Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Text Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop
Jochen Rick is an assistant professor at Saarland University in the department of Education Technology.
This paper was presented at UIST 2010.
Summary
In this paper, the writer discussed the need for an alternate input in touch-based devices. Currently, touch based keyboards are widely used in many applications. The writer presents a comparison of the various stroke-based input methods. He presents many different stroke-based keyboard layouts that have been used over time.
Past researchers have used many different models in an attempt to allow users to type with maximum accuracy and efficiency.
The main purpose of this paper is to attempt to discover the most efficient stroke-based keyboards and to present various ways to measure the layouts.
In the study, they had eight adults connect several different nodes together through a stroke on the touch device. Through this study, they were able to ascertain what strokes were easier to make and used most often. Through these kinds of studies, more efficient keyboard models can be made.
Discussion
While this paper determined many different great ways to figure out the efficiency of the stroke-based input, I feel like many other touch screen inputs are missing from consideration. While at the moment, none come to mind, I feel like there are many other ways to do touch based input on a touch screen besides tap-based and stroke-based.
And also, like Dvorak, it must be considered whether these complex text input methods are worth learning how to use. If it's a small gain (of around 12% efficiency) it may not be used learning and adopting.
That being said, I felt like the study of optimal text input was very interesting and I'd personally enjoy attempting to learn such a system.
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