Thanks, as always, for the additional detail. I would also like to
subscribe to the viphone list but I have a hard enough time keeping up
with this one, and my phone questions are far fewer than my Mac ones.
CB
On 2/21/12 3:07 PM, Esther wrote:
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
<http://homes.dico.unimi.it/%7Emascetti/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
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