Re:Dasher: Information-efficient text entry (2007) [video]
by Nzen on Friday August 13, 2021 @10:24PM
(#28177263)
tl;dr demonstrates a software tool for typing by navigating through a probability weighted letter cloud. The 'standard' navigation involves mousing up / down to get toward letters and forward / back for speed and backspace. 'Standard' because they determined this can be useful for people for whom a querty keyboard is a challenge (disabled or non latin alphabet). Jump to 6:43 to see it in action.
This feels like a possible tool for getting through text adventures easier. I find that I am not good at guessing the right words for something very free form, like Emily Short's _Galatea_. With Dasher embedded, I could navigate through the language model weighted by the verbs she built the game around, with less artifice / spoilers than choosing from the full list of words.
I was going to suggest maybe using this to augment my phone's swipe keyboard, such that - when it doesn't guess the word and it doesn't show up in the three suggested alternatives, I could touch the side and flow through all the alternatives it thought of. But, like the author, I can see that mode switch is worse than pure swipe or dasher.
This feels like a possible tool for getting through text adventures easier. I find that I am not good at guessing the right words for something very free form, like Emily Short's _Galatea_. With Dasher embedded, I could navigate through the language model weighted by the verbs she built the game around, with less artifice / spoilers than choosing from the full list of words.
I was going to suggest maybe using this to augment my phone's swipe keyboard, such that - when it doesn't guess the word and it doesn't show up in the three suggested alternatives, I could touch the side and flow through all the alternatives it thought of. But, like the author, I can see that mode switch is worse than pure swipe or dasher.