies 40% of Indian population and 80% of Indian territorial area, inputting of the Hindi language has been not standardized but performed by inputting English characters instead in accordance with pronunciation of the Hindi language. Therefore, it takes a lot of time and efforts for a novice of the English keyboard to input English characters corresponding to the Hindi language. This has been a hindrance in popularization of mobile terminals in the Hindi region. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a keypad array of a mobile phone for inputting a Hindi language, optimized for inputting Devanagari characters, which is the notation of Hindi, in a mobile phone and the like and structured to maximize convenience in use, considering the characteristics of the Devanagari characters, that is, phonetic symbols embodied by combination of vowels and consonants, such that difficulties in inputting characters of Hindi can be solved by applying the above keypad array in mobile phones designed for exportation to the Hindi region or directly in the Hindi region. In accordance with the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a keypad array for inputting Devanagari characters which are phonetic symbols including vowels and consonants as the notation of a Hindi language, in mobile terminals such as a mobile phone, the keypad array comprising a vowel area allocated to key buttons of the keypad array, disposed at easily accessible positions for a user's manual operation, and marked with a main character and a sub character on each key button thereof, the main and sub characters selected in consideration of a Hindi dictionary order and frequency of use of the vowels; a semivowel area allocated to key buttons disposed adjacent to the vowel area; and a consonant area allocated to the other key buttons except the key buttons of the vowel and semivowel areas in such a manner that consonants are grouped according to oral places of articulation and articulation methods and two characters more frequently used than the others in each group are selected and marked as a main character and a sub character, such that all the Devanagari characters can be input by combined operation of the key buttons of the vowel, semivowel and consonant areas. Another object of the present invention is to provide a keypad array for inputting the Devanagari characters in a mobile phone, comprising a vowel area allocated to key buttons of the keypad array, disposed at easily accessible positions for a user's manual operation, and marked with a main character and a sub character on each key button thereof, the main and sub characters selected in consideration of a Hindi dictionary order and frequency of use of the vowels; a semivowel area allocated to key buttons disposed adjacent to the vowel area; and a consonant area allocated to the other key buttons except the key buttons of the vowel and semivowel areas in such a manner that consonants are grouped based on morphological and geometrical similarity and two characters having highest frequency of use in each group are selected and marked as a main character and a sub character, such that all the Devanagari characters can be input by combined operation of the key buttons of the vowel, semivowel and consonant areas. Considering that the Devanagari characters of the Hind language are phonetic symbols using 11 vowels and 35 consonants compositely, the present invention provides a keypad array capable of inputting the Devanagari characters in an independent and efficient way totally different from the conventional Devanagari character inputting system or the English character inputting system. Since the Hindi character inputting system is not yet standardized, the keypad array according to the present invention can be applied to goods for exportation to the Hindi region by providing the optimum efficiency, thereby enabling technological domination. Especially, the keypad array is really useful since providing such an efficient system for inputting Hindi used by 40% of the whole Indian population and in 80% of the Indian territorial area. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the structure of a keypad for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone, according to a conventional art; FIG. 2 is a plan view of a keypad having a keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone according to a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is an explanatory view about vowels of Hindi for explaining the keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone; FIG. 4 is an explanatory view about consonants of Hindi for explaining the keypad array; FIG. 5 is an explanatory view about fricative consonants, nasal consonants, semivowels and lingual consonants of Hindi for explaining the keypad array; FIG. 6 is a plan view of a keypad having a keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone according to a second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a view explaining conversion among similarly shaped consonants of Devanagari characters of Hindi, in the keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone; and FIG. 8 is a view explaining the effect of saving the number of key operations of the keypad array according to the first embodiment of the present invention in comparison with the conventional keypad array, by actually taking examples of a few sentences. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the structure of a keypad for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone, according to a conventional art, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of a keypad having a keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory view about vowels of Hindi for explaining the keypad array, FIG. 4 is an explanatory view about consonants of Hindi for explaining the keypad array, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory view about fricative consonants, nasal consonants, semivowels and lingual consonants of Hindi for explaining the keypad array. FIG. 6 is a plan view of a keypad having a keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a view explaining conversion among similarly shaped consonants of Devanagari characters of Hindi, in the keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone. Referring to FIG. 1, in a conventional mobile phone M as a typical example of mobile terminals for inputting Hindi, a keypad K for inputting Hindi comprises general English alphabet characters and, additionally, Devanagari characters grouped and arranged on a plurality of key buttons B merely in the dictionary order of the Hindi characters with no consideration of the use frequency or the forms, in a This is the simplest way just for arranging the Hindi characters corresponding to a limited number of keypad buttons B, which has been generally applied in conventional mobile phones in recent days. However, with the key buttons B of the conventional keypad K, it is hard for a user to correctly remember how the Hindi characters are allocated to the respective key buttons B. Furthermore, because the groups of Hindi characters are arranged just in order of the button number, in order to input a desired one of the Hindi characters, the user has to first find out which key button B includes the character to be input, and check the arranged order of the desired character on the corresponding key button B. Next, the user has to repeatedly press the key button B until the desired character comes up. According to the conventional method as described above, not only that great caution and concentration of the user is required but also that it is inconvenient in that the same key button B should be pressed several times for certain characters; because each key button B includes many characters thereon. In consideration of the above inconvenience, a keypad array for inputting Hindi according to embodiments of the present invention is suggested as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 6. As far as not departing from the technical scope, various modifications as will be described in the following embodiments are acceptable. While briefly explaining the notation of the Hind language using the Devanagari characters with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG. 5, a first embodiment of the keypad array will be described with FIG. 2 and a second embodiment with FIG. 6. [Devanagari characters and the notation] The "Devanagari" characters for expressing the Hind language are phonetic symbols comprising 11 vowels and 35 consonants. More particularly, as shown in FIG. 3, the 11 vowels comprise cardinal vowels a (1), i (3), u (5), e (8) and o (10), long vowels a (2), i (4), u (6), ai (9) and au (11), and a semivowel ri (7). As shown in FIG. 4, the 35 consonants can be classified according to places of articulation in the oral cavity as follows: Velar sounds - voiceless sounds k (20) and kh (21), and voiced sounds g (22) and gh (23) Palatal sounds - voiceless sounds c (30) and ch (31), and voiced sounds j (32) and jh (33) Retroflex sounds - voiceless sounds t (40) and th (41), and voiced sounds d (42) and dh (43) Alveolar sounds - voiceless sounds t (50) and th (51) , and voiced sounds d (52) and dh (53), and Bilabial sounds - voiceless sounds p (60) and ph (61), and voiced sounds b (62) and bh (63) In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, the consonants include the following sounds classified according to methods of articulation: Fricative sounds - S (70), S (71), S (72) and h (73), and Nasal sounds - h (80), n (81), n (82), n (83) and m (84) Besides, there are semivowels y (90) and w (93), the semivowels having a phonetic value of a vowel but having a consonant form, a trill sound r (91), and a lateral sound 1 (92) . The trill sound r (91) is similar to an R-sound and the lateral sound 1 (92) is similar to an L-sound of English. In addition, the consonant include flap sounds R (100) and Rh (101) which are similar to the R-sound of English. The pronunciations of the consonants gh (23), jh (33), dh (43) , dh (53) and bh (63) cannot be expressed in Korean. Also, the voiceless sounds t (40) and th (41) of the retroflex sounds and the voiceless sounds t (50) and th (51) of the alveolar sounds, each having similar pronunciations but different articulation methods, cannot be discriminatively expressed in Korean. [Embodiment 1] FIG. 2 shows a keypad array Kl for inputting Hindi, being implemented on the respective key buttons of a keypad of a general mobile phone M, according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The first embodiment aims at easier awareness of the arrangement of characters and more convenient use for the user, by arranging the Hindi characters in consideration of phonetic dynamics, especially relative positions in the oral cavity. In the keypad array Kl of the mobile phone M, first of all, positions most accessible by a user's right thumb, that is, upper through lower numeric key buttons B on the right line of the keypad array Kl are defined as a vowel area VA. The vowel area VA may surely be allocated at other various positions, for example, the left vertical line or an upper transverse line of the keypad array Kl. However, considering combined use of the vowels and the consonants, it is most preferred that the vowel area VA is disposed for convenient access of the right thumb which is most frequently used by a right-handed user. As shown in FIG. 2, the key buttons B corresponding to the vowel area VA each comprise a group including the a (2) as a main character and the i (4) as a sub character, a group including the u (5) as a main character and the ri (7) as a sub character, and a group including the e (8) as a main character and the o (10) as a sub character. Here, allocation of the vowel characters to the respectively key buttons B is performed based on the Hindi dictionary order and the frequency of use. Since the long vowel a (2) has a much higher use frequency than the short vowel a (1) and the long vowel i (4) a much higher use frequency than the short vowel i (3), the short vowels a (1) and i (3) have priority to the long vowels a (2) and i (4) according to the dictionary order. However, exceptionally, the long vowels a (2) and i (4) are allocated as main and sub characters in the key button B. According to this, the vowels i (4), ri (7) and o (10) allocated as the sub characters on the keypad array Kl can be input by pressing the corresponding key buttons B twice, respectively. In addition, by using a shift key S of the keypad array Kl, the vowels selected as the main character on each key button B of the vowel area VA can be converted to the short vowel a (1) and i (3), the long vowel u(6), and the long vowels ai(9) and au(ll), respectively. A semivowel area SVA is formed adjacent to the vowel area VA, for example, on a numeric key 8 disposed on the left of the vowel area VA as shown in the drawing. The semivowel area SVA includes the semivowels y (90) and w (93), the trill sound r (91), and the lateral sound 1 (92). In the semivowel area SVA, the r (91) and the 1 (92), having higher frequency of use than the y (90) and w (93) , are grouped as a main character and a sub character and can be converted respectively to the y (90) and w (93) by using the shift key S. A left area of the keypad array Kl is defined as a consonant area CA. The consonants are grouped into velar, palatal, retroflex, alveolar and bilabial sounds according to the places of articulation and allocated to the key buttons B of the consonant area CA according to the group. In each consonant group, two characters more frequently used than the others are selected as a main character and a sub character and marked on the corresponding key button B. The other consonant characters but the main and the sub characters can be input by operation of the shift key S. The consonants selected as the main and sub characters can be regarded as representative voiceless and voiced sounds of each group. In addition, the fricative, nasal, semivowels and lingual sounds, being grouped based on the articulation methods, are allocated to other key buttons B according to the group. In each group, two characters of high frequency of use are selected as a main character and a sub character and marked on the corresponding key button B. The other consonant characters but the main and sub characters can be input by operation of the shift key S. As described above, according to the first embodiment, the vowels are arranged on the keypad array Kl by being grouped based on the dictionary order and the frequency of use while the consonants are grouped and arranged based on the places in the oral cavity and methods of articulation, and frequency of use. In other words, the grouping principle is based on the phonetic system which is familiar to the user. Furthermore, there are some functional marks used together with the Devanagari characters, the marks including a bottom dot for expressing naturalized words, Chandrabindu and bindu for expressing nasal vowels, and other main marks. Those marks are written below, above or next to the characters by operating corresponding key buttons B, for example, by pressing the key button B three times or pressing the key button B once or twice for a long time. In addition, semi-consonants used to make double consonants may also be allocated to the key buttons B of the consonant area CA and input by operating the corresponding key buttons B, for example, by pressing the key button B once for a long time. The notation of the Devanagari characters is sometimes changed when the consonants and vowels are combined in consonant-vowel, vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant structures. However, such exceptional cases would be properly processed by software and displayed on a screen of the mobile phone M. [Embodiment 2] FIG. 6 shows a keypad array K2 for inputting Hindi, being implemented on the respective key buttons of a keypad of a general mobile phone M, according to the second embodiment of the present invention. According to the second embodiment, the Devanagari characters are grouped and arranged in consideration of design and morphology, aiming at convenience for a user who is well acquainted with Hindi conceptionally and visually. As can be understood from the above explanation, there is a poor association between the pronunciation and the visual form of the Devanagari characters. For example, although the voiceless sounds t (50) and th (51) of the alveolar sound have similar pronunciations and articulation places to each other, the Devanagari characters corresponding to the t (50) and the th (51) do not have any similarity. Instead, the Devanagari character of the t (50) has a similar form to that of the n (83) while the Devanagari character of the th (51) has a similar for to that of the S (70). Therefore, the Devanagari characters may be grouped into characters having similar forms in view of the usage and the user's association. According to this, a main character of each group is marked on the keypad K2 so as to be input by pressing of the corresponding key button B, and the other characters of the group can be input using the shift key S. Here, the main characters and the sub characters may be changed depending on the frequency of use. FIG. 6 shows the mobile phone M equipped with the keypad array K2 applying the morphological reference. In the same manner as in the first embodiment, in the keypad array K2 of the mobile phone M, a vowel area VA is disposed on upper through lower right numeric key buttons B, and each of the key buttons B of the vowel area VA comprises a group including Devanagari characters of a (2) and 1 (4), a group including Devanagari characters of u (5) and ri (7), and a group including Devanagari characters of e (8) and o (10) . Also, main characters of the respective groups are selected considering the Hindi dictionary order and the use frequency, which is the same manner as in the first embodiment. However, this embodiment does not dedicatedly define a semivowel area SVA of the first embodiment. On the other hand, when arranging the consonants, the Devanagari characters are grouped by similar forms and arranged on the key buttons B of a consonant area CA by the groups as shown in FIG. 6. In addition, main characters and sub characters are selected in consideration of the use frequency. The other characters in the same group, similar to the main character, can be input by using the shift key S. Especially, the main characters are arranged according to the dictionary order so that the user can easily get familiar with the arrangement. Referring to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, the consonants are allocated to the consonant area CA of the keypad array K2 in such a manner that the key buttons B on the consonant area CA each shows the characters of k (20)-w (93), j (32)-ch (31), t (40)- th (41), n (83)-g (22), p (60)-y (90), r (91)-1 (92), and m (84)-th (51) as a main character and sub character pair of the corresponding group. When the shift key S is pressed together with the respective key buttons B for inputting the characters of k (20), w (93), j (32), ch (31), t (40), th (41), n (83), g (22), p (60), y (90), r (91), 1 (92), m (84) and th (51), a most similar character to each of the above characters is input. More specifically, when the Devanagari characters corresponding to the k (20) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the kh (21), having the most similar form with the Devanagari character of the k (21) is input. In the same manner, when the character of the w (21) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the b (62) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the j (32) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the c (30) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the ch (31) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the gh (23) having the most similar form is input. By twice consecutive operations of the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the dh (53) having another similar form to the Devanagari character of the ch (31) is input. When the character of the t (40) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the d (52) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the th (41) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the dh (43) having the most similar form is input. By twice consecutive operations of the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the Rh (101) having another similar form is input. When the character of the n (83) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the t (50) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the g (22) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the n (82) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the p (60) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the ph (61) having the most similar form is input. By twice consecutive operations of the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the S (71) having another similar form is input. When the character of the y (90) is converted by the shift key S, there is no designated consonant to be converted to. When the character of the r (91) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the S (72) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the 1 (92) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the n (81) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the h (73) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the jh (33) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the R (100) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the d (42) having the most similar form is input. By twice consecutive operations of the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the n (80) having another similar form is input. When the character of the m (84) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the bh (63) having the most similar form is input. When the character of the th (51) is converted by the shift key S, the Devanagari character of the S (70) having the most similar form is input. By thus allocating the Devanagari characters so that each group includes morphologically similar characters, long-term Hindi users who can easily associate the characters with the language are able to more conveniently input the Hindi characters with the mobile phone M. As can be appreciated from the above description, the present invention provides a keypad array for inputting Hindi in a mobile phone and so on, enabling a user, who is familiar with the Devanagari characters more than the conventional English conversion system, to conveniently input the Devanagari characters by easily getting acquainted with the key arrangement through association and the usage. Accordingly, the number of key inputting operations can be minimized while improving the convenience of use. That is, the efficiency in inputting the characters can be greatly improved. The above effect of the present invention will be apparently proved when being actually applied to example sentences as illustrated in FIG. 8. Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. 1. A keypad array for inputting Devanagari characters which are phonetic symbols including vowels and consonants as the notation of a Hindi language, in mobile terminals such as a mobile phone, the keypad array comprising: a vowel area allocated to key buttons of the keypad array, disposed at easily accessible positions for a user's manual operation, and marked with a main character and a sub character on each key button thereof, the main and sub characters selected in consideration of a Hindi dictionary order and frequency of use of the vowels; a semivowel area allocated to key buttons disposed adjacent to the vowel area; and a consonant area allocated to the other key buttons except the; vowel and semivowel areas in such a manner that the consonants are grouped according to oral places of articulation and articulation methods and two characters more frequently used than the others in each group are selected and marked as a main character and a sub character, such that all the Devanagari characters can be input by combined operation of the key buttons of the vowel, semivowel and consonant areas. 2. A keypad array for inputting Devanagari characters 22 including vowels and consonants as the notation of a Hindi language in a mobile phone, the keypad array comprising: a vowel area allocated to key buttons of the keypad array disposed at easily accessible positions for a user's manual operation, and marked with a main character and a sub character on each key button thereof, the main and sub characters selected in consideration of a Hindi dictionary order and frequency of use of the vowels; a semivowel area allocated to key buttons disposed adjacent to the vowel area; and a consonant area allocated to the other key buttons except the vowel and semivowel areas in such a manner that consonants are grouped based on morphological and geometrical similarity and two characters having highest frequency of use in each group are selected and marked as a main character and a sub character, such that all the Devanagari characters can be input by combined operation of the key buttons of the vowel, semivowel and consonant areas. 3. The keypad array according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein, when inputting functional marks of the Devanagari characters such as a bottom dot for expressing naturalized words and Chandrabindu and bindu for expressing nasal vowels, and semi-consonants for forming double consonants, the marks 4. The keypad array according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the vowels and consonants other than those selected and marked on the key buttons as the main and sub characters can be input by using a shift key dedicatedly prepared among the key buttons, in such a manner that the consonants are converted by the shift key in order of high frequency of use. 5. The keypad array according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the key buttons operate in such a manner that the main character of each key button of the vowel area and the consonant area is input by once-pressing of the corresponding key button and the sub character subordinate to the main character is input by twice-pressing. 6. The keypad array according to claim 1 or claim 2, being applied to a keyboard of a personal computer for inputting a Hindi language. 7. The keypad array according to claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising a keypad array capable of, by operating in a similar or the same method as the above-described keypad array, inputting characters of derivative languages of the Brahmi character which is the former form of the Devanagari character, the derivative languages including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Urdu, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. 8. The keypad array according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the vowel area is grouped in to key buttons linearly disposed along an upper transverse line, a left vertical line or a right vertical line of the keypad array. A keypad array for inputting a Hindi language in a mobile phone is disclosed. More particularly, the keypad array for inputting Devanagari characters which are phonetic symbols including vowels and consonants as the notation of a Hindi language, in mobile terminals such as a mobile phone, the keypad array comprising a vowel area allocated to key buttons of the keypad array, disposed at easily accessible positions for a user's manual operation, and marked with a main character and a sub character on each key button thereof, the main and sub characters selected in consideration of a Hindi dictionary order and frequency of use of the vowels; a semivowel area allocated to key buttons disposed adjacent to the vowel area; and a consonant area allocated to the other key buttons except the key buttons of the vowel and semivowel areas in such a manner that the consonants are grouped according to oral places of articulation and articulation methods and two characters more frequently used than the others in each group are selected and marked as a main character and a sub character, such that all the Devanagari characters can be input by combined operation of the key buttons of the vowel, semivowel and consonant areas. Accordingly, a user can easily get acquainted with the key arrangement through association and the usage. Also, the number of key inputting operations can be minimized while improving the convenience of use.

Documents:

01167-kol-2008-abstract.pdf

01167-kol-2008-claims.pdf

01167-kol-2008-correspondence others.pdf

01167-kol-2008-description complete.pdf

01167-kol-2008-drawings.pdf

01167-kol-2008-form 1.pdf

01167-kol-2008-form 2.pdf

01167-kol-2008-form 3.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(13-09-2012)-CORRESPONDENCE.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(18-08-2014)-ABSTRACT.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(18-08-2014)-AMANDED CLAIMS.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(18-08-2014)-CORRESPONDENCE.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(18-08-2014)-FORM-1.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(18-08-2014)-FORM-18.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(18-08-2014)-FORM-3.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-(28-01-2015)-CORRESPONDENCE.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-CORRESPONDENCE.pdf

1167-kol-2008-form 18.pdf

1167-KOL-2008-PA.pdf