Touch-typable devices based on ambiguous codes and methods to design such devices

Abstract

The design of typable devices, in particular, touch-typable devices embodying ambiguous codes, presents numerous ergonomic problems. Solutions for these problems are herein disclosed. This invention teaches methods for the selection of ambiguous codes from the classes of strongly-touch-typable ambiguous codes and substantially optimal ambiguous codes for touch-typable devices such as computers, telephones, pagers, personal digital assistants, smart cards, television set-top devices and other information appliances, given design constraints such as the size, shape, and computational capacity of the device, the typical uses of the device, and conventional constraints such as respect of alphabetic ordering or Qwerty ordering.

Description

[0001]This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60 / 111,665, filed Dec. 10, 1998.FIELD OF INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to the design of touch-typable devices, and the use of touch-typable devices in computing and telecommunications, and more particularly to touch-typable devices based on strongly touch-typable ambiguous codes and substantially optimal ambiguous codes.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Since the invention of the typewriter more than 100 years ago, keyboard engineering has been an active field of research and development, resulting in many competing designs. With the growth of personal computing and telecommunications, the number of keyboard designs has multiplied as designers attempt to accommodate the wide variety of constraints and to exploit opportunities these new technologies present. Nonetheless, much of the variability of prior-art keyboard designs is not due to this variety of constraints and opportunities. Rather, it results fr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]A further object of this invention is to enable sending alphanumeric messages from ordinary phones or two-way pagers to other such devices, without human intervention, and thus inexpensively.

[0029]A further object of this invention is to provide a device typable using the one hand holding the device, with reduced scanning time.

Problems solved by technology

Rather, it results from an incomplete appreciation on the part of keyboard designers of the constraints inherent in the problems they are trying to solve.

It also reflects the lack of general, effective methods for optimizing with respect to these constraints.

Touch typing, like playing a musical instrument, is a manual skill which is difficult to learn.

Once learned, it is difficult to modify the acquired motor patterns.

This difficulty places strong constraints on keyboard design.

Thus, the wide established base of the Qwerty keyboard has created a barrier to entry to improved keyboards, such as the Dvorak keyboard.

Indeed such keyboards have gathered but a limited user community.

Due to its large number of keys, the Qwerty keyboard is unsuitable for handheld and smaller typable devices.

This prospect imposes an enormous burden of responsibility on keyboard designers to avoid saddling future generations of keyboard users with suboptimal designs.

Chording methods have not met with practical success since they have been heretofore difficult to learn to operate, and few are willing to make the time investment required.

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