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Microsoft Develops Analog Keyboard For Wearables, Solves Small Display Dilemma
MojoKid writes Have you ever tried hunting and pecking on a miniature keyboard that's been crammed onto a smartwatch's tiny display? Unless the tips of your fingers somehow resemble that of a stylus, you're in for a challenge. Interestingly enough, it's Microsoft that might have the most logical solution for typing on small size displays running Google's Android Wear platform. Microsoft's research division has built an analog keyboard prototype for Android Wear that eliminates the need to tap at tiny letters, and instead has you write them out. On the surface, such a solution seems like you'd be trading one tedious task for another, though a demo of the technology in action shows that this could be a promising solution — watch how fast the guy in the video is able to hammer out a response.
Yep. They re-invented Grattiti. Knowing how the USPTO works, they'll probably get the patent as well.
Have gnu, will travel.
Does anyone else remember Palm devices having a little handwriting recognition box at the bottom, with the Graffiti? Hopefully this system does a better job at recognizing handwriting, but it's hardly a novel idea. I'm half expecting that next, someone is going to release a groundbreaking new smartwatch with a physical keyboard that looks like a casio watch.
Not that I object to drawing on old approaches in designing new products, but I can't help but roll my eyes if Microsoft is going to try to claim that this is innovative. Off the top of my head, it seems like we've had 4 different methods for text input: physical keyboards, virtual keyboards, handwriting recognition, and speech recognition. Each has problems that are fairly well understood. Speech recognition has gotten better in the past couple years, and Swype-style virtual keyboards (analyzing shape rather than simply button pressing) is fairly innovative, but I'm not seeing how this is actually a new thing, other than implementing it on a watch.
An update to the Casio AT-550?
MS Flight simulator...... etc. etc. etc.
Oh, you mean the product they licensed from creator Bruce Artwick for a hefty sum, and then paid him to contiune work on? MSFS was in no way stolen from Artwick/subLOGIC.
Kanji dictionaries work based on the stroke count and each stroke must be done in a set order and in a set direction. If it wasn't for the fact they have 220000000000 characters it would make a great input method. It wouldn't be technically hard to change western alphabet to a set drawing method but be almost impossible to implement.