4 ms·

Wait...swiping? On a keyboard? That makes absolutely no sense. Most words contain a pair of letters that are not adjacent on a QWERTY keyboard.

coldtea 12y ago
Who said it has to be adjacent? To type WHAT just click W, swipe to H, then to A, then to T (and that roughly).
- jackmaney 12y ago
  Why would that not turn into WDFGHGFDSASERT?
  - andybak 12y ago
    Clever programming.
  - tspike 12y ago
    Because it's got a big list of n-grams and knows what words are more commonly used than others. It uses a predictive model to generate a list of words from your swipe, and then sorts that according to usage. It also continuously learns what words you use the most and prioritizes those. It picks the most likely word, but also displays a list of other possibilities you can tap. It's pretty slick.
  - sangnoir 12y ago
    Because the keyboard has a dictionary and can choose the most likely word you meant from your swipe waypoints
  - jackmaney 12y ago
    Okay, so I grabbed my phone and tested it out. It...actually works. It's a bizarre method of text entry, but interesting nonetheless.
    - Mikeb85 12y ago
      > It's a bizarre method of text entry, but interesting nonetheless. And by bizarre you mean fantastic... It's even better in a language like French, where swiping means not having to type in the accents, whereas normally you'd have to do a long press of the letter and then select the accent you want...
      - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
        You don't need to type spaces either and keyboards can be more compact as it's about the word shape rather than hitting a particular letter sequence exactly. Stock Android 4.1 version at least seems pretty forgiving provided I hit the correct first letter, a lot of weight in the algo appears to lie with first letter.
    - coldtea 12y ago
      See also this for a similarly working, but different approach to the same thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9b8NlMd79w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9b8NlMd79w
edraferi 12y ago
Swipe typing on a touch screen [1] is analogous to T9 [2] text entry on a traditional keypad. In fact, they were invented by the same group [3]. On numeric keypads, each button corresponds to ~3 letters. Basic text entry involves pushing each button multiple times to select the index of the letter you want[4], then waiting to confirm the selection before moving to the next character. T9 sped up this process by allowing you to press each button once. It would determine which word you meant by comparing all possible combinations of letters that could be created from the buttons you pressed against a dictionary of known words. Swype provides a similar extension to QWERTY touchscreen keyboards. With Swype, you drag your finger across a QWERTY grid, creating a path. This path starts on the first letter of the intended word and crosses all letters in the word, in order. It also crosses lots of letters that aren't in the word, or are out of position. The 'secret sauce' lies in how to compare the ordered set of keys defined by the path to a predefined dictionary and produce a meaningful prediction of the intended word. I haven't implemented such an algorithm myself. However, you can imagine how it might be done. For example, acute angles in the path probably occur when you reach a letter you want, then angle off to collect the next letter. This provides a signpost that can be combined with the initial letter to reduce the possible words down to the set that starts with the initial letter and includes the key with the acute angle. [1] First introduced by Swype: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swype https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swype [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T9_(predictive_text) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T9_(predictive_text) [3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/swype-vs-iphone-typing-sw_n_368850.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/swype-vs-iphone-typ... [4] e.g. the "3" key corresponds to "DEF", so press "3" twice to enter "E"

coldtea 12y ago

Who said it has to be adjacent? To type WHAT just click W, swipe to H, then to A, then to T (and that roughly).

jackmaney 12y ago
Why would that not turn into WDFGHGFDSASERT?
- andybak 12y ago
  Clever programming.
- tspike 12y ago
  Because it's got a big list of n-grams and knows what words are more commonly used than others. It uses a predictive model to generate a list of words from your swipe, and then sorts that according to usage. It also continuously learns what words you use the most and prioritizes those. It picks the most likely word, but also displays a list of other possibilities you can tap. It's pretty slick.
- sangnoir 12y ago
  Because the keyboard has a dictionary and can choose the most likely word you meant from your swipe waypoints
- jackmaney 12y ago
  Okay, so I grabbed my phone and tested it out. It...actually works. It's a bizarre method of text entry, but interesting nonetheless.
  - Mikeb85 12y ago
    > It's a bizarre method of text entry, but interesting nonetheless. And by bizarre you mean fantastic... It's even better in a language like French, where swiping means not having to type in the accents, whereas normally you'd have to do a long press of the letter and then select the accent you want...
    - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
      You don't need to type spaces either and keyboards can be more compact as it's about the word shape rather than hitting a particular letter sequence exactly. Stock Android 4.1 version at least seems pretty forgiving provided I hit the correct first letter, a lot of weight in the algo appears to lie with first letter.
  - coldtea 12y ago
    See also this for a similarly working, but different approach to the same thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9b8NlMd79w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9b8NlMd79w

edraferi 12y ago

Swipe typing on a touch screen [1] is analogous to T9 [2] text entry on a traditional keypad. In fact, they were invented by the same group [3]. On numeric keypads, each button corresponds to ~3 letters. Basic text entry involves pushing each button multiple times to select the index of the letter you want[4], then waiting to confirm the selection before moving to the next character. T9 sped up this process by allowing you to press each button once. It would determine which word you meant by comparing all possible combinations of letters that could be created from the buttons you pressed against a dictionary of known words. Swype provides a similar extension to QWERTY touchscreen keyboards. With Swype, you drag your finger across a QWERTY grid, creating a path. This path starts on the first letter of the intended word and crosses all letters in the word, in order. It also crosses lots of letters that aren't in the word, or are out of position. The 'secret sauce' lies in how to compare the ordered set of keys defined by the path to a predefined dictionary and produce a meaningful prediction of the intended word. I haven't implemented such an algorithm myself. However, you can imagine how it might be done. For example, acute angles in the path probably occur when you reach a letter you want, then angle off to collect the next letter. This provides a signpost that can be combined with the initial letter to reduce the possible words down to the set that starts with the initial letter and includes the key with the acute angle. [1] First introduced by Swype: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swype https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swype [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T9_(predictive_text) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T9_(predictive_text) [3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/swype-vs-iphone-typing-sw_n_368850.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/swype-vs-iphone-typ... [4] e.g. the "3" key corresponds to "DEF", so press "3" twice to enter "E"