DailyDirt: Evolving The Touchscreen Keyboard

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, May 8th 2013 5:00pm — Joyce Hung

The QWERTY keyboard layout, which was created around 1875, was originally designed to prevent typewriter keys from jamming. This was done by arranging letters that were most commonly used together farther apart. While the QWERTY layout is still used today, it may not be the best layout for virtual touchscreen keyboards, so there have been many efforts to design alternative keyboard layouts. Here are just a few examples.

The new KALQ keyboard layout enables faster thumb-typing on touchscreen devices. In the new layout, all the vowels except for "y" are placed in the area for the right thumb, while more keys are assigned to the left thumb. After a short amount of practice, users were able to type 34% faster with the KALQ keyboard than with a traditional QWERTY layout. [url]
Minuum is a space-efficient, single-row keyboard layout that uses auto-correction algorithms to intelligently predict the words users are attempting to type. The traditional QWERTY order of letters is mostly in place to make it easier to transition from standard software keyboards, and the powerful predictive typing algorithms ensure accurate text entry.[url]
IBM envisions a virtual keyboard that can adapt to each user's unique typing style. The keyboard would gather data on the user's typing habits and compile an "anatomical profile" of the user, which it would then use to subtly adapt the keyboard to the user. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: dvorak, input devices, kalq, keyboard, minuum, qwerty, touchscreens, ui
Companies: ibm, kickstarter

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2013 @ 5:05pm

chording...
I still wonder why keyboards don't incorporate "chord" inputs like the court reporter systems do.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That One Guy (profile), 8 May 2013 @ 5:22pm

Given there are entire websites dedicated to showcasing the awesome and often hilarious mistakes autocorrect causes, not too sure how viable that second idea is.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mudlock (profile), 8 May 2013 @ 5:41pm

Sounds like 90% of the benefit of KALQ can be gotten with Dvorak (which, btw, puts Y with the other vowels.)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2013 @ 6:02pm

Re:
The second idea is very viable, you just need to think outside the boners.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2013 @ 6:03pm

Re: Re:
I meant box, BOX! How does this thing turn box into boners?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
6h3l46h, 8 May 2013 @ 6:31pm

QWERTY origins story is a myth.
"was originally designed to prevent typewriter keys from jamming" -- this is incorrect.

The researchers tracked the evolution of the typewriter keyboard alongside a record of its early professional users. They conclude that the mechanics of the typewriter did not influence the keyboard design. Rather, the QWERTY system emerged as a result of how the first typewriters were being used. Early adopters and beta-testers included telegraph operators who needed to quickly transcribe messages. However, the operators found the alphabetical arrangement to be confusing and inefficient for translating morse code. The Kyoto paper suggests that the typewriter keyboard evolved over several years as a direct result of input provided by these telegraph operators.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/the-lies-youve-been-told-about-the-origin- of-the-qwerty-keyboard/275537/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2013 @ 7:10pm

I'd love a new layout for thumbs, except I imagine adoption would be killed by a single errant patent.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wally (profile), 8 May 2013 @ 7:30pm

You know what's funny and ironic...the reason we have QWERTY and ZWRTY keyboards is to prevent letter jamming when a stamp is raised up...on typewriters...mind you it took about half a century to figure it out...but man I'll be damned if I ever get forced to use or buy a keyboard that uses KALQ....what's worse is that it's placing one of the least used letters in the English language with some of the most heavily used ones. Faster be damned...we're talking ease of use here to A) Prevent typewriter jams and B) Efficient letter use of the English alphabet....that's why QWERTY is still pretty damn quick today.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Paul Renault (profile), 9 May 2013 @ 3:22am

"..all the vowels except for "y".."
Thank you, Joyce!

I've never understood the (American?) idea of "y" being a consonant...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2013 @ 3:30am

Re: chording...
Chording does not allow for hunt and peck keying, you need to practice and learn the chords to type at all.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2013 @ 3:57am

Re: QWERTY origins story is a myth.
Sorry but you fail there sir.

Yes the keyboards layout was designed based on the results of how they were used. But the layout was designed to prevent keys from jamming, there are patents somewhere describing it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2013 @ 3:59am

Re: "..all the vowels except for "y".."
i is the vowel with the Y sound ;-)

And its English not American.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 9 May 2013 @ 4:12am

Re:
Well, try having naughty conversations with your gf in your smartphone with those predictive/auto correction/learning features enabled then send messages to other people. I double-check every single message I send ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
art guerrilla (profile), 9 May 2013 @ 7:10am

semi-off topic...
until i turned all the auto-complete crap off, my tablet typing was driving me absolutely nuts: it would fucking INSIST, that, no, you obviously *meant* to type *this*, not what you actually typed, and keep on 'correcting' it even when i backspaced and re-typed the same thing...

grrr...
*now* i can type in peace without inane 'suggestions', etc...

art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2013 @ 7:27am

I only want one change made to screen keyboards:

Please, please, please put the apostrophe on the same set as the letters. Don't make me hit that stupid key swap button every time I want to type a contraction.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2013 @ 7:58am

Re: QWERTY origins story is a myth.
Just a bit of a nitpick here...Morse code is for someone who wants to tap out a message (SOS) in a table top or banging on a pipe.
But transcribing at a higher rate with a typewriter is actually called International Code.
Typing international code on a qwerty layout is very efficient. I did not know that a different keyboard had been in use prior to qwerty (learn something new everyday).
I got up to 25 wpm on a 1940's typewriter listening to a standard key but others get way faster listening to standard or a speed key.
As to the jamming issues affecting the design layout, probably not. I can jam up an old typewriter real easy. Layout has nothing to do with it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]