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Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

fleksy.com

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Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#81

Post by devindotcom »

agscala wrote: post #51
mtrimpe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that a stylus changes everything; I should have been more specific. I never got up to 60wpm with Fitaly but I do remember not really feeling hampered by my typing speed. In general you don't get a stylus with your phone anymore these days though...

Agreed. Also it seems like it's finally coming full circle around back to styli again. It seems like they're now being advertised as a new feature, which I think is kind of funny. Granted, they aren't using resistive screens anymore, so it is sort of new. I'm waiting for a good stylus-enabled device before I purchase anything new. The fact that you can't draw on most of these tablets is silly.

Yeah, I wrote about this a while back, the stylus will always be useful for pretty fundamental reasons, though there will be phases in which it's not easy to implement (we're coming out of one right now): http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/11/in-defense-of-the-stylus/

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#82

Post by samstokes »

jeremyarussell wrote: post #42
jenius wrote: post #36

Can anyone explain how this works? Seems like total black magic to me... the dude is typing random gibberish and it still figures out the word? Then he's just tapping randomly on the screen, gibberish comes out, then turns into the word he wanted? Don't mean this to sound unintelligent, the video was just crazy. What kind of key proximity algorithms are behind this?

Patent pending kind? I doubt they are sharing it quite yet but the one beauty of patents is we'll get the entire answer once the patent isn't pending anymore. If I had to imagine though, the algorithm is just accounting for the most likely word to follow the previous wording, that could have been formed by hitting keys that were next to the ones you really hit wrong. I'd like to see how it handles my wanton throwing…

This is pretty much how the stock Android keyboard works. It's been able to spot missed keys since at least Ice Cream Sandwich - e.g. I just typed "kettrt" and it's suggesting "letter" as a correction. Since Jelly Bean it's also had some bigram support too (guesses the next word based on the previous without you typing anything).

Aside from the "typing without a keyboard" part, it's not obvious from the video how Fleksy differs from this, but the focus on blind users probably makes a difference.

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#83

Post by eckyptang »

hnriot wrote: post #67
eckyptang wrote: post #6

Windows phone pretty much does exactly this already. It's horrid. I genuinely think that a better solution is to buy a phone with T9 if you have input problems or like to enter stuff when not looking at it. You simply NEED a tactile interface to do that effectively. I carry a Nokia 3330 and Lumia 710 around. The 3330 is still a thousand times easier to enter text messages into. I can use it with my eyes shut and make…

haha! This has got to be trolling. It obviously doesn't make sense to carry both a 3330 and a 710, so I am guessing this is fabricated to make some English textile artisan's point. Burn them looms!

Actually no. The 710 is my company provided WORK phone and the 3330 is MY phone. You should keep work and play separate.

My loom is fine :)

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#84

Post by dylanz »

Interesting approach, and it makes a lot of sense. It would be interesting to see the algorithm behind it.

That said... every time I try out a new virtual keyboard, even for a few days, the more I yearn for a physical keyboard on a phone I actually want. The current options in the market for phone's with physical keyboards isn't great.

My passwords all contain plenty of special characters, and it requires many more keystrokes to enter in my password on a virtual keyboard vs a physical one. At least give me a shift key.

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#85

Post by egypturnash »

This… this looks and acts almost EXACTLY like the stock Android keyboard. The swipes to accept a correction and to delete a word are new, and the graphic design of the keyboard is more minimalist - but the core functionality of "spellchecks based on words you could spell with keys near the ones you actually hit" and "shows autocorrect candidates in a horizontal row above the keys" is absolutely identical.

It's a shame iOS is so monolithic, if you could wedge in a new keyboard like you can on Android, I would totally be willing to shell out some bucks for this because I really loathe the iOS autocorrect experience compared to the Android.

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#86

Post by p4bl0 »

oulipo wrote: post #78
ricardobeat wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This works in a similar way to BlindType (acquired by Google) from a couple years back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9b8NlMd79w edit: it's actually the same! http://phandroid.com/2012/08/16/makers-of-blindtype-bring-us...

I prefer to type with the 8pen.com

This is so thinking-outside-the-box! I'm amazed with that technology. Thanks for sharing it here. If this takes of (it probably should, but I don't know if it will), imagine people in a few years being able to write and read directly with the kind of the symbols that appear at 4:45 in the "Idea"[1] video!

[1] http://www.8pen.com/watch?v=1

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#87

Post by greendestiny »

egypturnash wrote: post #85

This… this looks and acts almost EXACTLY like the stock Android keyboard. The swipes to accept a correction and to delete a word are new, and the graphic design of the keyboard is more minimalist - but the core functionality of "spellchecks based on words you could spell with keys near the ones you actually hit" and "shows autocorrect candidates in a horizontal row above the keys" is absolutely identical. It's a sham…

I don't think the similarity to the stock Android keyboard is coincidental. The authors of this previously made Blindtype which was purchased by Google.

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#89

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jeremyarussell wrote: post #42
jenius wrote: post #36

Can anyone explain how this works? Seems like total black magic to me... the dude is typing random gibberish and it still figures out the word? Then he's just tapping randomly on the screen, gibberish comes out, then turns into the word he wanted? Don't mean this to sound unintelligent, the video was just crazy. What kind of key proximity algorithms are behind this?

Patent pending kind? I doubt they are sharing it quite yet but the one beauty of patents is we'll get the entire answer once the patent isn't pending anymore. If I had to imagine though, the algorithm is just accounting for the most likely word to follow the previous wording, that could have been formed by hitting keys that were next to the ones you really hit wrong. I'd like to see how it handles my wanton throwing…

>we'll get the entire answer once the patent isn't pending anymore //

As an aside A-publication is substantially prior to the grant of the patent, exceptional conditions aside.

Re: Fleksy - Awesome new predictive text input method

#90

Post by apinstein »

I had this on my PalmPilot in 1998 but from a different company. It was written by a friend who worked at a company with all kinds of patents for it, but they never released the Palm version publicly. Only a few dozen people had it in the world. It was amazing and it changed the utility of the PalmPilot significantly.

You had to put a sticker with the qwerty layout over the silkscreen area and then you just tapped away madly with the stylus. It was so good.

This is very, very close. Most of the mistakes it makes are due to the fact that it seemingly doesn't look at your address book for completion options, so when you try to type in people's names you know it picks a different word and doesn't even have proper names as an option. Fails on stuff like my name (Pinstein) or well-known things like "MacBook".

But it's still awesome! I've been waiting 10 years to have this on my handheld again!

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