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Five Finger Keyboards
Tijaska writes "Mobile devices are becoming more capable all the time, but their small screens and keyboards limit their usefulness. This article shows ways in which five buttons located on the edges of a mobile could be used in combinations to generate 325 or many more different characters, making a full-sized keyboard unnecessary. If that sounds like a tall story, remember the case of the retired 93 year old telegraph operator who used a Morse key to send a text message faster than a teenager could send it via mobile phone (see here)."
This has "Adult Chat" written all over it.
Well, along the sides I guess.
I've been using PDAs forever -- starting with my original Newton MessagePad (I do miss it). Over the years, I've become accustomed to the tiny on-screen keyboards with no tactile feedback. I grow my right hand thumbnail long, file it down so I have a bit of an edge leaning left, and I can type VERY fast with it -- probably faster than the average layperson on a regular PC keyboard.
As my friends slowly pick up PDA phones without "real" keyboards, they've also mimicked my thumbnail mod and found they can type incredibly fast, especially with the faster processor PDAs (HTC Trinity is what I use) which offer almost no delay when typing. Disable any sound response, and you can type even faster.
I'm sure that the iPhone will make huge leaps in efficiency, but I'm happy with where I am with the "old fashioned" touchscreen typing. I've blogged, read and written on slashdot, and posted to forums from my tiny 320x240 screen, all because of a simple thumbnail mod.
Try it -- it may save you quite a bit of time, and not cause you to have to learn some new fandangled invention.
As a side benefit, you become a proficient player of the penny whistle.
Peter
I prefer the Twiddler. After some practice, it's actually pretty easy to use.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
These single hand keyboards are called chord keyboards and a pretty old idea. In fact Douglas Engelbart used on during the mother of all demos (first: windows, mouse, internet, video conferencing etc.)
I wanted one since I saw one for the first time in a computer magazine (the Octima, about 1984), but they never caught on. Some are available, mostly for disabled people, and they are very expensive. According to people who have worked with them it just takes just a couple of days to become fast on these ones, but you cannot become as fast as a very fast typist.
I guess this is the main problem: for starters they seem to be harder, since they cannot see the letters, for pro-typists/programmers they do not offer enough gain, unless they have RSI. Maybe mobile typing will finally be their breakthrough. Took only 30 years.
memomo: free web based language trainer DE-EN-ES-FR-IT
Who says morse coders don't use text compression of their own?
... for almost all communications on the road. Why bother with five finger salutes?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
We've been using these for years:
m ber=12
http://www.infogrip.com/product_view.asp?RecordNu
Had a clerk who was unable to type with both hands bring in one of her own. She did just fine in a demanding, fast paced environment (ER Patient Registration).
For what it's worth, I could never get the hang of it. Would certainly take some time to learn. Perhaps as much time (if not more) than learning an alternate full sized KB layout.
This is an interesting concept, but I feel that a true standard will need to lend familiarity to the infamous qwerty keyboard.
The reason qwerty was adopted as a standard was not for efficiency, but because kingpin (at the time) IBM decided that when electronic buffers were introduced to typewriters and there was no longer a need to obscure keys on the keyboard in order to prevent mechanical jams, a keyboard layout they were currently producing would become the standard.
Since then, every typing class, every default layout and the vast majority of keyboards have been based upon the qwerty layout.
While some people on the bleeding edge of technology are willing to learn something new (I personally am proficient on Dvorak, Palm Graffiti, phone texting, and blackberry) A real standard of input will arise when the device is both similar to the qwerty equivalent and small enough to take along in your pocket. The average users are more willing to learn something slightly different than new altogether.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
There are services for hearing impaired people, where they have operators watching TV and adding subtitles to the programs in real-time. (Obviously the subtitles will a few seconds behind the audio, but it's good enough to let you watch the news).
Those operators use chording keyboard (though with more than 5 keys), set up so that particular key chords map to common phrases. Typing this way is a lot faster than typing on a conventional keyboard, but it obviously is a lot of effort to learn.
So yes, it does work.
5 buttons huh. Where's the strummer and the whammy bar?
Add that and we'll talk.
we do :)
Q codes, internationally recognized 3 letter codes beginning with the letter Q. Used in the Ham community, but there are Q codes for aeronautical, nautical, etc. use as well. It is possible to hold a meaningful conversation with someone, regardless of what language you speak.
I always liked the idea of YL=young lady and XYL=wife
l
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=xy
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Funny, I am right handed and I would like 4 buttons on the left side for 54 possible combinations. I could hold the phone towards me with my hand behind it.
65 combos will get enough to send emails and text, and would be very easy to manage, if the thumb gets thrown into it, it is harder to squeeze the finger buttons.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg