Hi Chris, I heard about this from Dónal Fitzpatrick in the category of most interesting conference results that he couldn't talk about in detail, so I'll be looking forward to this. Thanks for the heads up. There's also been recent coverage at Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/02/brailletouch-keyboard-allows-typing-on-a-phone-without-looking.ars
On a slightly different but related topic, I don't believe you're on the viphone list, so you may not have read about the discussion of the "TypeinBraille" app last November, although Ed Worrell also sent an announcement post to this list. This is an app that was put out by the same people who made the "Light Detector" app. Their company, EveryWare Technologies, is a spin-off formed by researchers at the University of Milan. The app is the result of their experiments to find a method of quick typing input by blind smartphone users, and one that is complementary to the VoiceOver interface on the iPhone. (Specifically, they wanted an input that can be used in noisy situations where listening for feedback is difficult, or where precise use of the virtual keyboard is hard because, for example, you may be on a moving bus.) The solution they adopted was based on the Braille input experience, because this was targeted for totally blind users to quickly gain proficiency. But what's interesting is that because they use portrait view and the standard iPhone orientation interface, they lay out the cells horizontally so that the input is 3 rows of 2 dots. Top to bottom: dots 1 4 2 5 3 6 You tap the screen to begin brailling and use 1 tap for 1 dot, 2-finger tap for 2 dots, 3-finger tap for no dots. It's a bit of a shift, but fast to pick up. You can read the PDF file reporting their original research tests (in English): <http://homes.dico.unimi.it/~mascetti/Sergio_Mascetti_-_home_page/Research_files/TR39-2011.pdf> The TypeInBraille app is available internationally from the App Store: • TypeInBraille ($4.99) by EveryWare Technologies <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/typeinbraille/id474798075?mt=8> They also have help files: http://www.everywaretechnologies.com/apps/typeinbraille/help Not at the scope of the Georgia Tech effort, but perhaps of interest to those who have not followed the viphone list discussions about this app. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Feb 21, 2012, at 9:10 AM, Chris Blouch wrote: > Dunno if anyone read these articles about using a chorded 6-finger input > system to type on a mobile device. It would seem that it should be much > faster to input this way but they haven't done real testing/analysis on this. > It also requires holding the phone sideways with the screen pointing away so > you can put three fingers on three dots on either end of the screen. I've > always been in favor of 'universal design' where everybody uses the same > basic UI so this seems to go against that. At the same time, if it were 2-3x > faster than the current on screen keyboard input, maybe it would be worth it. > > http://hothardware.com/News/Georgia-Tech-iPhone-App-Could-Help-Blind-Users-Text/ > http://www.phonearena.com/news/Braille-Touch-app-brings-no-look-typing-to-handsets_id27003 > > Apparently not available in iTunes Store yet. Won best design in the > Stockholm Mobile HCI [Human Computer Interaction] 2011 conference: > > http://www.mobilehci2011.org/node/127 > > CB > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
