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."

Comments

Re:The Most Amazing Dupe Known To Man!

[KiloByte]

Wrong. This is not a dupe.
The previous set of (duplicated) articles said that a veteran Morser beat a semi-"veteran" SMSer.

On the other hand, this article suggests a way to draw conclusions from that experiment and provide Morse as an input method for the cell phones, to have the best of those two world. It's a research -vs- application difference.

Re:Rather impractical

[elgatozorbas]

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. It takes several keypresses to send a single character in morse and just because it's morse, it doesn't mean that you can press the keys any quicker. He could only key quicker because of the equipment he was using.

While I can follow your reasoning, it is also not completely fair:
- transmitting morse code is done using the equipment the guy used, transmitting text messages is done using the equipment the boy used. What you are saying is "cars would be not faster than bicycles, if it weren't for the combustion engines".
- it is only your assumption that the morse guy wouldn't have won using the keypad. Maybe yes, maybe no. Not very scientific either.
- No-one is saying this was a scientific endeavour. Was Leno nominated for the Nobel prize or so?

Re:Rather impractical

[sgant]

The operators have already stated elsewhere (I don't have a link handy, sorry) that they were limited in speed because the reciever couldn't use a typewriter to write down the code he was recieving...which would be much quicker. So they were actually hampered by is writing with a pencil speed.

The morse operators were also tapping out the entire message, while the text-messenger guys were using abbreviations. Anyone that has sat in on a CW QSO would know that operators use a TON of abbreviations to keep the code quick.

And it's true, CW equipment doesn't have to be expensive at all. In fact, to get on the HF bands it's probably one of the cheapest part of the hobby, especially if you're looking to do QRP which is running at 5w or less.