Text entry interface

A text entry interface or text entry device

is an interface that is used to enter text
information an electronic device. A
commonly used device is a mechanical
computer keyboard. Most laptop
computers have an integrated
mechanical keyboard, and desktop
computers are usually operated primarily
using a keyboard and mouse. Devices
such as smartphones and tablets mean
that interfaces such as virtual keyboards
and voice recognition are becoming
more popular as text entry systems.

Background
With the increasing popularity of mobile
electronic information management, the
variety in text entry interfaces has
developed considerably. Such interfaces
are primarily used to communicate and
record information and data.

Computer keyboard text

entry
A computer keyboard is a series of
electronic switches used to input data
into a computer. Each button typically
represents one character, but some
symbols may only be accessible via a
combination of buttons. The layout of the
keyboard is like that of a traditional
typewriter, although there are some
additional keys provided for performing
further functions. There are a number of
different keyboard layouts available,
QwERTY being the standard English-
language keyboard layout. The standard
English keyboard map is referred to as
QWERTY, as the first six keys on the top
row of letters are Q, W, E, R, T and Y.
Other keyboards layouts include AZERTY
and Dvorak. The AZERTY keyboard is a
variation of the standard QWERTY
keyboard adapted for French-language
input. The AZERTY layout modifies the
QWERTY layout to add functionality for
inputting accented characters. The
Dvorak keyboard is designed so that the
middle row of keys includes the most
common letters, with the goal of
allowing greater efficiency and comfort
while typing. The keyboard usually
contains letters, numbers, punctuation,
function and control keys, arrow keys, a
keypad, and may include a wristpad.
ITU-T text entry (phone
keyboard)
With the popularity of text messaging ,
text entry with mobile phones has gained
use.[1] Each key contains multiple
characters, and these are reached
through multiple key presses. This is
frequently used in conjunction with
predictive text (also known as T9) entry.
Although once popular, this system has
been mostly displaced with the
widespread use of touchscreens on
smartphones and is now mostly found
on budget feature phones.
Virtual keyboards

Ubuntu's Onboard on-screen keyboard

Virtual keyboards are similar to

mechanical keyboards, but do not make
use of physical keys. These may be
implemented on systems using a screen
or projected onto a surface. The
individual letters may be selected by
touching them as on a touch screen or
surface, or by clicking on them with a
classical pointing device (a mouse or
trackpad), like in the case of virtual
computer keyboards. Multi-touch
screens even support virtual chorded
keyboards.

On-screen keyboards can be used to

type and enter data without using the
physical keyboard. An on-screen
keyboard may contain all the standard
keys including all letters, numbers,
symbols, and system keys like Home,
End, Insert, Page Up and Page Down,
Ctrl, Alt, Caps, and Shift, and can even
extend the set of characters available by
simulating alternative layouts. These
keys can be selected using the mouse or
another pointing device, or a single key
or small group of keys can be used to
cycle through the keys on the screen.
The on-screen keyboard is the most
common type of virtual keyboard. The
accuracy of this keyboard depends only
on hitting the right key. The main
purpose of an on-screen keyboard is to
provide an alternative mechanism for
disabled users who cannot use a
physical keyboard, or to provide text
input on devices lacking a physical
keyboard, such as smartphones and
tablets.

Virtual keyboards also allow users to

enter characters not available on their
physical keyboard, enabling support for
a number of languages with only one
hardware keyboard.

Devices such as smartphones and

tablets come with touchscreens and
make use of virtual keyboards.
Keyboards vary between operating
systems but many third-party
applications are available to replace the
system keyboard. Mobile virtual
keyboards are often used alongside
predictive text.

Voice recognition
Voice recognition is a system that allows
using one's voice in order to send
messages, make phone calls and more.
The most powerful voice entry systems
can recognize thousands of words. It
usually requires the speaker to speak
slowly, distinctly and to separate each
word with a short pause. This system can
replace or supplement other input
devices such as keyboards and different
pointing devices. The software has been
developed to provide a fast method of
writing without using a keyboard and can
help people with various disabilities. The
system works by analysing sounds and
converting them to text. It knows how the
language is usually spoken and decides
what the speaker is most probably
saying. The most powerful systems
should recognise around 95% of clear
speech correctly. Several voice
recognition applications are available.
Some of the most well-known systems
are Apple Inc.'s Siri and Cortana which is
developed by Microsoft. Many voice-
recognition programs offer the ability to
start and control programs through
spoken commands.

Individual letter selection

This is commonly used on electronic
systems where text entry is not
important. Examples include television
channel naming and text entry in video
game systems such as the Sony PSP.
Usually directional input devices (arrow
keys, joysticks) are used to highlight a
letter or number, then an enter key used
to select the letter.

Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition (or HWR) is the
ability of a computer to receive and
interpret intelligible handwritten input
from sources such as paper documents,
photographs, touch-screens and other
devices. It allows users to use a touch
screen device much like a notepad on
which they can write without the need for
a keyboard, and the software finds the
closest match in its symbol database to
replace the handwritten letters with.
Handwriting recognition primarily uses
either optical character recognition
which uses an optical scanner to scan
the words written by the user to
determine the best suitable match, or by
using a pen-based computer interface to
track the movements of the tip of the
pen as the user is writing.
Light pen

Photo of the Hypertext Editing System (HES)

console in use at Brown University, circa October
1969. The photo shows HES on an IBM 2250 Mod
4 display station, including lightpen and
programmed function keyboard, channel coupled
to Brown's IBM 360 mainframe.

A light pen is a computer input device

used in conjunction with a computer's
CRT display. It is used to select a
displayed menu item. A light pen can
also allow users draw on the screen with
great positional accuracy. It consists of a
photocell and an optical system placed
in a small tube. When the tip of a light
pen is moved over the monitor screen
and pen button is pressed, its photocell
sensing element detects the screen
location and sends the corresponding
signal to the CPU. The first light pen was
created around 1952 as part of the
Whirlwind project at MIT. Because the
user was required to hold his/her arm in
front of the screen for long periods of
time, the light pen fell out of use as a
general purpose input device.
Digital pen
A digital pen is an input device which
captures the handwriting or brush
strokes of a user, converts handwritten
analog information created using "pen
and paper" into digital data, enabling the
data to be utilized in various
applications. For example, the writing
data can be digitized and uploaded to a
computer and displayed on its monitor.
The data can then be interpreted by
handwriting software (OCR) to allow the
digital pen to act as a text entry interface
and be used in different applications or
just as graphics.
A digital pen is generally larger and has
more features than a stylus. Digital pens
typically contain internal electronics and
have features such as touch sensitivity,
input buttons, memory, writing data
transmission capabilities, and electronic
erasers

Graphics tablet
A graphics tablet or digitizer is a
computer input device that enables a
user to hand-draw images, animations
and graphics, similar to the way a person
draws images with a pencil and paper.
These tablets may also be used to
capture data or handwritten signatures. It
can also be used to trace an image from
a piece of paper which is taped or
otherwise secured to the surface.
Capturing data in this way, by tracing or
entering the corners of linear poly-lines
or shapes, is called digitizing

The device consists of a flat surface

upon which the user may "draw" or trace
an image using an attached stylus, a
pen-like drawing apparatus. The image
is displayed on the computer monitor,
although some graphics tablets also
have a screen.
Some tablets are intended as a
replacement for the mouse as the
primary pointing and navigation device
for desktop computers.

Graphics tablets can be use with

handwriting recognition software to input
text, using the graphics tablet to write on
the handwriting recognition detects the
letters and converts it to digital
information.

Punched card input

One of the earliest text entry interfaces
was the punched card input. A punched
card input is a computer input device
used to read executable computer
programs, source code, and data from
punched cards. Most early computers
used punched cards as their main input
device. Along with a card punch,
punched card readers were an earlier
method of entering data and running
programs before the current generation
of input devices existed. A card punch is
an output device that punches holes in
cards under computer control.
Sometimes card readers were combined
with card punches and, later, other
devices to form multifunction machines.
Punched cards had been in use since the
1890s; their technology was mature and
reliable. Card readers and punches
developed for punched card machines
were readily adaptable for computer
use. Businesses were familiar with
storing data on punched cards, and
keypunch machines and their operators
were widely employed. Punched cards
were a better fit than other 1950s
technologies, such as paper tape, for
many computer applications as
individual cards could easily be updated
without having to reproduce entire files.

Notes
 1. ITU-T refers to the particular keypad
and letter layout specified in ITU-T
E.161

External links
WebTEM - A Web application to
evaluate text entry interfaces[1]
Guide to Windows keyboards
BBC Voice recognition software
Microsoft handwriting recognition

References
Hoste, Lode and Signer, Beat:
SpeeG2: A Speech- and Gesture-
based Interface for Efficient
Controller-free Text Entry , In
Proceedings of the 15th International
Conference on Multimodal Interaction
(ICMI 2013), Sydney, Australia,
December 2013.
"Typing without using the keyboard
(On-screen Keyboard)" .
http://windows.microsoft.com/ .
Retrieved 2014-11-11. External link in
|website= (help)

"Siri" . apple.com/. Retrieved

2014-11-11.
Broida, Rick (2014-10-25). "Stack
keyboard brings handwriting
recognition to iOS" .
http://www.cnet.com/ . CNET.
Retrieved 2014-11-11. External link in
|website= (help)

"Dictating text using Speech

Recognition" .
windows.microsoft.com. Retrieved
2014-11-11.
"Definition of: virtual keyboard" .
pcmag.com. Retrieved 2014-11-11.
"Quicktype" . apple.com. Retrieved
2014-11-11.
MacKenzie, Scott; Tanaka-Ishii,
Kumiko (2007). Text Entry Systems:
Mobility, Accessibility, Universality. San
Francisco: Diane Cerra. p. 314.
ISBN 978-0-12-373591-1.
 "Top smartphone voice recognition
software" .
http://www.geeksquad.co.uk .
Retrieved 2014-11-13. External link in
|website= (help)
Ahmed Sabbir Arif and Ali Mazalek.
2016. WebTEM: A Web application to
record text entry metrics . In
Proceedings of the 2016 ACM
International Conference on Interactive
Surfaces and Spaces (ISS '16). ACM,
New York, NY, USA.

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Text_entry_interface&oldid=880817744"

Last edited 7 months ago by Spide...

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

otherwise noted.