Small Keyboard Research Articles

GRADUATE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS MOBILE LEARNING AT KING KHALID UNIVERSITY (SAUDI ARABIA)

Mobile Learning (mLearning) has become an influential educational technology in higher education. With the internet and other technological developments, mLearning makes it possible for students to learn, collaborate, and share ideas with each other. However, mLearning student acceptance is critical to its effectiveness. Attitudes toward learning is a vital factor in deciding whether or not students are ready to use mLearning for academic purpose. Student attitudes may identify strengths and weaknesses of mLearning and facilitate development of the technology. This qualitative study aims to investigate graduate students’ attitudes and perceptions toward using mLearning in education. Data were collected by conducting interviews with fourteen graduate students enrolled in masters and doctoral programs in the College of Education at King Khalid University (KKU), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Generally, graduate students in education disciplines had positive attitudes toward mLearning and expressed a desire to use it in their future educational settings. Students perceived mLearning to be valuable for academic purposes, noting the convenience of being able to access course materials, the ease of communicating with other students and professors at their own pace, and the flexibility mobile devices offer over desktop or laptop computers. However, students identified a few usability issues like small screen size and keyboards, and additional cost of mobile devices and the corresponding cost of Internet access as constraints for using mobile devices for learning.

Exploring touch feedback display of virtual keyboards for reduced eye movements

When typing on smartphones or palm tablets, users generally make an effort to type correctly while simultaneously checking the small keyboard and the text display. Unlike physical keyboards that allow users to perform typing based on long-term muscle memory, virtual keyboards typically require more frequent eye movements between the keyboard and the text display areas.This study proposes a new way of designing a virtual keyboard display to reduce the effort associated with frequent eye-movements. For this study, we developed virtual keyboard display systems featuring both static and dynamic word-by-word (WBW) feedback displays. The two display systems were examined in comparison with a more conventional method known as character-by-character (CBC) feedback display. We investigated user satisfaction, typing performance and the user’s eye gaze shifts. Eye gaze shifts were measured between the keyboard and the text display areas across the three conditions using self-report, log, and eye-tracking measures. In the static WBW condition, the words being typed displayed in a fixed area at the top of the virtual keyboard; in the dynamic WBW display, the words displayed in a small popup window at the tip of the selected key.Using a repeated measure experiment for the three display conditions, participants were asked to type fifteen phrases using a palm tablet while wearing eye-tracking glasses for each condition. We conducted a mixed-model design ANOVA with group (SLOW vs. FAST typing; men vs. women) as between-subject factors and display condition (CBC vs. WBW). We found a significant (11%) improvement in typing speed with the dynamic WBW over the CBC display for less experienced keyboard users. In addition, participants reported higher satisfaction with the two WBW conditions than the CBC condition. Eye fixations, dwell times, and heat map data also supported that WBW displays are advantageous for less experienced, slower typists by helping them stay focused more on the keyboard, thus reducing eye transitions to the text display. Our study systematically demonstrates how and to what extent the virtual keyboard display strategy influences typing performance and subjective experience based on self-reports and eye-tracking measures. The approach and findings of this study should provide useful information and practical guidance to mobile application developers and designers who are interested in improving virtual keyboard functionalities and user satisfaction.

User Credential Cloning Attacks in Android Applications: Exploiting Automatic Login on Android Apps and Mitigating Strategies

Automatic login is a commonly used feature of smartphones, because their small keyboards make it difficult to key in user credential information. However, this feature may pose a serious risk to smartphone users? privacy. The stored data for automatic login could be stolen by an attacker, resulting in identity theft. In this article, we demonstrate an execution of this attack in a systematic manner through two real-world Android application case studies by implementing a prototype. We also discuss five possible defense strategies to mitigate the risk of user credential data being stolen from the application files.

Mobile communication jacket for people with severe speech impairment

Purpose: Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder caused by damage to motor control areas of the developing brain during early childhood. Motor disorders can also affect the ability to produce clear speech and to communicate. The aim of this study was to develop and to test a prototype of an assistive tool with an embedded mobile communication device to support patients with severe speech impairments.Methods: A prototype was developed by equipping a cycling jacket with a display, a small keyboard, a LED and an alarm system, all controlled by a microcontroller. Functionality of the prototype was tested in six participants (aged 7–20 years) with cerebral palsy and global developmental disorder and three healthy persons. A patient questionnaire consisting of seven items was used as an evaluation tool.Results: A working prototype of the communication jacket was developed and tested. The questionnaire elicited positive responses from participants. Improvements to correct revealed weaknesses were proposed. Enhancements like voice output of pre-selected phrases and enlarged display were implemented.Conclusions: Integration in a jacket makes the system mobile and continuously available to the user. The communication jacket may be of great benefit to patients with motor and speech impairments.Implications for RehabilitationThe communication jacket developed can be easily used by people with movement and speech impairment.All technical components are integrated in a garment and do not have to be held with the hands or transported separately.The system is adaptable to individual use. Both expected and unexpected events can be dealt with, which contributes to the quality of life and self-fulfilment.

Five User Interface Design Tenets

• A permanent, noninterrupting, and dynamic visualization is superior to text-based alerts to aid complex decision making during uncertain situations (Rayo et al., 2015). Dynamic visualizations are advantageous in that they (a) do not interrupt the operator, (b) visually present the risks and benefits of alternatives, and (c) promote comprehension and algorithm transparency of the decision support system. • With smaller keyboards being increasingly used today with portable devices, such as tablets and laptops, it is important that key spacing have a positive impact on typing performance and usability. A key gap of at least 3 mm and center-to-center key spacing of 17 mm is recommended to ensure higher typing accuracy (Madison et al., 2015). • Present dark characters on light background versus light characters on dark background when designing displays. This is especially advantageous with smaller font sizes to facilitate better perception of details (Piepenbrock, Mayr, & Buchner, 2014). The higher luminance provided by dark characters on a light background leads to higher pupillary contraction, increases the depth of field, and leads to higher acuity and superior perception of fine print. • With smartphones being used for myriad activities, such as social networking, messaging, and e-mailing by both younger and older adults, it is important to have reliable text entry methods. Smith and Chaparro (2015) showed that voice input is the most effective text entry method for younger and older adults alike, followed by physical Qwerty, tracing, onscreen Qwerty, and handwriting. Therefore, smartphone manufacturers should consider releasing smartphone models with physical Qwerty keyboards to gain a competitive edge. Handwriting is the least usable text entry method for both older and younger age groups. Tracing input is superior to onscreen Qwerty and handwriting among the onscreen input methods. • When designing large touch-screen user interfaces for young and old users, provide (a) click-to-zoom or drag-to-zoom options as well as a two-finger zooming gesture, (b) a click-to-rotate gesture design as well as a two-finger continuous rotating gesture, (c) touch-screen inclination angles of 60° to 75° to facilitate zooming and rotating, (d) button sizes that are at least 15.9 × 9 mm, and (e) dragging tasks that have right and downward movements (Gao & Sun, 2015).

Mind the Gap: The Effect of Keyboard Key Gap and Pitch on Typing Speed, Accuracy, and Usability, Part 3.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of key gap (distance between edges of keys) on computer keyboards on typing speed, percentage error, preference, and usability. In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, a small key pitch (center-to-center distance between keys) was found to reduce productivity and usability, but the findings were confounded by gap. In this study, key gap was varied while holding key pitch constant. Participants (N = 25) typed on six keyboards, which differed in gap between keys (1, 3, or 5 mm) and pitch (16 or 17 mm; distance between centers of keys), while typing speed, accuracy, usability, and preference were measured. There was no statistical interaction between gap and pitch. Accuracy was better for keyboards with a gap of 5 mm compared to a 1-mm gap (p = .04). Net typing speed (p = .02), accuracy (p = .002), and most usability measures were better for keyboards with a pitch of 17 mm compared to a 16-mm pitch. The study findings support keyboard designs with a gap between keys of 5 mm over 1 mm and a key pitch of 17 mm over 16 mm. These findings may influence keyboard standards and design, especially the design of small keyboards used with portable devices, such as tablets and laptops.

Improving accessibility of mobile devices with EasyWrite

This paper describes the development process of EasyWrite, a text-entry method for mobile devices that allows people with hand coordination problems to use small computer devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs, or other touchscreen machines. This text-entry method aims at improving typing accuracy and reducing frustration of people affected by this motor disability when using small devices. EasyWrite was developed following an iterative and user-centred process. Starting from requirements elicited from observing potential users with mild and moderate motor disabilities and information provided by a literature review, a low-fidelity prototype was built and evaluated. This early prototype was refined throughout several design and evaluation iterations. Its current state is a functional prototype that works on Android phones. The functional prototype usability was evaluated through user tests. The result of this process is a small virtual keyboard for mobile devices that has less and bigger keys as compared to other onscreen keyboards. The concept of EasyWrite is largely based on the notion of scanning group systems, but it allows users to navigate directly through groups and subgroups of characters by tapping on directional keys in order to find the desired character rather than waiting for a visual cursor to advance through the options, one at a time, at a specific time rate. Though at its current stage the method proposed by EasyWrite shows some limitations, it appears to be appropriate for users with moderate motor disabilities. For this group of people, user test results indicate that EasyWrite could be a more adequate text-entry method than the one provided by standard keyboards, both physical and onscreen, commonly found in mobile devices.

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.

Arrow Key Configuration on Laptops

With the popularization of mobile devices, product design is adapting to the needs of mobility. Laptops are getting smaller, thus the keyboards on laptops are becoming smaller. Having a smaller keyboard means redesigning certain key configurations. A common key configuration that is often modified for the sake of keyboard size is the arrow keys. The most common arrow key configuration is the inverted-T, but the modified cross is being used on laptop keyboards more frequently due to its size and scalability. This study sought to understand how the modified cross performs against the well-known inverted-T in speed and accuracy. Also, we were interested in understanding the user experience and perceived performance with these two configurations. Although, the user rankings and preference ratings favored the inverted-T, we found that the performance of the modified cross was significantly faster than the inverted-T. There was no significant difference of the number of errors between the two configurations.

Assessing the impact of mobile technology on order verification during pharmacist participation in patient rounds

Pharmacists' use of mobile technology (MT) to verify medication orders placed during their participation in medical rounds is investigated. A retrospective observational study was conducted at a large academic medical center to assess the impact of MT on the average time to pharmacist verification of medication orders written by general medicine staff during pharmacist participation in patient rounds. A total of 260 medication orders for 129 patients were evaluated: 146 orders processed over a one-month period during which rounding pharmacists verified orders using stationary computer terminals on patient care units and 114 orders processed using an MT device. The primary endpoint was the average time to pharmacist verification for all medication orders; average verification times for orders for specific medication classes (analgesics, antibiotics, antidiabetes drugs, and antihypertensives) were also evaluated. Overall, the average time to order verification was significantly lower with the use of the MT device compared with non-MT-assisted order verification (7.5 minutes versus 38.9 minutes, p < 0.001), with significant (p < 0.001) time benefits favoring MT-assisted verification for all order subsets within the evaluated medication classes. Challenges posed by the use of MT-assisted order verification included the selected device's relatively small keyboard and the frequent loss of network connections as the pharmacist moved from floor to floor within the hospital. Clinical pharmacists' use of an MT device to verify medication orders written during patient care rounds can significantly decrease the average time required for order verification relative to the use of stationary computer terminals.

Research of Pinyin Chinese Input Method Based on μC / OS-II Real-Time Operating System

The μC / OS-II is a complete, portable, curing and cutting of preemptive real-time multitasking kernel. The strong task management capabilities provides a good platform for the multi-tasking system. Based on the analysis of the Chinese pinyin coding, according to the characteristics of the μC / OS-II real-time operating system, achieved a semi-intelligent pinyin chinese input use the small keyboard.

Voice-based Human-Machine Interaction Modeling for Automated Information Services

Voice based human-machine dialogs are becoming more and more important part of informative services. The implementation of voice dialogs enables to realize some of the aims of telecommunication services more successfully and efficiently. The main aim is to enable the communication according the principle "anytime-anywhere". The importance of voice dialogs is also caused by the fact that principle "anytime-anywhere" often could be realized only using mobile and portable devices. Those devices typically have small keyboards and screens and hence voice based interface has advantages over traditional keyboard and screen based interface. The paper presents the model of multimodal interface which core element is the recognition of voice commands. The model targets the informative services provided by the Lithuanian medical and social security enterprises. Paper shows that recognition accuracy of Lithuanian voice commands could be increased significantly if the foreign language which has closer to Lithuanian phonetic structure engine is adapted. Ill. 2, bibl. 11, tabl. 1 (in English; abstracts in English and Lithuanian).http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.110.4.300

Postural benefits for children and adults when using the mouse next to a small keyboard

Studies have shown that there are adverse performance and postural impacts when children use standard, adult-sized computer mice; however, the impact of children using adult-sized keyboards has been less rigorously evaluated. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were any postural and performance differences when children and adults used the mouse next to a standard 104 key keyboard with a numeric keypad compared to a small, more compact keyboard without a numeric keypad. A total of 42 subjects, including 28 adults and 14 children between the ages 6–8 participated in the study. Subjects were asked to perform a series of standardized point-and-click tasks using a standard-sized mouse with both the standard and small keyboard. During mouse operation arm abduction and forearm rotation were measured using overhead photographs, and mouse performance was characterized by measuring movement times and the time it took to press-and-release (click) the left mouse button. Compared to the standard keyboard, both children and adults had less arm abduction (p &lt; 0.10) and external rotation of the forearm (p &lt; 0.05) when using the mouse next to the small keyboard. When comparing children to adults, children worked with significantly more arm abduction with both keyboards; however there were no significant differences between children and adults in internal and external rotation of the forearm. When comparing performance, children took almost twice as long to move the mouse between targets (p &lt; 0.05) and were slightly faster when operating the mouse next to the small keyboard. In addition, compared to adults, it took children twice as long to press and release the mouse button. The study findings indicate that children would benefit from a postural standpoint if computer manufacturers sold, and schools and parents purchased, computers with smaller keyboards. The two-fold difference between children and adults in the time it took actuate the mouse button indicate that mouse button activation forces may need to be lower for children.

What input errors do you experience? Typing and pointing errors of mobile Web users

Small devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) are widely used to access the World Wide Web (Web). However, accessing the Web from small devices is affected by poor interface bandwidth, such as small keyboards and limited pointing devices. There is little empirical work investigating the input difficulties caused by such insufficient facilities, however, anecdotal evidence suggests that there is a link between able-bodied users of the mobile Web and motor impaired users of the Web on desktop computers. This being the case we could transfer the solutions which already exists for motor impaired users into the mobile Web and vice versa. This paper presents a user study that investigates the input errors of mobile Web users in both typing and pointing. The study identifies six types of typing errors and three types of pointing errors shared between our two user domains. We find that mobile Web users often confuse the different characters located on the same key, press keys that are adjacent to the target key, and miss certain key presses. When using a stylus, they also click in the wrong places, slide the stylus during multiple clicks, and make errors when dragging. Our results confirm that despite using different input devices, mobile Web users share common problems with motor impaired desktop users; and we therefore surmise that it will be beneficial to transfer available solutions between these user domains in order to address their common problems.

Keyboard Span in Old Musical Instruments: Concerning Hand Span and Overuse Problems in Pianists

The keyboard spans (i.e., octave spans) of old keyboard instruments was compared with those of modern pianos to explore whether the relationship between keyboard span and hand span is a contributory factor in overuse problems among pianists. The distance on the keyboard between the left side of the C4 key and the right side of the C5 key was measured in 120 old keyboard instruments, including 26 harpsichords, 8 clavichords, 7 spinets, 4 virginals, 75 pianofortes, and 20 square pianos, manufactured from 1559 through 1929. The oldest harpsichords and pianoforte showed a keyboard span equal to that of the modern piano. In late 18th and early 19th centuries, the span diminished by 3 to 6 mm on average. In the later 19th century, the keyboard span returned to the 188-mm modern size. Unfortunately, almost all famous piano pieces composed in that 100-year period use a small keyboard, and this fact is compatible with the paradoxical situation that many modern pianists struggle with difficult piano techniques on a modern keyboard, which is broader than the old type that the 18th and 19th-century composers used.

Physical exposure differences between children and adults when using standard and small computer input devices

By the age of five years, 75% of the children in the USA are using computers and at this age they are only one-half to two-thirds the size of and about one-fifth as strong as their adult counterparts. Fourteen children between five and eight years of age and their same-gender biological parents (giving a total of 28 subjects) were evaluated using both a standard and a smaller, child-proportional input device during standardised mouse and keyboard tasks. Typing and computer mouse performance were measured with tracking software, wrist posture was measured with an electrogoniometer and electromyography was used to measure finger flexor and extensor muscle activity in the right arm. With the small mouse, both children and adults performed the mouse task significantly faster and made significantly fewer errors. When using the standard-sized mouse and keyboard, children worked with significantly greater ulnar deviation and significantly less extension than their adult counterparts. When children used the smaller mouse, finger flexor muscle activity, finger extensor muscle activity and ulnar deviation significantly decreased, with little change in wrist extension compared to the standard mouse. No significant differences were observed between the standard and small keyboards for children or their parents. Compared to their adult counterparts, children had to apply twice the relative force, as a percentage of their maximum capacity, to activate the buttons and keys on the input devices. These measured differences may have application in the design of computer input devices for children.

One-key Keyboard: A Very Small QWERTY Keyboard Supporting Text Entry for Wearable Computing

상용화된 웨어러블 컴퓨팅용 문자입력장치 중 팔목에착용하는 키보드가 많은데 대부분 소형화를 위해 키 수를 줄이는 방식을 택하고 있다. 하지만 충분한 착용성 확보를 위해 키보드의 키 수를 대폭 줄일 경우 보통 문자당 키입력수(KSPC)가 증가하기 때문에 입력효율이 저하되고 학습을 위해 부가적인 노력이 요구되는 등 우수한 웨어러블 키보드를 개발하는데 있어 착용성과 사용성이 상충하는 문제상황에 직면하게 된다. 본 연구는 이런 문제를 해결하기 위해 키 간격을 줄여 극적으로 키보드를 소형화할 수 있는 방법을 탐색하였다. 일련의 실험을 통해 키 간격 7mm인 키보드의 경우 물리적 폼팩터차원에서 착용성과 사회적 수용성이 충분히 긍정적이고 문자입력속도가 3세션 평균 15.0WPM 정도의 가능성 있는 결과를 도출했다. 하지만 수동적인 촉각 피드백과 입력에 대한 충분한 시각적 피드백의 부재가 문자입력수행도를 저하시킨다는 실험참가자들의 지적에 따라 원키 키보드라는 개념을 제안하였다. 전통적인 키보드의 경우 하나의 키에 하나의 문자가 할당한다. 반면 원키 키보드의 경우는 $70mm{\times}35mm$ 사이즈의 단일 키 위에 10*5배열의 QWERTY 키보드 문자배열을 모두 표시하였다. 따라서 일반적인 키보드와는 달리 키 판에서 어떤 문자를 입력했는지 키 입력 순간 손가락의 위치를 센싱하여 해당 문자를 계산하도록 하였다. 원키 키보드에 대한 입력효율 평가를 통해 5세션 평균 18.9WPM의 입력속도와 6.7%에러율을 기록했으면 최고 24.5WPM을 기록했다. 실험결과를 통해 본 연구에서 제안한 원키 키보드는 웨어러블 컴퓨팅 환경에서 착용성, 사회적 수용성, 입력효율성, 학습용이성 등의 상충적 요소에 대한 적절한 절충점을 제시하는 가능성 있는 문자입력장치로 평가되었다. 【Most of the commercialized wearable text input devices are wrist-worn keyboards that have adopted the minimization method of reducing keys. Generally, a drastic key reduction in order to achieve sufficient wearability increases KSPC(Keystrokes per Character), decreases text entry performance, and requires additional effort to learn a new typing method. We are faced with wearability-usability tradeoff problems in designing a good wearable keyboard. To address this problem, we introduced a new keyboard minimization method of reducing key pitch. From a series of empirical studies, we found the potential of a new method which has a keyboard with a 7mm key pitch, good wearability and social acceptance in terms of physical form factors, and allows users to type 15.0WPM in 3 session trials. However, participants point out that a lack of passive haptic feedback in keying action and visual feedback on users' input deteriorate the text entry performance. We have developed the One-key Keyboard that addresses this problem. The traditional desktop keyboard has one key per character, but the One-key Keyboard has only one key ( $70mm{\times}35mm$ ) on which a 10*5 QWERTY key array is printed. The One-key Keyboard detects the position of the fingertip at the time of the keying event and figures out the character entered. We conducted a text entry performance test comprised of 5 sessions. The participants typed 18.9WPM with a 6.7% error rate over all sessions and achieved up to 24.5WPM. From the experiment's results, the One-key Keyboard was evaluated as a potential text input device for wearable computing, balancing wearability, social acceptance, input speed, and learnability.】

Designing small keyboards is hard

We study the problem of placing symbols of an alphabet onto the minimum number of keys of a small keyboard so that any word of a given dictionary can be recognized univoquely only by looking at the corresponding sequence of keys. This problem is motivated by the design of small keyboards for mobile devices. We show that the problem is hard in general, and NP-complete even if we only wish to decide whether two keys are sufficient. We also consider two variants of the problem. In the first one, symbols on a key must be contiguous in an ordered alphabet. In the second variant, a well-chosen measure of ambiguity in the recognition of the words is minimized given the number of keys. Hardness and approximability results are given.

Designing small keyboards is hard

We study the problem of placing symbols of an alphabet onto the minimum number of keys of a small keyboard so that any word of a given dictionary can be recognized univoquely only by looking at the corresponding sequence of keys. This problem is motivated by the design of small keyboards for mobile devices. We show that the problem is hard in general, and NP-complete even if we only wish to decide whether two keys are sufficient. We also consider two variants of the problem. In the first one, symbols on a key must be contiguous in an ordered alphabet. In the second variant, a well-chosen measure of ambiguity in the recognition of the words is minimized given the number of keys. Hardness and approximability results are given.

Data Entry for Mobile Devices Using Soft Keyboards: Understanding the Effects of Keyboard Size and User Tasks

As mobile, handheld computing devices become more common and are used for an ever-increasing variety of tasks, new mechanisms for data entry must be investigated. Personal digital assistants often provide a small stylus-activated soft keyboard, as do some mobile phones that include touch screens. However, there is little data regarding the importance of keyboard size or the users' tasks, the effectiveness of these keyboards, or user reactions to these keyboards. In this article, an experiment designed to investigate these issues in the context of a palm-style QWERTY keyboard is described. In this study, 30 novices completed 6 realistic tasks using either a small, medium, or large soft keyboard. The results not only confirm that keyboard size does not affect data entry rates but that making the keyboard smaller does not increase error rates or negatively impact preference ratings. However, tasks that required users to switch between the alphabetic keyboard and the numeric keyboard do result in significantly slower data entry rates. A model that accurately predicts the time required to enter predefined text is presented, and directions for future research are discussed.