SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY SELECTING AMONG A PLURALITY OF INPUT MODES

A continuous input system allows a system operator to continuously input a plu- rality of polysemous icon symbols to access stored (l3, l4) morphemes, words, phrases, or sentences corresponding to an icon se- quence. The system, with automatic mode selection for the input system, containing a plurality of character and symbol keys (4), allows for automatically selecting (4, 5) of the icon (12, 17, 22) mode, a character or word prediction mode (14, 15, 23); and even a subsequent suffix mode, to allow a user to enter morphemes, words, phrases, or sen- tences sequentially. Further, by utilizing the character and word prediction (l4, 15, 23) modes, including the suffix (27, 32) mode; words; phrases or sentences corresponding to non-accessible icon sequences can beau- tomatically activated without having to man- ually switch out of the icon mode or select the character and word prediction mode. Such automatic icon, word prediction, char- acter and suffix mode selecting, thereby al- lows continuous text (16) or speech (18) gen- eration with a minimal number of input key (4) activations necessary for a system opera- tor. A continuous input system allows a system operator to continuously input a plurality of polysemous icon symbols to access stored (l3, l4) morphemes, words, phrases, or sentences corresponding to an icon sequence. The system, with automatic mode selection for the input system, containing a plurality of character and symbol keys (4), allows for automatically selecting (4, 5) of the icon (12, 17, 22) mode, a character or word prediction mode (14, 15, 23); and even a subsequent suffix mode, to allow a user to enter morphemes, words, phrases, or sentences sequentially. Further, by utilizing the character and word prediction (l4, 15, 23) modes, including the suffix (27, 32) mode; words; phrases or sentences corresponding to non-accessible icon sequences can beautomatically activated without having to manually switch out of the icon mode or select the character and word prediction mode. Such automatic icon, word prediction, character and suffix mode selecting, thereby allows continuous text (16) or speech (18) generation with a minimal number of input key (4) activations necessary for a system operator.