Yet another finger keybord (gui mock-up).

[Lars Hallberg]

Gabriel Ambuehl skrev:
> On Monday 05 March 2007 03:21:15 Florent THIERY wrote:
> Yeah, it looks neat. I think I'd downscale the number of special chars though. 
> I very much doubt you could actually read the characters on the Neo screen 
> right now.

Should be as clear as on the pictures... But You might need to look 
close... But the neo case have a hole for the nose for that special 
purpose :-) Hopefully, You soon learn where the keys are.

And allot can be done to improve the graphics :-)

>> But there's a problem i didn't find an answear to:
>> - the neo will have a "monopoint" touchscreen (at least at first)
>> - a finger is way bigger than a detectable area
> 
> 
>> -> What point will exactly be detected while pressing somewhere with a
>> finger?
> 
> I don't think those an issue here: you tap on the key (might want to scale it 
> down to 6 keys, that still gives you  36 characters which is enough for just 
> about any character based language I can think of), hold your finger, then 
> move it towards the character you actually want. The phone doesn't actually 
> need you to tap the character exactly, the direction of the vector of your 
> fingers movement should be enough (with 6 adjacent characters, i.e. honeycomb 
> [1] like layout, you still have a 60° field to hit)?

Yes, it's that 'spalash' effect of adjacent keys that's the main 
concept,  not the exact layout. However.. 36 keys may be good for 
entering contacts data... but I *want* a full-blown keyboard level of 
functionality. For me, a common use case is remote admin of servers with 
ssh... and any legacy terminal app may be used (completely unaware of 
'mobile envirionment').

> [1] which brings me to the point that maybe round buttons aren't the most 
> efficient way of doing it?

Round match hexagons well. Putting them in a square layout is 
suboptimal, but the screen is square anyway and i like the common 
looking keypad, with the 0 in unusual but still logical place. It's 
familiar in more ways... T9 users should fast pick up where the letters are.

I think the size is close to optimal with 6 buttons wide (but it must be 
tested on a neo to be sure). The total area is not to big and high, and 
the 'drags' is not so long. Should make it usable in 'tumb' mode with 
one hand. The press areas should be smaller then the buttons anyway... 
It's not really that hard hitting a small target, what's hard in finger 
operation is avoiding adjacent targets. At least from my experiences 
with a Qteck (os name unrevealed to not hurt anyone innocent).

One question is if the scroll wheel is needed simultaneous with the 
keyboard. That would else leave room for 4 buttons (24 keys) more. But 
in that case maybe 5*3 with 'space' on the sides so all buttons can have 
all 7 combinations would be better... 5*3*7 - 105 keys.

And I'm unsure about the 3 boxes on top... maybe completion should go in 
the app area with 'normal' keyboard interface (enter, tab).

reminder on link: http://www.micropp.se/openmoko/

/LaH