Method for encoding Chinese characters

Claim 1

A method of encoding, uniquely, different characters in the Chinese language comprising associating with a selected character a phonetic tag therefor formed with no less than one, and no more than three, recognized Chinese phonetic symbols, associating with such selected character a tone tag therefor comprising but a single recognized Chinese tone symbol, associating with such selected character a two-digit-only number tag, each digit of which is associated, respectively, with two different ones only of the four recognized corner configurations in the character, and assembling such tags in a preselected sequence.

Claim 2

A method of encoding, uniquely, different characters in the Chinese language comprising associating with a selected character a phonetic tag therefor formed with no less than one, and no more than three, recognized Chinese phonetic symbols, associating with such selected character a tone tag therefor comprising but a single recognized Chinese tone symbol, associating with such selected character a two-digit-only number tag, each digit of which is associated, respectively, with two different ones only of the four recognized corner configurations in the character, and assembling such tags in a preselected sequence.

Claim 5

A method of encoding, uniquely, and into a combined electronic data stream or the like, different characters in the Chinese language comprising associating with a selected character a phonetic tag therefor formed with no less than one, and no more than three, recognized Chinese phonetic symbols, and generating therefrom a uniquely related phonetic-tag data stream, associating with such selected character a toner tag therefor comprising but a single recognized Chinese tone symbol, and generally therefrom, a uniquely related tone-tag data stream, associating with such selected character a two-digit-only number tag, each digit of which is associated, respectively, with two different ones only of the four recognized corner configurations in the character, and generating therefrom a uniquely related number-tag data stream, and assembling such individual data streams into a preselected sequential order to produce such combined data stream.

Claim 6

A method of encoding, uniquely, and into a combined electronic data stream or the like, different characters in the Chinese language comprising associating with a selected character a phonetic tag therefor formed with no less than one, and no more than three, recognized Chinese phonetic symbols, and generating therefrom a uniquely related phonetic-tag data stream, associating with such selected character a toner tag therefor comprising but a single recognized Chinese tone symbol, and generally therefrom, a uniquely related tone-tag data stream, associating with such selected character a two-digit-only number tag, each digit of which is associated, respectively, with two different ones only of the four recognized corner configurations in the character, and generating therefrom a uniquely related number-tag data stream, and assembling such individual data streams into a preselected sequential order to produce such combined data stream.

Claim 9

A method utilizing a keyboard unit or the like for encoding, and transmitting discretely, and electronically, to an electronic data-handling device, each of the totality of characters in the Chinese language, excepting those characters which create a collision situation, where the keyboard unit includes (1) a set of phonetic keys, each of which is associated with a different one of the totality of the recognized Chinese phonetic symbols, (2) a set of tone keys, each of which is associated with a different one of the totality of the recognized Chinese tone symbols, and (3) a set of numeric keys, each of which is associated with a different one of the ten recognized, different, single-digit numeric integers, where such integers are associated each discretely with a different one of the ten recognized Chinese-character corner configurations, said method comprising generating, through the making of no more than three keystrokes of keys in such set of phonetic keys, a first electronic data stream representing the phonetic symbol(s) which relates (relate) to the selected character, generating, through the making of at most one keystroke of a key in such set of tone keys, a second electronic data stream representing the tone symbol which relates to the selected character, generating through the making of two-only keystrokes of keys in such set of numeric keys, a third electronic data stream representing the respective configurations of two different ones only of the four recognized corner configurations of such character, and assembling such data streams in a preselected sequence for transmission to such data-handling device.

Claim 10

A method utilizing a keyboard unit or the like for encoding, and transmitting discretely, and electronically, to an electronic data-handling device, each of the totality of characters in the Chinese language, excepting those characters which create a collision situation, where the keyboard unit includes (1) a set of phonetic keys, each of which is associated with a different one of the totality of the recognized Chinese phonetic symbols, (2) a set of tone keys, each of which is associated with a different one of the totality of the recognized Chinese tone symbols, and (3) a set of numeric keys, each of which is associated with a different one of the ten recognized, different, single-digit numeric integers, where such integers are associated each discretely with a different one of the ten recognized Chinese-character corner configurations, said method comprising generating, through the making of no more than three keystrokes of keys in such set of phonetic keys, a first electronic data stream representing the phonetic symbol(s) which relates (relate) to the selected character, generating, through the making of at most one keystroke of a key in such set of tone keys, a second electronic data stream representing the tone symbol which relates to the selected character, generating through the making of two-only keystrokes of keys in such set of numeric keys, a third electronic data stream representing the respective configurations of two different ones only of the four recognized corner configurations of such character, and assembling such data streams in a preselected sequence for transmission to such data-handling device.