LetterWise
Encyclopedia
LetterWise is a patented predictive text
entry system keypad
s on handheld device
s developed by Eatoni Ergonomics.
style time-outs or dictionary limitations, its instruction manual is only one sentence:
"Hit the key with the letter you want, if it doesn't come up, hit Next until it does."
Tap '7' once for 's'
Tap '4' once, then Next for 'i'
Tap '7' once for 'r'
Tap '7' once for 's'
or T9
have an even lower kspc, however they will only allow you to enter words in their dictionary - if they fail you have to fall back to multi-tap (or to LetterWise in the case of WordWise).
or Bopomofo
) on the first level, and they are converted automatically to Hanzi for which you have the second level (Next Hanzi) key.
Predictive text
Predictive text is an input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on mobile phones and in accessibility technologies. Each key press results in a prediction rather than repeatedly sequencing through the same group of "letters" it represents, in the same,...
entry system keypad
Keypad
A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which usually bear digits, symbols and usually a complete set of alphabetical letters. If it mostly contains numbers then it can also be called a numeric keypad...
s on handheld device
Handheld device
A mobile device is a small, hand-held computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input and/or a miniature keyboard and less than . Early pocket sized ones were joined in the late 2000s by larger but otherwise similar tablet computers...
s developed by Eatoni Ergonomics.
Design
Unlike other predictive text entry systems, LetterWise does not depend on a dictionary, allowing the user to type anything, yet with very high efficiency. Being a very simple system to use, with no multi-tapMulti-tap
Multi-tap refers to a text entry system for mobile phones.The alphabet is printed under each key in a three-letter sequence as follows; ABC under 2 key, DEF under 3 key, etc. Exceptions are the "7" key, which adds a letter , and the "9" key which includes "Z"...
style time-outs or dictionary limitations, its instruction manual is only one sentence:
"Hit the key with the letter you want, if it doesn't come up, hit Next until it does."
Example
- Entering the word sirs
Tap '7' once for 's'
Tap '4' once, then Next for 'i'
Tap '7' once for 'r'
Tap '7' once for 's'
Performance
One measure of performance for text entry systems is "key strokes per character" (kspc for short). Obviously, the full PC keyboard has a kspc of 1, as you always need 1 key stroke per character you type. LetterWise has a kspc of 1.15 for English. This means that, on average you only need to hit an extra key (the key "Next") once per 6-7 letters. In contrast, multi-tap has a kspc of around 2.03 (plus some waiting for two consecutive letters on the same key). Word-based predictive systems like WordWiseWordWise
WordWise is a patented predictive text entry system for keypads on hand held devices developed by Eatoni Ergonomics. It has an efficient mode that uses LetterWise rather than multi-tap....
or T9
T9 (predictive text)
T9, which stands for Text on 9 keys, is a patented predictive text technology for mobile phones, originally developed by Tegic Communications, now part of Nuance Communications....
have an even lower kspc, however they will only allow you to enter words in their dictionary - if they fail you have to fall back to multi-tap (or to LetterWise in the case of WordWise).
Memory / Storage Requirements
LetterWise is found on many systems with limited resources (e.g. cordless phones), where dictionary based solutions would not fit due to memory or storage constraints. In the storage space typically required for a single dictionary database (30-100kb), you can easily fit LetterWise databases for 10 - 20 different languages.Chinese LetterWise
The Chinese LetterWise is essentially a two-level version of alphabetic LetterWise, where you enter phonetic characters (e.g. PinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
or Bopomofo
Bopomofo
Zhuyin fuhao , often abbreviated as zhuyin and colloquially called bopomofo, was introduced in the 1910s as the first official phonetic system for transcribing Chinese, especially Mandarin....
) on the first level, and they are converted automatically to Hanzi for which you have the second level (Next Hanzi) key.