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Palm 'Molecular' Keyboard

Posted by michael on from the 50-taps-per-minute dept.

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"."

7 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. What about Fitaly? by Radnor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Back when I had my Palm PDA I used FitalyStamp as my input method (a version is also available for the PocketPC). It's significantly faster than graffiti, and according to a contest held last year the fastest "tapist" could tap out words at 81.74 wpm! Sound crazy? You can see for yourself how fast they tap.

  2. Quikwriting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm using quikwriting right now and its pretty good. I especially like the way the overlay works, you just print it out on a transparency and slide it in, which is much better than a sticker imo.

    Its probably slower than Fitaly and this keyboard but it does a pretty good job.

    http://mrl.nyu.edu/projects/quikwriting/

  3. Good picture by Simm0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's a better image of what the keyboard actally looks like.

  4. It's about time... by gazbo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...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.

  5. I can now read /. 80% faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, after reading the article I found that by creating analogies I can accelerate anything I try.

    To prove the point, I treat /. as bread. Each article is a loaf, each post is a slice. Not only has this accelerated my reading. I don't feel as hungry.

    If I read a few slices in the morning, I don't need to visit /. until lunch.

    Thanks IBM! Thanks /.!

  6. Re:Suffers from the same problem as dvorak.. NO by A+Commentor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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...

    --

    Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com

  7. Re:Too bad you can't program C on it by mgarraha · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's what the trigraphs are for. Just double-tap the question mark, consult a cheat sheet for the third character, and hope your compiler knows what to do with it.