Human-computer Interfaces

Dasher - a Data Entry Interface Using Continuous Gestures and Language Models

David J Ward, Alan F Blackwell and David J C MacKay

Existing devices for communicating information to computers are bulky, slow to use, or unreliable. Dasher is a new interface incorporating language modelling and driven by continuous two-dimensional gestures, e.g. a mouse, touchscreen, or eye-tracker. Tests have shown that this device can be used to enter text at around 25 words per minute, compared with typical ten-finger keyboard typing of 40 - 60 words per minute.

Although the interface is slower than a conventional keyboard, it is small and simple, and could be used on personal data assistants and by handicapped computer users.

In UIST 2000: The 13th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

Compressed postscript file. | PDF | Mastercopy of Abstract

The inference group Dasher site

eyeshortpaper.ps.gz. eyeshortpaper.pdf. | eyeshortpaper.DJVU. abstract. | <- UK | Canada -> | eyeshortpaper.ps.gz. eyeshortpaper.pdf. | eyeshortpaper.DJVU. abstract.

` Hands-free Text Entry using Inverse Arithmetic Coding with an Eyetracker '.

eyeflyer.ps.gz. eyeflyer.pdf. | eyeflyer.DJVU. abstract. | <- UK | Canada -> | eyeflyer.ps.gz. eyeflyer.pdf. | eyeflyer.DJVU. abstract.

` Hands-free Text Entry using Dasher with an Eye-tracker '.
One-page flyer by David J. Ward and David J.C. MacKay.

dasherButtons.ps.gz. dasherButtons.pdf. abstract. | <- UK | Canada -> | dasherButtons.ps.gz. dasherButtons.pdf. abstract.

` Efficient communication through one or two buttons '.
by David MacKay, Chris Ball, and Mick Donegan.

David's Dasher site and experimental results

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A note about the iTap / T9 text-to-numbers code