Palm 'Molecular' Keyboard

Frank writes: "Here's an interesting new Palm application I found over at PalmGear.com. It's a new technology from IBM research called ATOMIK, it potentially allows typing of faster than 40 words per minute by using a Metropolis optimization algorithm in which the special keyboard is treated as a "molecule" and each key as an "atom"."

Comments

Suffers from the same problem as dvorak..

[qwaszx]

and every other alternative, which is the fact that it isn't qwerty. I know on the face of it is sounds like a stupid reason but there is logic in the stupidity...

As much as I would want to learn a faster method of typing. unless I can use the same keyboard everywhere I am (at home - easy, at college - hard, at work - you try asking your boss to switch), then I will never be able to learn the new keyboard layout because I'm frever switching back and to from a qwerty keyboard layout. As is mentioned in nearly every dvorak tutorial I have seen, you need to use the same layout all the time until you are proficient with the new layout. Switching back and to between layouts only lowers your typing speed in both layouts.

Now, if somebody could come up with a keyboard (cheaply, I dont want to sell my firstborn to type faster), that physically remaps the keys (so I can select US/UK keyboard layout in windows, but get a different layout on the actual keyboard), this would mean I could take this keyboard with me wherever I went (although on a palm it might be difficult), and use it in work, college, as well as at home, simpy unplugging the old keyboard and inserting the new without messing up the software settings that managers/admins won't hate you for 'hacking/cracking the network'.

It's about time...

[gazbo]

...That we move away from using a qwerty keyboard just because it's what the computer professionals are used to. Admittedly the immediate effect would be for me (and every other /.er) to drop to a sluggish hunt-and-peck typing style, but in the future it should be easier to learn for novices, and boost everybody's wpm.

Also, I think the idea of designing the keyboard according to Fitts' law applied to a certain language is a cunning idea - seems the obvious choice to boost wpm and reduce typing strain. Of course it'd have to be changed for other languages, but that is a fairly simple task, and it's not like it doesn't happen already (the French azerty, anyone?)

Of course, we'll have to wait for a hardware version with all keys implemented before it's worth learning.

Re:It's about time...

[DrHoneydew]

ATOMIK won't be a replacement for conventional touch type keyboards. The ATOMIK interface is optimised for entering characters using a single stylus. When touch typing, more than one finger is used to press the keys on the keyboard, making ATOMIK unsuitable.

It's not optimised for touch typing.

Re:Suffers from the same problem as dvorak.. NO

[A Commentor]

Did you or the person MODing you up actually read the article??? This is not an physical keyboard, it's for the touchpad of your palm type device. Not many people have used a QWERTY keyboard with the palm Stylus...

Re:New layout not so good

[SEGV]

As Donald A. Norman states in his classic book "The Psychology/Design of Everyday Things":

...every year some company foists another stupid alphabetical keyboard upon us...

(paraphrased)