ThickButtons: Accurate, Predictive, Convenient Typing for Android Phones
Today, ThickButtons announces a smarter, easier and more accurate way to type on your touchscreen phone: introducing ThickButtons 0.6, an application available for free download on Android phones. ThickButtons improves ease and accuracy on the touchscreen by shrinking the letters that are not likely to be used and enlarging the buttons that are.
While the underlying science and algorithms are complicated, the interface is simple: unlike most dictionary-based prediction technologies that guess the full word during the typing process, ThickButtons finds it much easier to predict the letters unlikely to be used and make them smaller, leaving the rest of the text more accessible. With ThickButtons technology, the size of a phone screen is less of an issue because the buttons are enlarged.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itIPS3U2bf8[/youtube] Video link
"ThickButtons simplifies the way we type on our touchscreen smartphones," said Dimitri Lisitski, co-founder of ThickButtons. "Recent studies have documented a spiking demand for touchscreen smartphones – and correspondingly, people have been typing a lot more – with some frustrating and hilarious results. Dictionary-based technologies often can’t keep up with names, slang and vernacular. Our technology simply approaches the same problem from a different angle. With ThickButtons, we are helping to eliminate the frustration of misspelled, mistyped, and misuse of text, ultimately improving communication."
Main Benefits:
- No Change in Typing Habits: ThickButtons does not ask users to change their typing behaviors by learning a new way to type. Some of the recent predictive typing technologies in the industry include training steps and involve a learning curve before users become familiar with the process. With ThickButtons, just type the same way you have all your life.
- Less Dependent on Dictionary: Traditional prediction-based technologies are effective only when a significant part of the word is entered. ThickButtons is unique because it begins working after just a few letters are entered. Less relevant buttons shrink and the buttons more likely to be used become larger. In some cases there is no dependency on the dictionary at all. For example, if a user presses backspace, three adjacent keys are enlarged offering a workaround for the most common mistakes.
- Easy to Type Even on Small Screens: ThickButtons technology accommodates users of smartphones with small screens. No matter the size of a screen, ThickButtons becomes large enough for people to still use their fingers to type, eliminating the need for a stylus.
ThickButtons version 0.6 for Android is now available for free download at the Android Market, http://www.thickbuttons.com/ or to download on your phone visit market://search?q=pname:com.thickbuttons.
A version for Windows Mobile 7 is currently under development. ThickButtons has also created an open community for users to share their typing experience with ThickButtons’ developers, to ask questions and to suggest features. The team promises to actively participate with the community and to develop the most demanded features first. The community is available at http://community.thickbuttons.com/.
Wow that’s pretty awesome. I thought just common letters like s, a, and t would be bigger and you q, x, y, and z’s would be smaller. That’s incredible that it changes based on what you’re typing.