GB1385416A - Electronic data processing of chinese characters - Google Patents

Abstract

1385416 Selective signalling C-H YEH 21 Sept 1972 [10 Feb 1972] 43738/72 Heading G4H A matrix representation of a Chinese character is used for processing. At a terminal, one of four push-buttons is pressed to select a group of Chinese characters (which are grouped according to frequency of use), this moving a band to display the group beneath an array of 10 Î 16 push-buttons, an array ("section") of 5 Î 3 characters beneath each button. One of these 160 pushbuttons is pressed to select a section, one of the characters of which is then selected by pressing one of a 5 Î 3 array of push-buttons. The array of 160 is divided into regions of different colours according to the Chinese phonetic alphabets. The push-button inputs in hexadecimal form are sent via a buffer to a central processor (shared between a number of such terminals) to select a representation of the shape of the character in hexadecimal form in a disc store, this representation being returned to the buffer to control a CRT or diode-matrix display, and a wire printer. The terminals can communicate with each other via the central processor. The section push-buttons may be eliminated, the corresponding information being entered serially on the character push-buttons (the number of which is augmented to 16 by addition of a zero button).