4 ms·

For years, I've toyed with a similar idea to this. I feel like a lot of work on this has relied on some pretty crude heuristics like "rolls" and "alternation".

For years, I've toyed with a similar idea to this. I feel like a lot of work on this has relied on some pretty crude heuristics like "rolls" and "alternation". I think it's dangerous to overgeneralize about these, and I think it's also short-sighted because there are probably more specific patterns that affect typing speed. So my idea was to collect data on all keystroke transitions. There are 1,089 of these on the part of the keyboard that you would optimize for. Typing 5 minutes a day at a relaxed pace would be enough time to cover each of those 8 times in a month, so collecting enough data to work with would be feasible pretty quickly. I was then going to take a big textual corpus of English, and the total of all transition times would serve as the fitness function. I had the data collection program done, and was starting to collect data, when I decided I should redo it with triples (of which there are 35,937). Then the length of the data collection process I was looking at became really daunting, and I lost interest in the project. What I'd quite like to do, though, would be to crowdsource the data collection using a web app. Then I could get good three-key data and not have it biased to my own personal quirks.

techiferous 14y ago
Being a dvorak user, I must say, the "rolls" are extremely comfortable and fun. I love typing the words church, tenth, school, etc.
- MTGandP 14y ago
  That's why my keyboard layouts try to optimize for rolls more than any other layout I've seen. The most recent version has a number of very nice rolls, TH, IN, ST, and some other less-frequent digraphs.
Cilvic 14y ago
I'm building KeyRocket bascially to help people get better with software from their behavior. I love the idea of making everybody transition to a better layout letter by letter and we could help with the data collection if it respects/protects people's privacy. What do you mean that there are 1,089 transitions?
MTGandP 14y ago
Hi, writer of The Keyboard Layout Project here. I'm well aware of the limitations of scoring a layout based on crude heuristics, and I'm trying to collect some good data. Right now I have some data from a few layouts that I've collected using [Amphetype](http://code.google.com/p/amphetype/ http://code.google.com/p/amphetype/), which records speed and accuracy for characters, trigraphs, and words. I'm curious, what program did you use to collect typing data? If you or anyone else has typing data or is willing to collect some, please post a comment on my blog (preferably [here](http://mtgap.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/wanted-typing-data/) http://mtgap.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/wanted-typing-data/)) and I will email you. Ideally, we would have typing data not just from QWERTY and carefully-designed layouts, but randomized layouts. All the layouts people use (except QWERTY) share design patterns—putting the most common keys on the home row, etc. We can get more accurate data if we know how people type on random layouts. I plan on using a little grant money from my school to pay some people to learn randomized keyboard layouts and then record typing data. If anyone's willing to do this for free, I'd love to have your help; again, you can contact me by leaving a comment on my [blog](https://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/ https://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/). Data collection with a web app is also a good idea. I don't plan on writing such a thing any time soon, but if anyone does plan to, I think it would be very useful.
- Evbn 14y ago
  I wonder what the ethics review board would think about training someone on a nonstandard keyboard layout, as that would introduce a handicap to their life outside the study.
  - MTGandP 14y ago
    You can use a new keyboard layout and still remember QWERTY. It's just like learning a second language (only it takes a lot less time).
    - mistercow 14y ago
      You can, but if you don't regularly practice, your QWERTY proficiency will deteriorate startlingly quickly. It's easier to pick back up than learning a whole new layout, but still. It was really unsettling to watch, in only two weeks, my QWERTY proficiency drop from "90 WPM burst speed" to "stare at the keyboard while I type".

techiferous 14y ago

Being a dvorak user, I must say, the "rolls" are extremely comfortable and fun. I love typing the words church, tenth, school, etc.

MTGandP 14y ago
That's why my keyboard layouts try to optimize for rolls more than any other layout I've seen. The most recent version has a number of very nice rolls, TH, IN, ST, and some other less-frequent digraphs.

Cilvic 14y ago

I'm building KeyRocket bascially to help people get better with software from their behavior. I love the idea of making everybody transition to a better layout letter by letter and we could help with the data collection if it respects/protects people's privacy. What do you mean that there are 1,089 transitions?

MTGandP 14y ago

Hi, writer of The Keyboard Layout Project here. I'm well aware of the limitations of scoring a layout based on crude heuristics, and I'm trying to collect some good data. Right now I have some data from a few layouts that I've collected using [Amphetype](http://code.google.com/p/amphetype/ http://code.google.com/p/amphetype/), which records speed and accuracy for characters, trigraphs, and words. I'm curious, what program did you use to collect typing data? If you or anyone else has typing data or is willing to collect some, please post a comment on my blog (preferably [here](http://mtgap.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/wanted-typing-data/) http://mtgap.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/wanted-typing-data/)) and I will email you. Ideally, we would have typing data not just from QWERTY and carefully-designed layouts, but randomized layouts. All the layouts people use (except QWERTY) share design patterns—putting the most common keys on the home row, etc. We can get more accurate data if we know how people type on random layouts. I plan on using a little grant money from my school to pay some people to learn randomized keyboard layouts and then record typing data. If anyone's willing to do this for free, I'd love to have your help; again, you can contact me by leaving a comment on my [blog](https://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/ https://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/). Data collection with a web app is also a good idea. I don't plan on writing such a thing any time soon, but if anyone does plan to, I think it would be very useful.

Evbn 14y ago
I wonder what the ethics review board would think about training someone on a nonstandard keyboard layout, as that would introduce a handicap to their life outside the study.
- MTGandP 14y ago
  You can use a new keyboard layout and still remember QWERTY. It's just like learning a second language (only it takes a lot less time).
  - mistercow 14y ago
    You can, but if you don't regularly practice, your QWERTY proficiency will deteriorate startlingly quickly. It's easier to pick back up than learning a whole new layout, but still. It was really unsettling to watch, in only two weeks, my QWERTY proficiency drop from "90 WPM burst speed" to "stare at the keyboard while I type".