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Next Generation T9 Keyboard Technology
Posted by
samzenpus
on Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:10 PM
from the type-in-a-new-way dept.
from the type-in-a-new-way dept.
Iddo Genuth writes "Cliff Kushler, the inventor of the T9 keyboard technology for numeric keypads, has developed a new alphanumeric entry technology for touch-screen laptops and Smartphone devices. This latest technology, named Swype, works with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard similar to ones found on Windows Mobile and the iPhone. The difference from the usual method of typing in the letters is that a finger or stylus is used to slide in the first letter, then without lifting the finger, the user continues writing the entire word. Only once the word is completed can the finger be lifted off. According to the developers, this leads to a much faster way of 'typing,' or as we might call it soon, 'swiping.'"
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An entire generation will be thinking (Score:5, Funny)
"Swyper no swyping"!
Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
This looks much more promising, and will hopefully be preventing the smartboard users from running back to a physical keyboard just to type something after using the mouse in front of the actual screen.
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Dvorak? (Score:5, Interesting)
All these virtual keyboards are hard-coded for QWERTY, which makes even less sense for that kind of device than for a modern keyboard!
Dvorak should be an option, along with alphabetical order.
Actually for this thing, there's probably a whole new layout that's optimal. (That's an exercise for the reader to invent.)
Re:Dvorak? (Score:5, Insightful)
say what? Dvorak keyboards are great if you want to type in what amounts to two different languages, and it's designed to accommodate speed and efficiency for ten fingers, not one finger and two thumbs.
If you are going to break away from the standard qwerty keyboard, why not try to do something that makes sense for two thumbs and a finger? Understanding that you would have two circular areas for common keys, and best to have them arranged so that you get best efficiency switching between thumbs on alternating letters.
T9 is meant for touch tone keypads, this swipe is designed for efficiency on soft keyboards. If you want to maximize efficiency for thumbs, start all over again please.
Parent
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I like the number-pad thingy, but I don't like having to press the same key 6 times.
1-2 should give a capital "A" while 3-2 should give a capital "C" and 6-2 should give a lower-case "c"; 7-2 would just give a "2".
Also, the iPhone's prediction algorithm is f'ed.
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Re:Dvorak? (Score:5, Funny)
Actually for this thing, there's probably a whole new layout that's optimal. (That's an exercise for the reader to invent.)
Introducing the patented, copywritten hunt-and-peck touchscreen keyboard! Perfect for touchscreens of all types, and optimized for the elderly! And as an added bonus, pay shipping and handling to receive 2 hunt-and-peck keyboards! Only 2 easy payments of $19.95!
and one very difficult payment of $49.99
Order now!
Parent
Re:Dvorak? (Score:5, Insightful)
Having been in mixed Dvorak, Qwerty, and Abcdefg environments, and having been on a quest for the ultimate keyboard for the past 10 years, I'm pretty confident that Qwerty is *good enough* until something truly different comes along.
Dvorak *can* run a little faster than Qwerty for typing, but not so much that you'd see an appreciably speed increase for nomal use. And as Dvorak has been around for about 80 years now [earthlink.net], I don't think anyone is getting in on the wave of the future by using it. Similarly, you'd be surprised how hard it is to use an alphabetized keyboard after years of Qwerty or Dvorak usage. The brain just doesn't change over that easily.
Unless an alternative layout increased speeds 100% or so, I'd keep things accessible. Just use Qwerty, and move on.
Parent
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The point of dvorak is not typing speed, but keeping your hands on the home row as much as possible. I typed on Dvorak exclusively the last few years, it's made my wrists feel a lot better. But I don't type faster, perhaps a bit more accurate.
Also, with the ease of changing it in most OSes, I don't think it's anything but personal choice anymore.
If you want something that may be better, try the Neo layout though. It's for the german language, but it may be good for english as well:
http://de.wikipedia.org [wikipedia.org]
Re:Dvorak? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
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Dvorak is designed for efficient touch typing. Virtual keyboards are inherently poor for touch typing (you can't feel which "keys" your fingers are hitting), and most are too small to even attempt it. If you could convince me there is a significant proportion of people who known Dvorak but can't even type one- or two-fingered on a QWERTY I might believe that there is a real need, but I suspect that group of users is vanishingly small.
WritingPad (Score:5, Informative)
What Google thinks of Swype (Score:5, Funny)
Google's ad engine selected "WI Portable Restrooms -- We Offer Portable Restrooms in Every Configuration & Price Range" for this page.
OK, back to the drawing board on product name.
Writingpad, in an App Store near you (Score:2)
Already exists. I think it was out the first week the iPhone App Store was open. Works pretty decently.
Tag fuckthegovernment? (Score:2)
Really
Because fucktheuspto (Score:2)
What does the government have to do with T9 keyboards?
The government granted a monopoly on T9 input to Tegic (now part of Nuance).
This was "swype'd" from Dr Zhai, of IBM, research (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds familiar (Score:2)
The difference from the usual method of typing in the letters is that a finger or stylus is used to slide in the first letter, then without lifting the finger, the user continues writing the entire word. Only once the word is completed can the finger be lifted off.
That's kind of like how a Ouija board is operated, isn't it? More proof that Cliff Kushler is Satan, I guess.
Rob
One Word - Patent! (Score:2)
writingpad iphone app (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.shapewriter.com/iphone.html [shapewriter.com]
Dasher? (Score:2, Interesting)
A simple question (Score:2)
How does it handle double letters?
For example, would it type my username as Goobermunch or Gobermunch? How would it know the difference? How does Swyping accommodate the William Wallaces of the world? Are they doomed to being Wiliam Walaces?
The press release leaves the question open. The ability to detect a repeated input seems to be an advantage of keypad type input. Perhaps, if you dwell for a sufficiently long period of time, it will count the character beneath the stylus twice.
--AC
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I got to try out Swype last fall at the TC50. It's pretty great technology, as I remember to do a double letter you just needed to loop around the letter.
neener (Score:2)
Make use of the medium (Score:2)
I was thinking about on-screen keyboards just yesterday. I usually avoid them, preferring real keyboards, but I was thinking, if your only choice is on screen, how would you want it to work?
My real keyboard is optimized to minimize hand and finger movement, by placing the keys I use most commonly near where my hands are supposed to be. However, it is limited by the medium: the keys have to be in the same place all the time. An on-screen keyboard doesn't have this limitation: you can put the "keys" wherever
Suretype (Score:2, Interesting)
Shark-like (Score:3, Interesting)
This looks like the Shark typing method [ibm.com] created for IBM a few years back.
I really liked the Shark idea when it first came out, so it's good to see something similar again. (Plus Shark worked on non-QWERTY 'boards as well, you just changed the settings on its initialisation)
Good. Now extend this to touch keyboard + monitor (Score:3, Interesting)
As one of the many poor typists out there, I don't see why we still have to choose between looking at the keyboard and learning to touch type. A touch keyboard, detecting my finger positions, could coordinate with a translucent virtual kbd on screen that also displayed my finger positions. The virtual kbd would be made to appear and disappear with appropriate gestures. Addional feedback would include haptic, sound, & 'hover' keys. And, as the whole thing is virtual, it would reconfigure on the fly to cope with any language, which simplifies life for the PC manufacturer. The touch keyboard would still need some kind of display but it could be pretty basic. Oh dear - I hope I haven't described this in too much detail. I wouldn't want some poor patent troll to starve...
Re:bleh (Score:4, Informative)
But when typing a normal SMS, T9 predictive input makes it so much easier for me.
Parent
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First, I never use that T9 stuff, because it never chooses the right word. Guessing the word that you want to type isn't convenient, it's annoying. Also, it doesn't allow for purposefully misspelled words and text slang.
At least in good recent implementations it does usually choose the right word, because in addition to having generic word frequency data it learns the most common words you personally use. You can also add your own words to the dictionary, so you can use as many purposefully mispelled words and slang terms as you like. You can always drop out of T9 mode for unusual requirements.
I usually dislike people who don't use T9; they tend to be the idiots who write things like "l8r" (7 key-presses, assuming you can
Re:bleh (Score:4, Funny)
Holy crap, you are an idiot!
Parent
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Of course, there are more problems with T9 than writing "l8r" (as your "a good T9 implementation" quote starts to hint). There are other systems (e.g. WordWise and LetterWise [eatoni.com]) that don't have many of the problems of T9, but you are usually stuck with what your phone has (or perhaps not if you have a smartphone).
Back to topic though, I am trying to draw paths with one finger on my PDA, and it certainly takes me a lot more time and effort than tapping (usually with two fingers). And all this without actually
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If I understood the idea correctly, tracing paths between letters gives you a curve, or at least a broken line with points where individual letters should stand. That means that, with practice, you simply draw a curve describing the word you want to enter.
Having started learning Chinese a few months ago, I'm beginning to wonder if we're re-inventing the wheel here...
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For the life of me I could not figure out "l8r". I kept seeing I ate her, and thought who in the heck would keep saying that...
Then I saw the first letter was not an I, but an L and it says later...
Why do I have this problem... Its called dyslexia, and I have pretty bad... Even my wife often looks at me in pure puzzlement.
Personally I hate T9 since I can never get out a message for the life of me. I completely prefer the keyboard.
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I know mine sure stumbled over "rdpadily". But more to the point I had to look at each individual word in that sentence and not just the whole sentence as I normally would.
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Yeah. Read speed on that sentence was ~50% of normal. You'd better have something REALLY fucking good to say if you're gonna make me work that hard to decipher it. ;)
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Nor does it predict when I'm typing an expletive. Seriously, that annoys me (I swear a lot because I have no imagination).
Re:bleh (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
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I got the idea from a comedian -- Seth McFarlane -- in that Family Guy episode where Peter considers a vasectomy and a barbershop quartet goes into a meandering number about sexual harassment and how the chick had too huge a rack to be talking about that kind of stuff [youtube.com](skip to 1:07)
But I guess that's the definition of the word...I-RON-EEEEY!
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I'd like to see the accuracy of this system in a real-life setting. On phones with the T9 technology, I found it was faster for me to hit a key three times than to backspace every time the software made a mistake (which was frequently)...
Backspace? Mistake? It's never wrong in the sense that it never suggests a word that can't be made of the letters on the keys you pressed. Erm, you do know how to scroll through the list of suggested words on your phone, don't you? You do know that if it doesn't have a word you can add it to the dictionary and the word you enter will appear in the message you are composing, don't you? The only reason you should have to backspace is if you made a mistake, you don't want to add a word to the dictionary or you
ACRES of irrelevant words (Score:2)
Erm, you do know how to scroll through the list of suggested words on your phone
But if you try to type BASES (22737) and have to scroll through ACRES of irrelevant words [cam.ac.uk], you're not likely to be someone who CARES about T9, and using that mode isn't likely to be in the CARDS for you. How many keystrokes does it take to scroll through this list?