Re: [iPAQ] Keyboard? (was: Re: scribble update )

   BTW, I came up with an idea over the weekend to use the buttons as a
   keyboard. Basically, you have three rows of six characters across the
   bottom of the screen. You use the up and down buttons to highlight a row
   (the rows scroll, with three visible at a time). You use six buttons (1,
   2, left, right, three, four) to select a character from the highlighted
   row. Since the character you select is directly above the button that
   selects it, typing is sort of intuitive. Does this make sense or is it a
   dumb idea?

An idea very similar (but more extreme) to this is used for input by
severely physically-impaired people, who, say, can only control a single
input (e.g. one button, no mouse/keyboard). A keyboard consisting of
multiple rows of letters is shown; each row is highlighted for a fixed
amount of time and then the highlighting moves on to the next row. When
the button is pressed, the currently highlighted row becomes the active
one, and now the highlighting switches from key to key along that row (plus
one key that means 'back up to row selection mode'). When the button is
pressed again, the particular key that was selected is chosen, and the
process starts again. This input method, although frustrating, does
work... but it seems a waste to go to such restricted input methods on a
device as rich as an iPAQ, at least for the average users. :-)

                        -Debby
Received on Wed Sep 6 10:16:21 2000