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Type With Your Eyes

Posted by timothy on from the type-from-a-full-suspension dept.

hof writes: "Ever wanted to enter text by just looking at the screen? Take a look at Dasher. You enter text by looking or pointing to letters or words which the program thinks you are about to enter. I wonder how this can be optimized for coding -- a break for your wrists, and the code is available under GPL."

4 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. A few thoughts by HiQ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    First of all, I think that it works a lot slower than ordinary typing, especially when done by a trained typist. But more importantly, if you should use this for coding all day long, you would probably feel like you have been in an all-weekend Quake frag fest. The strain on your brain (oooh, it rhymes), especially the visual part, is a lot bigger than if you're working like you do now.

  2. Great for my wrists, but my EYES! by bildstorm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While I recognise the benefits for someone with serious RSI in their wrists (I've suffered, I know what it's like), the additional strain for my eyes would send me screaming.

    I don't know how it is for most of you, but I'm extremely sensitive to flicker. Having moved back to the US, I notice the flicker on TV all the time. I notice the flicker on monitors, in lights, etc.

    Looking from letter to letter, word to word to type would kill me.

    Even if I could get higher than my current 65 wpm, I think the additional eyestrain would cause me to avoid the technology.

    --
    The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
  3. I think there's an excellent use for this tech... by foxtrot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While I don't think I want to actually type with my eyes, I have often grumbled after having typed half a paragraph into the wrong X-term that I wanted a 'focus-follows-eyes' mode...

  4. utterly slow by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Part of the speed of typing has to do with the fact that you are using (ok, some are using...) 8-10 fingers almost simultaneously.

    Type "a quick brown fox jumps over the lazy sleeping dog". Now, mentally write it by LOOKING at each letter on your keyboard, and thinking 'click' on each one.

    1) visually - takes at least 3 times longer, at least for me.
    2) doing that for even a few moments is already giving me a headache.

    I don't think it's going to be the next 'sliced bread'.

    --
    -Styopa