ZoomBoard enables text messaging from smartwatches

Dubbed ZoomBoard, the text entry technique from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University is based on the QWERTY keyboard layout. Though the full keyboard is very small on a watch-size display, simply tapping the screen once or twice will enlarge an individual key until it can be pressed.

Capital letters can be typed by momentarily holding a key. A swipe to the left deletes a character whilst a swipe to the right types a space. An upward swipe calls up a secondary keyboard of numbers and other symbols.

‘You aren’t going to write a novel, but it gets the job done,’ said Stephen Oney, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). ‘This opens up new possibilities for devices such as smartwatches, which generally lack any means of entering text, as many aren’t powerful enough for voice recognition.’

‘Users can enter about 10 words per minute at high accuracy on a keyboard the size of a penny,’ said Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. candidate who will soon join the HCII faculty. ‘That’s plenty fast enough to dial a phone number, or enter ‘where is pizza?’ or get ‘directions home.’