Motor Efficiency of Text Entry in a Combination of a Soft Keyboard and Unistrokes

摘要

We describe a text entry system called UniKeyb where a character is entered when the stylus lands on a key on a soft keyboard. Optionally, a second character may be entered by doing a unistroke gesture before lifting the stylus. A simulation suggested a speed advantage of about 20% in expert use. In an experiment, we verified that learning needed for UniKeyb use is possible. Unikeyb may indeed outperform conventional soft keyboards in expert use. However, reaching such level of expertise requires learning the skill of chunking writing into two-character chunks. UniKeyb offers a soft transition to Unistroke writing because the use of Unistrokes is not compulsory.