Current Keyboard Research Articles

Design and evaluation of small, linear QWERTY keyboards

Miniature keyboard design is motivated by the need for smaller mobile devices with maximum user display area. Thus, this study developed four miniature keyboard designs which varied from conventional keyboard design in terms of their configuration and layout. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the input speed, accuracy, comfort, likability and learnability of four miniature keyboards. Sixteen fast typists and 16 slow typists were recruited to use these four miniature keyboards. The results showed that the rectangular-shaped keycaps of 3 letters with separated keycaps of numerals obtained the best proficiency speed, highest comfort and greatest user acceptance among the four keyboards. Moreover, the keyboards with square-shaped keycaps had better input accuracy compared to rectangular-shaped keycaps. Finally, the proposed keyboards were smaller than current keyboards, and the performance for all of the small keyboards was worse than that of the conventional keyboard.

Experiments in haptic-based authentication of humans

With the rapid advancement of the technological revolution, computer technology such as faster processors, advanced graphic cards, and multi-media systems are becoming more affordable. Haptics technology is a force/tactile feedback technology growing in disciplines linked to human---computer interaction. Similar to the increasing complexity of silicon-based components, haptics technology is becoming more advanced. On the other hand, currently available commercial haptics interfaces are expensive, and their application is mostly dedicated to enormous research projects or systems. However, the trend of the market is forcing haptic developers to release products for use in conjunction with current keyboards and mice technologies. Haptics allows a user to touch, fell, manipulate, create, and/or alter simulated three-dimensional objects in a virtual environment. Most of the existing applications of haptics are dedicated to hone human physical skills such as sensitive hardware repair, medical procedures, handling hazardous substances, etc. These skills can be trained in a realistic virtual world, and describe human behavioural patterns in human---computer interaction environments. The measurement of such psychomotor patterns can be used to verify a person's identity by assessing unique-to-the-individual behavioural attributes. This paper explores the unique behaviour exhibited by different users interacting with haptic systems. Through several haptic-based applications, users' physical attributes output data from the haptic interface for use in the construction of a biometric system.

Multi-Touch: A New Tactile 2-D Gesture Interface for Human-Computer Interaction

The naturalness and variety of a touch-based hand gesture interface offers new opportunities for human-computer interaction. Using a new type of capacitive sensor array, a Multi-Touch Surface (MTS) can be created that is not limited in size, that can be presented in many configurations, that is robust under a variety of environmental operating conditions, and that is very thin. Typing and gesture recognition built into the Multi-Touch Surface allow users to type and perform bilateral gestures on the same surface area and in a smaller footprint than is required by current keyboard and mouse technologies. The present approach interprets asynchronous touches on the surface as conventional single-finger typing, while motions initiated by chords are interpreted as pointing, clicking, gesture commands, or hand resting. This approach requires learning only a few new chords for graphical manipulation, rather than a vocabulary of new chords for typing the whole alphabet. Graphical manipulation seems a better use of chords in today's computing environment.

Evaluation of Alternative Alphanumeric Keying Logics

Four keying logics for the entry of alphanumeric characters were evaluated. Selection of the logics was based on their compatability with current keyboard designs used in the pilotaircraft interface, which involves communications, navigation, and other aircraft subsystems. Subjects in each of four groups learned one of the logics, and their performance was recorded on an alphanumeric keying task. Performance measures were keying speed and keying accuracy for alphabetic characters, numeric characters, character strings, and total list. Keying time for a keying logic that used 36 individual keys for each alphabetic and numeric character was significantly superior to other logics that used push-button telephone-type keyboards. Subjects were equally accurate on all logics, with an error rate of approximately 0.5%. Significant performance differences among the three matrix keyboard logics were inconsistent. Of these, performance on a keyboard with the telephone arrangement was most accurate.

Keying Logics for Alphanumeric Keyboards and Human Performance

Four keying logics for the entry of alphanumeric characters were evaluated for keying speed and accuracy. The logics were selected based on their compatibility with current keyboard designs being used for the pilot-aircraft interface with communication, navigation, and other aircraft subsystems. A logic utilizing individual keys (36) for alphanumeric character keying was significantly faster than three other logics which used push-button matrix (telephone) keyboards. All logics were equally accurate, with an error rate of approximately .5 percent. Significant performance differences among the three matrix keyboard logics were inconsistent.

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