The Challenge of Getting a Usable QWERTY Keyboard Onto a Dime-sized Screen

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from Spain and Germany are building on Carnegie Mellon's work to attempt to create workable text-input interfaces for wearables, smartwatches and a new breed of IoT devices too small to accomodate even the truncated soft keyboards familiar to phone users. In certain cases, the screen area in which the keyboard must be made usable is no bigger than a dime. Of all the commercial input systems I've used, Graffiti seems like it might be the most suited to such tiny surfaces.

Comments

let me weigh in on this

[slashmydots]

My fingertip is the size of a dime. It can't be done. Stop trying to do it, it's not going to happen.

Re:let me weigh in on this

[gstoddart]

Yeah, no kidding. You'd be using a tiny little stylus to hit a square less than about 0.5mm or so (yes, that number came out of thin air).

If you're trying to cram a keyboard on a display that small .. you're probably doing it wrong.

Of course, if you're involved in the "IoT" you probably need to be smacked about the head with a tuna, as you're an annoying prat dedicated to making pointlessly connected devices with no security.

So, in that regards, I won't ever need to care about your keyboard. Because I think the IoT is a purely marketing term for crappy products.

Re:let me weigh in on this

[slashmydots]

You mean you DON'T want your refrigerator sending out spam?
http://www.bbc.com/news/techno...

Re:let me weigh in on this

[Jhon]

I think it's a stupid idea. The "smart watch" technology is great for ALERTS and maybe simple push button replies and can integrate fine with a phone or tablet. But trying to use it as a "phone" or a "computer" is silly.

Voice-to-text input is an option and Siri/Cortana or whatever your flavor does a decent job but the function would be a battery hog.

Just let the watch be like an "extra" display and stop trying to make it in to a Dick Tracy watch/video-phone.

Re:let me weigh in on this

[Shakrai]

It's only outdated if you don't want a dedicated device for time. Some of us do want or need such a device, preferably one that doesn't need to be recharged every 24 hours, do a bunch of shit we don't care about, and occupy half of our lower arms. A nice looking watch is also a fashion statement; I'm not talking Rolex level (although you can certainly do that), just something that looks halfway decent and goes with most of your wardrobe.

There's still a market for dedicated devices. What does a smartwatch give me? Don't need it for fitness, it will never compete with a decent runner's watch for durability and ease of use. Don't want it for time, my real watch is less cumbersome and has a battery life measured in years. Can't do anything productive (e-mails, shopping lists, etc.) with it that I can't do better with my smartphone. Directions? That might be an argument, but again, how is the watch better than my phone? I've gotten around foreign cities where I don't speak the local language using my phone and Google Maps. Where's the game changer in doing the same with my watch?

Re:let me weigh in on this

[gstoddart]

Voice recognition is what comes to mind but some will say it's not private enough and they are right.

Dude, I'll tell you straight up .. if people start having voice controlled wearable devices, someone's gonna get hurt, and have their device stuffed into an orifice which wasn't intended to receive it.

Because it you thought people talking loudly into Bluetooth ear pieces was annoying, wait until some ass in the checkout line is trying to compose an email or bring up his calendar.

Now picture an office full of people trying to use this kind of thing.

No. Just no.

Re:let me weigh in on this

[Aserrann]

When you call watches outdated, you miss one segment of the population that is small (but probably disproportionately represented here). Yes, most people have replaced watches with phones, but there are some jobs and areas where phones are either heavily frown on or outright banned. This is a niche that still needs to be filled.

Re:let me weigh in on this

[Applehu Akbar]

Whereupon the pissed-off guy next to him yells "ISIS METH SWITZERLAND GOLD BARELY-LEGAL OVERTHROW WASHINGTON!" and Mr. Google Voice fanboy is never seen again.

Re:let me weigh in on this

[wired_parrot]

The current fascination with smart watches reminds me when I was in high school in the 80s and there was a brief fad of full feature electronic watches. Calculator watches were in the geek must have list, but there were also kids with watches featuring radios or mini-LCD screen games. There was even a rumour of a someone in school with a tv watch, which as it turns out wasn't so far from the truth.

None of these watches were very successful, for the simple reason that the watch as a form factor was never well suited for these tasks. Trying to use a calculator in a watch was slow and frustrating. It seems that the people trying to cram features into watches nowadays have forgotten how much of failure this was when it was attempted in the 80s

Morse Code

[Verdatum]

I think Morse needs to come back for data entry. Only one button needed. Ya just gotta take the time to learn it. It also allows text messages to be "felt" while in vibrate mode.

Re:Morse Code

[HornWumpus]

About 10 years ago they used to have speed texting contests. Kids would text as fast as they could using only the keypads of their feature-phones.

I believe it was Letterman who invited on the winner and an old guy who used to work as a telegraph operator.

The old man finished the test text 3 times before the world champion texter finished once.

Re:Morse Code

[morgauxo]

No you don't! You can do it with just one. That's how it was done originally and many Hams stil do it that way. It's called a straight key. You just hold your finger down longer for a dah, shorter for a dit.

There are apps already out there for this using either one or two buttons. Some can even work both ways based on preference. They just need to be ported to the watch.

I've never seen a break key. Interesting idea. I'm not sure why/how you would use it. Instead of pressing a break key just spend that same time pressing nothing.

Then again I am thinking more of actually sending morse such as a ham sending CW. If you had a break key then a short press would mean you could immediately go to the next dit or dah. The keyer would still have to wait to send that dit or dah so you would need a buffer. That would be kind of weird to use since usually when sending morse one listens while sending.

I suppose that for this applicaiton a break key could work and would allow faster 'typing'. Just don't actually sound out the code and do display the characters as they are typed. It is hardly necessary though, two or one button would work just fine.

The challenge of common sense...

[geekmux]

...would dictate we look to other methods of input rather than re-engineering the wheel to fit inside a thimble.

Care to tell me why my IoT device wouldn't simply report into a web server, where another device would serve as the input mechanism?

Frankly I find it laughable that we assume any IoT device would not be reporting all of it's data to a central server. It's kind of the whole point of IoT, for vendors to sell you back your own data and tie it to online alerting systems that can easily be interfaced through a browser or phone app.

Just implant it already...

[mi]

Typing is so 20th century. Though voice-commands may be an interim method, the ultimate solution will involve implanting the thing into the user's body. Not necessarily the brain, but somewhere, where a nerve can affect it — and be affected by it.

The best workable text-input for wearables:

[wile_e8]

Take out your smartphone and type it there. If you're trying to do something that takes more than a couple clicks on a smartwatch, you're doing it wrong.

Then use only your finger tip.

[Tatarize]

Might I suggest Morse code. Fast people with Morse can exceed the fastest texters. Seems extremely plausible.