Historical Overview of Consumer Text Entry Technologies

Author: Miika Silfverberg

summary

Text entry systems began with the typewriter’s Qwerty layout, which carried over into personal computer and mobile phone layouts. This layout was not designed with people in mind, but rather the mechanical limitations of the device. Though the limitations have been overcome, due to the production paradox, users will adopt new layouts only if they show clear benefits and are easy to learn, hence there have not been any radical changes in text entry layouts. The need for new input methods arises when radically new device forms create discontinuity points. Therefore, although the Qwerty keyboard has been in use since 1874, we should be designing new text entry methods that will be applicable to our ever-evolving device forms.

introduction

• “Writing is the most specific and flexible way to store information” (3)
• Rise in industrialization in late 19th century
• The Information Age began in the 1980s
• “Mobility creates new impulses and needs for communication” (4)

typewriter (1870s – 1980s)

• The Sholes-Glidden Type Writer was the first commercially successful one
  • E. Remington and Sons, 1874
  • Latham Sholes invented the first commercially successful typewriter
• The first typewriter was invented by Henrik Mill in 1714
• Industrialization brought
  • Electric lights
  • Telegraph
  • Telephone
• Successful in business sector
• Latham Sholes invented the Qwerty layout “to overcome the mechanical limitations of early machines” (6)

alternative entry methods

• Index typewriters
• Double keyboards
  • Shift key introduced in 1922 by Smith Premier
• Optimized key arrangements
  • Dvorak simplified keyboard

personal computer (1980s – present)

• Late electronic typewriters resembled computers
• Lack of variation in keyboard layouts
  • Hard to roll out a different layout universally
  • Keyboarding is highly over-learned

alternative entry methods

• Speech-to-text
  • Dictation
  • Recognition rate is main challenge
  • Needs multimodal error correction
• Chording keyboards
  • Stenotype machine
  • Two or one handed
  • Adopted by
    • Wearable-computer geeks
    • Special mobile professionals
  • May be useful for wearable computing

mobile phones (1990s – present)

• Telephone invented late 19th century
• 12-key number keypad introduced in mid-20th century
  • Multitap method
  • Predictive methods
    • T9 by Tegic
    • Studied in japan beginning in the 1960s
• First mobile phones appeared in the 1980s but were similar to landlines
• SMS introduced in early 1990s

alternative entry methods

• Fastap layout
  • A-Z and some punctuation interlaced between 12-key
• Reduced QWERTY keyboard
• Production paradox: users will adopt new layouts only if they show clear benefits and are easy to learn

handheld computers

• Newton message Pad by Apple in 1993
• Pilot organizer in 1996
• Handwriting recognition (HWR)
  • Unistrokes
  • Graffiti
• Virtual Qwerty keyboard
• Physical mini-keyboards

alternative entry methods

• Alternative virtual keyboards
• Gesture-based input
  • Swipe-to-type
  • Shape writing

conclusion

• “the emergence of radically new device forms creates discontinuity points that give ground to new text methods” (22)
  • 💡 Like VR, XR, etc… I think chording keyboards might work well for those
• “Although the Qwerty keyboard has served us well since 1874, we are better prepared for the future by studying new, radically different text entry methods for future device forms”
  • 💡 I think it would be unnecessary for computers since everyone is used to the Qwerty keyboard and touch-typing, but I do see it happening for the new technology that is emerging nowadays, like smart TVs, VR, etc. The main trend seems to be voice recognition, but I wonder if gesture-based input (e.g. Xbox body sensor) or chording keyboards could become more popular
    • Of course it would be hard to defeat the production paradox, since it would be like learning a new language