Bimanual text entry using game controllers: Relying on users’ spatial familiarity with QWERTY

A strategy for entering text using two-handed game controllers with two analogue joysticks is proposed where the QWERTY keyboard layout is used as a spatial mnemonic. The technique is inspired by two-finger QWERTY typing where the fingers are represented by the two joysticks. Characters are organized into a QWERTY layout with the joystick resting position conceptually located where the index fingers are in touch position. The user moves the relevant joystick in the direction of the desired character. The technique is easy to learn for users already familiar with QWERTY two-finger typing or touch-typing. Furthermore, text can potentially be entered with limited visual feedback, and the bimanual nature of the approach implies a potential for high input speed as the operation of each hand can be overlapped. The technique can be realized with commonly available off-the-shelf hardware and it is especially applicable to online gamers communicating textually. Experimental evaluations show that text can be entered at a mean rate of 6.75 words per minute with less than one hour of practice.     

Predictive text entry methods for mobile phones

Mobile phone networks are increasingly supporting the transmission of textual messages between mobile phones and between mobile phones and other services. This paper describes the current text entry method on mobile phones and describes a new text entry method using a single key-press per letter together with a large dictionary of words for disambiguation. This approach, which is similar to technology recently licensed, independently, to several phone companies, is then extended with automatic word completion. The paper reports the results of initial user tests comparing the text entry methods, analysis of word clashes with the dictionary-based methods and keystroke level modelling of the different input methods.     

Mobile touchscreen user interfaces: bridging the gap between motor-impaired and able-bodied users

Touchscreen mobile devices are highly customizable, allowing designers to create inclusive user interfaces that are accessible to a broader audience. However, the knowledge to provide this new generation of user interfaces is yet to be uncovered. The goal was to thoroughly study mobile touchscreen interfaces and provide guidelines for informed design. The paper presents an evaluation performed with 15 tetraplegic and 18 able-bodied users that allowed to identify their main similarities and differences within a set of interaction techniques (Tapping, Crossing, and Directional Gesturing) and parameterizations. Results show that Tapping and Crossing are the most similar and easy to use techniques for both motor-impaired and able-bodied users. Regarding Tapping, error rates start to converge at 12 mm, showing to be a good compromise for target size. As for Crossing, it offered a similar level of accuracy; however, larger targets (17 mm) are significantly easier to cross for motor-impaired users. Directional Gesturing was the least inclusive technique. Regarding position, edges showed to be troublesome. For instance, they have shown to increase Tapping precision for disabled users, while decreasing able-bodied users’ accuracy when targets are too small (7 mm). It is argued that despite the expected error rate disparity, there are clear resemblances between user groups, thus enabling the development of inclusive touch interfaces. Tapping, a traditional interaction technique, was among the most effective for both target populations, along with Crossing. The main difference concerns Directional Gesturing that in spite of its unconstrained nature shows to be inaccurate for motor-impaired users.     

Text input for motor-impaired people

This paper provides an overview of 150 publications regarding text input for motor-impaired people and describes current state of the art. It focuses on common techniques of text entry including selection of keys, approaches to character layouts, use of language models, and interaction modalities. These aspects of text entry methods are further analyzed, and examples are given. The paper also focuses on an overview of reported evaluations by describing experiments, which can be conducted, to assess the performance of a text entry method. Following this overview, a summary of 61 text entry methods for motor-impaired people found in the related literature is presented, classifying those methods according to the aforementioned aspects and reported evaluation. This overview was assembled with the aim to provide a starting point to the new researchers in the field of accessible text entry. The text entry methods are also categorized according to the suitability for various conditions of the users.     

Improving mobile multi-tap text entry for Arabic language

Classical mobile phone keypads which consist of 12 buttons are commonly used to write short text messages through two common methods, the multi-tap and the predictive text entry. For the Arabic language mobile keypads, all Arabic letters are distributed over the 8 buttons of the keypad where three or more letters share the same button. In this paper, a new text entry environment is proposed. The environment includes two proposed improved approaches for Arabic language messages to make the multi-tap text entry method faster and easier. The first approach is based on the idea of remapping the distribution of Arabic letters on the keypad according to the frequency of letters. In the second approach, a bi-Gram based method is used to predict the next letter to be typed automatically. The proposed approaches are evaluated using a corpus of 1514 real Arabic text messages. Several experiments were conducted to evaluate the proposed text entry environment. The results of the experiments have showed that using the proposed remapped keypad is faster and consumes less effort in comparison to the classical keypad.     

Effects of text input methods on performance in operating handheld devices between young and elderly users

This study investigated the effect of age (elderly and young participants), input methods (keyboard and handwriting), and input tools (finger and stylus) on participants’ performance in operating handheld devices. The correct ratio and execution time for device operation served as the criteria for performance evaluation. The study results revealed that the interaction between age, input method, and input tool had a significant effect on the participants’ correct ratio in operating handheld devices. For young participants, only the input method had a significant effect on the correct ratio. The keyboard provided superior results to handwriting. For the elderly participants, the interaction between input method and input tool had a significant effect on the correct ratio. When the input method was handwriting, the input tool had a significant effect on the correct ratio. Specifically, the stylus provided superior results to the finger. However, when a keyboard was used, the input tool had no significant effect on the elderly participants’ correct ratio. Concerning execution time, the interaction between age and input method had a significant effect on performance. For the young participants, the input method had a significant effect on the execution time. Specifically, the keyboard provided superior results to handwriting. However, for the elderly participants, the input method had no significant effect on the execution time.     

An evaluation of stylus-based text entry methods on handheld devices studied in different user mobility states

Effective text entry on handheld devices remains an important user input problem. On a personal digital assistant (PDA), text entry methods traditionally support stylus-based input performed by the user’s dominant hand. In this paper, we present the design of a two-handed software keyboard for a PDA which specifically takes advantage of the thumb in the non-dominant hand. We compare our chorded keyboard design to other stylus-based text entry methods in an evaluation that studies user input in different user mobility states. Our study shows that users type fastest using the mini-qwerty keyboard, and most accurately using our two-handed keyboard. We also discover a difference in input performance with the mini-qwerty keyboard between stationary and mobile states. As a user walks, text input speed decreases while error rates and mental workload increases; however, these metrics remain relatively stable in our two-handed technique despite user mobility.     

Assessing design features of virtual keyboards for text entry

OBJECTIVE: The present research examined design of a virtual keyboard for text entry with a rotary controller, emphasizing users who differ in age and system experience. BACKGROUND: Existing research has minimally addressed usage frequency, age, and the effects of display shape and letter arrangement on movement and visual search components of text entry tasks. The present research was conducted to close these gaps. METHOD: Two experiments were completed to examine younger (18-28 years) and older (60-75 years) adults' movement and visual search capabilities using four keyboard shapes and three keyboard arrangements. In a third experiment examining combined effects on shape design, 32 younger (18-28 years) and 32 older (60-75 years) adults entered words on the two best shapes from the first experiments. RESULTS: For the movement task, movement time was lowest for shapes with higher shape-controller compatibility. For the visual search task, search time and accuracy were best on the alphabetic arrangement. In the combined task, shape did not significantly influence performance at different levels of practice. Transfers, however, suggested that the shape with salient visual features elicited a text entry strategy for older adults that may promote more consistent performance under occasional usage. CONCLUSION: The studies together demonstrate that keyboard shape is important for efficient performance. Shape-controller compatibility facilitated performance in both age groups. Salient features facilitate performance, especially for older adults. In nearly all cases alphabetic arrangement yielded the best performance. APPLICATION: Recommendations are provided for virtual keyboard design for different usage frequencies, contexts, and users.     

A powerful pseudo-syllabic text entry paradigm

This paper describes a powerful pseudo-syllabic paradigm for improving the efficiency of typing in languages with transparent orthography (i.e., languages with highly regular correspondence of orthography and phonetics). By adopting a novel orthogonal framework, keyboards are defined as two-dimensional regular arrays of keys. Non-expert users can fast and intuitively input any possible combination of pseudo-syllables, which are text entry units with simpler consonant–vowel phonemic structure. Moreover, it is possible to input single characters in the typical letter-by-letter way. For transparent languages such as Italian and Spanish, the performed tests have shown a significant improvement in the efficiency of typing texts.     

Integrated text entry from power wheelchairs

Power wheelchair joysticks have be used to control a mouse cursor on desktop computers, but they offer no integrated text entry solution, confining users to point-and-click or point-and-dwell with on-screen keyboards. On-screen keyboards reduce useful screen real-estate, exacerbating the need for frequent window management, and impose a secondary focus of attention. By contrast, we present two integrated gestural text entry methods designed for use from power wheelchairs: one for use with joysticks and the other for use with touchpads. Both techniques are adaptations of EdgeWrite, originally a stylus-based unistroke method designed for people with tremor. In a preliminary text entry study of 7 power wheelchair users, we found that EdgeWrite with a touchpad was faster than the on-screen keyboard WiViK with a joystick, and EdgeWrite with a joystick was only slightly slower. These results warranted a multi-session comparison of text entry with EdgeWrite and WiViK using joysticks and touchpads, in which we found touchpads faster than joysticks, and EdgeWrite faster than WiViK with both devices after initial learning periods.     

Building and testing optimized keyboards for specific text entry

OBJECTIVE: We explore how to optimally design systems for information input. BACKGROUND: As computers are introduced into ever more devices with new methods of inputting information, there is a need for specialized systems that are optimally designed for their particular use. METHOD: The study demonstrates how to use a model of text entry times to build optimized keyboards for specific sets of text. The technique is demonstrated by using Fitts' law to model text entry times. Alphabet letters are assigned to keys in a way that minimizes predicted entry time for the specified set of text. The predicted entry times are validated by an experiment in which two keyboards are optimized for different sets of text. RESULTS: Text entry is faster for the keyboard optimized for that text compared with the keyboard optimized for the other text. Learning to use the keyboards is fairly quick, with significant learning being observed after only one half-hour session. CONCLUSION: There is a need and an ability to design specialized keyboards for some situations. The study demonstrates that optimization of keyboards can decrease text entry times. APPLICATION: This research shows how to design optimized keyboards for many different situations. The approach should be useful for aviation, medical, industrial, and other specialized situations in which normal keyboard designs cannot be used.     

Bengali text input interface design for mobile devices

Text entry has become one of the most frequent activities performed using mobile devices such as PDAs. Virtual keyboards (VK), which allow text to be entered by tapping keys displayed on the screen, are among the predominant mode of text input for such devices. It is important to design VK layouts in a way such that the users can achieve high text entry speed with high accuracy. Several layouts, primarily in English and also in some other languages, have been proposed to achieve the twin objectives. However, no such work has been reported for Bengali, the second and fifth most popular language of India and the world, respectively. The existing methods cannot be applied directly to Bengali VK design due to the problem of accommodating the large Bengali alphabet (more than 60 characters) on a small display area. In order to resolve the resulting usability-performance trade-off, this paper proposes a two-level design. Five two-level VKs representing three design paradigms (alphabetic, frequency-based and adaptive) have been designed and compared in an empirical study. The study results show that for mobile devices, the two-level adaptive design is expected to give best performance in terms of text entry rate and accuracy. The layouts as well as the procedure and results of the study are discussed in this paper.     

A query-oriented XML text summarization for mobile devices

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, flexible text format derived from SGML, which is originally designed to support large-scale electronic publishing. Nowadays XML plays a fundamental role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web. As XML allows designers to create their own customized tags, enables the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications, devices and organizations, lots of works in soft computing employ XML to take control and responsibility for the information, such as fuzzy markup language, and accordingly there are lots of XML-based data or documents. However, most of mobile and interactive ubiquitous multimedia devices have restricted hardware such as CPU, memory, and display screen. So, it is essential to compress an XML document/element collection to a brief summary before it is delivered to the user according to his/her information need. Query-oriented XML text summarization aims to provide users a brief and readable substitution of the original retrieved documents/elements according to the user’s query, which can relieve users’ reading burden effectively. We propose a query-oriented XML summarization system QXMLSum, which extracts sentences and combines them as a summary based on three kinds of features: user’s queries, the content of XML documents/elements, and the structure of XML documents/elements. Experiments on the IEEE-CS datasets used in Initiative for the Evaluation of XML Retrieval show that the query-oriented XML summary generated by QXMLSum is competitive.     

Establishing a baseline for text entry for a multi-touch virtual keyboard

Multi-touch, which has been heralded as a revolution in human–computer interaction, provides features such as gestural interaction, tangible interfaces, pen-based computing, and interface customization—features embraced by an increasingly tech-savvy public. However, multi-touch platforms have not been adopted as “everyday” computer interaction devices that support important text entry intensive applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. In this paper, we present two studies that begin to explore user performance and experience with entering text using a multi-touch input. The first study establishes a benchmark for text entry performance on a multi-touch platform across input modes that compare uppercase-only to mixed-case, single-touch to multi-touch and copy to memorization tasks. The second study includes mouse style interaction for formatting rich text to simulate a word processing task using multi-touch input. As expected, our results show that users do not perform as well in terms of text entry efficiency and speed using a multi-touch interface as with a traditional keyboard. Not as expected was the result that degradation in performance was significantly less for memorization versus copy tasks, and consequently willingness to use multi-touch was substantially higher (50% versus 26%) in the former case. Our results, which include preferred input styles of participants, also provide a baseline for further research to explore techniques for improving text entry performance on multi-touch systems.     

DRS: a workstation-based document recognition system for text entry

Document recognition system (DRS), a workstation-based prototype document analysis system that uses optical character recognition (OCR), is described. The system provides functions for image capture, block segmentation, page structure analysis, and character recognition with contextual postprocessing, as well as a user interface for error correction. All the functions except image capture and character recognition have been implemented by means of software for the Japanese edition of OS/2     

Keyboards redux: fast mobile text entry

The most common style of text entry using a mobile phone's number pad is multitap, where multiple letters are mapped to the same key. We discuss twiddler chording, blind typing, and mini qwerty keyboards etc., for fast mobile text entry.     

BlinkWrite: efficient text entry using eye blinks

In this paper, a new text entry system is proposed, implemented, and evaluated. BlinkWrite provides a communication gateway for cognitively able motor-impaired individuals who cannot use a traditional eye-tracking system. In contrast to most hands-free systems, BlinkWrite allows text to be entered and corrected using a single input modality: blinks. The system was implemented using a scanning ambiguous keyboard, a new form of scanning keyboard that allows English text to be entered in less than two scanning intervals per character. In a user study, 12 participants entered text using the system with three settings for scanning interval: 1,000, 850, and 700 ms. An average text entry rate of 4.8 wpm was observed with accuracy >97%. The highest average text entry rate was achieved with the scanning interval of 850 ms.     

Text entry on handheld computers by older users

Small pocket computers offer great potential in workplaces where mobility is needed to collect data or access reference information while carrying out tasks such as maintenance or customer support. This paper reports on three studies examining the hypothesis that data entry by older workers is easier when the pocket computer has a physical keyboard, albeit a small one, rather than a touchscreen keyboard. Using a counter-balanced, within-subjects design the accuracy and speed with which adults over 55 years of age could make or modify short text entries was measured for both kinds of pocket computer. The keyboard computer was the Hewlett Packard 360LX (HP), but the touch-screen computers varied across studies (experiment 1: Apple Newton? and PalmPilot?; experiment 2: Philips Nino?; experiment 3: Casio E10?). All studies showed significant decrements in accuracy and speed when entering text via the touch-screen. Across studies, most participants preferred using the HP's small physical keyboard. Even after additional practice with the touch screen (experiments 2 and 3) many entries still contained errors. Experiment 3 showed that younger people were faster but not more accurate than older people at using the touch-screen keyboard. It is concluded that satisfactory text entry on palm-size computers awaits improvements to the touch-screen keyboard or alternative input methods such as handwriting or voice. Interface developments that assist older people typically benefit younger users too.     

Text entry on handheld computers by older users

Small pocket computers offer great potential in workplaces where mobility is needed to collect data or access reference information while carrying out tasks such as maintenance or customer support. This paper reports on three studies examining the hypothesis that data entry by older workers is easier when the pocket computer has a physical keyboard, albeit a small one, rather than a touch-screen keyboard. Using a counter-balanced, within-subjects design the accuracy and speed with which adults over 55 years of age could make or modify short text entries was measured for both kinds of pocket computer. The keyboard computer was the Hewlett Packard 360LX (HP), but the touch-screen computers varied across studies (experiment 1: Apple Newton and PalmPilot; experiment 2: Philips Nino; experiment 3: Casio E10). All studies showed significant decrements in accuracy and speed when entering text via the touch-screen. Across studies, most participants preferred using the HP's small physical keyboard. Even after additional practice with the touch screen (experiments 2 and 3) many entries still contained errors. Experiment 3 showed that younger people were faster but not more accurate than older people at using the touch-screen keyboard. It is concluded that satisfactory text entry on palm-size computers awaits improvements to the touch-screen keyboard or alternative input methods such as handwriting or voice. Interface developments that assist older people typically benefit younger users too.     

A study of the usability of handwriting recognition for text entry by children

This paper describes a pilot study that investigated the usability of handwriting recognition for text entry in a free writing activity. The study was carried out with eighteen children aged 7 and 8; each used three different writing methods to construct short pieces of text. The methods used were; pencil and paper, the QWERTY keyboard at a computer, and a pen and graphics tablet. Where the pen and graphics tablet was used, the handwritten text was recognised by the software and presented back to the children as ASCII text. Measures of user satisfaction, quantity of text produced, and quality of writing produced, were taken. In addition, for the handwritten work, the recognition process was evaluated by comparing what the child wrote with the resulting ASCII text. The results show that the children that took part in the study generally produced lengthier texts at the graphics tablet than at the QWERTY keyboard but that the non-technical solution, the pencil and paper was, in this instance, the overall best method for composing writing. To further the debate on the possibilities for digital ink and tablet technologies, key usability problems with the handwriting recognition interface are identified and classified, and solutions to these usability problems, in the form of design guidelines for both recognition-based and pen-based computer writing interfaces, are presented. Additionally, some reflections on how studies of text input and free writing composition can be evaluated are offered.