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new text entry method for PDAs
I have researched the PDA text entry methods on the web.
There seem to be 3 dominant methods: Graffitti, Jot, Fitaly.
The first two do character recognition. Jot is slower than Graffitti, but is more accurate.
The method with the highest entry speed seems to be the Fitaly on-screen keyboard. This keyboard has an optimized layout.
Some information about this:
http://www.fitaly.com/wince/pocketpcfitaly.htm
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/fitaly-review.html
Manager in Germany
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Thanks for the spam.
Dennis Forbes
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
This is not spam. I found this thing very interesting, and wrote about it.
Like many other JOS readers, I am very concerned about text entry methods on PDAs. That's why I haven't decided on which PDA to buy yet - I'm not sure about text entry methods.
Manager in Germany
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
I bet my Stowaway keyboard works better than Fitaly.
Kyralessa
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
It probably wouldn't have been percieved as spam if a question had been asked... Like "Does anyone use this? What do you think?"
I use fitaly on my Palm PDA, and I rather like it. It is definitely faster than grafitti, and generally more accurate too.
My only complaint is that the letter are so small, and sometimes I just plain miss. The rate of inaccuracies is still lower than it was with grafitti, so it is better, but still not perfect.
JT
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
I found Graffiti/Jot + TextPlus to be quicker than Fitaly.
TextPlus provides word & phrase completion in any application. It really cuts back on the amount of writing you need to do. It also has a Graffiti Echo function so you can see the outline of the characters as you write - useful feedback for keeping accuracy up
Fitaly is ok for a while but you have to keep concentrating on the screen to make sure you hit those teeny-tiny buttons. And it takes up screen space.
_
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
"It probably wouldn't have been percieved as spam if a question had been asked... Like "Does anyone use this? What do you think?""
No, those posts usually get called spam too. :-)
Hey, what's the deal with Graffiti? Why did it seem to vanish overnight?
Philo
Philo
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Plenty of people have raved about Fitaly in previous threads. Frankly I'd be satisfied with a telephone keyboard on the touch screen with nice big letters for the thumb and predictive text input.
Stephen Jones
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
> Hey, what's the deal with Graffiti? Why did it seem to vanish overnight?
Patents.
http://www.theregister.com/2004/05/24/palm_vs_xerox/
_
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
You mean something like this, Stephen?
http://www.avaion.com/fatfinger.asp
Kyralessa
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Too many keys. Just a standard telephone keypad that can bu used for predictive text input.
Stephen Jones
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
The good news is that the Xerox patent that challeneged Graffiti has just been invalidated. Neither PalmOne or PalmSource has made a statement about it yet, but I know they're getting a lot of pressure to reintroduce the original Graffiti input method now that it isn't in a legal gray area.
Ben Combee
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Folks, I've been working with PDA's since 2002, and IMHO, keyboard input is like women to men: worst with them, even worst without them.
And I think I found and interesting solution, at least for the PocketPC world: a full-screen keyboard (search in Google for spb+full+keyboard).
The main idea is very simple: use your PocketPC full screen as a keyboard, and be happy.
TC
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
...you can simulate this effect right now just by lifting up your keyboard and placing it over your screen, obscuring the document you are writing. [Not to scale]
ah
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
I don't happen to like predictive input (lack of practice?), but there is a 9-key predictive input keyboard for PalmOS at http://www.t9.com.
Ron Porter
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
You have to check: http://mrl.nyu.edu/projects/quikwriting/
Nix
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Thank you for your comments. They have been very, very useful.
I'm planning to get either a Pocket PC from HP or a Sony Ericsson P900 PDA phone.
Manager in Germany
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
What, no bread, lettuce, tomato, American cheese and mayo for the spam?
The waterboy
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Here's something that confuses me. Why all these different, fancy, on-screen keyboards .. or hardware keyboards, etc. etc.
I picked up my pocket pc and within 15 minutes I knew how to use the letter recognizer. I didn't even use Help, I just started scribbling.
Every single one of these characters is written exactly how you would normally write a lower-case letter:
a, b, c, d, e, g, h, i, j, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, u, v, w, x, y, z
(knowing that you just draw "i" going up and "l" going down)
the only letters you have to learn are:
f, k, t
and it isn't hard.
On top of that, it's sectioned off. So, I know that in the first 1/3 if I scribble a character it will be capital. The second 1/3 it will be lowercase. The third 1/3 is where numbers are written. With the only number you have to learn being: 4
Moreso, to the very right I've got a big backspace button, left & right arrows, enter, space, and a button to get to other special characters.
It's also not that hard to figure out how to type periods, commas, spaces, etc using just the stylus and none of the buttons to the right.
Seriously, it's really not that hard to get up and running with the letter recognizer and after you've done it a while, you get really fast.
William Campbell
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Hello everyone,
While we are on the topic of fast text entry, you may want to check out MessagEase.
It runs on Palm and Pocket PC PDAs and Tablet PCs. It is optimzed to reduce hand movement AND to maximize key size, therefore it is much faster than fitaly, jot, Graffiti or QWERTY
try it and you'll see: http://www.exideas.com
Linda Macovsky
Friday, June 18, 2004
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