Next Generation T9 Keyboard Technology 150
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.'"
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.
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, Interesting)
Dasher? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Dvorak? (Score:3, Interesting)
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)
Re:bleh (Score:3, Interesting)
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...
Re:bleh (Score:2, Interesting)
I usually dislike people who don't use T9; they tend to be the idiots who write things like "l8r"
You sir, are certainly a judgmental idiot. I agree with the GP. I have a poor opinion of T9, because it rarely ever gets the right word. I usually write specific messages that don't fit to the canned word guesses it has. Trying to use it often turns out to be more work than it saves, at least for me. And I don't write in leet or in the SMS lingo.
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...