you hardly need a 18f452 to do that, even the obselete 16f84 can do that and there is plenty of code for that on the web. I would suggest a 16f628 since the code is almost identical to the 84 so you could use most of the samples you find with just a little work.
you can follow this flow chart...it gave me such a hardtime to finish a project just like yours. so giving you this chart to followe...it helps a lot...study well and good luck..
thanks..for the flow chart...it help a lot. if i were to output the key pressed on to the lcd. Can i just set a temp file to stored the key file and lcdout?