Communications of the ACM
Touchscreens Learn Your Habits to Help You Type Faster
Type right with adjustable keys on a touchscreen keyboard.
Credit: Jon Froehlich
Personalized keyboards could help improve typing speeds or reduce mistakes when typing and walking, according to the University of Maryland's Leah Findlater and the University of Washington's Jacob Wobbrock.
They asked 12 people to type phrases on a screen-based keyboard that logged the position of each tap, and the system then identified their typing quirks. The system also adjusted the layout of the keyboard to reduce errors, such as by lowering the position of a key for users who regularly hit the bottom of the key or enlarging the space bar to make it easier to strike with either thumb.
Findlater and Wobbrock found that users typed 15 percent faster after three sessions with the adjusted keyboards. The researchers also worked with Wobbrock's colleague Mayank Goel to test 16 people typing on iPhones while walking, comparing readings from the phone's accelerometer with typing errors. The data revealed how taps shift to the center of the keyboard when a person's foot strikes the ground, and the team designed an iPhone keyboard to accommodate the change in tap position. The software, WalkType, increased typing speed by 13 percent and errors fell from 10 percent to 6 percent.
From New Scientist
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