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Morse Code on Cell Phones?

An anonymous reader writes "In a recent showdown, veteran Morse coders were able to send SMS messages faster via Morse than the fastest thumb-typists. What about embedding support for Morse code directly into handsets? This article on O'Reilly Network floats the idea of using Morse code to compose text messages, as well as tapping commands (i.e. answer call, forward to voice mail, etc) in hands-free mode by tapping on the handset case."

14 of 316 comments (clear)

  1. Semi-Dup by A+Dafa+Disciple · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is a semi-http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/03/0 525225&tid=133&tid=215">dup. This submission has an article containing a reference to the material that Jay Leno stole, plus an unnecessary commentary on O'Reilly Developer Weblogs that provides no revolutionary thought and hardly any intellectual merit

    At least this time Timothy's dup and its original post were more than http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/ 29/0212242&tid=232&tid=14">8 hours a part.

    I'm not trying to be mean here, but is there anyway /. can fire http://www.monkey.org/~timothy/">this poor fellow and hire me for the seemingly cush job of /. editor? I promise to never dup! (or semi-dup in this case)

  2. Re:Not Going to Work by hilaryduff · · Score: 2, Informative

    not to mention the morse coders have a nice simple switch... the thumb typers have crappy little buttons and a slow cellphone OS to contend with

  3. Re:Rather impractical by dj1yfk · · Score: 4, Informative
    The supposed "showdown" on Jay Leno was a highly unscientific and inaccurate test which pitted the world's fasted morse coder using very expensive morse equipment against a teenager using a cheap cell phone with a membrane keypad.

    The two hams who won are certainly not the fastest morse operators. They were sending at less than 40 WpM / 200 LpM, whereas most good operators can send around 50 to 60 WpM. Probably they kept it so slow because the audience wouldn't have believed it was morse code if they went to their full speed.

    As an example, this is a sample of 60 WpM: click.

    Furthermore good morse equipment doesn't have to be expensive; I am using this homebrew sensor keyer for the last 7 years now and I am able to send over 50 WpM with it. Estimated cost less than $20...

  4. It has already been done! by Pat__ · · Score: 4, Informative

    After watching the Jay Leno episode I was about to start writing a program to do that on my 6600, luckily I did some research before starting and found this with the source included!

    You write the sms in morse and it converts and sends it as a regular sms.
    You can use the joystick on the phone (left for dot and right for dash) so you have your finger on one button all the time!

    Also I found this page for learning morse code ...

  5. Re:Rather impractical by Pat__ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nice analysis, however morse code is in fact faster since it is very easy to provide a -natural- way for inputing morse code on the phone almost as fast as the morse equipment!
    In fact you provide a way in your own comment!

    > the reason morse is as fast as it is is because you hardly have to move your finger at all.

    That's why typing SMS using this program for morse code IS ACTUALLY FASTER.
    http://laivakoira.typepad.com/blog/2005/05/morse_t exter.html

    You use the keypad on the phone to type the dit and dah (left, right) and click to seperate letters/words. Try it if you have access to a symbian phone!

    Even if you don't know morse code by heart.
    Write a message to send by sms, look up the morse equivalent and write it down too.
    Try to input the words as sms, now try the dots and dashes (follow what you have on the paper without thinking, left for dot, right for dash, click to separate letters, another click to separate words) ...
    So if you know morse code it is actually faster than sms! Now learning it is a whole other issue http://www.learnmorsecode.com/.

  6. Morse slower by DrSkwid · · Score: 2, Informative

    according to this :
    http://www.160characters.org/news.php?action=view& nid=1541

    Just 90 seconds after Mr Hill began transmitting, Mr Gibson announced that he had the message received and written down correctly.

    The message was

    "Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing."

    thats 108 characters

    108 / 90 = 1.2 cps

    yet the world record for SMS entry is 3.7 cps

    http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2004/06/28/sms_sp eed_recor.html

    Ms Kimberly Yeo,a 23yo business student,clocked just 43.24 seconds for typing this 160-character, 26-word text."The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  7. Re:Rather impractical by Tim · · Score: 3, Informative

    "The supposed "showdown" on Jay Leno was a highly unscientific and inaccurate test which pitted the world's fasted morse coder using very expensive morse equipment against a teenager using a cheap cell phone with a membrane keypad."

    Where the heck did you get this? I watched the video, and at no point were the morse guys introduced as the "world's fastest" anything. And honestly, I know morse, I know a lot of old-school Ham radio guys, and those guys on Leno weren't sending at any particularly blazing rate of speed. It sounded like 20-30 WPM, give or take. There are guys out there who can copy at nearly twice that rate.

    "If the pro-morser had been forced to enter morse on a phone keypad instead of his $200 morsing 'bug' then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have won."

    IIRC, the guys in the video were using a straight key, not a "bug". Nevertheless, you're kidding yourself if you think the type of key being used gave them an unfair advantage. What gave them an advantage is the fact that morse requires one button, and therefore can be sent without even looking at the keys. Even the best telephone keypad requires a certain amount of delay while switching buttons....

    --
    Let's try not to let fact interfere with our speculation here, OK?
  8. Re:Morse slower - well almost by DrSkwid · · Score: 2, Informative

    morse speed records are measured in wpm, a crazy metric but I guess it stops people sending .......... really fast and claiming cps records

    Ms Yeo's was 36.1 wpm

    Hill/Gibson managed 14 wpm

    the record for morse wpm is in the mid 70's, but for competition they transmit for 15 minutes from a newspaper

    http://www.rogerwendell.com/morsecode.html

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  9. Re:Mr. lameness filter says it's junk by i2878 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just FYI...proper pronunciation of morse code is:

    . = "dit"
    - = "dah"

    so....your message would be...

    dit dit dah, dit dit dit, dit, dit dah dit dit, dit, dit dit dit, dit dit dit

    --
    legal. fun. profitable. pick two.
  10. Re:Rather impractical by kyojin+the+clown · · Score: 2, Informative

    there are two ways of entering japanese on a keyboard; *using a standard latin keyboard and 'romaji' - for example 'k' and 'a' to type 'ka' *using a keyboard with japanese characters overlaid - find the 'ka' key and press it once i honestly cannot remember how my japanese phone deal with texting - its was somethin i did without thinking about - but i think each 'row' of the japanese alphabet (ie: consonant, then all the vowels - ka ki ku ke ko, ha hi hu he ho) had a key, and you would press it up to 5 times to choose the letter. there were a few modifier keys to chose 'combination' letters 'kyo' 'ryu' etc. the beauty of japanese is as the post above puts it - the kanji are mostly 2 letter combinations to express a noun. combine this with fairly simple grammar structures, and you have a language which is not only easy to enter, but doesnt use many characters either, meaning its easy to keep within your limit. disclaimer: i have forgotten a lot, there are people on /. far wiser in these matters than i, who may post a more educational response.

  11. Re:Cell Phones for the Deaf by sailracer6 · · Score: 2, Informative
    I would say that the Danger Hiptop, otherwise known in the US as the T-Mobile Sidekick, is an excellent cell phone for the deaf. I tried to get my deaf 80-year-old grandmother to learn how to use it last year, but she was just too old.

    In fact, you can even buy a plan from T-Mobile that has no voice minutes built in -- only data.

  12. Re:Mr. lameness filter says it's junk by n6kuy · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually the dot is pronounced "di", except when it's the at the end of the sequence.

    So,

    di di dah, => U
    di di dit, => S
    dit, => E
    di dah di dit, => L
    dit, => E
    di di dit, => S
    di di dit. => S

    --
    If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
  13. Re:Rather impractical by MidnightBrewer · · Score: 2, Informative

    I say this because I live in Japan, speak Japanese, and regularly send emails via my cell phone in both English and Japanese. English is a real bitch to type whereas Japanese is super-fast. So, yes, I'm speaking from personal experience.

    As another poster mentioned, Japanese do indeed use the so-called 50-sound input system, which doesn't necessarily require five keystrokes as there is also a reverse key (allowing you to go backwards through the list.) It also has excellent type-ahead find for words, and remembers the most frequent words and phrases you type so that you can often complete a sentence within two key presses.

    As for keyboard typing, I touch-type QWERTY at 80+ words per minute in both languages, and Japanese is once again faster simply because the words are shorter and the grammar simpler. A lot of extra time is wasted in English typing letters that serve no phonetic purpose in a word, as well as commas, spaces and the shift key for capitals. Spell everything phonetically, eliminate spaces and capitalization, and we'll be a long way towards competing. Until then, English is simply less efficient to type because it uses the alphabet instead of phonemes.

    --
    "Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
  14. Acronym Translation by k2dbk · · Score: 2, Informative
    For those who don't know:

    • CW = Continuous Wave, which is the method most often used to send Morse Code. Generally speaking, CW=Morse Code in this type of context.
    • QSO = a conversation between two or more amateur radio operators. Note the QSO isn't an acronym, but rather a specialized code that's part of a larger set of Q Codes used to minimize sending common information during a CW conversation.
    • HF = High Frequency, and in the above context I believe the author is referring to the bands between 3 mHz and 30 mHz (though CW is certainly used on all ham frequencies)
    • QRP = As the author notes, the use of low power (as opposed to QRO, which is high power).