IBM tests SHARK for text input
Link: IBM tests SHARK for text input
Researchers at IBM expect tracing letters on a touchscreen to become as easy as using a keyboard to write emails. The company has developed software, known as Shark (Shorthand-Aided Rapid Keyboarding) that works by recognising the pattern of words.
Although handheld computing devices such as PDAs and Tablet PCs are becoming increasingly powerful, their usage is limited by the current methods of tapping out words on an on-screen virtual keyboard, using software to decipher hand-writing or learning a kind of shorthand. All of these methods are slow and error rates are high. Speech recognition software is another option, but this has problems with long, complete sentences.
IBM researchers Dr Shumin Zhai and Per-Ola Kristensson found that people remember patterns and not letters, via higher level learning that is encoded in human memory. The researchers used this idea to develop software that uses geometrical patterns to represent words. Instead of tapping out letters or writing a word on screen, the user traces each letter in a single stroke. The keyboard on screen shows the shape of the word.
According to Dr Zhai, 100 patterns cover approximately 40% of the words most people write.
In tests, some users achieved speeds of up to 70 words per minute, which is slower than touch-typing but much faster than tapping out words with a stylus.
An experimental version of the software has been available as a free download from IBM’s Alphaworks site for a year. It is now ready to go into commercial development and could be featured on PDAs in the near future.
