Slashdot Mirror
One-Thumb Keyboard
pagercam2 writes "As Japanese teens are so used to typing one another messages on their cellphones, they are now more comfortable with one thumb typing than the old two handed QWERTY. So a Japanese company has come out with a
one-thumb keypad
that allows a user to enter alphanumberic text and control the mouse with only one thumb. Sort of a cross between a TV remote and a phone keypad, with a USB connection, although wireless seems to be an obvious next step. Maybe not a revolution for the desktop, but this could advance data input on handhelds." Pictures transcend language barriers.
I wounder if they have considered marketing this to the handicaps.. I know a few people who have lost a hand or two in one way or another and they have often found it difficult to use a regular reybaord.. I known one guy who simply won't use a computer now and one other who simply uses a mouse with a on screen keyboard.. not as quick, but he says its more conformatable.
British university researchers, after studying hundreds of children in Beijing, Tokyo and other big cities, say today's youngsters have become the 'thumb generation'.
By regularly using mobile phones, especially to send text messages and by playing hand-held computer games, a physical mutation had developed in the under-25s, the researchers have found.
The thumbs of today's electronic-gadget generation of children have become more muscled, more dextrous and often more used than fingers.
This is because modern youngsters grow up using hand-held gadgets where the devices are cupped in the hand and held firm by fingers, giving thumbs the pivotal role of pushing buttons.
This has caused a significant physical alteration in the way the digits of the hand are used - with thumbs being given the thumbs-up and an increasingly important role in youngsters' lives.
The researchers found that gadget-age children were now using their thumbs for tasks such as pointing at things and ringing doorbells - traditionally the job of the forefinger.
Whereas the forefinger was also previously used to clean an ear opening, mobile-phone using, text-messaging children will instinctively use their thumbs.
Even when they want to pick their noses, more and more boys and girls are tending to use a thumb, instead of a finger.
Whereas mothers and fathers would push the buttons on a telephone with their forefinger, many children would use their thumbs instead.
And when they type a message on the keyboard of a desktop computer, children hit more keys with their thumbs than adults.
Though most older people use their forefingers to operate remote controls for television sets and video recorders, many children tend to use their thumbs.
The findings have been revealed by the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit of Warwick University, one of Britain's top research institutions.
Experts spent six months studying the habits of thousands of children in countries around the world.
The researchers included youngsters in Beijing and Tokyo in their survey, in order to ensure that their findings were globally relevant, and did not apply to just a couple of countries.
The experts found that in fact, the trend of children using their thumbs more and more was particularly marked in Japan.
PrairieNights
--- "1.21 Jigawatts!" -Doc
Katakana is the equivalent of italics. Sometimes we italicize foreign words in English as well. This practice is simply more codified in the Japanese language: Hors d'oevres are so damn bourgeois. Sometimes katakana or italics are simply used for emphasis. (Any native speakers want to correct me?)
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Typing speed for "keitai" or ultraportable devices (specifically cell phones) in Japan compares surprisingly well with desktop computing.
The main reason is that... big surprise here now... most of the typing is done in the Japanese language, and not in English. In order to type in Japanese on a QWERTY or other roman-set board, you must generally hit at least two keys per character. So hitting the same phone button two or three times (on average) to produce a character is actually faster than hunting down two separate keys and pushing them in sequence.
Furthermore, just typing the characters in doesn't mean that you're finished. You must use the "henkan" (character transformation) system. Japanese has many ways to write the same character -- for example, there are over 40 different characters for "ha". Sounds like a nightmare, but henkan systems analyze the grammatical functions of the surrounding characters to automatically generate the most likely intended output. The user must then manually touch up any discrepancies. (In related news, the henkan system is being blamed for destroying the writing ability of young Japanese people.)
With this additional overhead, raw keystrokes aren't necessarily the biggest factor in Japanese typing speed. Further, modern keitais make use of auto-completion based on words commonly entered by the user. Reports of speeds over 200 wpm aren't unbelievable when a user can enter many words with only two or three buttons! Incidentally, the average word size in Japanese is two kanji or 4 kana characters.
There is also Japan's miserable history of IT education to consider. A good friend of mine graduated from a pre-business program at her high school which included certification in computing and word processing. She can barely copy and paste. Most of their certification was on "wa-puro" or big word-processing typewriters. Until about 10 years ago, these were the staple in most offices.
Most Japanese people in their mid-20s were introduced to their own cell phone before they had even laid hands on a real computer! To many Japanese people, their keitai is their most personal and important posession. It's only to be expected that we should see advancements here affecting other technologies.
A few other points of interest:
- Japanese people are at home (and able to use their own PC) less than people in most other countries.
- Cell phones can be cheaper than using land-line phones or public phones in Japan... especially when everyone else only uses cell phones!
- Cellular internet, which charges per packet instead of by time, is much more economical for e-mail than dial-up.
- The disaster that is Japanese urban planning, and continuously changing work and social schedules make cell phones a social necessity.
Note that the minimum speed on these puppies is 20 words per minute, and trained ops have hit speeds of over 70 wpm. Sometimes with a ham sandwich in the other fist...
...-.-
Most japanese people I knew were really slow typists. Consider that they have to slow down every other word or so to select a kanji...I can type about as fast as most japanese in japanese, and I only speak it at about a 3rd grade level. (My speed at everything BUT selecting kanji makes up for it I think)
Anyhow, I can't imagine something like that catching on with people who regularly type in languages that are easier to type, like english.