Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

k-keyboard.com

61–70 of 70 posts

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#61

Smartphone keyboards dynamically adjust the "hitbox" of each key based on what's previously been typed and overall letter frequencies of the language. So when typing "Paris is the capital of Fr..." [*], the A key becomes much easier to hit than its neighbors. Fun fact: back in the day, when this tech was less refined, certain letter contexts made the hitboxes of some keys effectively nonexistent [0]. I wonder if an a…

Unfortunately thats not correct.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hksVvXONrIo

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#62
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it hard? In principle you render an image instead of discrete buttons, and do your hit testing manually. Sure, it’s more annoying than just having your OS tell you what key got hit, but keyboard makers are doing way fancier stuff just fine (e.g. Swype).

Apple's keyboard receives more information, to put it simply. It doesn't get told that a touch was at a particular point, but the entire fuzzy area. Allowing you to use circular occlusion and other things to choose between side-by-side buttons and override the predictive behaviour when it is the wrong choice. A third-party maker gets a single point - usually several in short succession, but still it requires more mat…

Are you aware of the `majorRadius` and `majorRadiusTolerance` UITouch properties?

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#63
post #59
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could be a good alternative to Minuum when mixed together. The single line was great in theory, but in practice I often preferred the regular keyboard layout. Maybe the autopredict did not work all that well, at least with the multiple languages I mixed then? Going to two lines might improve it, and devices are bigger now than back then.

Blast from the past using Minuum on a Nexus 4, my second Android smartphone from my first with the O.G. Motorola Droid.

Some old Galaxy phone for me I think. And then I used it a bit on an LG G3. Only regular app I ever bought (the one other purchase was a game, https://egamebook.com/knights/).

But it must have been great for the small Nexus 4.

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#64
post #28

Reminds of T9 texting and I did like T9. I'll have to try this.

I call BS. NOBODY ever LIKED to type on T9. Maybe you well-tolerated it. Maybe you got reasonably good at it. But not LIKED. There's a reason text messaging really took over when smartphones came in... because T9 was no longer needed. It was objectively awful.

My brother is Christ, call BS all you WANT. This is T9-esque and we have comments in here being interested in going away from full keyboards on their phones in favor of cramming multiple letters onto buttons and letting the software do it again. Time is a flat circle and all that.

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#65
post #28

Reminds of T9 texting and I did like T9. I'll have to try this.

I call BS. NOBODY ever LIKED to type on T9. Maybe you well-tolerated it. Maybe you got reasonably good at it. But not LIKED. There's a reason text messaging really took over when smartphones came in... because T9 was no longer needed. It was objectively awful.

My old Sony Ericsson T616 was inferior to my smartphone in so many ways, but I could tap out SMS messages on that keypad without having to look at it. It was handy to be able to take notes on long drives.

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#66
It strikes me as a little unimaginative to want to improve on smartphone software keyboards but (1) stick with QWERTY, a layout designed to be inefficient, and (2) require multiple taps to enter some letters. It seems like you've invented a way to make smartphone typing even more of a pain than it already is.

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#67
post #62
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's keyboard receives more information, to put it simply. It doesn't get told that a touch was at a particular point, but the entire fuzzy area. Allowing you to use circular occlusion and other things to choose between side-by-side buttons and override the predictive behaviour when it is the wrong choice. A third-party maker gets a single point - usually several in short succession, but still it requires more mat…

Are you aware of the `majorRadius` and `majorRadiusTolerance` UITouch properties?

Apple's software gets the actual mapping matrix that those use.

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#68

Smartphone keyboards dynamically adjust the "hitbox" of each key based on what's previously been typed and overall letter frequencies of the language. So when typing "Paris is the capital of Fr..." [*], the A key becomes much easier to hit than its neighbors. Fun fact: back in the day, when this tech was less refined, certain letter contexts made the hitboxes of some keys effectively nonexistent [0]. I wonder if an a…

I’m not sure if this fully answers the question, but so far increasing the key size alone has worked well, with no noticeable hitbox issues.

Re: Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

#70

I noticed "International patent (PCT/KR2025/099177), International Publication " Are you truly seeking a software patent for this? If so what is the plan for leveraging ownership over the patent?

Good question. I’m not entirely sure about its value yet. It was done to continue development without legal uncertainty, and it’s mainly a defensive measure.
Post reply on HN