Paper Reading#7 Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop

Reference

Jochen Rick

He works at The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

location: UIST’10, October 3–6, 2010, New York, New York, USA

Hypothesis

finding a technique that will enhance the use of shape writing for table top touch devices 

shape writing- stoking through all the letters in a word on a virtual keyboard - and how this technique is affected by using different keyboard layouts

QWERTY layout is very inefficient because there is no surface to rest the hands

Method

User study was done among 8 users to determine the speed and efficiency in using different keyboard layouts.

It was suggested that shape writing based on user strokes on a virtual keyboard would be much more effective. This because the user would not have to lift his or her finger while using it and it would also make it easier to use when standing up or looking down on the surface of the device

Results

stroke-based qwerty input would have a 17% increase in imput speed, while switching to a layout such as OPTI II could yield speed improvement in the range of 50%

Discussion

I personally thought the whole idea was very interesting mostly because it related strongly with what cs majors do almost all the time which is typing. I think that his ideas are interesting and applicable but i still do not think that many people will be willing to change the keyboard layout from the traditional QWERTY anytime soon just because it is so ingrained in everyone