Re: 8pen input device

Keith Ratliff <[email protected]> Mon, 9 May 2011 08:54:26 -0700
Newsgroups gmane.comp.hardware.altkeyboards
Message-ID <[email protected]>
The vid does show a "shift" located in the bottom left.

--Keith

On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 08:25, Giles Orr <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Someone tried a similar thing 10+ years ago on the Palm - they thought
> it made more sense than writing characters in Palm's script. As with
> this, you had a center spot and you swept the stylus out (in any of
> eight directions instead of four) and around and back to indicate a
> given letter. It wasn't the same, but quite similar. I thought it
> was a good idea, so I installed and used it for a while. But there
> were several problems.
>
> Despite their using the word "intuitive" several times in the 8pen
> video, it is NOT intuitive: what's "intuitive" to us is the shape of
> the letter as we've been taught it, which is why writing in script
> works, albeit slowly. Making a permanent association in your mind
> between a letter and a new shape takes a while, especially if you're
> not a heavy user of the system. And if you're a heavy user, you're
> essentially crippled for the learning period. I found I used the Palm
> writing input too infrequently to ever fully memorize the system, so
> it never became useful and I removed it. The program never really
> made a mark, not even in the relatively small Palm software market.
>
> A couple other quibbles about the system: I see no reference at all to
> capital letters. Implementing them would increase the complexity of
> the system, but not having them limits its usefulness. And second,
> while they describe it as "fast," that's only relative to on-screen
> keyboard input without predictive text. I would be really surprised
> if anyone got significantly above 15wpm with a system like this,
> although again predictive text might help.
>
> Don't get me wrong: I love that people are trying out new methods of
> input, because we sure as hell need them for phones. But in this case
> this is similar enough to something that's been tried and didn't work
> that I don't see this flying.
>
>
> On 9 May 2011 04:45, Eduard Werner/Edward Wornar <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > On Monday 09 May 2011 07:59:09 Keith Ratliff wrote:
> > > I think it looks interesting. Ill install it and try it out. Thought I
> > > don't text often.
> >
> > Could you post your experience when you've tried it out, please? My
> killer
> > features would be customization for other languages and unicode support -
> can
> > I input šćł and friends?
> > >
> > > On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 22:53, Shane Duan <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > Simplified gesture, it actually sounds interesting. The only question
> is
> > > > that are those skill easy to learn, and are they easy to forget
> unless
> > > > you use your phone to type like a teenager?
> > > >
> > > > On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 10:18 PM, Aroleon Grunow <
> [email protected]
> > > > >wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Anyone seen this?
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.the8pen.com/
> > > > >
> > > > > My immediate reaction is "eewwwwww...", and I don't have an Android
> to
> > > > > try it on, but I'd be interested in what other people think.
>
> --
> Giles
> http://www.gilesorr.com/
> [email protected]
>
>  
>


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