Live data from Hacker News

Optimising the T9 Keyboard

torvaney.github.io

1–10 of 17 posts

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#2
Awesome research! I was just thinking the other day, about how a qwerty layout for T9 might have been easier and more efficient. Cool to see something even better. A little off-topic, but this 6-button keyboard format looks perfect for my dream device.

I take a lot of walks. I often listen to an audio book while I do so. I also frequently get texts, or hear something in the book I may want to write down.

I've always wanted to be able to handle these situations without taking out my phone, but rather clicking buttons in my pockets. For example, I get a text while listening to music. Click a button to hear it read out. Type out my response. Send it. Open notes, write a reminder to buy bread. One-handed, blindly, while on a walk outside. No voice recognition - no "OK Google" nonsense.

I've considered getting a Twiddler - but they're expensive, and I don't think I can easily configure it to do these things - particularly browsing and responding to messages - or opening up a new note, while listening to an audiobook.

Does anyone know some combination of software and hardware that can do some of this for me?

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#3
post #2

Awesome research! I was just thinking the other day, about how a qwerty layout for T9 might have been easier and more efficient. Cool to see something even better. A little off-topic, but this 6-button keyboard format looks perfect for my dream device. I take a lot of walks. I often listen to an audio book while I do so. I also frequently get texts, or hear something in the book I may want to write down. I've always…

I’d suggest to revisit voice recognition — it works quite well for me in the same usecase.

I also like to take walks, sometimes listening to podcasts. The stock iOS voice recognition (the microphone button on the keyboard, not Siri) is quite good, I usually just talk into the phone without looking at the output. After the walk, I format and clean up the notes to fix any errors.

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#4
Pretty cool read. My biggest problem with T9word is Spelling. If you misspell something on a full keyboard, the other person may be able to ges by sounding it out. T9word would throw out a word that would be no where near what you want. 'Ges' would become 'her' and the other user would never think 'guess' was the intended word.

My 2nd biggest problem with T9word is you need to look at the screen to verify the word you wanted is the one guessed. The other t9 keyboards allowed the user to type without looking at the screen. (Such as under the desk during class )

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#5
My idea was instead to do the combinations that you will used in punch cards in computer, and you can push together multiple keys like they have multiple holes in one column, but no actual cards are needed for this method.

(Note: I have never used the computer with punch cards)

I dislike touch screen and voice controls, so using physical keys is better (whether T9 or other methods).

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#6
I don't think this is very insightful. Using the first half of books for training data and the second half for testing data is still training the model specifically for these texts and authors. Not quite as bad as testing on the training data, but not great.

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#7
post #2

Awesome research! I was just thinking the other day, about how a qwerty layout for T9 might have been easier and more efficient. Cool to see something even better. A little off-topic, but this 6-button keyboard format looks perfect for my dream device. I take a lot of walks. I often listen to an audio book while I do so. I also frequently get texts, or hear something in the book I may want to write down. I've always…

I used to be able to write stuff blind pretty reliably back when I was using a Palm device. Its “Graffiti” system was pretty good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_(Palm_OS) A keyboard based on it could go a long way.

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#8
post #2

Awesome research! I was just thinking the other day, about how a qwerty layout for T9 might have been easier and more efficient. Cool to see something even better. A little off-topic, but this 6-button keyboard format looks perfect for my dream device. I take a lot of walks. I often listen to an audio book while I do so. I also frequently get texts, or hear something in the book I may want to write down. I've always…

I’d suggest to revisit voice recognition — it works quite well for me in the same usecase. I also like to take walks, sometimes listening to podcasts. The stock iOS voice recognition (the microphone button on the keyboard, not Siri) is quite good, I usually just talk into the phone without looking at the output. After the walk, I format and clean up the notes to fix any errors.

That's fair - I live in a bustling city and get self conscious with people being able to hear me text and such. I know it's really effective these days though.

Re: Optimising the T9 Keyboard

#10
post #2

Awesome research! I was just thinking the other day, about how a qwerty layout for T9 might have been easier and more efficient. Cool to see something even better. A little off-topic, but this 6-button keyboard format looks perfect for my dream device. I take a lot of walks. I often listen to an audio book while I do so. I also frequently get texts, or hear something in the book I may want to write down. I've always…

what you describe sounds a bit like https://www.tapwithus.com/ -- but i have never used it and i suspect it's more of a novelty than a genuine utility.
Post reply on HN