Re: A product design project

I agree about morse being intriguing and fun to work with, but the
concept of efficiency is not addressed by it. If anything - sequences
should symbolize words or phonemes, not single letters. 3 or 5 key
presses are hell as far as RSI is concerned, and is pretty slow even
if you do it fast. Quikwriting is an example of what I mean. In
quikwriting a single stroke denotes a word, not a single letter and is
easier to perform and remember (even though it is stylus based, it
should not be ignored).

However, the concept of morse should be considered. maybe a sequence
of lets say 9 keys could denote words and letters. Imagine the PS
controller's 4 keys. instead of . and - performed through short and
long presses you could have a set of 4 shapes (triangle, square,
circle, .... X) with no dependency of keypress length. The sequences
could be much more advanced this way.

As a final word, I'd say there are good alternative methods for typing
which should be considered first - but I do not reject the idea of
thinking up new ones.

Thank you for being an active partner. I hope to get more responses
from other people as well soon.

-Eyal (dum, dee, dum) :)

--- In [email protected], Marcus Brooks <marcus@...> wrote:
>
> Something that you may not have considered is Morse code. This would
not 
> be an improvement for workstations, but it has been discussed in the 
> context of cell-phone SMS messaging or other situations where there 
> isn't room for a proper keyboard, or where the eyes need to be directed 
> elsewhere. I've heard that at least one phone manufacturer has used the 
> Morse characters "SMS" (dididit, dahdah, dididit) to signal receipt
of a 
> message.
> 
> Unfortunately morse code must be learned, so the laziness of the 
> consuming public is probably a show-stopper for this idea. There
seem to 
> be more wrong ways to learn morse than there are right ways, and the 
> skill is doubtless as prone to mental blocks and similar problems as 
> keyboard retraining. (The main issue for me is that I started learning 
> morse at a slow speed, and so find it hard to listen for the "sound" of 
> characters without thinking about their dot-dash patterns. To me, it 
> seems unwise to start Morse at less than about 10 WPM, or faster if 
> possible.)
> 
> I also wonder if the ergonomics of using one keypad button are much 
> better than using eight or so. (Although may be over 150 or so years' 
> worth of study on telegraph key ergonomics.) At any rate, I find the 
> idea of a one-key interface intriguing.
> 
> Marcus
> (K5MWB--dahdidah, dididididit, dahdah, didahdah, dahdididit)
> 
> Thomas Levine wrote:
> > Awesome! I've always wanted to do something similar, and I've
thought about
> > it a bit, but I haven't come up with any precise idea. One idea
that I heard
> > about a while ago was integrating it into a touch screen, which
would allow
> > very natural pointing, typing and viewing. It would be something
better than
> > an on-screen keyboard. I don't especially like my DataHand; it's
better than
> > everything else I've used, but that doesn't say much.
> >
> > The point about buyers being lazy reminds me of AC Mandal's work with
> > chairs. Have you read any of his papers or his book? A main
problem with
> > ergonomics in general is that people don't want to change their
ways because
> > their old habits are too strong. (Anyone who wants to see an
awesome example
> > of this phenomenon, read
> > this<http://www.premus2007.org/abstracts/serratosperez-j1.pdf>,
> > especially the last sentence of the results section.)
> >
> >
> > On Nov 15, 2007 7:57 AM, matzkelon <matzkelon@...> wrote:
> >
> >   
> >> So far, my initial research covered existing products and methods for
> >> text entry, and my conclusions should not surprise the lot of you.
> >> I have covered about five or more methods of text entry (I would dare
> >> not limit myself to depressing keys), the QWERTY hell and the lacking
> >> products in the category of "Alternative Keyboards".
> >>
> >>
>