Sometimes it's cool to be a square. That's what Jacob Wobbrock, a doctoral student from the Carnegie Mellon Human-Computer Interaction Institute, discovered. Take a square piece of plastic. Throw a touch-sensitive pad behind it. Bingo—you have the basis for Wobbrock's text entry software, EdgeWrite.
Hand Function Issues Addressed with Innovative Software
Using a stylus in much the same way owners of PDAs do, people who have typing accuracy problems due to hand tremors can draw characters on a small screen. Those characters are then translated, by specialized algorithms, into text. The program also includes shortcuts that can be trained to type entire words or phrases.
The EdgeWrite software recognizes the pattern and sequence used to form characters in a box. Users form a character by moving a stylus/mouse/finger in a specific sequence from one corner of a box to another. For each character, the whole screen or input area is considered a box
Character Patterns Easily Mastered
Now, you may be thinking, "I can't remember a whole new alphabet." Rest assured, Wobbrock considered those of us with bad memories. Because they look similar to standard English letters, EdgeWrite's character patterns are easy to remember, so shaky memories are no more problematic than shaky hands.
But, if you need help, a program to assist users to learn the character set is available from the Tampere Unit for Human-Computer Interaction. And, it should be noted, several developers are creating character sets for other languages. For example, Eru Hojin Kim is developing a Korean character set at the Information and Communications University, in Daejeon, South Korea.
Hand Tremors, Shaky Hands No Barrier to Computer Communication
"My hand shakes too much to draw accurate characters." No problem. Wobbrock considered that potential problem. There's a great deal of latitude in this program. Characters do not have to be formed with a high degree of accuracy. In this way, tremors and poor small muscle control are compensated for.
Another beautiful thing about this software is that you don't need any new hardware. You can type a letter simply by moving the joystick on your power wheelchair, or mouse on your computer, or stylus on your PDA or phone. That saves you from having to fumble with the often-arduous task of learning to use a new device. It also reduces clutter on your desk and computer screen. And potentially it can offer a new way to plug into and use the text-entry kiosks that have been popping up in malls and airports all over the world.
This Assistive Technology Is Just Hitting It’s Stride
That latter point is interesting isn't it? Fly out of New York. Send an email to your wife from a kiosk when you've reached your destination. Instant stress reduction! And, the beauty of it is you don't have to struggle with trying to reach the keyboard on one of these kiosks.
What if you use a device like the Eyegaze tracking system that monitors eye movements? There is an EyeWrite version that works in conjunction with these devices, making communication easier.
Finally, the creators of EdgeWrite are open and eager for new applications to be developed. To make that task easier, they've written a DLL (Dynamic-link library), a software component that can be used by programmers to create PC and PDA applications.
