Microsoft Develops Analog Keyboard For Wearables, Solves Small Display Dilemma

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Microsoft Develops Analog Keyboard For Wearables, Solves Small Display Dilemma

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 12, 2014 @04:23AM from the finger-spelling dept.

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.

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Great "invention" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-12 04:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

LOL Microsoft developed an analog keyboard. OR they just remembered how their palm pilots worked and ported it to android..
1. Re:Great "invention" by PPH · 2014-10-12 04:41 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Yep. They re-invented Grattiti. Knowing how the USPTO works, they'll probably get the patent as well.
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
2. Re:Great "invention" by ganjadude · 2014-10-12 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  that should be "Graffiti"
  
  --
  have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
3. Re:Great "invention" by Arkh89 · 2014-10-12 05:03 · Score: 2
  
  His smart-watch didn't recognize the characters I presume...
4. Re:Great "invention" by Duhavid · 2014-10-12 08:16 · Score: 1
  
  When Apple "invents" it, will it be called iGraffit?
  
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  emt 377 emt 4
5. Re:Great "invention" by PPH · 2014-10-12 09:29 · Score: 1
  
  iGraffit?
  Newton.
  Or Egg freckles.
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
6. Re:Great "invention" by exomondo · 2014-10-12 10:40 · Score: 1
  
  Yep. They re-invented Grattiti.
  This is a *LOT* different to Graffiti. Graffiti was based on simple gestures for inputting characters rather than character recognition, for example to put in an exclamation mark you didn't draw an exclamation mark, you had to know gesture for producing one, which was to draw a vertical line from top to bottom. That method is entirely unintuitive because you have to remember not what the character looks like but what the gesture for drawing it is.
7. Re:Great "invention" by DrXym · 2014-10-12 20:01 · Score: 2
  
  LOL Microsoft developed an analog keyboard. OR they just remembered how their palm pilots worked and ported it to android..
  To be fair to Microsoft, they did have handwriting recognition in PocketPC devices too - several modes in fact from simple Palm-like chars, to handwriting and a keyboard. That said I found my Palm Pilot's system to be very reliable once I learned all the funny strokes for each letter. PocketPC was always hit and miss and I used the keyboard mode the most.
  It seems pretty obvious to do something like this in a watch and I guess it's better than nothing but it highlights why smart watches have such a long way to go to be useful for much.
8. Re:Great "invention" by arvindsg · 2014-10-13 02:23 · Score: 1
  
  Now that's an idea, Age of "on a computer" maybe over but nobody said you can't attach "on a watch" to get a patent
like the iwatch by goombah99 · 2014-10-12 04:33 · Score: 2

LOL Microsoft developed an analog keyboard. OR they just remembered how their palm pilots worked and ported it to android..
my thought exactly, and then I recall how blackberry took a big chunk of the pda market from palm. perhaps the smaller form factor will make it compelling again.
on the otherhand apple watch already demoed transmitting drawn shapes on their watch presumably for the same rationale of input to a small form factor.

--
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
1. Re:like the iwatch by iluvcapra · 2014-10-12 06:54 · Score: 1
  
  It looks like you don't have to learn a gesture alphabet like Graffiti. I also recall that, even if you were quite fast and accurate, graffiti's WPM just couldn't compete with keyboard, even a touch one. And even then it still has to compete with the various speech-to-text solutions.
  And then the iWatch thing is altogether a different thing -- Siri and "Ok Google" are meant for speedy text entry, at the expense of discretion; this finger writing thing seems to be meant to be still text-based but more discreet, but this makes it much slower; and the iWatch drawing seems to emphasize speed and minimize distraction at the expense of precision -- it can't send text, but you can send messages without anyone casually noticing you have a smart watch.
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
2. Re:like the iwatch by gl4ss · 2014-10-12 15:55 · Score: 1
  
  a better than "just remembered how palm" worked analogy would be: remembered how their own phones from 2005 worked and ported that to android BECAUSE WINDOWS PHONE IS TOO RESTRICTIVE in 2014...
  that's the real joke. wp sucks to use for research.
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Microsoft re-invents graffiti by james_shoemaker · 2014-10-12 04:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

Isn't this basically what the original palm computers did for text entry?
1. Re:Microsoft re-invents graffiti by goombah99 · 2014-10-12 04:46 · Score: 1
  
  with experience graffiti worked fine with finger tips. the stylus just let you see things better
  
  --
  Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
2. Re:Microsoft re-invents graffiti by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-12 05:58 · Score: 1
  
  Pity they didn't found about Teeline. It always looked quite "computerizable" to me, perhaps with some modifications. And you write words with single strokes.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
3. Re:Microsoft re-invents graffiti by dovgr · 2014-10-12 07:24 · Score: 2
  
  No, graffiti works with the finger as well. Grafitti is currently my prefered text input method on my phone. See: https://play.google.com/store/...
4. Re:Microsoft re-invents graffiti by Duhavid · 2014-10-12 08:20 · Score: 1
  
  Assuming they made such progress, shouldn't any patents be about original ideas and techniques in the signal processing and/or machine learning and not on the kinda obvious by now idea of using unique symbols drawn on the item's surface to communicate letters and words?
  
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  emt 377 emt 4
5. Re:Microsoft re-invents graffiti by newcastlejon · 2014-10-12 09:19 · Score: 1
  
  The trouble with shorthand is that it takes a lot of effort to learn, and there are quite a few ambiguities that tend to creep up when you're omitting most of the vowels. Deciphering what someone else has written often relies on context, and machines still don't do too well at that.
  Inputting in shorthand does seem a neat idea, but the likes of Swiftkey have made it even less likely to appear.
  
  --
  If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
6. Re:Microsoft re-invents graffiti by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-12 16:13 · Score: 1
  
  You're of course right, but to me it seems that there isn't much of a difference between the simplified strokes of Graffiti-like systems and the strokes of some geometric shorthand notations. In addition, there's autocorrect: you're saying that "machines are bad at deciphering ambiguities", but Swiftkey is already doing exactly the same thing you'd need for a shorthand recognizer - it's looking for the "maximum likelihood" solutions to keystroke sequences or finger trajectories, including (I'm speculating here) using language models to put the right word into a learned context. I just don't see the difference, and a shorthand-like notation would at least have the benefit of coding characters in terms of sequences of X-Y deltas instead of X-Y absolute coordinates like Swiftkey does. That's perhaps not as interesting on cell phones or tablets but crucial on small screens like the ones you'll find on smart watches.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
7. Re:Microsoft re-invents graffiti by disambiguated · 2014-10-12 20:14 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know why everyone is confused about this, but this isn't "unique symbols." The palm pilot input method was innovative because it solved two problems with handwriting recognition. The first problem was that there was nowhere near enough processing power to run a real handwriting recognition algorithm (which existed at the time). The second was that because you are writing each letter in the same space, there is less information to work with. Without character spacing, you have no idea whether a stroke is part of the current glyph or the beginning of a new one. They solved both problems the same way: by making each character a single continuous path, and the direction/order matters. That makes the recognition easier, and it knows when you are done with a character because you lift the stylus.
  
  The downside is that you have to invest quite a bit to learn how to do it. It's frustrating to have to learn how to do something you already know how to do: write.
  
  This is more sophisticated. There is quite a bit of variation in the way people write letters, and without the prescribed continuous glyph, a lot of ambiguity.
  
  Give them some credit. This isn't just a rehash of Graffiti. It's real handwriting recognition. I think that's impressive for such a small device. Not as limited as the palm pilot for sure, but still a very limited machine. It may be an incremental improvement, but that's what innovation is, literally, distinct from invention.
"Develops", "Solves" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-12 04:35 · Score: 1

Isn't this called Graffiti?
1. Re:"Develops", "Solves" by wierd_w · 2014-10-12 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  I think a laser projected keyboard that projects onto the side of the forearm or wrist would make more sense.
  Something like these--
  http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UT...
  coupled with the projector technology that was incorporated into some phones a few years back:
  http://www.gizmochina.com/2012...
  Basically, the smartwatch just beams a tiny 3 row keyboard onto the wearer's wrist/forearm whenever it detects that the wearer's hand is in the "typing zone". Then the wearer taps away on their arm, and the smartphone registers the input.
  But that would probably introduce additional battery life reductions on an already cramped device.
2. Re:"Develops", "Solves" by nine-times · 2014-10-12 05:12 · Score: 2
  
  Personally, I'd be fine with a wider watch. It's not like I need articulation on my forearm. Think "Less like a watch, more like a pip-boy."
  Obviously, the trick would be to make it thin, lightweight, and comfortable enough that people would actually wear it. But even if you just made it the width of a standard cell phone keyboard, you could have one-hand operation at roughly twice the width of a standard watch. the extra width should even allow you to spread the components out over a larger area, allowing for a thinner device.
3. Re:"Develops", "Solves" by Duhavid · 2014-10-12 08:22 · Score: 1
  
  No, no. We need the "liptop" computer.
  Display will be laser projection in front of your eyes, input will be speech recognition.
  It may take a while for these to take off for the ladies....
  
  --
  emt 377 emt 4
Pal did it by jeti · 2014-10-12 04:37 · Score: 2

This reminds me of the Graffiti input method Palm developed for its devices. It was used on a small touch pad, before larger touch screens became available.
Going in circles by nine-times · 2014-10-12 04:49 · Score: 4, Informative

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.
1. Re:Going in circles by vanyel · 2014-10-12 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  The original graffiti system worked quite well for me and I've missed it ever since..
2. Re:Going in circles by pruss · 2014-10-12 06:57 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  There is an official port of Graffiti for Android in Google Play.
3. Re:Going in circles by nine-times · 2014-10-12 08:04 · Score: 2
  
  My memory of it was that it kind-of-sort-of worked most of the time. Kind of. It was a bit slow-going and there were some characters it would be finicky about recognizing some characters. Of course, that was over 10 years ago now, and I don't actually remember very well. I just remember being disappointed that it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.
  I don't doubt that part of the problem was my awful handwriting. I've spent most of my life typing, and my handwriting was barely legible when I was practicing it. I've always thought that part of the value of using computers is that I didn't need the kind of coordination and practice necessary for neat handwriting, so I have my doubts about any handwriting recognition solution. If you make me trace out individual letters with my finger onto a screen the size of my watch, I think it's going to get messy.
4. Re:Going in circles by ColdWetDog · 2014-10-12 13:16 · Score: 1
  
  Wow. I might have to switch to an Android phone. I really miss Graffiti.
  Now, all of you, off my lawn.
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
5. Re:Going in circles by ColdWetDog · 2014-10-12 13:18 · Score: 1
  
  I got really good at Graffiti. I'm an indifferent typist - 20-30 wpm and could almost keep up with the Palm. The nice thing is I didn't have to look at the (tiny little) screen.
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
6. Re:Going in circles by djchristensen · 2014-10-13 01:50 · Score: 1
  
  I'm with you. I thought Graffiti was stupid until I spent 10 minutes using it and became proficient, and then quickly became much more than proficient. Until I discovered Google's swipe keyboard for my Android phone, I regularly wished for something like Graffiti.
7. Re:Going in circles by vanyel · 2014-10-13 20:05 · Score: 1
  
  Is it Graffiti 1 or 2? They rather crippled it with 2, over IP ownership issues as I recall... Still, I'll give it a try, thanks!
Longhand Speeds? by Nonsanity · 2014-10-12 04:59 · Score: 1

I know I can't write longhand as fast as I can type, not even counting the time spent correcting interpretation errors made by the software. I guess Microsoft wants us to all learn shorthand...
1984 Called by Nkwe · 2014-10-12 05:08 · Score: 4, Informative

An update to the Casio AT-550?
1. Re:1984 Called by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-12 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  Did you notice (the link at the bottom) that the guy in the video apparently works at Microsoft Research? ;-)
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
2. Re:1984 Called by kesuki · 2014-10-12 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  the first real world mass market character recognition i used was brain age 2 for nintendo ds and if you didn't start the characters the right stroke for stroke recognition it would screw up on you.
  with many millions of users of the ds and it's descendants it is clear that microsoft is reinventing the wheel again.
  
  --
  https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
3. Re:1984 Called by Alsee · 2014-10-12 06:32 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Your link is for a 30 year old watch with a touch screen that lets you enter numbers and symbols.
  This story is a new invention watch with a touch screen that lets you enter numbers and symbols and letters.
  That's why Microsoft deserves a patent on it.
  -
  
  --
  - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
4. Re:1984 Called by Duhavid · 2014-10-12 08:27 · Score: 1
  
  They deserve a patent for adding letters to numbers and *symbols*?
  What are letters? Symbols.
  What is new, unique, and non-obvious about this?
  In my opinion, not one thing. Work on it, talk about it, but no patent.
  I'm sure they will apply for one, and likely get it. But I don't think a patent is deserved here.
  
  --
  emt 377 emt 4
5. Re:1984 Called by Alsee · 2014-10-12 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  You might want to check the moderation on the post you replied to, chuckle.
  
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  - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
6. Re:1984 Called by Duhavid · 2014-10-12 10:05 · Score: 1
  
  Didnt see that. Thanks!
  
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  emt 377 emt 4
Nothing new by wvmarle · 2014-10-12 05:19 · Score: 2

Handwriting input is routine for input of Chinese characters on mobile phones, and has been for many years already. The character recognition part works quite well there, and is certainly a lot harder than for the very limited Western alphabet. So unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be anything innovative about it.
1. Re:Nothing new by Blaskowicz · 2014-10-12 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  Chinese characters have a stroke order when painting/drawing them. So maybe they're somewhat easy?
  Graffiti was arguably similar in codifying how you draw letters, not just how they look.
2. Re:Nothing new by wonkey_monkey · 2014-10-12 06:42 · Score: 1
  
  and is certainly a lot harder than for the very limited Western alphabet.
  Just a guess, but maybe Chinese writing is a lot more consistent between different people. The complexity of the characters probably means they have to be drawn quite precisely to be readable.
  http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/...
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
3. Re:Nothing new by DNS-and-BIND · 2014-10-12 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  Fun fact: most Chinese people use Pinyin input. Handwriting is used...but not usually. It's slower, while Pinyin is just faster. Or so I've been told when I've asked why people don't use handwriting input when they're clearly capable of it.
  
  --
  Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
4. Re:Nothing new by Harlequin80 · 2014-10-12 11:28 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  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.
5. Re:Nothing new by wvmarle · 2014-10-12 14:28 · Score: 1
  
  Never seen pinyin in great use: too many homophones for that to work well. There are much better methods than pinyin.
  However those methods only work well with a keyboard, while handwriting works better on small screens like mobile phones. Looking around me on the MTR I see most people use handwriting, some use other methods (such as "nine stroke" which basically uses the numerical phone keyboard for character input, advantage is that the soft keys on the screen are of reasonable size).
6. Re:Nothing new by wvmarle · 2014-10-12 14:30 · Score: 1
  
  Stroke order is indeed essential for proper software recognition.
bing dat by geoskd · 2014-10-12 05:30 · Score: 4, Funny

I especially love the part in the MS research video where they use Google to perform a search...
Priceless

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1. Re:bing dat by glwtta · 2014-10-12 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  Gosh, how awful of Microsoft to let their research labs get on with research, rather than constantly cramming corporate identity branding down their throats.
  
  Truly evil.
  
  --
  sic transit gloria mundi
2. Re:bing dat by omtinez · 2014-10-12 15:32 · Score: 1
  
  It is a marketing issue. It is saying to the general public: Microsoft products suck so badly that not even their own employees use them!
  If I remember correctly, Microsoft had a smartwatch many years ago that could only tell the time if it had a Wi-Fi connection, I am SHOCKED that it didn't catch on.
Why would you want to type at all? by AC-x · 2014-10-12 05:51 · Score: 3, Interesting

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.
Why would you want to type at all? There's reasonably good voice recognition now, that's got to be better than trying to finger-paint letters on a tiny watch screen?
1. Re:Why would you want to type at all? by narcc · 2014-10-12 06:14 · Score: 1
  
  Because not everyone wants to broadcast what they're writing. The silence is nice for the people around the user as well.
  Have you ever been stuck around some yahoo talking way too loud on their mobile? It's irritating.
  
  --
  Required reading for internet skeptics
2. Re:Why would you want to type at all? by lowspeedhighdrag · 2014-10-12 07:34 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Voice recognition for texting? One of these days we may be able to talk directly to each other through our Mobil devices! Won't that be amazing!
3. Re:Why would you want to type at all? by swillden · 2014-10-12 13:26 · Score: 1
  
  Because not everyone wants to broadcast what they're writing. The silence is nice for the people around the user as well.
  Have you ever been stuck around some yahoo talking way too loud on their mobile? It's irritating.
  I find that it most situations I can talk to my watch without annoying anyone. I just hold it right next to my mouth and speak softly enough that only someone standing very close could hear, and then not well. This works well even in very noisy environments.
  There are some circumstances in which this would be nice because neither talking to the watch nor pulling out my phone are workable. But it's a pretty small set.
  
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4. Re:Why would you want to type at all? by Fubari · 2014-10-13 01:22 · Score: 1
  
  reasonably good voice recognition? Maybe, for a given value of "good'.
  Voice recognition is hit or miss for me on android now... it works "reasonably good" provided I have....
  1) Low background noise.
  2) Solid network connection to upload & process voice sample on google's server farms.
  3) In a place where I can talk and don't care if others hear what i'm saying.
  
  So when it works I am suitably impressed, but it doesn't work often and I'm not always able to use it.
  
  Just a data point: my ancient Palm smart phone had more usable voice dialing than my android does today, and that thing was 100% local processing. None of this "busy icon" for 30 seconds to time out and say "Please try again" because 4G data skipped out or something, which is what I see often enough to be a pain when I'm voice dialing or map searching etc.
  (and yeah, I would probably complain about my flying car if I had one :-) I am amazed voice recognition works as well as it does, it just isn't at 100% yet.)
  
  Why would you want to type at all? There's reasonably good voice recognition now, that's got to be better than trying to finger-paint letters on a tiny watch screen?
Re:Again and again, rip and claim as their own by Lussarn · 2014-10-12 05:57 · Score: 1, Flamebait

Microsoft never claimed to have created the first mouse or any of the other things you listed. You're delusional...
Re:Great by Blaskowicz · 2014-10-12 06:29 · Score: 1

Wasn't Graffiti like in 1996? Should be unpatented or the patent will run out soon (yeah with some padding for the rule changes and whatever)
Re:Again and again, rip and claim as their own by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-12 06:35 · Score: 1, Interesting

Windows NT (includes 2K, XP, 7, 8, 2008, 2012 etc.) was "borrowed" from DEC:
http://books.google.com/books?...
DOS was "borrowed" from CPM
Doublespace was "borrowed" from Stac Electronics
MS Flight simulator...... etc. etc. etc.
Even thier "cloud" offerings stole search results from Google
http://googleblog.blogspot.com...
Microsoft has a long history of appropriating the work of others. No, unfortunately, these are real people whose livelihoods are stolen, not puppets from mars. A good friend lost his job at Stac after MS stole their product, stacker, then after losing in court, and having to pay $23M in damages, counter sued that the only way Stac could have created stacker was to reverse engineer DOS since MS didn't provide documentation that would have made such a product possible (exactly opposite what MS told anti-trust investigation). MS only got $3M back via their suit, so they acquired Stac, then fired everybody.
But, MS's theft as a business model doesn't seem to be sustaining the company. MS, while still fat with money is bleeding it fast, and has nothing, that is cash flow positive, except legacy stuff. People speak of the irrelevance of MS all the time-- it is not hyperbole. And, anyone who knows anything about MS business practices will not mourn their passing.
Re:Morse Code by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-12 06:41 · Score: 1

Here it is.
Google Gesture Search by beakerMeep · 2014-10-12 07:12 · Score: 1

https://play.google.com/store/...

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meep
The future is here! by glwtta · 2014-10-12 08:28 · Score: 1

And it's fucking annoying!

--
sic transit gloria mundi
Re:Again and again, rip and claim as their own by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-12 10:05 · Score: 2, Informative

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.
Old problem by nospam007 · 2014-10-12 10:22 · Score: 1

"Have you ever tried hunting and pecking on a miniature keyboard that's been crammed onto a smartwatch's tiny display? "
Smartwatch? You young whippersnappers, you don't know what 'tiny' is.
We had Casio Calculator watches in the eighties.
Those had real tiny, real hardware buttons that had to be pushed hard.
And now get off my lawn.
One big problem by Ol+Olsoc · 2014-10-12 10:57 · Score: 1

I don't know how right handed people do it, but as lefty, I wear my watch on my left hand, so I'd be trying to write wiith my right hand.
Then again, a smartwatch is pretty much up there with those goofy wristwatch calculators in my book.

--
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
1. Re:One big problem by ncc74656 · 2014-10-12 13:22 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know how right handed people do it, but as lefty, I wear my watch on my left hand
  
  You're doing it wrong. :-) You put your watch on the non-writing wrist. I'm right-handed, and I've always worn watches on the left. If I wore them on the right, the wristband would've scraped against the paper or the desk as I was writing.
  Then again, who needs a watch anymore when your cellphone shows network-synchronized time that never needs adjustment?
  
  --
  20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Re: Apple Newton by bill_mcgonigle · 2014-10-12 13:39 · Score: 1

ROM 2.0 was amazing. Two decades ago.

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Re:Great by Sun · 2014-10-12 17:20 · Score: 1

Graffiti is actually patented already, so unless they bought the patent holder, they should not be able to get a patent on this.
FTFY
Calculator watch by Casandro · 2014-10-12 18:14 · Score: 1

There even used to be a 1980s calculator watch which used the watchface so you could draw on your digits. The technology is rather simple so it is a logical thing to do.
The problem is, while it works for calculators, writing complex command lines is much harder.
Re:Great by DrXym · 2014-10-12 20:04 · Score: 1

I doubt the patent covering this stuff has long to run.