Physics-based graphical keyboard design

ABSTRACT

Built upon the Fitts' law and digraph model developed by MacKenzie and colleague [2, 3], we introduce two physics-based methods to graphical keyboard design. One method uses physical simulation of digraph springs and the other uses the Metropolis method. Both methods produced keyboard layouts comparable to or better than existing best designs by manual trial and error methods. We also corrected an error in previous predictions and concluded that the upper bound performance of a graphical keyboard should be at 40 to 44 wpm. The effect of varying key size and the use of multiple space keys are discussed.

REFERENCES

• 1: Binder, K, Heermann, D. W., Monte Carlo Simulation in Statistical Physics, Springer-Verlag, 1988.
• 2: I. Scott MacKenzie , Shawn X. Zhang, The design and evaluation of a high-performance soft keyboard, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: the CHI is the limit, p.25-31, May 15-20, 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States [doi>10.1145/302979.302983]
• 3: Soukoref, W., MacKenzie, I. S. Theoretical upper and lower bounds on typing speeds using a stylus and keyboard, Behaviour & Information Technology 14 (1995), 379-379
• 4: http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/gcf/cps713montecarlo/node24.html

INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
graphical keyboard, input, soft keyboard, text entry