New phone app allows for sightless texting - Researchers utilize the Braille system as a model for revolutionized typing on smartphones

Have you ever wanted to be more surreptitious about texting during class? Georgia Tech may have provided a solution for this problem. Researchers there recently created a prototype for an app that utilizes the Braille system so that users don't have to look at the screen while texting.
This means that smartphone users who have the app will be able to text under a table without looking down or text while socializing or watching TV without having to look away from what's going on. Although Braille caters to the blind, the app was created to be a possible texting tool for any smartphone or tablet user, of which there are millions worldwide.
The free, open-source app is called BrailleTouch. According to its creators, it utilizes a six-key chord keyboard. This is a keyboard that has six keys that can support most of the characters found on a typical keyboard when pressed together in various combinations.
Chord keyboards are commonly used to type in Braille. Studies done at Georgia Tech have shown that typing on a chord keyboard can be quicker and produce fewer errors than typing on a QWERTY keyboard.
The researchers performed studies with the prototype on visually impaired participants who were already proficient in Braille typing. They compared the results of their studies with those of studies done with other prototypes for eyes-free texting and found that BrailleTouch users could input at least six times more words per minute.
In fact, the participants could reach up to 32 words per minute with 92 percent accuracy. The inventors are also in the process of developing another study that evaluates BrailleTouch qualitatively as well as quantitatively. They not only want to look at speed and accuracy again but also at comfort, ease of use and perceived value.
This study uses visually impaired participants. However, the creators of BrailleTouch also intend for the app to be used by sighted phone users. They want their app to eventually become a universal texting app that will replace the traditional QWERTY keyboards and other technologies used today. BrailleTouch can be installed on smartphones and tablets and includes instructions on how to learn Braille quickly.
According to the researchers, BrailleTouch is useful because of the keyboard it uses. For the visually impaired, it replaces expensive Braille keyboards, which can cost thousands of dollars. It also addresses some of the limitations of physical keyboards and soft keyboards, which are images that come up on the screen of a phones. The researchers feel that soft keyboards don't provide enough tactile feedback, and that physical keyboards can have too many small buttons.
Currently, BrailleTouch is the only iPhone app that uses something called a six-finger chording process, which recreates a traditional Braille keyboard. The iPhone's touchscreen turns into a soft keyboard that only has six keys like a Braille keyboard. The fact that it only has six keys means that it's practical for the relatively small screens on smartphones and allows users to keep their fingers in a fixed position while texting.
Users hold the device with the screen facing away from them, cradling it with their palms or pinkies and thumbs. They then type using the rest of their fingers. This is the same way that people type in Braille on a standard keyboard.
The BrailleTouch team has already developed iPhone and iPad versions of BrailleTouch. Right now, they're creating an Android version. BrailleTouch recently won the MobileHCI 2011 competion for design at the MobileHCI conference in Sweden.