meeting non-intrusive error-correction of text input chords: a … exam/tarniceriu p2_1.pdf ·...

6
NAFIPS 2005 - 2005 Annual Meeting of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords: A Language Model Approach Frode Eika Sandnes Faculty ofEngineering Oslo University College Oslo, Norway [email protected] Abstract - An error-correction strategy that can be applied to existing chord-based text-entry systems is proposed. The strategy is capable of correcting 99.1% of all single bit-errors (insertions and deletions) and 98.1% of certain double bit errors (substitutions) occurring in words. The strategy compares the entered words against entries in a reference wordlist. A genetic algorithm is used to search for the close-to-optimal chord-to- character mapping in terms of single-bit errors, certain double bit-errors and mean fingers per chord (effort). The paper also explores the magnitude of the error-correcting degradation that occurs with multiple bit-errors per word. The chord-to-character mappings proposed is capable of correcting 0.6% more single-bit errors than the classic microwriter design, and one design is presented that result in about 17% fewer finger movements. I. INTRODUCTION Text entry is an important aspect of human computer interaction. Since the invention of the typewriter researchers have attempted to improve the way in which text is entered on machines. One strategy which is as old as the typewriter is the idea of chording and the chord keyboard, which was used by the US postal system more than 100 years ago [1]. Unfortunately, the popularity and the widespread use of the QWERTY keyboard suffocated most other ideas including the chording techniques [2]. However, chording did not completely vanish. Chording is currently used by stenographs that for instance take notes in courtrooms [3], where there are demands for extreme text entry rates. Further, chord keyboards have found a use among physically disabled users who find it difficult if not impossible to use a conventional two handed QWERTY keyboard [4]. For instance, users might not have the ability to move the fingers across a keyboard, or may not have both hands available. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in text entry strategies including the chord keyboard [5, 6]. Mobile users - that is, users that are on the move share many characteristics with the physically disabled users. They are operating portable miniature devices, which are operated under difficult circumstances. Numerous creative strategies have been proposed such as various multi-tap techniques [7- 11], tilt [12], virtual touch screen keyboards [13], gestures [14, 15] and icons [16], Although the chord keyboard has been around for a very long time, and it has found its specific target domain, there has not been much work published addressing the errors associated with chording and chord keyboards, besides the classic performance measurements reported by Seibel [171. Yo-Ping. Huang Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering Tatung University Taipei, Taiwan yphuang(ttu.edu.tw Errors and the correction of errors on chord keyboards are therefore the topics of this study. II. BACKGROUND A. Chord keyboards A basic one-handed chording keyboard has the following characteristics. There are five keys, where each finger on the hand is assigned a unique key. Text is entered by pressing key combinations without moving fingers between different keys on the keyboard. In contrast, such finger movements are necessary on conventional QWERTY keyboards. With five keys it is possible to enter 31 (25- 1) unique chord combinations. In other words, one can enter 31 unique symbols, which is sufficient for most English text, including the 26 letters of the alphabet, punctuation symbols, space and backspace. Strengths of chord keyboards include fast typing, as fingers remain in the same position, and eyes free operation, as the users do not need visually scan the keyboard for the desired key. Five keys can easily be accommodated on miniature devices. Fitt's law [18] can be used to demonstrate that the typing error rate is higher on devices with smaller keys than larger keys. Portable devices with full QWERTY keyboards are difficult to use and results in high error rates. Chording keys are two-state components, with the states up or down and they are naturally represented using bits with binary values. The term bits and finger-key presses will be used interchangeably in this paper. The term word will exclusively be used to refer to a literary word and not a data- word (two bytes). B. Typing Errors Research into automatic spelling error detection and correction classifies typing mistakes into three categories - deletions, insertions and substitutions [19]. Deletions occur when the author by accident, or by ignorance, omits a letter in a word. Insertions refer to the situations where the user accidentally, or out of ignorance, inserts an additional character in a word, and substitutions are situations where a user by accident, or out of ignorance, replaces a character in a word with an incorrect character. On conventional keyboards the two main sources of typing errors are inaccurate spelling and incorrect finger manoeuvres. Therefore, traditional spelling error detection and correction research focus on character level errors. Character level errors detection and correction is however not the topic of this paper. For a detailed 0-7803-9187-X/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE. 373

Upload: others

Post on 11-Sep-2020

9 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Meeting Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords: A … exam/tarniceriu p2_1.pdf · chord, then the Hamming distance between the typed chord andthe desiredchordis one

NAFIPS 2005 - 2005 Annual Meeting of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society

Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords:A Language Model Approach

Frode Eika SandnesFaculty ofEngineeringOslo University College

Oslo, [email protected]

Abstract - An error-correction strategy that can be applied toexisting chord-based text-entry systems is proposed. The strategyis capable of correcting 99.1% of all single bit-errors (insertionsand deletions) and 98.1% of certain double bit errors(substitutions) occurring in words. The strategy compares theentered words against entries in a reference wordlist. A geneticalgorithm is used to search for the close-to-optimal chord-to-character mapping in terms of single-bit errors, certain doublebit-errors and mean fingers per chord (effort). The paper alsoexplores the magnitude of the error-correcting degradation thatoccurs with multiple bit-errors per word. The chord-to-charactermappings proposed is capable of correcting 0.6% more single-biterrors than the classic microwriter design, and one design ispresented that result in about 17% fewer finger movements.

I. INTRODUCTION

Text entry is an important aspect of human computerinteraction. Since the invention of the typewriter researchershave attempted to improve the way in which text is entered onmachines. One strategy which is as old as the typewriter is theidea of chording and the chord keyboard, which was used bythe US postal system more than 100 years ago [1].Unfortunately, the popularity and the widespread use of theQWERTY keyboard suffocated most other ideas including thechording techniques [2]. However, chording did notcompletely vanish. Chording is currently used by stenographsthat for instance take notes in courtrooms [3], where there aredemands for extreme text entry rates. Further, chordkeyboards have found a use among physically disabled userswho find it difficult if not impossible to use a conventionaltwo handed QWERTY keyboard [4]. For instance, users mightnot have the ability to move the fingers across a keyboard, ormay not have both hands available.

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in textentry strategies including the chord keyboard [5, 6]. Mobileusers - that is, users that are on the move share manycharacteristics with the physically disabled users. They areoperating portable miniature devices, which are operatedunder difficult circumstances. Numerous creative strategieshave been proposed such as various multi-tap techniques [7-11], tilt [12], virtual touch screen keyboards [13], gestures [14,15] and icons [16],

Although the chord keyboard has been around for a verylong time, and it has found its specific target domain, there hasnot been much work published addressing the errorsassociated with chording and chord keyboards, besides theclassic performance measurements reported by Seibel [171.

Yo-Ping. HuangDept. ofComputer Science and Engineering

Tatung UniversityTaipei, Taiwan

yphuang(ttu.edu.tw

Errors and the correction of errors on chord keyboards aretherefore the topics of this study.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Chord keyboardsA basic one-handed chording keyboard has the following

characteristics. There are five keys, where each finger on thehand is assigned a unique key. Text is entered by pressing keycombinations without moving fingers between different keyson the keyboard. In contrast, such finger movements arenecessary on conventional QWERTY keyboards. With fivekeys it is possible to enter 31 (25-1) unique chordcombinations. In other words, one can enter 31 uniquesymbols, which is sufficient for most English text, includingthe 26 letters of the alphabet, punctuation symbols, space andbackspace. Strengths of chord keyboards include fast typing,as fingers remain in the same position, and eyes freeoperation, as the users do not need visually scan the keyboardfor the desired key. Five keys can easily be accommodated onminiature devices. Fitt's law [18] can be used to demonstratethat the typing error rate is higher on devices with smallerkeys than larger keys. Portable devices with full QWERTYkeyboards are difficult to use and results in high error rates.

Chording keys are two-state components, with the statesup or down and they are naturally represented using bits withbinary values. The term bits and finger-key presses will beused interchangeably in this paper. The term word willexclusively be used to refer to a literary word and not a data-word (two bytes).

B. Typing ErrorsResearch into automatic spelling error detection and

correction classifies typing mistakes into three categories -deletions, insertions and substitutions [19]. Deletions occurwhen the author by accident, or by ignorance, omits a letter ina word. Insertions refer to the situations where the useraccidentally, or out of ignorance, inserts an additionalcharacter in a word, and substitutions are situations where auser by accident, or out of ignorance, replaces a character in aword with an incorrect character. On conventional keyboardsthe two main sources of typing errors are inaccurate spellingand incorrect finger manoeuvres. Therefore, traditionalspelling error detection and correction research focus oncharacter level errors. Character level errors detection andcorrection is however not the topic of this paper. For a detailed

0-7803-9187-X/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE. 373

Page 2: Meeting Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords: A … exam/tarniceriu p2_1.pdf · chord, then the Hamming distance between the typed chord andthe desiredchordis one

overview of spelling error detection and correction the readershould consult the very excellent survey by Kukich [20].

C. Chording ErrorsThe topic of this paper is chording level errors. Three

types of errors will be discussed, namely insertions, deletionsand substitutions. Insertion refers to situations were the useraccidentally presses too many fingers while composing achord, deletions refer to situations where the system fails todetect required keystrokes and substitutions refer to situationswhere users press the wrong keys. Only single errors per wordwill be considered in the fundamental architecture, but theexperimental assessment demonstrates that the proposedmethod is also capable of correcting multiple errors and mixederror types within the same word at the expense of additionalcomputational effort.

D. Error TypesThe insertion and deletion errors in a chord can be viewed

as one-bit errors. i.e., if there is an insertion or a deletion in achord, then the Hamming distance between the typed chordand the desired chord is one.

Substitutions can be viewed as special-case two-bit errors.It is assumed here that a substitution only occurs forneighbouring fingers, i.e., the user for instance accidentallypresses the ring finger instead of the index finger or viceversa. This simplification results in the following twocharacteristics: First, the substituted fingers are neighbours.Second, the total number of bits set is the same in both theincorrect and the desired chord.

The consequence of a chording level error is that thechord entered by the user is interpreted as a different characterthan the one the user intended to type.

E. Correction ofChording ErrorsIt is difficult, if not impossible, to correct chord errors

based on a single chord in isolation. However, in this paper wepropose to incorporate a language model in the form of adictionary or a wordlist. The assumption is that for each wordthere is only likely to be none or very few errors in practice,and that the redundancy in the language is sufficient to detectand correct any potential errors. Most error correctionstrategies rely on some degree of redundancy, such as spellcheckers or traditional eiTor correction codes which rely onredundant parity bits. English is the language used in thisstudy, but the strategy is applicable to most other phoneticallytranscribed languages as well.

The choice of using a language model in a chording textinput system is well justified; advances in miniaturisationmeans that current portable and mobile consumer electronicsdevices are generally powerful enough to accommodate largedictionaries, and this was not possible 20 years ago, let alone100 years ago when the principle of the chord keyboard wasfirst introduced.

Given a word-list and a correctly typed word, then it istrivial to confirm the correctness of the word by looking it upin the dictionary. However, if the word comprises a one-biterror (either an insertion or a deletion) then all the words inthe dictionary with a Hamming distance of 1 with respect to

their chord bit-pattern can be found. However, this requires acomplete scan of the dictionary. A more efficient approach isto generate all chord bit-vectors from the word with a distanceof 1 to the word. This is simply done by toggling each bit inthe bit-vector in turn. For each of the alternative bit vectors therespective interpreted word is looked up in the dictionary,which can be efficiently implemented using a hash-table. One-bit-errors will in this instance be detected and corrected,unless there is an ambiguity where two or more words are at adistance of one-bit from the erroneously typed word.

00011 00110 - No match(DQ)

Flip bits

10011 0011001011 00110

00011 0001000011 00100 Match"DO"

Fig. 1. Correction of single bit errors.

Fig. 1 illustrates how single bit errors are corrected usingthe microwriter design. The user enters two chords "D" and"Q", while intending to type "DO", but unintentionally makesan insertion. Each bit in the vector is toggled and the resultingvector is checked against the wordlist until a match is found.In this example the system detects that the second last bit iserroneous.

Double bit errors can be detected and corrected asfollows. For each chord making up the typed word, traversethe bits of the chords. At each step of the traversal toggles thebit and its immediate successor if their bit values are different.For each of the derived bit vectors the corresponding wordsare looked up in the dictionary.

00011 00010 -> No match (DE)

Check single bit errors -* No match

Continue double bit check

00101 0001000011 00100 - Match "DO

Fig. 2. Correction ofdouble bit errors.

Fig. 2 illustrates how double bit errors are corrected usingthe microwriter design. The user accidentally makes asubstitution and types "DE" instead of "DO". First, the systemattempts to correct single bit errors. As no single bit errors arefound the system moves on to correct double bit errors. Foreach chord we search for two consecutive bits that havecomplimentary values and the bits of this bit pair are thentoggled. The first such situation is detected in position 3.However, toggling bits 3 and 4 does not yield a match in the

374

Page 3: Meeting Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords: A … exam/tarniceriu p2_1.pdf · chord, then the Hamming distance between the typed chord andthe desiredchordis one

dictionary. The second such situation occurs in the secondchord in position 3 as well. When toggling bits 3 and 4 inchord two a match is found and the system has detected thetwo errors that occurs at positions 3 and 4 in the second chord.

F. Complexity analysisAssuming that single bit errors occur at a rate of ri, double

bit errors at a rate of r, and other errors at a rate of rn , then themean number of wordlist lookups L can be expressed as:

L=1+rL1 +r2(L+L1,,a)+r,/Lj,ax+L2,a) (1)

since we first check for correctness, then single bit errors andfinally double bit errors, were L, is the mean number oflookups for single bit errors, Li,inax is the maximum number oflookups for single bit errors, L4 is the mean number of lookupsfor double bit errors and L ,,ma is the maximum number oflookups for double bit errors. These parameters are estimatedas follows:

For single bit errors the maximum number of dictionarylookups L10u for words with a mean length is 25, becausethere are five bits in a chord and the mean word length is 5.However, we can abort the search once a match is found andthe mean number of lookups L, is therefore 12.5.

The number of dictionary lookups for detection andcorrection of double bit errors depends on the bit pattern. Inthe best case there are no lookups, if all the bits in the chordsare set, i.e. if the user presses all the keys simultaneously, thenthe user cannot have made a substitution error. The worst caseis four lookups per chord, and this is the scenario where everyalternating bit is set and unset. Therefore, in the worst case 20lookups are needed for a word with mean length. Theapproximate maximum mean number of lookups for double-bit errors L, is 10, although this value depends on the chord-to-character mapping being used. Further, once a match isfound the search can be terminated and the overall meannumber of lookups needed for double bit errors L2 is therefore5 lookups.

Assume for the sake of illustration that the user types withan error rate of 4% with an equal distribution of insertions,deletions, substitutions and other errors, then the mean numberlookups required to correct the mean word is 1.9, or 0.4lookups per character. Modern embedded hardware should beable to handle such computational loads easily as thistranslates to an extreme maximum of 6.6 table lookups persecond for expert typists with several years of practice,capable of 200 words per minute.

G. VisualfeedbackOne valid criticism of a word-level error detection and

correction facility is that the user needs to complete the wordbefore corrections take effect, and the user will be able to seethe incorrectly written characters. However, chord keyboardsare intended to be used eyes free at high speeds, and a typicaluser will not necessarily stare at the typed text continuously asthe characters are entered, but merely make occasional visualchecks. Other text entry techniques however, are highlydependent on continuous visual feedback to the user - for

instance when entering text on mobile phones using a numerickeypad.

H. Chord-to-character mappingIn the previous sections a strategy for correcting errors

was established. In subsequent sections the usefulness of theproposed error correction characteristic will be investigated.Further, the experiment described herein was designed to alsodetermine the impact of the chord-to-character mapping.Clearly, the chord-to-character mapping can affect the easeand speed of use, namely, that frequently typed charactersshould be assigned chords that are easy to enter.

III. EXPERIMENTAL ASSESSMENT

In this study three measures for determining the quality ofthe chording strategy given a specific chord-to-charactermapping are proposed, namely ratio of uncorrected one-biterrors, ratio of uncorrected double-bit errors and the meanfingers per chord, which is intended to signal the ease of usingthe chording strategy with the given character to chordmapping.

The ratio of uncorrected single-bit errors is computed bytraversing the words in the wordlist. For each word the bits ofits chord vector are toggled individually and the resultingvectors are checked against the wordlist. If there is no uniquematch (ambiguity) then the error count is increased. The ratioof errors versus the total number of tests conducted make upthe single-bit error ratio. Note that the measure used hereindoes not take probability of a word occurring intoconsideration.

The ratio of uncorrected double bit errors is computed bytraversing the words in the word-list. For each chord in eachword the four neighbouring bit pairs are investigated. If theirvalues differ, then both bit values are toggled simultaneouslyand the resulting word is checked against the word-list. Ifthere is no unique match then the error count is increased. Theratio of errors versus the total number of tests conducted makeup the double bit error rate.

The mean number of keystrokes per chord K can becomputed by multiplying the number of fingers used, or bitsset, in each chord with the probability of that particular letteroccurring in normal text. The sum of these products will thenrepresent the mean number of fingers used per chord.

A. Multiple ErrorsAlthough it is simple to correct single and a selected set of

double bit errors, more effort is required to correct multiple(two or more) errors within the same word. The proposedlookup scheme can be employed, but the number of modifiedchord vectors and their associated table lookups grows large.

When correcting more than two-bit errors per word it iseasier to simply traverse the wordlist and select the word withthe shortest Hamming distance to the erroneous word. To testthe ability of the Hamming distance to correct multiple biterrors per word the following scheme was employed. Exactly3000 words were selected randomly from the dictionary andprocessed sequentially. Each word was converted into thechord bit vector and the bit vector was subjected to noise.Each bit was toggled with a given probability, namely the

375

Page 4: Meeting Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords: A … exam/tarniceriu p2_1.pdf · chord, then the Hamming distance between the typed chord andthe desiredchordis one

input noise-rate. Then the distorted chord bit vector wasmatched against the entries in the word list and the closestmatch was retrieved. Ties were resolved by selecting the firstword encountered. If the corrected word did not match theoriginal word the error was counted and the error ratio foreach of the 3000 words were computed. The noise-rate wasvaried from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.02, which representseverything from no modification of the bit vector to thecompliment of the bit vector, in steps of half a bit error perword. A word is assumed to comprise five letters.

Eirnr correction degradation

0.8

2 0.6

e 0.4

0.2

o

Fi

Fig. 3 sherrors asOnce thecapability60% of ti

of 0.1) were used together with tournament selection(tournament size of 2). Population size was 100 and thegenetic search was run for 1000 generations in each case.

The word-list used in these experiments is based on themobile text phrases test suite by McKenzie [21].

TABLE ICHARACTERISTICS OF CHORD-TO-CHARACTER MAPPINGS

1 bit error 2 bit errors effortMicrowriter 0.016 0.030 1.92Chording glove 0.082 0.090 1.981 bit error optimised 0.008 0.022 2.502 bit error optimised 0.012 0.019 2.21Effort optimise-d 0.013 0.037 1.59

__ _____ _______ -_____ ____ Table I shows the results of these measurements. The tablelists the measures applied to the classic microwriter chordpatterns, the chording glove patterns [6, 22], and the chord

_______ ___________ design obtained using the GA with respect to one-bit errors(ratio of uncorrected errors), two-bit errors (ratio of

________________________ __________ uncorrected errors) and effort (mean fingers per chord).The results reveal that the classic microwriter design

works well with the proposed error correction scheme fornoise rate single bit errors (98.4%), although not so good for double bit

errors (97.0%). Further, its effort is quite satisfactory with aig. 3. Error correction degradation as a fimction of noise. mean of only 1.92 simultaneous keystrokes per chord.

The widely cited chording glove design surprises with aows that the system corrects more than 90% of all very poor error correction capability of only 91.8% of singlelong as the noise ratio is less than 0.1 errors per bit. bit errors and only 90.0% for double bit errors. Further, itsnoise ratio reaches 0.2 errors per bit the error mean number of simultaneous keystrokes per chord is slightlydegrades rapidly and is only able to correct about worse than the microwriter, with a mean of 1.98 keystrokes

ie errors. Once the noise level reaches 0.3 errors per per chord.bit the error correction capability is only able to fix about 30% of the errors. One needs to reach a noise rate of 0.6 in orderto not be able to make any corrections. However, these resultsare quite encouraging. A noise rate of 0.1 errors per bit isequivalent to one-bit error per two chords, which is reallyquite a high error rate in practice. Even when there on averageis one-bit error per chord (a noise level of 0.2 errors per bit)the system is capable of correcting more than half of theerroneous words.

B. Chord-to-character AssignmentA genetic algorithm (GA) was used to search for the

close-to-optimal chord-to-character mapping in terms of singlebit errors, double bit errors and effort. The open sourcepackage ECJ12 by Sean Luke of the George Mason Universitywas used as the underlying genetic engine. An indirect prioritychromosome scheme was used to code the problem. A simpleinteger vector chromosome representation was used with allelevalues in the range of 0 to 100, and a chromosome size of 31.Each gene represents the priority of assigning a chord to acharacter. The gene position of the gene with the highest valuerepresents the chord index of the first letter, the gene positionof the gene with the second highest value represents the chordindex of the second letter, etc. A simple one-point crossoveroperator anid a value-replacing mutation operator (probability

error correction degradation

0,4

0,35

0,3

a. 0,25L.2 0,2

* 0,15

0,1

0,05

00

~. .... ..... .-S.

a t ~~~~~~~~~~~~~I

4...l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_________ j

,..S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i0,05 0,1

noise rate0,15 0,2

chording glove - microwriter -- one bit error-- two bit error effortFig. 4. Error correction degradation as a function of noise.

The explanation for this poor result is probably due to thefact that both letters K and L are both mapped to the samechord. Whether this is a mistake in the original paper byRosenberg [6] or whether it is intentional is hard to say, butthe same table is used and reproduced in a more recent studyby Shin and Hong [22].

376

Page 5: Meeting Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords: A … exam/tarniceriu p2_1.pdf · chord, then the Hamming distance between the typed chord andthe desiredchordis one

Fig. 4 shows how the five designs respond to largeramounts of noise. The illustration shows that the plots followquite similar trajectories with a small difference between theworst-design (chording glove) and the best designs (one andtwo-bit error optimised designs).

The results can be interpreted as follows. By introducing aT4nmm;ina i;c!tanm-, 1%eAol rrnr -n-rri-rtin-n onnnahiltu nn tbho1riainiiuichord lein mostimpactcharacteused pehumancharacteis likelmappinjno natuiletters aon ease

mappinjpriority

Fig.errors vthere isfingers ]good erlarger rchoosinmean nucorrect t

2.

0 2.

K' 2.

a 2.

1.

1.

Fig. 5. 1

Anto existwhere adistancestrategy

the fewest error. The results show that the improvements aremarginal. When choosing a chord mapping it is probablybetter to choose a simple mapping with a low mean finger perchord count that is less error prone.

REFERENCESLIg uiSiaiiC DUaSUL Uii-Of v.A11_A..LIOCUapaUMIlLy Oil LII [1] J. Moyes, "Chord Keyboards," Applied Ergonomics, vol. 14, pp.55-69,-vel one is able to correct more than 90% of the errors 1983.situations and the chord-to-character has only a small [2] E. Gopher and D. Raij, "Typing with a two-hand chord keyboard: Willon the ability to correct errors. However, the chord-to- the qwerty become obsolete?," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man andr has a larger impact on the mean number of fingers cybernetics, vol. 18, pp.601-609, 1985.[3] M. P. Beddoes and Z. Hu, "A chord stenograph keyboard: a possibler chord. Since complex chords also has an effect on solution to the learning problem in stenography," IEEE Transactions. ontyping errors it is natural to assume that a chord-to- Systems, Man and Cybernetics, vol. 24, pp.953-960, 1994.-r mapping with a low mean number finger-per chord [4] A. Kirchenbaum, Z. Friedman, and A. Melnik, "Performance of disabley to result in fewer errors than a more complex people on a chordic keyboard," Human Factors, vol. 28, pp.187-194,

g. Simlarly rememeringchordsis dificultas thre is 1986.g. Similarly, remembering chords iS difficult as there iS [5] K. Lyons, T. Stainer, D. Plaisted, J. Fusia, A. Lyons, A. Drew, and E. W.ral relationship between the chord and the alphabetic Looney, "Twiddler typing: one-handed chording text entry for mobilend the chord assignments therefore have little impact phones," in the proceedings of CHI 2004, pp.81-88, 2004.

Wof learning [2]. Consequently, one should select a [6] R. Rosenberg and M. Slater, "The chording Glove: A Glove-Based Textofleaming 2].,Consequently, one should.select , .Input Device," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and cybernetics, vol.g with a low mean finger per chord count as first 29, pp.186-191, 1999.and the ability to correct errors as second priority. [7] I. S. MacKenzie, "Mobile Text entry using three keys," in the proceedings5 shows some Pareto points with respect to single bit of NordCHI'02, pp.27-34, 2002.

ersus the mean number of fingers per chord. Clearly, [8] F. E. Sandnes, H. W. Thorkildssen, A. Arvei, and J. 0. Buverud,a t e e r a h"Techniques for fast and easy mobile text-entry with three-keys

a trade-off between error rate and the mean number of (dictionary based)," in the proceedings of NIK2003 - Annual Nationalper chord. Choosing chord-to-character mappings with Nonrwegian Computer Science Conference, Oslo, Norway, pp.205-216,ror correction characteristics comes at the penalty of a 2003.nean number of fingers used per chord. Similarly, [9] F. E. Sandnes, H. W. Thorkildssen, A. Arvei, and J. 0. Buverud,"t'Techniques for fast and easy mobile text-entry with three-keys (non-g chord-to-character mappings that results in a small dictionary based)," in the proceedings of HCISS'37 Hawaiianimber of fingers used per chord results in less ability to Intenational Conference on System Science, Big Island, Hawaii, 2004.errors. [10]T. Evreinova, G. Evreino, and R. Raisamo, "Four-Key Text Entry for

Physically Challenged People," in the proceedings of 8th ERCIMworkshop, User Initerfaces 4 All, Adjunct work-shop proceedings, 2004.

[1 1]F. E. Sandnes, "One Handed Text Entry: Evaluation of five-key text entryPareto points techniques," in the proceedings of IFIP TC8 Workin7g Coonference on

Mobile hifornation Systems, Oslo, Norway, pp.331-339, 2004..7 [121K. Partridge, S. Chatterjee, and R. Want, "TiltTYpe: Accelerometer-

supported text entry for very small devices," ACM CHI'01, vol. 4, pp.201-204, 2001.

[13]S. Zhai, M. Hunter, and B. A. Smith, "Performance Optimization of.3___\_i_X Virtual Keyboards," Huanan Computer Interaction, vol. 17, pp.229-269,

.3 T2002._______ ________ [14]D. J. Ward, A. F. Blackwell, and D. J. C. MacKay, "Dasher - a Data Entry

.1 Interface Using Continuous Gestures and language Models," in theproceedings of UIST 2000, 2000.

9 [15]J. 0. Wobbrock, B. A. Myers, and H. H. Aung, "Joystick text entry withdate stamp, selection keyboard, and EdgeWrite," in the proceedings of

.7 CHI 2004, pp.1550, 2004.0.007 0.009 0.011 0.013 0.015 0.017 [161J. Janotti, "Iconic Text Entry Using a Numeric Keypad," unpublished

technical note, 2002.1 bit eriors [17]R. Seibel, "Performance on a five-finger chord keyboard," Jounial of

Applied Psychology, vol. 46, pp.165-169, 1962.Pareto points with respect to singe bit errors and fingers per chord. [18] P. M. Fitts, "The information capacity of the human motor system in

controlling amplitude of movement," Journal of ExperimentalPsychology, vol. 47, pp.381-391, 1954.

[19]F. J. Damerau, "A technique for computer detection and correction ofIV. CONCLUSIONS spelling errors," Communications of the ACM, vol. 7, pp.171-176, 1994.

[20]K. Kukich, "Techniques for automatically correcting words in text," ACMefficient error-correction strategy that can be applied Computing Sunreys, vol. 24, pp.377-437, 1992.ing chord based textual input systems is proposed [21]1. S. MacKenzie and R. W. Soukoreff, "Phrase sets for evaluating text

entry techniques," in the proceedings of CHIF2003, 2003.language model is used together with the Hamming entry[22]J.H. Shin and K. S. Hong, "An improved alphanumeric input algorithmof the chord vectors. The results shows that the using gloves," in the proceedings of 77Te 8th Asia Pacific SymXposium on

is capable of correcting more than 90% of single and Initelligent and Evolutioniary Systems, Cains, Australia, 2004.double bit errors in words and for certain chord-configurationsas much as 99.1% of single bit errors. A genetic algorithm wasused to derive chord-to-character mappings, which resulted in

377

Page 6: Meeting Non-Intrusive Error-Correction of Text Input Chords: A … exam/tarniceriu p2_1.pdf · chord, then the Hamming distance between the typed chord andthe desiredchordis one

A pPENDIX

Table shows the GA-derived chord-to-character mappingsdiscussed herein: a one-bit error optimized mappings and an

effort optimized mapping. The mapping for the microwriter

and the chording glove are provided for reference. The chords

represent the thumb to the little finger from right to left.

Asterisks are used do indicate finger down (keystroke) and

underline is used to indicate finger up (released key).

TABLEHICHORDS-TO-CHARACTER MAPPINGS

ch Micro-wirter Chordingglove

1 bit error Effort

A * * * * * * *

B * * * * * * * * *

C * * * * * * * * * * *

D * * * * * * * * *

E * * * * * *

F * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

G* * * * * * * * * * *I-I * * * * * * * * *

I * * * * * *J * * * * * * * * * * * *

K * * * * * * * * * * * * *

L * * * * * * * * * * * * *

M * * * * * * * * * * * * *

N * * * * * * *

0 * * * * * * * * *p * * * * * * * * * * *

Q * * * * * * * * *

R * * * * * * * * * * *

S * * * * * *

T * * * * * * * * * *

U * * * * * * * * *

V * * * * * * * * * *

w * * * * * * * * * * * *

x * * * * * * * * * * * * *Y * * * * * * * * * *

z * * * * * * * * * *

378