MessageEase's text entry method is based on a system of taps and slides for entering full text, using taps for the most frequent letters and slides for the rest, the company says. An onscreen keyboard (shown at the left) provides 15 large keys, which covers all letters, numbers, and special characters, but is still compact. Additionally, the onscreen keyboard can be resized or made transparent, allowing users to customize the keyboard to suit their needs.
"Text entry is the weakest link for a Tablet PC. The QWERTY keyboard is designed for ten fingers not one finger or one stylus. Pecking tiny QWERTY keys is a very arduous task, frustrating Tablet PC users," commented ExIdeas CEO Saied Nesbat. "MessagEase keyboard takes only a small area of the screen yet sports larger keys to make browsing, using a spreadsheet, and even serious writing fast, easy, and accurate."
Here are further product details, provided by ExIdeas . . .
Key Benefits:- Full text: All special characters, as well as letters and numbers are entered from one keyboard
- Full function, navigation and editing keys: Alt, Ctrl combinations, Start, Menu, F1-F12, as well as cursor keys, Home, Page Down, etc., are available directly from the keyboard. Common editing functions (Cut, Paste, Copy, Undo, Redo, Select Al, etc.) are also available directly from the keyboard.
- Small footprint: The keyboard is much smaller than the QWERTY keyboard, but the keys are about three to five times larger!
- Resizable and Transparent: The entire keyboard can be resized to fit the need, or to minimize the screen area used. It can be optionally made transparent to further optimize screen real estate.
Compatibility: - MessagEase Onscreen Keyboard runs on any Windows system. It works with passive or active screen sensing technology; it can be operated with a stylus or a finger.
- MessagEase for Palm runs on any Palm OS device; also supports high resolution on devices such as Sony Cli NR, NX, or NZ.
- It is compatible with hard-key (i.e. cell phone style) as well as soft-key (i.e., PDA or Tablet PC style) devices. It provides a cross-platform text entry solution for any small mobile device.
The technology: - MessagEase letters are assigned based on exhaustive simulation to optimize text entry speed and to minimize stylus or finger movement. This optimization was performed using Fitts' law and di-gram frequency data derived from on a large body of text (see whitepaper)
- The proprietary technology is inexpensive and easy to implement. The core C++ or Java code can be used to speed up implementation for new devices. It is ideal for a wide range of applications ranging from consumer to industrial and military.
- Implementing MessagEase requires no specialized or additional hardware. MessagEase design conforms to the existing form factors of any small device.
Free evaluation downloads are available
here.
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