Commands: The Missing User Interface Link

Tim Higginson’s “lightning” talk will address the critical and under-appreciated importance in designing effective user interfaces of “command” entry. Physical and graphical user interfaces that fail to take “command” entry into account put the device and its offerings at significant risk. Higginson will also demonstrate a solution. This talk is highly relevant to device designers and manufacturers, wireless service providers, application (game, Web 2.0, and other) developers, financial analysts covering the mobile phone industry, and mobile device users -- all of whom have a stake in having the next generation mobile devices work an order of magnitude better for the user than current devices, across all features, applications, and media.

Shape Writing: Entering Text and Commands on Mobile Phones with Ease and Efficiency (Shumin Zai)

This presentation introduces and demonstrates shape writing -- a new way of entering text and commands on mobile phones with ease and efficiency. For each word in a large lexicon, a word pattern is defined by connecting the word's letters on a keyboard. ShapeWriter uses intelligent algorithms to recognize these patterns with error tolerance. A novice user can look at the keyboard and trace the word from letter to letter. Over time, users are able to recall patterns and shape write rapidly. Being a form of shorthand (one word per stroke), shape writing is four times more efficient than letter-based writing. In addition to words, ShapeWriter can also be used to issue commands. The talk will present the rationale and key factors that have driven the development of ShapeWriter technology.

Nuance Mobile Dictation: The Future of Mobile Text Entry (Sean Brown)

Are you tired of wasting time trying to type messages with the tiny keyboard on your mobile phone? Have you been afraid to search for content on your phone because of the clunky interface and necessity of typing your query? Nuance Mobile Dictation empowers mobile users with the simplest, most natural way to enter text on their phone: their voice. Utilizing SpeakAnywhere technology, Nuance Mobile Dictation allows the user to dictate anywhere there is a blinking cursor. Come see the live demo and application overview!