The standard typewriter as we know it today has been around for about 100 years and in that time, as an alternative to pencils and pens, it has served us well and will continue to do so for another fifty year or more.But typewriters are strongly dependent on tactile feedback and raised surfaces something that multitouch surfaces today don't support, so I'm always on the look out for alternative mechanisms of text entry for multitouch systems. The problem is there just are not that many promising alternatives. Swype comes to mind as one of the better alternatives.
Well thanks to pureelite I've found another alternative, Dasher. Dasher uses navigation as a means of text entry and it seems to work pretty well but has some obvious drawbacks. It requires visual attention; you can't navigate-by-feel with Dasher like you can type-by-feel on standard keyboard. Also, its a bit buggy (the Java version I tried out) and could use an extreme makeover ascetically. Still Dasher shows promise and should be dismissed to quickly.
The hard truth is that none of the alternatives to touch typing matches its speed or broad acceptance, so standard keyboards will be the norm for a long time to come. I actually really like the FrogPad which I own (complements of FrogPad's CEO, Linda Marroquin) and while you can type as fast on a FrogPad as a standard keyboard (for most people anyway) general acceptance is a challenge. Still, I recommend that HCI folks look into FrogPad as its design is really excellent.
So, for now at least, the standard keyboard is still the best we can do and a mechanical one, as opposed to a soft keyboard, is a superior experience. Perhaps we should just get used to the idea that when it comes to text entry, its hard to beat the keyboard for speed and efficiency.
2 comments:
I glad we could help (pureelite) :) nice post you have here too. Great roundup.
Your conclusion is absolutely true.
Dasher is an eye fatigue and work more as a concentration game on Nintendo than an input system.
Swype; maybe good if you are from the generation of the two people who invented it and who are probably sick of spelling each word character by character. But can anyone imagine the devastating damage such scribbling-like input system would leave on our children generation if all what they know about text inputting is Swype. They will be almost illiterate with zero capability to spell.
But first of all, we have to admit that a surface computer is not and will never be the choice machine for a novelist or a thesis writer. It better suits the tasks that need manipulating of things and objects not editing text.
And there are better ways of text entry for future surface computers. Handwriting recognition and voice recognition should be a standard in all surface computers in my opinion.
These two techniques are well advanced here in Japan, probably because the complexity of writing the Kanji even for native Japanese. I expect before the end of next year to see their commercial applications for surface computers in the market.
Also I think we ought to give more time to the virtual keyboard. Especially to see how the next generation, who has not gotten so much used to normal keyboards such as ours, would react towards it. My uncle never replaced his typewriter because he said he would not imagine writing without the finger-pressure and the loud-sound. I, who have never used a typewriter, thought he is just a close-minded old guy who is afraid of getting used to new stuff. Would that apply to us in the future?
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