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A Better Way to Enter Text On a Palmtop

Posted by timothy on from the cuneiform dept.

DippyOz writes: "Ever wanted to speedily enter text into your palm and hate those 'look ahead' features? Dasher is a research project from Cambridge that presents an innovative way to speed up text entering by predicting and allowing you to choose from a number of choices by flying over them with your stylus (or mouse). There's Linux, Windows and PocketPC versions to download and try."

11 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. I tested it a while ago... by Cpyder · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...and I think it's quite promising, altough at the moment I still achieve higher speeds using T9 predictive text-input (on my GSM mobile phone). Whith some improvements I really see a future for it. Certainly the eye-tracking method is intresting, eg. for paralised people (instead of a stick on a helmet to press keyboard buttons).

    1. Re:I tested it a while ago... by psych031337 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree, this project has quite some potential, but not for people who still have a few fingers attached (and can use them).

      Most people will still be faster with any sort of keyboard. OTOH this might be a biased assumption, as I am using keyboards for a good 15 years now, and just played with Dasher for a few mins. Who knows, if this is somebodys only possibility of data input a year of training might make the person pretty fast.

      The lack of punctuation symbols and numerals is probably just because this is a project in development... but I wonder how it would be implemented in v1.0.

      Another thing... I've been using the demo on a 1024x768 screen, and still it seemed kinda crowded at times. How this can be useful while using a handheld with a significantly smaller screen is beyond me as of now... Anyone who tried the PocketPC version ready to throw in a few cents?

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      +++ath0
    2. Re:I tested it a while ago... by tpicot · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm on an iPaq, and wow, its very very intuative. Within a few minutes, im already very quick. With further dev, this could be really effecient. As to the size on the screen thing, since it predicts what you will be typing, as you start to zoom in, the letters to choose too, are there waiting for you. It's not as much of a prob as you would expect...

  2. Impressive. by Obliterous · · Score: 3, Informative

    I downloaded the software, tried it out, and after two minutes, I'm impressed. MUCH easier to use that I thought that it would be, It almost seems to be reading My mind, as to what I want to say...

    While it could still use a bit of work, overall it is an incredible new paridgm in the way that text-entry can happen. palm-top users are going to fall in love with it's ease of use, I predict.

    A more `finished' version would be nice for the desktop users, perhaps allowing it to reside in a side window tray that scrolled out when selected, and did the text entry in whatever text box has the edit focus. Add that, and it will become a permanent addition to My desktop's.

    Kudos to David MacKay and his crew for creating something unique and new, and actually enhancing the user interface at the same time.

  3. Re:Palm? by Fredge · · Score: 3, Informative

    From their FAQ:

    Several years ago we considered a port to Palm, but at the time, the LCD screens had a poor refresh rate. The scrolling letters/rectangles would be completely blurred. Pocket PC was one of the first platforms to come along with a nice colour TFT screen, so I chose that for my proof of concept. I'm aware that Palms have improved now. A port may be available in the future as the Dasher team expands.

  4. Just tested it by fruey · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The interface defaults are a bit counter intuitive. I wanted to click on the letters but I have to kind of let them "sail" by. I gave up whilst trying to type "people say the strangest things" which I could have done easily with T9 on my Nokia phone, or with a regular AZERTY or QWERTY keyboard.

    This looks like a good idea, but perhaps for the disabled who can only use pointing devices, rather than for those of use who have full dexterity. Even on a PDA, I think Graffiti or typing on a keyboard template would be easier, because this interface is clearly going to take over the entire screen...

    I suppose if I got used to it a bit more it could be better, but when I first saw T9 I "got it" straight away, but this just frustrated me.

    --
    Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
    1. Re:Just tested it by Ecyrd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Think of the Dasher as a racing game... It really helped me achieve fast speeds. :-)

  5. wrong approach? by firebat162 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I downloaded and tried it. It's a neat approach, but I don't think it's the best way to input text... Like this, it requires too much thought. For instance, typing. Once a person gets used to typing, it is pretty much second nature. Not much thinking in terms of how to input letters. But with Dasher, you always have to be looking on the screen to see what letters are coming up. There are patterns but the patterns aren't static (I realize this is one of the strengths). Seems like it takes too much effort on the inputter's point of view to perform such an elementary task of inputting text.

  6. Markov by Mr_Silver · · Score: 4, Informative
    This is exactly how Dasher works, except for one crucial point: we alter the SIZE of the shelf space devoted to each book in proportion to the probability of the corresponding text

    Basically they use a markov chain which has in it the probabilities that one letter will appear after another. It's very similar to the disassociated press generators you can find out there.

    For example, here is one I wrote which generates new random words based on the probabilities of one pair of letters appearing after another pair. I used pairs because it generates more English-like words.

    It was "taught" using the contents of /usr/dict/words and written in Perl.

    --
    Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
  7. Dasher sounds pretty cool, but... by jbarr · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...I'll wait for the Dancer or maybe the Prancer project. Of course these will be followed up by the launch of the Vixen, Comet, and Cupid projects. Though the Donnor project was nothing more than a party, the Blitzen should prove to be innovative. Of course, the Rudolph project will help shed more light on the issue.

    --
    My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
  8. Ouija board, magic 8-ball, and Dasher! by Black+Perl · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's fun to just click once to get it started, and then let it say what it wants to... I just did it, and it spelled out "pox today for the king."

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    bp