Hokkaido University Research Profiles

Japanese
Information and Communication

Development of a High-speed Japanese Input System for Mobile Devices

Development of a fast and easy Japanese input method for smartphones and other mobile phones

There is still no fast and easy way to input Japanese on mobile devices (smartphones, etc.). With this research, we are developing a system that halves the number of keystrokes normally required to input Japanese characters by using a powerful learning function that matches the respective lines in the Japanese syllabary with numbers.

Content of research

This system translates strings of numbers input by degenerated keywords into a Japanese sentence with mixed Chinese characters and Japanese phonetic characters. Through degenerated keyword input, one line in the Japanese syllabary is matched with one number to allow fast and easy input. This system provides words by using inductive learning to compare the strings of numbers and the proofread translation results. Therefore, even if the dictionary is empty, the system can generate a dictionary adapted to the target field. However, input of a sequence of numbers from degenerated vowel information may cause ambiguity. To solve this problem, this system uses information on adjacent characters, top-level words and position presumption information. The use of top-level words and position presumption processing increases the number of words acquired, and the adjacent character information enables the conversion that takes connections between words into account.

Potential for social implementation

  • ・Realizing a fast and easy Japanese input system for smartphones and mobile phones
  • ・Realizing an easy-to-use Japanese input system to search programs on a TV remote control, etc.
  • ・Realizing a high-speed Japanese input system for PCs

Appealing points to industry and local governments

Although a various information devices have been developed and are widely used in society, a satisfactory Japanese input system has not been developed yet, especially for portable devices such as smartphones. This system has been developed to solve this problem, and we believe that it has a very wide range of applications.

2022/5/27Released