Yet another finger keybord (gui mock-up).

[Paul M]

On Mon, 2007-03-05 at 13:50 +0100, Gabriel Ambuehl wrote:
> On Monday 05 March 2007 11:34:47 Lars Hallberg wrote:
> > 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
> 
> Clear yes, but also about 3 times smaller than on your desktop screen...
> 
> > purpose :-) Hopefully, You soon learn where the keys are.
> 
> Which gives rise to the question of how to best arrange them...
> 

I have been thinking along very similar lines to this idea, except that
I have been envisioning this as a stylus application. However I think it
makes a lot of sense to have as an input method for both finger and
stylus. From a stylus point of view it makes sense to treat the centre
as a neutral or home position with letters being determined
 by the subsequent movements you make* (as drag vectors). This way you
would not need to lift the stylus off the screen** -- movement would be
relative to the position of the stylus at the end of the last letter.  I
think you could write very fast like this.

*a hexagon arrangement would give you all the alphabet + common
punctuation in unique combinations of two strokes. (Modifier keys/areas
could be added for more). This would be very quick and easy to learn.

** Unless you were getting close to the edge -- but since movement would
be relative you could just pick it up and re-center it.

> 
> If you use drag vectors instead of actual taps on the buttons, you might get 
> away with very short drags, really.
> 

Agreed treating it as vectors rather than as an absolute position makes
it much more flexible.

Paul M
-- 
      "There are no innocent bystanders,
what were they doing there in the first place?"
             William S. Burroughs