Symbol Input Device Using Correspondence Table for Privacy Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional symbol input methods make it easy for others to determine input symbols, such as personal identification numbers, which need to be kept secret.
Innovation Solution
A symbol input method and device that displays a correspondence table showing relationships between input target symbols and selection target symbols, allowing users to select one of the latter, making it difficult for observers to determine the input symbol, and repeatedly executing this process to input multiple symbols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional symbol input methods are used, then input operation is simple, but the probability that input symbols are determined by others is high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a correspondence table as an intermediary between the input symbol and the displayed selection target symbol. This table maps each input symbol to one or more selection target symbols, allowing the system to display misleading information to observers while maintaining accurate input recording. The intermediary layer prevents direct observation of the actual input symbol, thereby solving the privacy protection problem without significantly complicating the input operation.
2Reliability
If correspondence table with multiple selection target symbols is used, then privacy protection is improved, but information processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-establishes the correspondence table before the input operation begins. This preliminary action prepares all possible mappings between input symbols and selection target symbols in advance, allowing the system to quickly select and display appropriate misleading symbols during input without requiring complex real-time processing. The correspondence relationships are predetermined and stored, simplifying the information processing during actual input operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A symbol input method performed by a symbol input device having a display unit, a selector, and a determiner includes: displaying, by the display unit, a correspondence table indicating correspondences between input target symbols and selection target symbols and indicating that each of the input target symbols corresponds to one or more selection target symbols; ending the displaying by the display unit; prompting, by the selector, after the ending, a user to select one of the selection target symbols included in the displayed correspondence table; and determining, by the determiner, one input target symbol as a symbol to be input. The input target symbol is indicated in the displayed correspondence table and corresponds to the selection target symbol selected by the user in the prompting.