Feb 04 2010
Apps
That’s right! The APP page!
Many of the applications being developed for the iPhone are spectacularly creative adaptations. I’m starting this page to make it easy to find my app reviews and ongoing conversations about certain apps.
First I’ll talk about this brand new app called TipTapSpeech, from Doug Engelbart’s visionary “chorded keyset.” Here’s what Betsy Burroughs said in her email announcement of the new app:
One of the things that Doug Engelbart invented in the ’60s at SRI (along with the mouse and just about everything else about personal computing) was the “chorded keyset.” His idea was you had the mouse in one hand and the chorded keyset in the other. With the chorded keyset you could type any of the characters on a keyboard, using a combination of finger taps (think a “court recorder” type approach.) Valerie Landau has been working on bringing out a version of it in a glove.
But Valerie has also just launched it as an iPhone app! It’s called TipTap Speech. With its ONLY FIVE KEYS you can tap out any text with just one hand–and without looking. And it converts to speech at the same time.
(more info to come!)
] 
February 10th, 2010 at 9:34 am
This is a great idea. So far we have had positive feedback and as I write, Eric Matsuno is coding away, figuring out how to get the app to work as the native keyboard. We are also getting ready to launch an opensource innitative so others can add their own features to this app.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Link to the app
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=351162406&mt=8#
February 10th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Looking forward to getting feedback from the community for both support and suggestions. This is really a BETA version and we are working as hard as we can to improve the functionality and would like to have this be able to substitute for the keyboard….any IDEAS?
February 10th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I installed TipTapSpeech on my iPod touch, and have been learning the alphabet in five finger gestures. It’s quite an awesome experience. I haven’t mastered it yet. I realize you need to get the gestalts in your head for each character first, after learning it abc -wise. When going thru the alphabet abc-wise, without using the cheat chart, you discover the systematic thinking behind it, and feel the flow of gesturing going through that set of 26 symbols that make up our alphabet. Native Indian signing and deaf sign language spring to mind, in which of course signs are also used that express words, expressions, ideas and feelings non-alphabetically.
Motorically I have a problem with my (right hand) little finger, but it’s just great to experience this nugget of brilliance invented by Doug so long ago. Watching Doug demonstrating the keyset on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB_dLeEasL8 made me think I should try left-hand operation.
Some functionality comments:
It would be nice if you could store text to the Notes editor, but I’m sure you’ve already thought about that. Have a 2 line window at the top allowing you to scroll thru text, and to move the cursor, which isn’t present at the moment.
In general getting 5 fingers inside the iPhone’s window space is difficult with a fairly broad hand (u w y z are really difficult for me to produce), but I’ll switch to left-hand keying to see if that makes it easier. Are you running it on the iPad yet? Should have more space, also to fit in an editor window. It would nice if you could connect your flexible felt and silver-wire keyset to the iPhone, and use it as an alternative to the cramped qwerty touch keys ! Further down the development line you could revive the old mode idea, so you could switch to symbol mode and produce graphic symbols, or whatever else you might need for specific purposes.
Finally: a small cheat sheet pop-up wold be very nice for beginners!
Thanks !
Jan
February 11th, 2010 at 3:19 am
Check out http://uservoice.com/ . I used this to provide comments for another app. It’s great to keep track of all the different requests and suggestions users come up with, and users can vote for each others’ suggestions, so that you get an automatic prioritization of new features and functionalities.
cheers, Jan
February 11th, 2010 at 8:21 am
Jan,
All great suggestions and concerns. I just set up
http://tiptapspeech.uservoice.com/forums/40683-general/suggestions/479344-integrate-tiptap-as-the-keyboard-so-it-can-be-used
We have not yet tried it on the iPad but hope to soon. Keep on posting this is great.
Also we have instructions on tiptap.mobi
February 11th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Any ideas for alternative names for the product?
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:29 pm
For readers of this thread, I’m going to be continuing the comments here, until there is an active conversation over at the link given above on uservoice.com.
Jan and Valerie, what I found after working with learning the gestures for about a week, is that my finger spread is too broad for the iphone. (Thanks to spreading my hands over an orange for “piano hands” as a child!) I’m going to see about using left hand on it, too. I’d like to know how that is working for Jan?
More soon!
Suzanna
March 1st, 2010 at 8:49 am
If you press on the screen for four seconds the screen changes color and you can move the keys.
March 1st, 2010 at 8:51 am
Are you attending Program for the Future on Wed, March 3?
http://programforthefuture.org
May 13th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I would like to know how the arragement could be change in an iphone from righ to left hand.
Besides that, a little more help and basic functionality would be great (cut and paste, spanish keyboard, etc).
The price of the application deserve a better help and configuration page.