

Move over T9, here comes Swype - ttol
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10037202-1.html?tag=mncol;posts

======
aston
The first thing that came to mind when I saw this preso was "What algorithm
are they using to find the words?" The problem looks something like: Given a
string of characters, find all possible words that start and end like the
string of characters and use any number of characters in between.

The best I can come up (after not so much thinking about it) with is using
Bloom Filters. Precompute the bit vector for every word in your dictionary,
then after they swype, compute a vector for the string of characters and run
it up against all the words in your dictionary that start and end with the
same letters. Still kind of an expensive linear search, albeit fast (since
it's just boolean AND).

~~~
natrius
You also get a hint from direction changes. As far as I can tell, direction
changes almost always indicate that the current letter is in the word, though
not every letter gets a direction change.

------
jonknee
They just need to work on getting consumers educated more than T9 did. It's
amazing how many times I have explained and demo'd T9 to people--vast numbers
of people just don't get it and use multi-tap instead. After a couple of
minutes T9 is way faster, but there is usually no tutorial and people get
frustrated when it's not doing what they think it should (multitap).

~~~
ardit33
as a foreigner, I hate T9. The first thing I do when I start using a new phone
is to turn it off. It just doesn't work with short names, foreign words (or my
name), or common sms slang.

I hope this is better.

~~~
jonknee
Multi-language support is tough, but some implementations are better than
others (there are lots of different versions of T9, you're just stuck with
whatever your phone has). The latest version of T9 has support for using
multiple languages at once, but most phone makers don't advertise what version
of T9 they ship.

------
twism
the iphone app "writingPad" uses this input method

------
anewaccountname
qwerty evenly spreads commonly used keys between both sides so that you can
type fast with two hands; seems like exactly what you wouldn't want with this
tech.

~~~
geuis
Actually that's not true. Qwerty is a very bad layout for keyboards. The guy
who invented it was named Qwerty. It was originally designed for typewriters
and to be difficult to use to force the typist to slow down to reduce
mistakes. Many alternate layouts have been proposed over the years but Qwerty
became the defacto standard because it was so widely used by businesses with
typewriters. That's what people learned and we've been stuck with it ever
sense.

~~~
mwerty
Wikipedia partially disagrees: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwerty>

It slows you down to prevent jams. The guy's name was Sholes.

~~~
jmtulloss
Actually, it's not supposed to slow you down. It's supposed to make sure
you're normally hitting keys that are far apart, which means the hammers won't
interfere with each other. QWERTY is a pretty good layout because of it. The
next letter you try to type is rarely in the domain of the finger that just
pressed down, meaning you can line up a number of keys to be pushed at once.

In the Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman talks about keyboard design a
lot. QWERTY is really good, so switching to layouts that are only slightly
better (dvorak) end up not being worth the time and effort.

------
mariolopez
I saw the demo live and it looked great with a stylus... so-so with touch and
worse on a phone. Still has work to do.

------
jeffy
Definitely innovative, though I wonder if not lifting fingers from the screen
helps all that much.

------
geuis
I watched this live at Techcrunch50 and I had mixed reactions. First, it is a
rather technically interesting way to do text input. Watching how the
experienced developer was playing with it, I could sense how it could feel
like writing cursive English letters as whole words.

For the average user though, I just don't see how it catches on. People are
fairly split over whether they prefer phones with traditional button keyboards
or if they love the touchscreen interface from the iPhone. I love the iPhone
because I hated stencils. I get more screen real estate. Its easier for me to
do typing on the iPhone than any other smart phone I ever used.

It honestly looked like the demonstrator was scribbling on the screen. I had
to look twice a couple of times to make sure it was a live demo and not fake.

~~~
siculars
this catches on, i say within 5 yrs this tech is on virtually all touchscreen
devices. people adapt. thats just how it goes. before txt mssgs came out , how
many ppl typed mssgs on the key pad of a phone?

------
zacharye
Not a fan at all. I understand how the creator might have put pressure on
himself to develop a new relevant solution, but this is nothing short of
counterintuitive. Why would you develop a text input method that forces the
user to use one finger?

~~~
asmosoinio
Because the input device is so small that there is no room to use multiple
fingers effectively? Because that is the way people use mobile touch screen
devices? (Hold the device with one hand, poke/type with the other)

~~~
zacharye
How many new touchscreen-only devices are coming out with screens so small
that this solution is feasible?

~~~
omouse
A lot since the iPhone shows how well it works.

How many people use more than one finger on the screen and how often?

~~~
eru
Yes. And who says this is the last and final version?

