iSlate Input Alternatives: Handwriting Recognition Without a Stylus and Much More

[Mr Skills]

I think the split keyboard idea is a non-starter. Although it solves the problem of being able to type with your hands far apart, it still means you have to scan your eyes a long distance left and right between the two halves while you type.

The pretend-stylus idea is the best I've seen so far in terms of sheer intuitiveness. And my guess is that Apple will always go for the most immediately intuitive solution, even if something else could be more efficient after enough training. Of course, they might have come up with an even cleverer solution - but either way, I reckon text input is the thing that will make or break the tablet. And I'm sure they are plenty aware of that.

 

[DipDog3]

it's not writing with your finger, it's writing with a pretend stylus. which is very different.

I would think that would be very hard to get used to.

Is there any videos of this at work?

 

[Yonizzle]

I was just posting on the MacNN forums that I think the best idea is to make the back of the case touch sensitive. Then you hold from the sides and type on the back. Works in portrait or landscape, and while it would have a learning curve, that curve ends at way faster typing than on an iPhone if the implementation is right. I vaguely remember seeing something like this in a patent before the iPhone intro, but haven’t got round to looking for it yet.

 

[guet]

Seven-inch tablets were too large to comfortably thumb-type on

WTF. Why would you possibly want to type with your thumbs? I type with several fingers on the iPhone with no problems, and can't see how a tablet's on-screen keyboard would be any different, just larger (and thus easier to type on with more fingers).

I reckon text input is the thing that will make or break the tablet. And I'm sure they are plenty aware of that.

On the contrary, I reckon text input will be of minimal importance, simply because most of the time the tablet will be used to browse the web, consume media, read, not to type or write.

 

[iOrlando]

Why would you possibly want to type with your thumbs? WTF. I type with several fingers on the iPhone with no problems, and can't see how a tablet's on-screen keyboard would be any different, just larger (and thus easier to type on with more fingers).

how would you hold the tablet up?

to use fingers..you are implying the tablet will be lying on something i.e. table or lap..and that would be somewhat akward.

you need to be able to hold the tablet in your hand...so two hands...one on each side...thumbs are only things free...

OR

you hold in left hand...and right hand is free...so this fake pen thing writing would work...

 

[wildcardd]

Someone mentioned a system like Swype a few months back:
http://www.swypeinc.com/

I looked at it and it sounds like a valid way of typing and typing fast.

Maybe they even license the tech from Swype.

 

[miles01110]

Why would you possibly want to type with your thumbs? WTF.

So you can securely grip your $800, newly-acquired Tablet with the rest of your fingers...

 

[arn]

I would think that would be very hard to get used to.

Is there any videos of this at work?

I don't think it exists yet. As I said, I don't actually think it's likely to be a practical solution. it seems it would be prone to error, and wouldn't work well along the edges of the screen, but would love to see it in action.

arn

 

[cmaier]

Someone mentioned a system like Swype a few months back:
http://www.swypeinc.com/

I looked at it and it sounds like a valid way of typing and typing fast.

Maybe they even license the tech from Swype.

How is that any faster than tapping, particularly when people have engrained muscle memories for tapping? It seems like you'd have to stare at the keyboard to figure out where to move your finger. Yuck.

 

[rth231]

Writing with a "pretend" stylus would never work. It might work great if you we're to write in huge letters... but imagine writing the same size you normally do on paper? Your hand doesn't move nearly enough for it to distinguish what you're writing.

Try it for yourself. Write a sentence like you would on ruled paper (the size of your writing) and watch how your hand moves. There's no way any technology can decipher those tiny motions.

 

[guet]

you need to be able to hold the tablet in your hand...so two hands...one on each side...thumbs are only things free...

Alternatively, hold it in one hand, and type with the fingers from the other, or lay it on a surface for extended typing with two hands, which would be about as awkward as doing that with an iPhone or laptop (that is, not at all). I already do that with the iPhone sometimes if I want to type with both hands. No problem at all as far as I'm concerned - your mileage may vary.

 

[iOrlando]

Someone mentioned a system like Swype a few months back:
http://www.swypeinc.com/

I looked at it and it sounds like a valid way of typing and typing fast.

Maybe they even license the tech from Swype.

if i remember correctly..there was iphone app that did this...

and i used this on the omnia. Hated it. it wouldnt work and it was much much slower than just clicking the letters.

 

[Lesser Evets]

If Apple is clever, they will offer a variety of onscreen keyboard set ups, and ability for external keyboard, as well as writing recognition.

...Seven-inch tablets were too large to comfortably thumb-type on, while 10-inch tablets made text input all but impossible....

That's complete bunk, unless you have tiny hands. Carnies. Smell of cabbage.

 

[NP3]

Come on guys....

"splitting the keyboard with Dialkeys, the simplest solution that Microsoft also adopted for their tablets"

Apple can do better than that! Thats like saying the original ipod would have a 'simple file system' with up and down scroll because thats the easiest.

Not going to happen. Steve Jobs wouldn't be so satisfied with a product that uses a keyboard Microsoft already has.

 

[MondayNgt]

While I'm not holding my breath, I'm hoping this new Apple tablet will have some sort of pressure sensitive stylus (even if third party) as an option. For merely the reason that it would make an awesome sketching and drawing tablet. I enjoyed Alias/Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on a TabletPC, but I hated how clunky the TabletPC was.

 

[Anderzander]

Have you guys seen how the Chinese language input keyboard works on the current iPhone and iPod touch?

That's already a very elegant hand writing recognition set up. I doubt it would take very much at all for them to use that for the western languages on a tablet.

 

[wildcardd]

if i remember correctly..there was iphone app that did this...

and i used this on the omnia. Hated it. it wouldnt work and it was much much slower than just clicking the letters.

That bad huh? Well it looked like a good idea.

 

[uraniumwilly]

I hope they engineer one inexpensive version that competes in the "Netbook" market: "for surfing the web, email and casual computing." It would be nice to have a device priced for all to afford, as opposed to another that one might be considered as being the BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi of computer devices.

 

[ghostalker]

It would not surprise me if such a device would incorporate input from the reverse surface.

 

[BVeritas]

Writing with a "pretend" stylus would never work. It might work great if you we're to write in huge letters... but imagine writing the same size you normally do on paper? Your hand doesn't move nearly enough for it to distinguish what you're writing.

Try it for yourself. Write a sentence like you would on ruled paper (the size of your writing) and watch how your hand moves. There's no way any technology can decipher those tiny motions.

Oh yes it can, watch it later this month.

Try the stubby pencil test. Grab your pen or pencil down at the tip and write. Those are very specific motions.

It does require more recognition granularity than presently available on the iPhone. Don't know if this is a hardware or software restriction.

This is wicked smart. Let's see the competitors try, forget the patents, they couldn't copy it even if it was not protected.

 

[iOrlando]

That bad huh? Well it looked like a good idea.

well there seemed to be no AI in the program....so if i go and start at T and then try to go to h but was one letter off I would get tfe. Then i would have to go back. And the "space" bar was like taking your finger off the screen..but with the errors...you would take your finger off the screen all the time.

I tried typing something like The boy eats alot of the soup
but i got: TKE BOu esy alt of tje SO P.

 

[cmaier]

Writing with a "pretend" stylus would never work. It might work great if you we're to write in huge letters... but imagine writing the same size you normally do on paper? Your hand doesn't move nearly enough for it to distinguish what you're writing.

Try it for yourself. Write a sentence like you would on ruled paper (the size of your writing) and watch how your hand moves. There's no way any technology can decipher those tiny motions.

Of course it could. If you were holding a pen between your fingers, the pen would be making equally tiny motions, and if the CPU can figure out what you are writing with a pen, it can figure out what you are writing from your fingers which are moving the same amount as the pen.

 

[andiwm2003]

ugh. i don't see the problem at all. i allways type with my right index finger on my iphone. my left hand holds the device. i don't see where the size of the tablet screen matters here.

splitting up the keyboard makes everything just worse. the virtual stylus is a desaster. it's hard enough to have a consistent handwriting with a real pencil on real paper. virtual pens on screens are going to be much worse.. just leave a nearly full size keyboard on the screen and type with one or maybe two fingers.

for everything else a stylus would be great. lots of photo manipulations, sketching, drawing, moving small objects around the screen would be much easier with a stylus. just try to play vexed on an iphone compared to a palm with a stylus.

well in a few weeks we know. maybe there is no tablet at all.

 

[mrgreen4242]

Handwriting on a computer is an awful idea. Anyone who has been using a computer for more than a couple years can likely type twice as fast or more than they can write and they can keep it up longer. The tablet will likely not be a heavy text input device for most of the uses.

* A split thumb keyboard for two hand holding operation (browsing the web - entering URLs, etc)
* A mini standard keyboard for quick emails and such when the tablet is lying on a desk or something
* BT keyboard support for anything else

 

[redkamel]

Writing with a "pretend" stylus would never work. It might work great if you we're to write in huge letters... but imagine writing the same size you normally do on paper? Your hand doesn't move nearly enough for it to distinguish what you're writing.

Try it for yourself. Write a sentence like you would on ruled paper (the size of your writing) and watch how your hand moves. There's no way any technology can decipher those tiny motions.

I think your hand does move enough to distinguish the movements. Especially if some of these other "near screen" patents are integrated (unlikely though) or if you have a few points on the screen. You could "write" letters of any size with your hand, and they could show up as the regular font size. Also, if you start off with, say, 70-80% accuracy off the bat, I think people could adjust a few letters here and there to be able to write this way.

I am not sure its the way Apple is going to do it though. I don't know if the tech is quite there...I would think it's a few years out. But hey, who knows. Maybe the "fake stylus" was an iphone reject and steve has had a team working on it for years. I would be pleasantly surprised if this was possible.

All these input theories ARE very interesting though.